In recent years, the number of channels that customers interact with has grown exponentially. In addition, along with new channels, the customer journey, which used to be very linear, has become a vast array of interactions between devices and touchpoints. Customers can start a search in their mobile browser, be redirected to an app on their phone, add an item in their wish list, and finish the purchase when they get home on their PC. In fact, according to research done by the University of Arizona , highly connected consumers interact with an average of 3.7 touchpoints during their journey and expect a seamless interaction between them.
In order to keep up with their customers, retailers have combined a number of separate tools that have made customer experience management a very complex task, taking an enormous amount of effort for teams that are operating these systems. Because of this complex architecture, content management has been operating in silos, often to the detriment of the customer. As more and more customers shop online and as technology rapidly evolves, disconnected experience management can’t continue - it needs to be part of a complete unified commerce strategy. This is why we are investing in Experience Management as a native capability of the Orckestra Commerce Cloud.
Orckestra Experience Management
When Orckestra acquired Composite C1 in September, the intent was to fully realize our unified commerce vision of driving all commerce experiences from a central platform. Our goal for Experience Management is to help our customers create elegant commerce-first experiences more easily by having commerce and content combined in one workspace. Every feature we add to the application is focused on helping retailers deliver unique, brand-aligned experiences that drive conversion.
The Experience Management capabilities in Orckestra Commerce Cloud 3.6 , released this month, are accessible through the integrated Experience Composer application. Version 3.6 brings the toolset needed for marketers and merchandisers to cater to their customer’s journey across any channel.
Here is an overview of some of the tools currently available:
Category Merchandising
Customize your commerce catalog landing pages directly from the Experience Management application. The application allows you to merchandise your product categories as you would manage any other page on your site. Customize its URL, its SEO properties or even completely change its layout. By integrating content management, product management and optimization in the same seamless interface, contributors will be able to concentrate on the best customer experience.
Rich Catalog Content Management
You now have a seamless connection between products and content. Product Merchandisers have direct access to their catalog structure, and can modify the entire customer experience. This simplifies the life of your Product Merchandisers by providing them with a single tool for all their key merchandising tasks.
Device Previews
Get instant previews on all of the targeted devices or resolutions. Administrators have the option to configure any number of device resolutions or responsive break points whether it’s a 42-inch in-store digital display screen or a mobile device.
Unified User Experience for Marketing and Merchandising Teams
Our Experience Management’s user interface has been unified with the rest of the Orckestra Commerce Cloud’s application suite and user experience. Merchandisers can easily build and manage their product catalogs, promotional campaigns, and their online storefronts and other digital commerce experiences all in one place.
Advanced Layout Engine
Contributors can define any number of layout templates for their commerce sites and in-store digital experiences. These templates can then be easily used when creating or customizing a new experience.
Retail Reference Application
Get up and running fast with industry best practices by leveraging our commerce-focused starter sites and prebuilt shopping experiences. We provide everything you need to get started with a modern retail website that your customers will love. Built on the latest HTML5 compatible technologies, the retail starter site quickly enables retailers with:
- Product category and product landing pages
- Responsive layouts from desktop to mobile
- Full order management and checkout experience
- Advanced search functionality such as faceted search and autocorrect
- Built-in Store Locator
- Fully SEO enabled
We’re super excited about our latest 3.6 release of the platform and our ability to deliver on the unified commerce vision with our new integrated Experience Management for Commerce tools. As always, we welcome your feedback.
David.
