The last two years have prompted a revolution in how consumers shop, and if retailers and brands are to compete and stay relevant in the year ahead, e-commerce decision makers must embrace open tech ecosystems and recognise the importance of fresh, exciting, ever-changing content. This is the view of James Brooke, CEO at Amplience and below he discusses his thoughts on the subject.
The pandemic accelerated what was already a rapidly evolving move towards delivering e-commerce experiences. It was no longer enough to build a website and expect customers to remain loyal unless they were constantly tempted to come back. Instead, what they expected was an omni-channel experience where they could access exciting, regularly updated content on all devices at a time of their choosing. They are looking for information, offers, products and reviews instantly at their fingertips, and they want this content to be personalised and timely.
Exploding demand for dynamic content
We have witnessed the sharp rise in content objects as they are delivered by our retail customers across our CDN platform, and we can see that the demand for dynamic content is exploding. In November 2020 during a peak season boosted by lockdown, requests for content on our platform rose from 160 billion to 225 billion year-on-year, influencing five billion individual shopping journeys. That is a huge rise, but it’s a fraction of what is to come, and brands must be ready to keep up with demand.
But it’s not just responsive content that is a key factor in retaining the interest and loyalty of customers, there are four further key factors that are driving change:
• Brands and retailers are assessing how they can use data to drive hyper-personalised and differentiated customer experiences at scale. The post-cookie environment means that they need to adopt customer data platforms (CDPs) that allow them to access, and act on, detailed insights from the information they own about their audience. CDPs will become central to the technology stack sooner rather than later.
• Open tech ecosystems are set to take off. Microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native SaaS and headless (MACH) technology is the only way that brands will be able to navigate both cross channel and cross device commerce. Legacy architecture can no longer keep up and increasingly we will see it being abandoned in favour of modern technology stacks that embrace every form of commerce including social, and direct-to-consumer, in one seamless experience.
• Management of the customer experience is gradually being moved so it can be curated through one platform. We are beginning to see the adoption of digital experience platforms which allow brands to manage content, not just for their websites, but for native apps and marketplaces too, via a single interface. This has all the benefits of delivering vastly improved workflows and leverages automated integrations to support smarter work for
e-commerce teams.
• B2B e-commerce is stepping out from the shadows. After years of lagging behind the B2C sector, buyers are demanding online purchasing options that are not linear, but support their needs wherever they interact, whether that’s through emails, purchasing apps, tradeshow kiosks or web portals. In 2022 B2B businesses will be looking at technology that harnesses machine learning and AI and allows them to target, segment and serve the changing needs of buyers.
Accelerate digitalisation
As we have emerged out of the pandemic, we have seen a growing urgency from Chief Data Officers and e-commerce decision makers to accelerate their digitalisation projects. They are investing heavily to build customer-centric e-commerce experience infrastructure because they want to move away from the restrictions of legacy content management and technology. They are no longer prepared to put up with backend and frontend content management architecture that is so tightly joined it stops teams from making fast, dynamic changes. Instead they want their teams to push updates in a few hours, not a few weeks, and operate across multiple channels consistently. It has become frustrating for developers and users within retailer businesses, and they are looking for more flexible ways to put memorable content in front of their customers.
Another important element of this is that retailers and brands are driving towards content, not code. This means that while their developers can use modern technology stacks to select the frontend tools, frameworks and languages they are experienced in, the non-technical business users, marketing managers for example, can also access content creation tools such as previewing and scheduling functionality. They are no longer reliant on developers to code everything, so processes can move much more rapidly.
Retailers have so much to gain by embracing MACH technology, and they need to be empowered to create digital experiences without limitations. It’s understandable that they are nervous about a complete re-platform, but it is a process that can be done bit-by-bit to make it manageable. This also has the advantage of allowing teams to learn as they move forward.
What is certain is that they cannot hang on forever to their traditional solutions if they want to compete in today’s vibrant, very fast-moving commerce market, so they must investigate and adopt modern tech stacks that allow them to differentiate themselves. They need support from experts who can specify the kind of technology will help them deliver data and insight-driven customer experiences, not just today, but long into the future. If they don’t move forward now, they will quickly get
left behind.
