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How to leverage real-time personalization for deeper customer engagement

Brands that deliver personalized experiences, quickly and at scale, can boost customer loyalty, drive up conversion rates and propel themselves into the global market. This tailored approach fosters a sense of connection, creating an ongoing dialogue that feels more intuitive, engaging, and authentic – much like having an effortless conversation with someone you know and trust. How? By leveraging a composable Digital Experience Platform (DXP).

Dawn Foods: What's in your stack?

Learn what technologies Dawn Foods uses to modernize its digital and e-commerce strategies, and how Contentstack makes it all work seamlessly.

Building the business case for headless technology

Learn how Juliette Olah built a business case for headless CMS, how she got the green light for it, and what the new technology will enable for the brand in the years to come.

Dawn Foods: What's in your stack?

Learn what technologies Dawn Foods uses to modernize its digital and e-commerce strategies, and how Contentstack makes it all work seamlessly.

Building the business case for headless technology

Learn how Juliette Olah built a business case for headless CMS, how she got the green light for it, and what the new technology will enable for the brand in the years to come.

Five composable technology trends that will define 2024

Discover the five composable technology trends that businesses can’t afford to ignore as move into 2024. These trends will define how businesses stay ahead of the competition and retain their best customers.

How to leverage real-time personalization for deeper customer engagement

Brands that deliver personalized experiences, quickly and at scale, can boost customer loyalty, drive up conversion rates and propel themselves into the global market. This tailored approach fosters a sense of connection, creating an ongoing dialogue that feels more intuitive, engaging, and authentic – much like having an effortless conversation with someone you know and trust. How? By leveraging a composable Digital Experience Platform (DXP).

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Composable architecture: How to future-proof your business tech stack

Technology is changing at lightning speed along with market trends and customer expectations. Adding more to it, as per a recent survey by the Conference Board, 93% of corporate CEOs are gearing up for a recession over the next 12 to 18 months. The immediate requirement for these leaders is to ensure the resilience of their technology stacks for the future, thereby keeping their businesses ready for a diverse range of unforeseen circumstances. In such a scenario, delivering customized user experience through composable architecture could ensure long-term survival and success.Customer experience is prioritized by 44.5% of enterprises worldwide, as per a 2021 Statista report. Achieving this in today's dynamic environment requires effectively using technology to create and deliver top-notch products and services.To help organizations respond to that sense of urgency, here are five tips to consider when futureproofing your business tech stack.1. Customized User ExperienceBrands, on their composable journey, must focus on offering personalized user experiences, attained using relevant user data right from the start. McKinsey reports that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions from brands. Besides improving user experience, brands must focus on designing systems that scale with the growing user base and its dynamic functionality needs.2. Coordination with other business unitsContrary to traditional stereotypes, IT does not function in isolation. In fact, to ensure business success, technology initiatives must align with the business's overall strategy and add to the brand's short- and long-term goals. However, transitioning from a monolithic structure to a composable one must be iterative. Once a new technology is integrated within one business unit, it can eventually be rolled out to other units. While preparing for future challenges, the choice of technology will impact multiple business units during a business's transitional phase.To make sure a specific new tech works well for all units, it's essential to plan and think about the opportunities, problems and trends that might occur. This requires effective collaboration across business units. Given the interconnected nature of these departments, proper goal alignment must be ensured to deliver compatible, scalable, flexible and secure results. For seamless and customized solutions across different touchpoints, the chosen technology should be capable of scaling and accommodating new process changes across the organization.3. Constant hyper-personalization and differentiation The importance of customer experience (CX) is highly discussed in the current business ecosystem. Brands are constantly innovating new solutions to thrive in the face of competition. The only way to do that is by adopting highly scalable tech stacks that incorporate speedy change processes. While customers expect a more compelling experience, selecting any technology for the sake of it or, worse, by mimicking other brands will not work and will lead a brand to lose its competitive advantage. Instead, they must adopt best-of-breed components and change stack parts when required, creating the much-required hyper-personalized experiences.4. A flexible approachBusinesses are more unpredictable than ever, increasing the potential stakes for which leaders must be prepared. While tech leaders know that a tech revolution is coming, the exact nature of the change remains unknown. This unpredictability will lead to rapid and diverse market requirements and changes in user preferences. By investing in and leveraging technology, brands can quickly adapt to these changes and make necessary system adjustments. Furthermore, flexible tech is more interoperable, allowing smoother integration with other tools and platforms.5. Prepare your organization for the futureDon't bite off more than you can chew when it comes to composability. Business leaders can decide the number of components they want to switch at a time. Unlike monoliths, composable architectures allow business leaders to determine the number of components they want to change at a time. This makes the shift a lot smoother and much quicker. There is no rush to modernize in haste. With customer needs and industry trends changing dynamically, flexibility in business functionality is the only way forward and achievable through composable architecture. But before getting into the composable journey, organizations must find their motivation and identify their reasons for going composable to deliver a differentiated experience to their audience.

