This article is sponsored by e-Spirit.
The global digital experience platform (DXP) market is set to register a CAGR of 12.07% over the forecast period of 2020 to 2025, according to the “Digital Experience Platform Market – Growth, Trends, Forecasts (2020-2025)” report.
This comes as companies aggressively develop customer-centric strategies to deliver a superior customer interaction.
Today, the sophistication of DXPs has enabled marketers to build and deliver optimised integrated user experiences across various digital channels. The growing integration of DXPs by marketers also lets them seamlessly reach customers through multiple digital devices, and promote cross-selling and upselling.
Sophisticated DXPs also have the incredible capability to collect and analyse customer buying behaviour and unify customer data obtained from multiple touch-points to create a centralised view, which is also a significant factor driving market growth.
Moreover, the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning has enabled vital solution providers to upgrade their DXPs, thereby driving the demand for digital experience platforms across multiple applications. All of these perks have eased many data integration and single view customer pain points for marketers.
However, while DXPs have no doubt become more popular among mid-sized and large companies, one has to wonder if this means the death of the content management system (CMS).
The answer is no, said Chee Koon Foong, general manager of e-Spirit APAC.
“The rise of the DXP simply represents a significant evolution of the CMS – but not the end of it,” he said.
Marketers and IT managers currently have access to more than 8,000 software solutions in the digital experience sector, and these also include content management systems which are relied on by companies to operate their internal and external websites.
“Nonetheless, relying on a CMS and a classic website alone is not nearly enough to keep up with the competition in the digital experience economy,” Foong said.
Udo Straesser, chief revenue officer of e-Spirit, added that leading analyst firms such as Gartner see DXPs as the next logical evolutionary step.
As early as 2018, Gartner predicted the customer experience would be more important to brand image than the actual product or price by 2020. But despite knowing the importance of the customer experience, Gartner’s study found that 77% of B2B customers stated their latest purchase was difficult or complex.
Moreover, a PwC study said that having the right experience helps companies with retention rates, while about 86% of all B2B buyers surveyed are willing to pay a higher price if they consider the customer experience to be very good.
Choosing the right DXP
So how can companies know which solution providers to partner with when implementing a DXP solution? Well, in a nutshell, a good DXP should help companies to master an ever-changing world, Straesser explained.
“It should help you tackle changes that might not have been imaginable to you right now. Even in the face of an ever-changing world, especially in the B2B space, decisions need to be sustainable and for the long term,” Straesser said.
The right software will help you be flexible to your future needs. Your DXP needs to be future-proof so you don’t have to rip and replace it with every emerging platform or customer need.
When integrating the right DXP into the system, you need to ask:
- How does a DXP enable me to exceed customer expectations along the entire buyer’s journey?
- What is the key to a successful multi-experience strategy?
- Is a classic CMS still the right tool to achieve my digital goals and what added value does a DXP offer?
- Why does a DXP perform better than a CMS when it comes to multi-experience strategies?
Foong added that the DXP is the basis for a company’s communication and interaction with its customers, and therefore, is the most important component of an omni-channel strategy.
“Companies need to remember the CMS is not dead, but it is just one component of a DXP – but it is still a very important one and a core component of the DXP,” he said.
At the end of the day, your DXP should be flexible in a way that you can start small and add more along the way.
“Start with a website project, add an on-site search later, then add personalisation, then after that connect the shop, then a chatbot, then a voice assistant, so on, and so forth,” Foong said.
“That way you start creating digital experiences fast and easy, achieve first results quickly, and just add functionality step by step.”
To find out more on your DXP maturity, click here.
