DXP – A Future-Proof Platform [Guide]

DXP Guide Handelskraft Header — Learn about everything DXP-related!

In 1994, the first transaction via an online shop was carried out. Nearly 30 years later, e-commerce is much more than a functioning web shop. Companies are increasingly feeling the pressure to offer their target audience cross-platform digital experiences that will be remembered.

A digital experience platform (in short: DXP) can help your company meet these user expectations. Find out in today’s article what this complex term is all about and how you can perfectly set up your own DXP.

1. What Is a DXP?

A DXP unites different technologies to offer users compelling digital experiences by accompanying them along the entire customer journey. The seamlessly connected digital tools collect and manage relevant data to continuously improve user experience with an increasingly personalised approach.
The design of such a platform is as individual as your company itself. The optimal structure of your DXP depends on various factors, including the following:

Which systems is your company using?
Which goals is your company pursuing?
How heavily do you want to personalise users’ digital experience?

2. How Have DXPs Developed?

To get their target audience excited about products and services, companies usually started with managing content on their website. Over time, more and more channels and devices were added for customers to inform themselves.
Today, there are various systems that you can use to manage all these channels and create an even better shopping experience for your customers. The result is a complex web of technical solutions and disciplines that work together to help your company achieve its goals. Modern DXPs offer powerful features such as content management, omnichannel marketing, e-commerce integration, customer segmentation and machine learning to deliver personalised content and offers.
If you want to maintain and improve your online presence in the long run, you should rethink your existing system landscape and develop your own DXP strategy. It will help you understand your customer base even better and respond flexibly to changing requirements.

3. Which Components Does a DXP Consist Of?

A DXP is incredibly multi-faceted. Together, the linked systems ensure that users from different channels are provided with personalised and consistent content. The first step is to understand the role of each system and how their features and data complement each other.

DXP Layers — A DXP with different actors, technologies and channels

Content Management System (CMS)

No DXP without a CMS! A CMS allows you to manage all your content and optimise it for different channels. Whether on your website, app, social media or other platforms: a CMS supports the consistent message of your brand.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The more you know about your target audience, the more targeted you can design digital customer experiences. A CRM system combines all information on users in one central location, thereby creating a consistent set of data for related systems such as the marketing automation tool. Marketing, sales and service processes can thus be optimised to respond to customers’ needs in the best possible way at all times.

Marketing Automation

Well-maintained data is only beneficial if it is used effectively. A marketing automation solution plays a significant role in a holistic customer journey. For example, data collected about customers’ preferences can make it easier for companies to target them with relevant content across all channels. This helps them feel better understood and build a closer relationship with the company.

Furthermore, marketing automation contributes to the automation of recurring tasks such as e-mail campaigns, thereby freeing up resources for strategy development.

E-Commerce Features

Ultimately, the aim of a DXP is to provide an outstanding shopping experience. The integration of e-commerce features is therefore a logical step when building your DXP. Integrated configurators, for example, help simplify purchasing processes and expand your range of services. Textiles can be individually branded and components can be ordered in such a way that they also match the existing system.

Data Management Systems (PIM, MDM & DAM)

Not only customer data, but also well-maintained product and media data are crucial to a positive shopping experience. A product information management (PIM), master data management (MDM) or digital asset management (DAM) system or even a combination of these systems should therefore be an integral part of your DXP. They manage product, order and financial data as well as digital assets. These types of information are enriched and automatically displayed on all your sales channels. As a result, potential customers always receive up-to-date, relevant information and assets relating to your products and services.

Data-Driven Business

Data is the foundation for successful business strategies. It provides information on the success of your activities and uncovers optimisation potential along the entire customer journey. New developments and opportunities can therefore be identified quickly and give you a competitive advantage.

Cloud Solutions

Digital experiences must remain adaptable. New technologies, market shifts and growing customer expectations require flexible infrastructures. Cloud solutions offer you the opportunity to adapt your resources in line with current requirements. This saves you considerable investment costs and still gives you access to the latest technologies.

4. Why Is a DXP Worth It?

The primary purpose of a DXP is to enable you to effectively leverage the tools used in your company across all digital channels. This requires a consolidation of these different systems. Even if this involves a lot of strategic planning and operational implementation, the numerous benefits make it worthwhile.

The Top 5 Reasons for a DXP:

Consistent Customer Journeys Across Different Channels

By closely linking the systems, customers can seamlessly switch from one channel to another. Not only does this improve user experience, but it also provides you with a holistic view of users.

Centralised Management and Analysis of Customer Data

The integration of different data sources and systems in a single platform enables personalised marketing measures. Providing tailored content and offers strengthens customer loyalty.

Efficient Management and Delivery of Content

The centralised management of content enables consistent messages and personalised experiences across different channels. This makes communication much more targeted and promises success.

Shortened Time to Market Thanks to a Low-Code/No-Code Approach

Features and content within a DXP can be modified with little or no programming knowledge. This means that changes can be implemented and rolled out much faster.

Greater Flexibility and Adaptability of Your IT Landscape

With a DXP architecture, you can easily test and implement new features for your target audience without affecting the overall platform. The high level of scalability keeps your sales figures stable, especially during peak periods such as Black Friday and Christmas.

