Dollar Shave Club supports website privacy and Shopify migration with Ketch

Dollar Shave Club (DSC) delivers high-quality razors and grooming products to customers’ doors through a flexible subscription service. Known for providing convenience and value, DSC has grown into a recognized brand with a loyal membership base, offering everything from shaving supplies to grooming products.

The challenge: Optimizing privacy operations during a platform migration

Dollar Shave Club (DSC), known for its convenient subscription service delivering top-quality grooming products, is always on the lookout for ways to refine its business operations and improve customer experience. In 2023, DSC took a strategic step to migrate its e-commerce platform to Shopify, aiming to enhance operational efficiency and scalability.

However, this shift came with a significant data privacy side effect: their existing internal data privacy solution, which had relied on in-house tooling and processes, was not compatible with the Shopify platform.

“Our existing compliance workflows didn’t integrate with Shopify,” said Jack Dukesherer, Operations Manager at Dollar Shave Club. “We faced a decision: either rebuild our in-house solutions, or find a data privacy tech partner.” Key requirements for a new solution included: 

• Integration with the Shopify ecommerce platform. When DSC migrated to Shopify, they lost functionality of their homegrown privacy tech and workflows. While rebuilding their internal solution was an option thanks to a talented engineering team, it would be labor-intensive, competing with other business critical initiatives. A purpose-built privacy platform with Shopify integrations would be the best, most efficient choice. 
• Ability to fire website tags based on consent preferences. Before the Shopify migration, the DSC engineering team had built a solution for “tag orchestration”–an automated workflow to ensure that when website visitors opt-out of certain data collection preferences, the corresponding pixels, tags, and trackers stop firing. This homegrown solution included the visitor-facing consent banners and privacy notices. The Shopify transition limited functionality of the homegrown implementation, and DSC needed a replacement solution. 
• An easier process for responding to people’s privacy requests. Jack and the DSC team managed data subject rights (DSR) request fulfillment within Google sheets, an increasingly time-consuming process as the business grew. A purpose-built product would be a major operational efficiency improvement, creating bandwidth for other projects. 

The DSC team conducted an extensive search of data privacy management software vendors. At first frustrated by the options—many platforms felt niche, only covering some aspects of their program needs—DSC ultimately found Ketch to be the most comprehensive choice for their requirements. 

The solution: Automating privacy consent and rights with Ketch

Dollar Shave Club’s move to Shopify required a seamless, efficient solution to maintain their high standards of data privacy management. Enter Ketch—a robust platform that provided exactly what DSC needed to enhance their operations with minimal disruption. 

“Setting up our Ketch instance from an administrative perspective was extremely user-friendly. It made the onboarding process a breeze, allowing us to hit the ground running,” said Jack Dukesherer, Operations Manager at DSC. This simplicity was vital during a time of substantial transition, allowing the team to integrate Ketch smoothly into their Shopify environment.

Consent management for better pixel, tag, and tracker control

Implementing the Ketch Consent Management product was transformative for DSC’s ecommerce and legal teams. “In less than a month, we launched a working version of Ketch for our U.S. market. This rapid deployment had a positive ripple effect across the organization,” said Jack Dukesherer, Operations Manager at DSC. “The no-code setup played a key role in getting the portal live quickly, while the Privacy Experiences designer allowed us to customize user consent journeys for different markets, enabling phased rollouts without delaying the entire project.”

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Modern brands like DSC are constantly updating their website elements, including JavaScript tags, to stay competitive and maximize growth. Relying on manual backend developer support to keep up with this pace—categorizing tags according to privacy purposes—is not only unsustainable, but puts businesses in a perpetual cycle of falling behind. 

The solution is not about faster human intervention, but native integrations. Ketch Consent Management includes native integration with tag management tools, eliminating the need for constant developer involvement. With Ketch, DSC is able to: 

• Receive immediate notifications when new script tags appear, thanks to a direct integration between Google Tag Manager and Ketch Consent Management. This level of oversight is essential for keeping pace with rapid website changes while ensuring compliance.
• Automate connections between user consent preferences and marketing pixels and tags, enabling the marketing team to operate confidently without compromising on data privacy standards.