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ChatGPT and the future of AI-driven composability

Conor Egan, Contentstack VP of Product, dives into the power of generative AI and how Contentstack is leveraging ChatGPT to supercharge the Contentstack composable DXP.

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Bridging monolith and composable with automation, with Director of Engineering Keith Mazanec

Moving to composable technology almost never happens all at once. There is a transition period. How do you help teams make the most of the composable technology, while easing the transition between old and new? Keith Mazanec, Director of Software Engineering at Brad’s Deals shares how they used a composable content technology with automation capabilities (Contentstack) to create an easy transition that improved the lives of content editors straightaway - and created a better experience for everyone, customers included. Plus, hear about their favorite uses of Automation Hub to automate across the content lifecycle.Timestamps:1:05 The volume of content at Brad's Deals, and what that means for content editors1:56 Why Brad's Deals looked for a new content management technology2:27 An example of how automations helped reduce manual data entry for content editors3:57 The custom dashboard Brad's Deals built for their editors5:06 Example of automating a categorizing function to speed up content publishing process6:03 Versioning and automating making changes to the content model8:16 How Brad's Deals created continuity between their legacy technology and the new headless CMS9:57 Automating throughout the content lifecycle across different content & marketing applications

Exploring and proving the value of AI

Leaders from Orium, commercetools and Contentstack came together for this masterclass to explore the use cases for AI in composable commerce. Press play to learn which applications will impact your brand and get insider insight into where, when and how to deploy AI to support your business goals as well as the tools you need to measure and monitor the results.

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Composable architecture: How to future-proof your business tech stack

Technology is changing at lightning speed along with market trends and customer expectations. Adding more to it, as per a recent survey by the Conference Board, 93% of corporate CEOs are gearing up for a recession over the next 12 to 18 months. The immediate requirement for these leaders is to ensure the resilience of their technology stacks for the future, thereby keeping their businesses ready for a diverse range of unforeseen circumstances. In such a scenario, delivering customized user experience through composable architecture could ensure long-term survival and success.Customer experience is prioritized by 44.5% of enterprises worldwide, as per a 2021 Statista report. Achieving this in today's dynamic environment requires effectively using technology to create and deliver top-notch products and services.To help organizations respond to that sense of urgency, here are five tips to consider when futureproofing your business tech stack.1. Customized User ExperienceBrands, on their composable journey, must focus on offering personalized user experiences, attained using relevant user data right from the start. McKinsey reports that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions from brands. Besides improving user experience, brands must focus on designing systems that scale with the growing user base and its dynamic functionality needs.2. Coordination with other business unitsContrary to traditional stereotypes, IT does not function in isolation. In fact, to ensure business success, technology initiatives must align with the business's overall strategy and add to the brand's short- and long-term goals. However, transitioning from a monolithic structure to a composable one must be iterative. Once a new technology is integrated within one business unit, it can eventually be rolled out to other units. While preparing for future challenges, the choice of technology will impact multiple business units during a business's transitional phase.To make sure a specific new tech works well for all units, it's essential to plan and think about the opportunities, problems and trends that might occur. This requires effective collaboration across business units. Given the interconnected nature of these departments, proper goal alignment must be ensured to deliver compatible, scalable, flexible and secure results. For seamless and customized solutions across different touchpoints, the chosen technology should be capable of scaling and accommodating new process changes across the organization.3. Constant hyper-personalization and differentiation The importance of customer experience (CX) is highly discussed in the current business ecosystem. Brands are constantly innovating new solutions to thrive in the face of competition. The only way to do that is by adopting highly scalable tech stacks that incorporate speedy change processes. While customers expect a more compelling experience, selecting any technology for the sake of it or, worse, by mimicking other brands will not work and will lead a brand to lose its competitive advantage. Instead, they must adopt best-of-breed components and change stack parts when required, creating the much-required hyper-personalized experiences.4. A flexible approachBusinesses are more unpredictable than ever, increasing the potential stakes for which leaders must be prepared. While tech leaders know that a tech revolution is coming, the exact nature of the change remains unknown. This unpredictability will lead to rapid and diverse market requirements and changes in user preferences. By investing in and leveraging technology, brands can quickly adapt to these changes and make necessary system adjustments. Furthermore, flexible tech is more interoperable, allowing smoother integration with other tools and platforms.5. Prepare your organization for the futureDon't bite off more than you can chew when it comes to composability. Business leaders can decide the number of components they want to switch at a time. Unlike monoliths, composable architectures allow business leaders to determine the number of components they want to change at a time. This makes the shift a lot smoother and much quicker. There is no rush to modernize in haste. With customer needs and industry trends changing dynamically, flexibility in business functionality is the only way forward and achievable through composable architecture. But before getting into the composable journey, organizations must find their motivation and identify their reasons for going composable to deliver a differentiated experience to their audience.

