The data layer is like an organized spreadsheet that lives behind the scenes of your website. It tracks things like product names, prices, and user actions. Moving this to the “server-side” means that instead of this spreadsheet being visible in the user’s browser, it is kept safe on your server. This is a massive win for security, as it prevents competitors or bad actors from scraping your data.

It also means that the data is much more consistent. Because the server is the one managing the “spreadsheet,” you can ensure that every marketing tool you use is getting the exact same data point, which eliminates those frustrating moments where your different reports don’t match up.