Adobe Summit 2024: Top Session Deep Dive
Creating Commerce Experiences That Drive Growth with Adobe – VS440
Introduction
Everything related to digital commerce is increasingly competitive and saturated. Arming clients with the tools and knowledge to create exceptional experiences is always at the forefront of what we do at JH.
Shaun McCran, Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Commerce, reiterated this necessity at this year’s Adobe Summit.
Highlighting the importance of experience-led commerce, McCran illustrated how extraordinary experiences are pivotal in driving sales, deepening loyalty, and creating efficiencies across businesses.
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The Impact of Exceptional Experiences
Drawing from studies by Deloitte Digital and McKinsey & Company, McCran emphasised the benefits of prioritising experience in eCommerce strategies.
Since 2016, businesses that focused on delivering superior experiences have seen higher revenue per customer and significant growth with increased satisfaction and engagement levels. These metrics underscore the elephant in the room we all know but don’t necessarily follow.
A definitive and direct correlation exists between the quality of eCommerce experiences and business performance.
Challenges in Creating Exceptional Experiences
Despite the clear advantages, many businesses find it increasingly challenging to deliver these exceptional experiences.
McCran highlighted several barriers, like bloated, outdated legacy implementations, that reduce the agility and innovation when integrating and maintaining technology stacks, and the challenge of doing more with less due to inadequate funding.
Data silos also remain a significant issue, with vital consumer data often not held in the right systems to inform decision-making and personalise experiences.
The Shift Towards a Tech-Driven Approach
In recent years, there’s been a more tech-driven approach to eCommerce, focusing on defining technical specifications and building integrations to get data flowing.
However, rather than creating exceptional experiences, this method often leads to devolving customer journeys due to the complexity of the tech stack and constraints around data.
McCran referenced Forrester’s Commerce Predictions, noting that firms must balance ecosystem management, user experiences, and tech acquisitions more effectively to succeed.
The Experience-Led Approach by Adobe
Adobe Summit has shown widespread reiteration across the majority of talks that an experience-led approach overcomes a lot of these challenges, making it essential to map out business outcomes and customer experiences first.
By fueling systems with data from the first customer engagement and building solutions that drive towards these desired outcomes, businesses can achieve significant growth.
This strategy has resulted in higher revenue, business growth, customer satisfaction and engagement.
Real-World Impacts of Exceptional Commerce Experiences
In his session, McCran presented compelling evidence of the effectiveness of Adobe’s approach through various case studies.
For example, companies have seen increased mobile conversion rates across multiple countries, significant revenue growth since platform launch, and rapid customer onboarding on B2B portals.
These successes span global self-service portals, omnichannel B2B commerce, and digital selling, illustrating the versatility and impact of Adobe Commerce in driving growth and efficiency.
Overcoming Tech Constraints
A common theme throughout McCran’s presentation was the issue of technology constraints hindering the customer experience.
He detailed the typical customer journey frustrations, from non-contextual ads and generic site experiences to irrelevant product discovery and generic post-purchase communications.
These pain points highlight the need for a more personalised, seamless experience across all stages of the customer journey.
Adobe’s Solution: Personalised, Data-Powered Experiences
Adobe’s solutions focus on creating personalised, data-powered experiences that recognise and value the customer at every touchpoint.
Using targeted messaging, customised site content, hyper-specific offers, and pre-populated shipping and tax information, the updates unveiled at the Summit, alongside everything else Adobe Commerce already offers, aim to craft experiences that drive loyalty and spend.
This approach is supported by a robust, flexible tech infrastructure that integrates seamlessly with other Adobe products and third-party solutions, allowing for real-time data sharing and activation.
At the core of all of their products is an experience-led, data-powered, tech-enabled commerce platform that empowers marketers and merchandisers with AI-powered search, recommendations, and personalised omnichannel journeys.
The platform’s low-code extensibility and API-first architecture enable businesses to scale and innovate rapidly while ensuring enterprise-level performance and security.
The JH Round-Up
Shaun’s presentation provided a compelling vision for the future of digital commerce, one where exceptional experiences are at the heart of growth strategies.
By deploying Adobe’s comprehensive suite of products, data and personalisation tools, businesses can overcome the common barriers to delivering superior customer experiences.
In doing so, they drive sales and loyalty, positioning themselves for sustained growth in the digital marketplace.
Adobe Commerce emerges victorious from the Summit as a strategic platform choice contributing to the redefinition of what’s possible in eCommerce today.
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Have your say
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