The costs of adopting composable architecture

While determining tech stack pricing in monoliths is relatively easy, the entire decision-making process is lengthy due to the involvement of multiple decision-making units.  Composable architectures, on the other hand, meet dynamic business requirements and are far more affordable than legacy systems. For this reason, adopting composable application architecture will reduce software management costs significantly by 2024, as per Gartner.  How?  Let's find out. Selection costs Like decision-making, the request for proposal (RFP) process in monolith systems is elaborate and complex, covering every facet of a digital commerce system. The POCs of such architectures are also complicated and time-consuming to craft since all functionalities are tightly coupled. On the flip side, the request for proposal (RFP) scope of a modular architecture is streamlined, focusing only on the critical functionalities.  Additionally, composable commerce offers easily accessible free trial periods via the vendor's website. Planning costs Though a composable approach includes an elaborate MVP (minimum viable product) design phase, the solution can be implemented incrementally through a "strangler" pattern, ensuring a smooth and eventual function-by-function transition without disrupting the existing system. The process lowers risks and reduces end-to-end planning and coordination. Development and customization costs The development cost for a composable commerce system is much lower since component customization is achieved using flexible APIs. As modular structures feature existing backend functionalities, developers can focus on creating the front ends, accelerating the development cycle. Additionally, instead of developing all components from scratch, brands can build their solution using the best-of-breed components tailored to their specific needs. Finally, incremental launching using an MVP leads to faster realization of investments, in contrast to a monolith structure where any investment made in customization is wasted with a shift to a newer platform.  Integration & migration costs Myth: Integration and migration costs to composable architecture are higher, requiring the internal integration of components to create a cohesive solution.  Truth: That's not the case.  Let's not forget the API first approach with flexible APIs that make way for easier decoupling and lower integration costs of MACH-based composable stacks. Training costs Developers using a composable solution need to understand the entire system and its components, but the training costs are significantly reduced. Because these components follow the MACH architecture, they're easy to learn, making it quicker for development teams. This helps cut down on training costs. Reduced hardware maintenance Contrary to traditional architectures requiring rigorous hardware maintenance, MACH architecture prioritizes scaling and maintenance of required composables. The paradigm shift in maintenance can reduce hardware maintenance costs over time. However, it has to be evaluated to see how different composables add value or turn out to be more cost-effective than monoliths.  Streamlined resource management Adopting composable architecture simplifies resource management greatly, allowing efficient allocation of resources. Further, MACH architecture reduces operational overhead costs significantly, enabling efficient cost savings in the long run for composables. While the initial adoption of composable architecture requires careful planning and investment, the long-term cost savings potential is substantial. Companies can unlock substantial cost reductions, streamline processes, and enhance scalability by adhering to principles like MACH-aligned composables, prioritizing extensibility, and ensuring team alignment. Such a strategic shift isn't just about technology — it's a move toward a more economical and agile future for your organization. Invest in a technological transformation One cannot deny the transformative potential that a shift toward composable architecture holds for organizations seeking to optimize their operations, minimize expenditures, and boost scalability. It is true that this transition demands preliminary strategizing and investment; however, the enduring advantages it offers are indisputable. Composable architecture goes beyond merely streamlining resource management, reducing training expenses, and diminishing hardware upkeep. It introduces an unprecedented degree of adaptability and versatility by leveraging modular, top-quality components. Hence, embracing this strategic tactic is not just a technological transformation. It signifies a stride towards a future that promises greater cost efficiency, agility and prosperity for your organization.

