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Our digital landscape is constantly changing. Customer experience is essential to thriving and competing in this digital era and our tech stacks are getting more and more crucial in delivering great customer experience. As customer expectations and preferences continue to evolve, it is becoming increasingly important that brands have technology that can constantly deliver. Website issues like slow, unreliable, and under performing sites are hurting user experience make it more difficult to compete.
This blog will go over the benefits of a composable digital experience platform (DXP) strategy and how it can contribute to future-proofing your tech stack. The variety of tools available on the martech scene are endless. DXPs have evolved from the traditional content management system (CMS) that marketers are so familiar with.
What Is A Composable DXP?
DXPs are a digital business ecosystem of composable API-based technologies to provide seamless experiences at scale. DXPs contain a complimentary set of technologies that deliver consistent, secure, and personalized experiences accessing information across many digital touchpoints, to a variety of audiences.
A composable DXP is a robust platform of marketing tools and often includes a CMS at its core. On top of a content management system DXPs usually include the following functionalities:
- Contextual intelligence & personalization
- Omnichannel management
- Ecommerce
- Asset management
- Customer engagement
- Workflow collaboration
- Digital process
- A.I. automation
- Predictive analytics
- Data center
The Difference Between A CMS And A DXP
A CMS is responsible for powering an organization’s website and applications, at a minimum. Traditional CMS platforms allow you to create, edit, manage, and publish content to your audiences all using a user-friendly interface.
Here are some of the functionalities included in modern CMS platforms:
- Compliance and security
- Content workflow management
- Content publishing and personalization
- Omnichannel support
- Global content delivery
- Connected commerce and content
You might be wondering how this differs from the earlier definition we provided of DXPs. To answer that question, let’s focus on the present age of empowered and connected consumers with evolving expectations and preferences. The biggest difference between a DXP and a modern CMS is how it can support organizations as they consistently adapt to changing customer needs.
Comparing both the DXP and CMS functionality lists we see they are very similar. But we know that DXPs are a set of tools that can deliver personalized, omnichannel digital experiences to multiple audiences. At the heart of every DXP is a powerful CMS that supports the website and editorial process.
Benefits To Adopting A Composable DXP
The right DXP will be able to replace the majority of your martech stack and fully integrate with the rest of it. DXPs go beyond supporting the delivery of content and can provide automation and intelligent delivery across websites, portals, apps and more. It also provides insight into the these digital experiences with deep data, analytics, and A.I. and machine learning. Let’s identify some benefits to choosing a DXP.
| DXPs Provide: | Benefits To Your Organization | Benefits To Your Customers |
|---|---|---|
| An Integrated Technology Platform | Centralized APIs and open-platform microservices connecting content management, customer data, analytics enable experiences that increase customer retention. | Consistent and connected journeys across multiple platforms. |
| Personalized Experiences | Leverage multiple channels and unify touch-points and provide contextual experiences. | Value delivered at the right touchpoint to the right audiences at the right time. |
| Flexible Content Workflow | Cloud-based headless architecture that can deliver content across multiple channels. Allowing teams to deliver great content and better experiences quickly, without a lot of reliance on IT. | Better digital experiences on preferred platforms and channels. |
| Greater Customer Visibility | Connected deep data between multiple systems that creates more precise and actionable insights. | Optimized customer experiences for every interaction. |
| Future-Proof Scalability | Ability to bring together new best-of-breed technologies and allow businesses to efficiently upgrade and replace tools in their martech stack according to their needs. | Connected experiences for customers and better digital experiences. |
Sitecore’s Composable DXP
Following the 2022 Product Roadmap announcement at the 2021 Sitecore Symposium, Dave O’Flannigan introduced Sitecore's composable DXP. It seamlessly unifies the content, experience, and commerce pillars of the tech stack to deliver a suite of composable products that elevate customer experiences.
DXPs need to continually evolve to keep up with the ever-changing digital needs of customers today. DXP solutions can be delivered by a single vendor or a combination of vendors. Sitecore has created a suite of SaaS-products that are flexible, easy integrations, and are future-oriented.
| Sitecore DXP Products | Description |
|---|---|
| Sitecore Experience Manager Cloud | Improve your time to market with this no compromise CMS with composable best-in-breed products. |
| Sitecore Send | Personalized email marketing automation and easy campaign management. |
| Sitecore Personalize | A cloud-native platform delivering meaningful customer engagement with 1:1 personalization. |
| Sitecore Discover | Curate personalized shopping experiences with A.I. powered search and real-time product recommendations. |
| Sitecore OrderCloud | Centralized commerce and order management with a cloud-native API-first commerce. |
| Sitecore Customer Data Platform (CDP) | Deliver targeted experiences by leveraging customer data across multiple channels and optimizing their touch-points. |
| Sitecore Symphony | A frontend as a service, headless visual editor to deliver beautiful experiences made simple. |
| Sitecore Content Hub | Consolidate your content landscape and unify the planning, production, and collaboration of your workflow. |
What’s Next?
Let’s review. A CMS is the foundational for digital identity, strategy, and engagement. A DXP is the full suite of tools delivering personalized experiences that scale and connect – across any channel in any language.
If you’re inspired to learn more about implementing a composable DXP strategy for your business, reach out to the friendly folks here at Fishtank. We build Sitecore experiences that last and deliver on marketing automation campaigns that perform like nobody's business. With decades of experience and a reputation for Sitecore thought-leadership, we can help steer your Sitecore projects to success.