If you have ever seen an ad for a product you searched appear in your browser minutes later, don’t be alarmed. It isn’t big brother watching. Rather it is most likely an open digital experience platform (DXP) that was behind it. Open DXPs will detect what customers want, assess customer intent and deliver relevant content across multiple touch points precisely at a time when customers are ready to make a purchase.

Evolving from mere content management to web experience management and now to a DXP, open digital experience platforms are providing the right architecture to overcome the friction of untargeted advertising. This architecture is enhancing multichannel CX and enabling organizations to design and improve web pages, and other digital experiences and in the big picture, execute necessary business pivots successfully.

If you're a beginner at understanding how open source DXPs work and how they can benefit you, explore more here. 

For those familiar with the concept, read on.

In the broader context of DXPs, the journey begins with a profound understanding of audiences' pain points. As businesses strive for seamless and personalized customer experiences, identifying and addressing these pain points becomes a cornerstone for success in digital engagement. You, too, may have faced some of these pain points including: 

1. a) Buyers complaining of poor personalization - Over 80% of customers prefer engaging with brands that offer tailored experiences. This shows that businesses should aim for personalized services. The key to achieving this is  segmenting the audience based on data analysis, considering behavior, location, and demographics for a customized approach that boosts customer retention.
2. b) Unsatisfactory website experience - When facing the challenge of an unoptimized website not accessible on other devices, prioritize a device-optimized site. Consider offering an app to boost data and retention rates, facilitated by low-code technologies even on a tight budget.

By addressing the above and several other pain points, DXPs are emerging as the go-to, fully integrated and unified solution for many businesses, as suggested in the trends listed for DXPs for 2024.

Charting the Future: Key Trends Shaping DXPs

2024 promises to be a crucial year marked by transformative trends in open DXPs. As studies indicate, these platforms will pivot towards shaping user interactions and steer innovative solutions including personalization, integration with emerging technologies, advanced analytics and heightened privacy measures. Here’s a list of trends that will pick up in the coming year. 

• AI-driven personalization - The new standard in customer experience: Imagine a world where every online interaction is tailored just for a specific customer. That's the promise of AI-driven personalization in DXPs. AI leverages pre-configured recommendation models to build a unique digital experience by analyzing clicks, website visits, and browsing patterns of a customer. This approach enables businesses to recommend content and products tailored to individual preferences, thereby offering a personalized journey that resonates deeply with customers.

• Integration of AR/VR technologies - Crafting Worlds Beyond the Screen: Do your customers enjoy trying on clothes and sharing their looks with friends? These types of enhanced customer journeys are facilitated through DXPs. It enables multi-channel delivery of digital interactions across all touchpoints, including IoT, AR/VR, digital assistants, and kiosks, through APIs. They’re transcending the boundaries of traditional web and mobile channels and captivating customers' imagination by creating a truly immersive shopping experience.
• Advanced analytics and customer insights - Understanding Customers Like Never Before: If you're in business, tracking customer metrics is essential for gaining valuable insights. DXPs heighten the capability to monitor crucial KPIs by gathering data from different customer channels. With this and the added benefit of assessing the ROI of each digital touchpoint, businesses can make informed, data-driven decisions about their most valuable channels, products, and customers.
• Increased focus on privacy and security - Building Trust in the Digital Age: Safeguarding your customer’s data and privacy is vital for gaining their trust. DXPs are built on robust security principles and lead the way in protecting these critical factors. Through consistent security audits, strict adherence to compliance standards, and strong authentication processes, DXPs provide a secure space for businesses and customers to connect.

• Omnichannel content delivery - Seamless Experiences Across All Platforms: Sending a promotional email for a product the customer has recently bought reflects negatively on your brand, highlighting a disconnect between your sales and marketing departments. DXPs correct this disjointed communication by streamlining customer experiences across all platforms. They improve the overall quality of interactions between customers and a brand, transcending specific exchanges on individual channels. That way what buyers get is communication that is relevant to them, both online and in-person.

• Integration with CDP/CRM and other emerging technologies - The Big Picture in One Place: Is your current CRM or tech stack riddled with disorganized customer data, inefficient communication, and limited visibility into customer interactions? Enter DXPs. When a DXP is integrated with CDP/CRM and other emerging technologies, it offers a 360 degree view of each customer, intuitive dashboards, and machine learning-powered insights that reveal a single source of truth. This approach delivers digital experiences that are not only engaging but also tailored to individual buyer preferences while also ensuring that organizations are not tethered to outdated software.

• Low-code/No-code development - Accelerating Digital Innovation: With no-code business intelligence solutions, businesses can rapidly build and optimize applications and craft exceptional digital experiences with minimal manual coding. By accelerating development timelines, and cultivating innovation within organizations, DXPs are helping businesses prioritize rapid application development and offering a strategic edge for digital transformation initiatives.

The Pioneers: How Leading Brands Are Embracing the Trend

1. Sephora, a well-known cosmetics retailer, integrated an open DXP into its digital strategy, to aid personalized beauty recommendations and virtual try-on experiences. Through the gathering of customer interaction and purchase data, Sephora provides product suggestions customized to each individual's preferences, enhancing their overall shopping journey.
2. Starbucks embraced the capabilities of an open DXP to enhance its loyalty program and mobile ordering processes. Leveraging this technology, Starbucks delivers personalized promotions, rewards, and customer recommendations, drawing insights from past purchases and preferences. The seamless integration of the mobile app across the website and in-store experiences ensures a consistent and cohesive customer journey.
3. Lego harnessed the power of an open DXP to strengthen its digital footprint and elevate the customer experience. By consolidating CMS, e-commerce, personalization, and analytics functionalities into a unified platform, Lego crafted a more immersive online store with tailored user experiences.

Where to begin? Integrating an open DXP into your existing stack

As an open DXP is constructed with an API-first approach and embraces seamless integration with third-party tools, incorporating a new tool into the framework becomes significantly easier. To know more about the profound impact an open DXP can have in enhancing your capabilities, explore more insights in our blog. 

If you’re yet discovering the transformative potential of an open DXP, propel your digital experiences forward by following the steps below:

1. Assess and Plan: Start the DXP integration with current systems by pinpointing target applications—content management, CRM, e-commerce, analytics, and marketing automation. Clearly define use cases and objectives for each integration to optimize data and functionalities within the DXP.
2. API Understanding: Check if your current tools support integration by verifying the availability of APIs. Review the API documentation to identify endpoints, data formats, and authentication methods for a well-informed integration process.
3. Prioritize Security: Prioritize security with authentication mechanisms, secure communication (e.g., HTTPS), and robust access controls. Ensure data security and privacy across integrated systems.
4. Optimal Integration Approach: Choose the optimal integration method, like API-based integrations, webhooks, or data synchronization, for smooth communication. Evaluate data update frequency and real-time needs to select the most suitable approach.
5. Thorough Testing and Validation: Achieve a successful integration through thorough testing across diverse scenarios. Create a robust test plan encompassing load testing, regression testing, and user acceptance testing to reveal performance bottlenecks and evaluate integration performance in different conditions.

Conclusion: 

Why you need an open-source DXP

Enterprises need to adapt to changing customer expectations and emerging technologies, for which marketers need user-friendly capabilities, and developers need to be able to leverage modern frameworks that help them do their jobs better and faster.

An open-source DXP provides this flexibility, allowing companies to customize their DXP, integrate new technologies, and launch new experiences and campaigns without missing a beat.

Ready for a robust implementation? Contact us today!