5. How Can You Find the Right DXP for Your Company?

5.1 Planning and Strategy Development

To ensure that the implementation of your DXP runs smoothly and that you can fully benefit from it later, you need a clear strategy in advance. This is the only way to make sure that the platform really meets the requirements of your company and users.

To do this, you should examine your existing system landscape, business processes and customer interactions and analyse their optimisation potential. In this process, it is important to take into account the expectations of all future platform users, both internally and externally. After all, a DXP should not only provide an impressive shopping experience, but also offer your employees an optimal working environment.

Your editorial, marketing and sales teams have to interact with the platform on a daily basis and are therefore a user group that should not be neglected. Analysing the requirements of all future users will help avoid undesirable developments during DXP implementation.

In this context, the most important features of the platform should also be identified and prioritised.

5.2 The Most Important DXP Criteria

Adopting a Personalised Approach

An important feature of any DXP is to address your target audience as individually as possible – on landing pages, on social media and in e-mails. With the help of connected analytics tools and artificial intelligence (AI), a DXP can analyse the behaviour of users on your website or in the app and provide personalised content. This helps ensure that your company and the shopping experience itself are remembered positively because users are only presented with content that is relevant to them.

Creating Consistent Brand Experiences

A DXP can make your users’ digital experience more seamless in various ways. In addition to personalisation, omnichannel support also plays an important role. A consistent brand experience, for example on the website, app or social media, strengthens customer loyalty and offers users many other benefits.

Linking data from various sources, such as CRM, MDM or other systems, allows you to gain a more comprehensive view of individual customers, letting you respond to their needs more quickly.

This uniform and consistent appearance of all components used rounds off the overall picture of your platform, making it easier to navigate and more efficient in its regular use.

Optimising Usability

Above all, an outstanding shopping experience is characterised by intuitive interactions between users and the platform. A user-friendly DXP has a clear navigation structure, an appealing design, easy-to-understand features and a consistent look and feel on different devices.

With ready-made design elements, also known as design systems, you can ensure that visual changes are implemented uniformly and, most importantly, quickly. Design systems are intelligent databases full of design elements that comply with your corporate identity and can easily be reused.

However, to ensure an intuitive and exciting experience in the long run, you should continuously review the usability of your website based on feedback and usability tests and adapt it whenever necessary.

Analysing Data and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

To be able to visualise the success of your DXP later on, you can measure various metrics and KPIs. It is important for companies to set clear goals and KPIs for their DXP and monitor them on an ongoing basis.

For example, you can measure the number of users who log in to and interact with your DXP. You can also analyse and evaluate user behaviour and time spent on the platform. Finding out how often a certain feature is used or which content is the most popular helps you understand what information users really need.

The conversion rates show you how effectively your DXP converts users into loyal customers. This is closely linked to the revenue you generate via your platform – a successfully integrated DXP can lead to an increase in sales by improving user experience and strengthening customer loyalty.

To ensure that your DXP meets the needs and expectations of users, you should also regularly measure customer satisfaction. This can be done through surveys or the use of feedback tools.

Here, you can learn about important KPIs in digital business and receive tips on how to successfully develop your own KPI strategy to achieve your company’s goals.

Integrating AI and Automation

AI technologies offer numerous opportunities to make digital experiences even more personalised and automate recurring tasks. Based on existing user information, you can automatically analyse the behaviour and preferences of users and provide tailored content and interactions. AI tools also help you simplify back-office processes and ensure high-quality output quickly.

5.3 Best-of-Breed or Best-of-Suite

One decision that will significantly shape your DXP strategy is whether you build your DXP using a best-of-breed or best-of-suite approach. With a best-of-breed DXP, individual services and applications are combined into one platform. Using this tailored approach, you can retain the existing systems and build your DXP according to your needs. It also allows you to select leading technologies for each application area. Modern interface management plays an important role in this approach, making it possible to deliver high-quality content and ensure a truly seamless user experience.

The best-of-suite approach is worthwhile if you already have a lot of software solutions from the same vendor or want to reorganise your system landscape in this way. With the best-of-suite approach, all components come from a single source. This has the advantage that an all-in-one platform can be set up relatively quickly – and ready-made out-of-the-box scenarios allow you to create digital experiences straight away. In addition, the individual tools are easier to integrate as they are perfectly harmonised and therefore ensure the seamless data exchange that is essential to a DXP.

However, there are practically no software providers that have all the important tools in their portfolio. This means that there will always be third-party solutions that need to be connected to the platform. But no worries – even that is possible with a best-of-suite approach, as interfaces for integrating these systems already exist.

6. Which Providers Support a DXP Strategy?

Magnolia

Magnolia’s composable DXP can be assembled according to the best-of-breed approach. The seamless integration of different systems and data sources supports the delivery of personalised content. A headless CMS is at the centre of the platform. For other features, you can combine software with open APIs from different providers.

Adobe

Personalisation is the top priority in Adobe Experience Cloud. Among other things, the platform combines commerce, analytics and e-mail solutions to help you gain comprehensive insights into your target audience. The integration of Adobe Sensei GenAI also ensures that relevant content is created quickly and in compliance with data protection regulations.

