Stores hold a lot
Names, addresses, order history, payment references, support conversations, marketing preferences, browsing behaviour and anything customers typed into a form.
It accumulates in the platform, the email tool, the helpdesk, the accounting system and every app that touches an order. Knowing where it all sits is the foundation of everything else.
Be able to answer a request
- Find everything about one customer across every system
- Export it in a readable format
- Delete it where deletion is required, keeping what you must legally retain
- Do all of that within the statutory period
Do this once as an exercise, before anyone asks. It takes an afternoon and it turns a stressful deadline into a routine task.
Retention needs deciding
| Data | Typical retention |
|---|---|
| Order records | As required for tax and warranty |
| Marketing contacts | While consent is current |
| Support conversations | One to two years |
| Abandoned cart data | Weeks, not years |
| Browsing analytics | As configured, typically 14–26 months |
Indefinite retention because nobody decided is the most common position and the least defensible.
List your processors
Every app, platform and service that receives customer data is a processor, and your privacy notice should reflect that. Most stores have several they have never listed.
The app audit and the privacy audit are usefully done at the same time, because they produce the same list.
Marketing consent
- Recorded, with when and how it was given
- Separate from the transaction — a purchase is not marketing consent
- Withdrawable in one click, honoured immediately
- Never bought or scraped