Marketing Stacks Part 3: The Warehouse-Driven Stack

This is the third article in our Modern Marketing Stacks series, where we explore how ecommerce teams structure their marketing tools as they scale.

The series:

• Part 1: The Starter Stack - Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Shopify or Magento
• Part 2: The Cross-Channel Engagement Stack - Shopify or Magento plus tools like Mailchimp and Customer.io, used to orchestrate multi-touch journeys across email, SMS and the website
• Part 3: The Warehouse-Driven Stack - Centred around BigQuery or Snowflake as the data source of truth, using solutions like Rudderstack or Hightouch to distribute data to marketing channels
• Part 4: The CDP-Driven Stack - Led by a CDP such as Segment or Tealium, acting as the central source of truth and enabling real-time activation across channels

Each article explores a different type of martech stack, starting from the simplest foundation and moving toward more advanced data and activation capabilities.

The warehouse-driven stack

As ecommerce teams become more data mature, they often reach a point where individual tools are no longer enough. They need a central source of truth for customer and product data. In most cases, that means introducing a data warehouse.

The Warehouse-Driven Stack brings structure to your data layer. It unlocks more flexible segmentation and allows marketing and personalisation tools to work from the same source of data truth, without requiring a full CDP investment.

What’s in the stack?

• A central data warehouse like BigQuery or Snowflake
• Composable CDPs like Rudderstack or Hightouch for syncing data to marketing tools
• Google Analytics and GTM for behavioural tracking

This stack gives you more control and transparency over how data is shaped, where it lives, and how it’s activated.

What can you do with it?

With the warehouse at the centre of your stack, you can define audiences once and use them across all your channels. That means no more rebuilding segments in each tool. You can deliver consistent experiences in ads, email, and on your site. All of it is powered by the same data.

You can also enrich personalisation with deeper signals. Instead of showing every user the same recommendations, you can filter or prioritise products based on margin, stock levels, or customer value. Even your homepage can change depending on who’s visiting: high spenders see premium offers, while discount shoppers see current deals.

And of course, this applies to campaigns too. When someone clicks through from an email or ad, you can match the on-site experience to what they saw. Same offer, same message, same category focus. That kind of continuity drives better conversion and stronger brand recall.

A simple example: Segment once, use everywhere

Let’s say you define a “High Intent Visitors” audience in your warehouse based on site activity, recency, and product views. Using Hightouch or Rudderstack, you can use that audience in:

• Facebook Ads for retargeting
• An email platform for a focused nurture sequence
• Contenzi for a personalised homepage experience

You segment once. And every channel responds in sync.

Why it works

This stack reduces duplication and unlocks consistency. Marketing and personalisation tools no longer need to reinvent segmentation or scoring rules. They simply use what is already defined in the warehouse.

It also helps your stack stay flexible and scalable over time. Once a clean data model is in place, you can plug in new tools without starting from scratch each time.

And because the warehouse gives you access to richer, more complete data, you can support more advanced use cases. Predictive models, AI-driven recommendations, and margin-optimised content can all be powered by the same central source, helping you scale personalisation without compromising control.

How it works

Your data warehouse holds the central view of customer and product data. From there, data teams can build models, define audiences, or run AI-powered processes to identify trends, score behaviour, or generate recommendations.

Solutions like Hightouch or Rudderstack connect directly to the warehouse and activate that data by sending it to the right tools. That might mean delivering audiences to ad platforms or email systems, or connecting in real time with Contenzi via the Hightouch Personalization API to render dynamic, on-site experiences tailored to each visitor.

This gives you the flexibility to experiment with more advanced logic while keeping everything connected to a single, trustworthy source of data.

Scale with confidence

The Warehouse-Driven Stack is ideal for teams who want flexibility without committing to a packaged CDP. You own your data. You define the logic. And you choose how and where to activate it.

In Part 4, we’ll explore how CDPs offer a different approach. They provide a prepackaged solution where identity resolution, event enrichment, and real time audiences are built-in.

Want to talk it through?

Have a data warehouse or planning one, but not sure how to make it work harder for marketing? Whether you’re planning your next move or want to connect your data to Contenzi, we’re happy to share ideas. Just drop us a message via chat or use the contact form, we’ll help you explore what’s possible.