Introduction
India's e-commerce sector is one of the fastest-growing in the world, with hundreds of millions of consumers shopping online through marketplaces, direct-to-consumer brands, quick-commerce platforms, and social commerce channels. This growth is powered by vast quantities of personal data - browsing behaviour, purchase histories, payment details, delivery addresses, device fingerprints, and preference profiles. The DPDPA fundamentally changes how e-commerce businesses can collect, use, and retain this data. For an industry built on personalization, targeted advertising, and data-driven decision making, the shift from implicit data collection to explicit, purpose-specific consent represents a significant operational and strategic challenge. This guide examines the specific compliance challenges e-commerce platforms face and provides actionable strategies for meeting DPDPA requirements without sacrificing business performance.
Data Collection Across the E-Commerce Journey
E-commerce platforms collect personal data at virtually every stage of the customer journey, and each collection point triggers DPDPA obligations. Understanding the full scope of data collection is the first step toward compliance.
- Account registration - Name, email, phone number, and sometimes date of birth or gender. Each field must have a clear, stated purpose, and collection of unnecessary data violates the data minimization principle
- Browsing and search - Product views, search queries, time spent on pages, and click patterns are collected through cookies, pixels, and session tracking. This data often feeds recommendation engines and advertising platforms
- Cart and checkout - Billing address, shipping address, payment instrument details, and order notes constitute a rich dataset that must be handled with care, particularly the payment data which also falls under RBI regulations
- Post-purchase - Delivery tracking, return and refund processing, customer reviews, and support interactions generate additional personal data tied to the customer's profile
- Marketing interactions - Email open rates, push notification engagement, SMS click-throughs, and promotional code usage are all tracked and constitute personal data processing that requires consent
- Third-party integrations - Analytics tools, advertising pixels, social media login, and affiliate tracking systems all process customer data, often transferring it to third-party servers
Cookie Consent and Online Tracking
Cookies and online tracking mechanisms are ubiquitous in e-commerce but present significant DPDPA compliance challenges. The Act requires informed consent before processing personal data, and many tracking cookies collect data that qualifies as personal data - particularly when combined with user identifiers. E-commerce platforms must implement cookie consent mechanisms that clearly distinguish between necessary cookies (session management, security tokens) and non-essential cookies (analytics, advertising, personalization). Pre-ticked consent boxes and cookie walls that block access unless all cookies are accepted are inconsistent with the DPDPA's requirement for free, specific consent. The platform must also provide an easy mechanism for users to withdraw cookie consent, which should immediately cease the associated tracking. This is technically challenging because many analytics and advertising scripts are loaded at the page level and do not natively support granular consent controls. Organizations need a robust tag management system that can dynamically load or suppress scripts based on the user's consent preferences.
Marketing Communications and Consent
E-commerce businesses rely heavily on marketing communications - email campaigns, SMS promotions, push notifications, and retargeting advertisements. Under the DPDPA, each of these channels requires separate, specific consent. A customer who consents to receiving order updates via SMS has not consented to receiving promotional offers via the same channel. E-commerce platforms must implement granular consent controls that allow customers to opt in or out of specific communication types and channels independently. The consent must be recorded with timestamps, purpose descriptions, and the specific language shown to the customer at the time of consent. Withdrawal must be as easy as opting in - a single-click unsubscribe for emails, a simple opt-out mechanism for SMS, and clear settings for push notifications. Platforms should also be cautious about pre-populating consent checkboxes during checkout flows. The DPDPA explicitly requires that consent be free and unconditional, meaning businesses cannot make purchases conditional on marketing consent. This separation of transactional and marketing consent requires careful UX design that maintains conversion rates while respecting privacy requirements.
