The digital landscape is an ever-evolving platform. In the world of ecommerce, a fundamental shift is in motion with the focus around immersive design, individualisation and the customer experience being more prevalent than we’ve previously seen.
Consumers are demanding greater personalisation, and the brands that fail to meet their expectations face a rapid decline. As a result, businesses are moving away from traditional ecommerce transactions and focusing their efforts on experience commerce in a bid to rival the competition.
Research conducted by Sitecore and Econsultancy tells us that commerce brands are feeling this abundance of pressure with 60% reporting that their business model is under significant pressure to adapt to the change in the market. A further 80% stated that their success as an ecommerce brand relies on their ability to create compelling customer experiences. It’s interesting then to note that only 40% of companies that responded have a system optimised for individualisation.
These stats tell us that brands are all too aware of the impending expectations of their audience. However, they’re looking for a platform that can prove ROI and deliver superior experiences that will ultimately build brand advocates.
Lasting experiences need to be personal, contextual and consistent. Users might browse for a holiday on their phone or tablet at work, and then pick the journey up again at home on their desktop or laptop – this might span across a couple of days or even months with intermittent browsing and comparing of destinations, hotels types, weather and excursions. As a result, brands need to provide a seamless experience tinged with personalised content and suggestions if they want to keep users in the sales cycle.
Those using Sitecore Commerce will benefit from a deeper understanding of their customers with the Experience Database enabling the consolidation of profiles, rules and interactions from multiple sources. This data will allow marketers to build unique profiles for each consumer and to create immersive user experiences with personalisation at every touchpoint of the purchasing journey; to increase purchase propensities and drive commerce revenues.
Armed with this data, marketers have the tools, insights and potential to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time; crafting and controlling commerce experiences, achieving greater, more sustainable ROI, competitive advantage and brand loyalty.
Not only is today’s commerce landscape about in-moment purchases, but with Sitecore Commerce (XC) companies can nurture relationships before, during and post-transaction to drive engagement and commerce revenues.
With Sitecore XC brands can effortlessly create and manage multiple catalogues, categories and inventory all in one place. They’re able to manage stock and respond to the real-time needs of their stores and distribution centres. With commerce, it’s all about the customer and Sitecore XC puts them at the heart of every decision, enabling companies to build better relationships allowing customer services reps able to edit, update and manage customer accounts and information at ease.
Account tracking allows brands to apply discounts or promotions at scale or to select customer groups, rewarding loyalty and building advocacy. Sitecore Commerce entices shoppers with real-time discounts such as free-shipping or bundle offers applied straight to their carts; with Sitecore XC you control the interaction; set rules around dates, times, and even your customer’s order-history!
Would you like to learn more about how Sagittarius could support your team with Sitecore Commerce? Get in touch with one of our consultants today.
This blog was originally posted via Sagittarius’ website on the 9th December 2019.