Revolutionizing front-end development: The power of composable design systems

In the dynamic world of software development, flexibility and adaptability are crucial. Front-end developers, in particular, require solutions that empower them to create innovative applications and drive business success. Herein lies the transformative power of a composable design system. Nik Shenoy, Director of Software Development at Orium, described the power of composable design systems this way, “Some of the same architectural and design patterns that are applied for back-end microservices can be adapted for front-end use to save time and provide more functionality.” What is a composable design system?  A composable design system is a collection of reusable design elements, design decisions, and proven conventions in addition to the standards that guide how these atomic elements work together.  In the context of software development, and particularly front-end development, the composable design system (or component library) is a collection of reusable components that developers can utilize to construct user interfaces (UI). Each component in the library represents a distinct UI element, such as a button, a form, or a navigation bar. The utility of a component library lies in its reusability and consistency. Instead of writing new code for each UI element every time, developers can use pre-defined components from the library, saving significant time and effort. In addition, this approach ensures UI consistency across different parts of an application or even across multiple applications within an organization. “If you're not using a component library, you're probably running into issues with performance, flexibility and accessibility,” Shenoy said. “Focus on your business requirements instead.” How does a component library work? The concept of a component library fits perfectly into the model of a composable design system. By breaking down the UI into individual, reusable components, developers and designers can compose their interfaces according to specific needs and contexts.  This modular approach offers exceptional flexibility and adaptability, empowering developers to create remarkable user experiences. A component library serves as the building blocks of composable architecture. With the rise of composable commerce, DXP, CDP, and other composable applications, the importance of a well-structured, versatile component library has never been more apparent. Benefits of a component library tied to a composable design system For businesses, adopting a composable design system tied to a component library can translate into tangible benefits like:  Reduced development time Improve UI consistency Enhance user experience Drive business growth “We regularly use component libraries to ensure a consistent experience that embodies specific standards,” Shenoy said. “This allows us to provide a better experience while unlocking more time to spend on specific business outcomes.” Transform business from the inside out In conclusion, the benefits of a composable design system tied to a component library are manifold. For front-end developers interested in connected software design systems, this approach offers flexibility, ease of implementation and a wealth of resources.  By adopting such a system, developers can drive innovation, enhance productivity, and ultimately, propel business success. This is a testament to the transformative power of composable design systems, redefining how we approach software development in the modern digital era.

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The Forrester Wave™ named Contentstack
a Strong Performer in DXP

Learn why The Forrester Wave™ report for Digital Experience Platforms gave our composable DXP the highest scores possible in the Vision, Innovation and Application Architecture criteria.

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Empowering finance: The composable technology starter-guide