Payment Data Handling
E-commerce platforms process substantial payment data that falls under both the DPDPA and RBI regulations. Card numbers, UPI IDs, bank account details, and wallet credentials are all personal data requiring consent under the DPDPA and are also subject to RBI's data localization requirements and PCI-DSS standards. Platforms must ensure payment data is tokenized wherever possible, reducing the volume of raw payment data stored in their systems. Data retention policies for payment data must comply with both the DPDPA's purpose limitation principle and RBI's record-keeping requirements. Most e-commerce platforms use payment gateways and aggregators as data processors - the DPDPA requires written agreements with these processors that specify the scope of processing, security requirements, and breach notification obligations. Platforms should also implement clear data flows that segregate payment data from marketing and analytics data, preventing payment information from being inadvertently used for non-payment purposes.
Data Principal Rights in E-Commerce
E-commerce platforms must implement efficient workflows to handle data principal rights requests, which can be operationally complex given the distributed nature of e-commerce data.
- Right to Access - Customers can request a summary of all personal data held about them. For e-commerce platforms, this includes order history, browsing data, preference profiles, payment records, support interactions, and any third-party data sharing. Platforms must be able to compile this information from multiple systems into a coherent, understandable format
- Right to Correction - Customers may request corrections to inaccurate data such as addresses, names, or contact details. The correction must propagate across all systems including order management, CRM, marketing platforms, and any third-party integrations
- Right to Erasure - This is particularly challenging for e-commerce. Customers can request deletion of their data, but platforms must balance this against legal retention requirements for tax records, warranty obligations, and regulatory compliance. A robust erasure workflow must distinguish between data that can be deleted and data under legal hold
- Right to Grievance Redressal - E-commerce platforms must provide an accessible mechanism for data-related grievances separate from general customer support. This should include clear escalation paths, defined response timelines, and tracking capabilities
Consent UX Best Practices for E-Commerce
The design of consent experiences directly impacts both compliance and conversion rates. E-commerce platforms need consent flows that are legally robust without creating friction that drives customers away. Layer your consent requests - present essential consents prominently during account creation and checkout, and defer non-essential consents to later touchpoints when customers are more engaged. Use clear, plain language that describes what data will be collected and why, avoiding legal jargon that customers cannot understand. Provide visual indicators showing which consents are active and make it easy to modify preferences from account settings. Implement just-in-time consent - request permission for a specific data use at the moment it becomes relevant rather than bundling all consents upfront. For example, ask for location access only when the customer tries to find nearby stores, not during initial registration. A well-designed consent UX can actually improve customer trust and engagement, turning a compliance requirement into a competitive advantage.
Third-Party Data Sharing and Marketplace Dynamics
E-commerce marketplaces face additional complexity because they operate as intermediaries between customers and sellers. When a customer places an order on a marketplace, their personal data is shared with the seller for fulfilment purposes. The marketplace must ensure that this sharing is covered by appropriate consent and that sellers, as data processors or independent data fiduciaries, comply with the DPDPA. Marketplaces must implement contractual requirements, technical controls, and audit mechanisms to ensure seller compliance. This includes limiting the data shared with sellers to what is necessary for order fulfilment, prohibiting sellers from using customer data for independent marketing without separate consent, and ensuring sellers delete customer data after the purpose is fulfilled. Additionally, advertising and analytics partners who receive data from the e-commerce platform must be governed by data processing agreements that specify permitted uses, retention periods, and security requirements.
How Kraver.ai Powers E-Commerce Compliance
Kraver.ai's platform addresses every aspect of e-commerce DPDPA compliance. Our cookie consent module integrates with popular tag management systems to provide granular, DPDPA-compliant cookie consent with dynamic script loading. The consent management engine supports multi-channel, purpose-specific consent with one-click withdrawal across email, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messaging. Our data mapping module automatically discovers personal data across your e-commerce stack - including marketplace seller integrations, payment gateways, analytics platforms, and marketing tools - and maintains a living data inventory. The data principal rights module provides a self-service portal where customers can access, correct, and request erasure of their data, with automated workflows that propagate changes across all connected systems. Kraver.ai helps e-commerce businesses turn DPDPA compliance into a trust-building advantage that strengthens customer relationships and brand loyalty.