VP, Engineering Nick Reshamwalla highlighted the importance of Ketch support for pixel visibility: “Ketch’s integration has become a critical part of our onboarding checklist for new marketing pixels and vendors. It provides a compliance layer that ensures user consent is respected, whether on mobile or desktop, and helps us offer a seamless, credible customer experience—especially important for new visitors.” This automation gave DSC’s teams the confidence to innovate, knowing that consent preferences were consistently upheld, and that marketing tags and trackers were only activated when appropriate. 

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Data subject rights automation created operational efficiency

DSC’s move to automate data subject rights (DSR) management with Ketch resulted in significant operational improvements. Before, manual processes were time-consuming and resource-intensive, largely residing in Google Sheets. Ketch’s automation changed that dynamic.

“Ketch No Code Rights Automation has significantly boosted our department’s efficiency by streamlining the intake process,” Dukesherer explained. “This frees up valuable time for our team to focus on strategic initiatives, rather than manual data handling.”

The Ketch drag-and-drop DSR workflow designer was especially impactful, enabling DSC to automate vendor data erasure for the first time and tailor the rights management experience for different markets. In the Ketch workflow designer, non-technical stakeholders can construct customized DSR workflows using simple drag-and-drop icons that represent tasks, stakeholders, systems, and actions:

• Operators route the flow of the process. For example, splitting a workflow to send different types of DSR requests to different stakeholders.
• Activities complete specific tasks, like data redaction, identity verification, sending an email, or calling an API.
• Systems are integrations to your systems, including internal data systems and third party applications.

“Ketch’s customizable rights experiences allow us to match each region’s specific compliance requirements, ensuring data deletion processes are accurate and efficient. As privacy regulations evolve, the automation possibilities within Ketch will be critical to scaling our compliance.”

- Jack Dukesherer, DSC

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The outcome: best-in-class privacy automation, with reduced engineering support and manual tasks

The implementation of Ketch brought immediate, impactful improvements to Dollar Shave Club’s privacy management and overall business operations. Within just a few weeks, DSC successfully launched Ketch for their U.S. market, fully automating consent management and data subject rights processes to comply with evolving regulatory requirements, and working seamlessly with the new Shopify ecommerce platform. 

“As someone who previously handled almost all manual rights requests, Ketch's automation has been a game-changer,” said Jack Dukesherer, Operations Manager at DSC. “The 5-10 hours saved weekly through Ketch's rights request automation are just the tip of the iceberg. As we explore Ketch's broader functionalities, we anticipate even greater efficiency gains across our department and the wider organization.”

Key outcomes included:

• Increased operational efficiency: By automating rights management and consent processes, Ketch freed up DSC’s team to focus on higher-priority projects, saving valuable hours each week and ensuring seamless compliance.
• Seamless tag orchestration: Ketch’s integration ensured that marketing and analytics tags were only triggered based on user consent, supporting marketing efforts without compromising data privacy or user experience.
• Future-proof compliance readiness: Automated updates and continuous support from Ketch helped DSC stay ahead of new privacy regulations, providing peace of mind to both the legal and operations teams.

Looking ahead: Scaling privacy operations with Ketch

With Ketch fully embedded in their operations, Dollar Shave Club is set to further enhance their privacy management practices. Plans include expanding consent orchestration to cover additional systems and automating vendor data management to scale efficiently as new regulations emerge.

“Ketch has empowered us to take our privacy operations to the next level,” Dukesherer added. “As we grow, we’re excited to see how Ketch will continue to support us in maintaining compliance and enhancing our internal processes.”

By choosing Ketch, Dollar Shave Club has positioned itself not just for current success, but for continued growth and regulatory readiness, allowing teams to refocus their efforts on delivering exceptional products and customer experiences.