Salesforce

With Salesforce Experience Cloud, you can gather all information on your customers in one central location. This real-time data helps you continuously develop your digital range of products and services, making it possible to respond to the needs of users as flexibly as possible – for example, you can create tailored interactive websites and applications.

Akeneo

Akeneo Product Cloud allows you to improve customer experiences with comprehensive and appealing product information on both internal and external channels. Akeneo’s solution enables your employees to collect, maintain and enrich relevant data, helping them create appealing product descriptions and manage the associated digital assets with minimal effort.

Piwik PRO

A web analytics solution such as Piwik PRO should also be an integral part of your DXP strategy. The tool lets you analyse the entire customer journey, always taking into account the data protection regulations of the various countries. With tailored dashboards, you can clearly visualise user behaviour and uncover optimisation potential as quickly as possible.

Bloomreach

Bloomreach Experience Cloud combines customer data, product information and retail-specific AI models. The API-first approach that the platform is based on ensures that you can use it flexibly and modularly.

7. How Do You Implement a DXP?

The implementation of a DXP combines various areas of digital business and is a challenging multi-stream project. Specific goals, clearly defined roles and regular meetings help you maintain an overview of the project and respond to challenges at short notice.

7.1 Data Migration and Content Transfer

When migrating to a DXP or implementing new solutions, you should make absolutely sure that all relevant customer data, product information and content is transferred from your old or isolated systems. This can be a complex task since different data formats, structures and sources need to be taken into account. Careful planning and analysis are crucial to minimise data loss and ensure the integrity of the information.

7.2 Change Management

The implementation of a DXP isn’t just a technical challenge – it also affects the way all your employees work. Ultimately, a DXP is a tool that supports your teams and improves their daily work.

You should therefore inform all colleagues about the goals and benefits of your DXP at the start of the project. A clear understanding of the vision and the expected results fosters motivation and commitment for the upcoming changes.

It is also important that you actively involve employees in the implementation process. Their opinions and ideas should be taken into account to create a sense of shared responsibility.

They should have the opportunity to ask questions and receive support from experts during the implementation phase. Only then will they be able to work efficiently with your DXP later on. Open communication and a solution-oriented approach are crucial when it comes to empowering teams to use the new features successfully.

However, technologies and best practices are constantly evolving. It is therefore important that your teams have access to training at a later stage to keep their knowledge up to date. This benefits everyone, as new skills can be used to continuously optimise your DXP and further improve customer experiences.

Overall, the training and development of teams and employees is a key factor contributing to the success of your DXP implementation. Well-informed and trained employees can harness the full potential of the platform, improve customer experiences and drive the digital transformation of your company.

7.3 Testing and Quality Assurance

To ensure that your DXP works smoothly and helps you reach your goals, you should plan for various test phases during implementation. These include functional, integration, interface and usability tests. During the functional tests, you should check whether all platform features work according to the requirements. Integration and interface tests make sure that your DXP communicates seamlessly with other systems and data sources.

Usability tests assess whether your digital services can be consumed on different devices, browsers and in different contexts of use.

Systematic testing and debugging can minimise potential risks and ensure the overall stability of your DXP. Regular reviews and iterations are necessary to make sure that your DXP meets changing requirements and evolving standards.

7.4 Launch and Continuous Optimisation

The launch marks the point at which your DXP officially becomes accessible to users. This step requires careful planning to ensure that the platform is stable and that all features work as they should.

During the launch, you should carry out extensive tests and resolve any issues quickly to minimise disruption and negative user experiences. Before going live, you should also think about how you want to communicate the launch to your customers.

The work doesn’t end once your platform is live. Optimising users’ digital experience is an ongoing process. This includes the continuous monitoring of platform performance, user interactions and feedback to identify potential weaknesses as well as optimisation potential. Your defined KPIs help you track the success of your measures and continuously improve them.

Active, ongoing optimisation can make your DXP even more efficient and user-friendly. You should also keep an eye on current trends and ensure that your platform always provides maximum added value to your teams and customers.

8. What Will a DXP Look Like in the Future?

A DXP’s modular and flexible architecture allows you to keep it up to date at all times, making a DXP strategy all the more interesting for long-term e-business success. It can always be expanded to include new technological capabilities. For example, digital experiences can be enhanced with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) solutions as well as voice interfaces in the future.

8.1 Importance of AR and VR

AR and VR are increasingly being used to create interactive and immersive experiences. In e-commerce, these technologies can be used to virtually try on clothes or simulate complex products and services.

8.2 DXP Expansion for Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) and Smart Devices

The use of voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri will continue to increase. You should therefore use VUIs to make your customers’ digital experience as pleasant as possible via voice-based interactions and services.

9. Selecting the Right E-Commerce Software – Download the White Paper for Free!

Your e-commerce system is the centrepiece of your DXP. But with so many software providers to choose from, how do you know which one is the right one for your business? Our white paper »Selecting E-Commerce Software – Comparing Providers and Technologies« provides a clear view of future-oriented e-commerce technology.