Why composable for finance makes sense (and dollars)The financial services sector, a front-runner in innovation, faces intense competition, from major investment firms to independent banks. When it comes to financial services, today's customers demand agility, security and continuous innovation. To surpass these expectations, the financial world is embracing composable technology for its unparalleled capacity for customization and innovation. Imagine tailoring services to meet each customer's unique needs, staying ahead of evolving regulations, and fostering relentless innovation. Composable Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) are the secret ingredient that fuels this transformative journey for today’s financial services organizations.Benefits of a Composable DXPThis shift offers financial institutions a chance to revolutionize their technology spectrum, driving revenue growth, faster market entry, cost efficiency, enhanced risk management and elevated customer contentment. Through a composable DXP, financial businesses gain the agility to adapt swiftly to market dynamics, personalize customer interactions, unveil new services quickly, and seamlessly integrate innovative solutions to maintain a competitive edge in the ever-evolving financial landscape. So what should financial institutions consider before getting started on their composable journey and how does this shift truly move the needle?Personalized digital experiencesToday’s customers crave personalization. They no longer want to be just another number on a spreadsheet; they want services tailored to their unique needs and preferences. This shift towards personalization isn't just a trend; it has become a necessity in the financial landscape. Composable technology serves as the backbone for this personalized evolution, allowing financial institutions to craft bespoke solutions that resonate with each customer. By leveraging modular components, these building blocks enable financial institutions to design personalized offerings that cater to individual needs. By breaking down services into smaller, interchangeable parts, institutions have the flexibility to mix and match these components, creating dynamic and tailored solutions for their customers. “Integrating a headless CMS into our cloud-native approach allowed us to really optimize edge delivery of a lot of our content… Render times are five times faster when compared to our legacy CMS.”— Clay Gregory | Principal Architect, MorningstarThis composable approach empowers organizations to adapt quickly to changing market demands, stay ahead of the curve and deliver innovative, customer-centric experiences.Improved connectivity, compliance and risk mitigationCompliance and risk mitigation have always been critical in finance. However, the increasing complexity of regulations and the fast-paced nature of financial transactions make these aspects even more crucial.Composable technology serves as a game-changer, not only enabling swift adjustments to comply with regulations but also enhancing risk mitigation strategies. Known for its inherent flexibility, composable technology empowers organizations to seamlessly update their systems to adapt to regulatory changes. This facilitates real-time risk assessment by enabling continuous monitoring and analysis of potential threats. Its modular architecture facilitates the integration of advanced risk management tools and AI-driven analytics. Additionally, it streamlines risk mitigation efforts by providing the agility to swiftly implement necessary controls and measures in response to identified risks. By leveraging composable technology, businesses can proactively identify and address potential risks, predict potential vulnerabilities, and implement preemptive measures, ensuring a robust and secure operational environment.Such a proactive approach not only fortifies the regulatory compliance stance but also bolsters the resilience of financial systems against unforeseen risks, safeguarding the integrity of operations in an ever-evolving regulatory environment.Increased customer engagement: Building loyalty with contentEngaging content is no longer limited to media companies. Financial institutions are recognizing the value in building loyalty and trust among their customers — and nurturing that customer loyalty requires a strategic blend of informative and engaging content. To build lasting relationships and deliver value beyond transactions, more financial services organizations are demonstrating their commitment to customer needs with personalized newsletters, social media, targeted emails and other various channels.But how does composable technology come into play in this context? By enabling seamless integration of various content delivery platforms, it empowers financial firms to create localized and omnichannel content strategies, ensuring meaningful engagement with customers across different channels and regions.This approach enhances the overall customer experience and strengthens the bond between financial institutions and their diverse customer base.“We’re aggressively making changes to the website. We’re trying to draw people in, and we haven’t done that before. We can spin up new pages faster now than they could previously.”— Jason Hagen | Software Architect, Harbor Capital AdvisorsModernizing workflows for today's expectations around agility and innovationAgility and innovation are no longer just buzzwords — they are non-negotiables. Composable technology is a force multiplier when it comes to modernizing workflows and increasing agility. The integration of composable technology not only amplifies agility but also catalyzes a culture of innovation within organizations. With composable technology, teams can streamline operational processes, seamlessly integrate new tools, and optimize collaborative efforts, resulting in enhancements in productivity and efficiency. "We cut out 40% of our tickets by having a CMS where other users can make updates to the website. That 40% is so valuable for us, so we can focus on revenue-driving initiatives and find new ways to get users to engage with our web properties to get more leads in the pipeline for sales. It is a huge advantage for us!"— Kevin Yang | Senior Manager, Digital Experience, ICE Mortgage TechnologyAdditionally, the rapid deployment of new functionalities and enhancements encourages a culture of adaptability, allowing teams to respond swiftly to market shifts and emerging opportunities. Composable technology not only future-proofs operations but cultivates a dynamic ecosystem where innovation thrives, positioning organizations at the forefront of industry advancements.Composable is the key to new growth and revenueIf you are still wondering why composable technology is the future of finance, consider this: it paves the way for new growth and revenue streams.By enabling customization, fostering innovation, enhancing compliance and improving customer engagement, composable technology helps financial institutions tap into previously unexplored opportunities. Composable Digital Experience Platforms are not just about keeping up with the times; they are a linchpin of progress. Composable DXPs embody modernization, propelling businesses forward in a landscape defined by agility, innovation and customer-centricity. Embracing these platforms isn't just about staying relevant; it's about reimagining your digital experiences to thrive in an era where adaptability, personalization and swift evolution are paramount. Are you ready to not just meet but exceed customer expectations?Get started today.

Composable commerce: Best-in-class tools for the job

Many people today use the phrase "composable commerce" — including monolith vendors like Adobe and Shopify. As the composable commerce space has matured, and as more and more brands have seen the value of a system that lets you leverage best-of-breed microservices for your brand needs, it makes sense that legacy tech platforms would want to carve out a piece of the composable pie. But the reality is, a monolith can never truly be composable. If you're on Adobe, you may be able to leverage a handful of third-party services with relative ease—but only ones that have been approved and integrated by them. You’re still locked into their ecosystem, and your ability to make changes and update your commerce experiences is driven by their feature development and priority list. True composability is about breaking down those barriers and putting control in your hands.What is composable commerce?What sets pure-play composable commerce apart? At its core, real composability involves component-based architecture, cloud-native infrastructure and API-first connectivity. This means that modular capabilities can be mixed and matched, scaled, iterated, and swapped as needed. Instead of an all-in-one toolset, brands access integrated microservices via APIs.Cloud-native infrastructure provides the foundation for this plug-and-play extensibility. Containered services scale automatically, while APIs enable headless commerce functionality alongside other capabilities. As capabilities expand, composable stacks stay cohesive yet cutting-edge.“The ability to curate your commerce experience using best-in-breed microservices, with access to the tools you want and need—nothing more, nothing less—is a compelling argument for modern retail and commerce brands,” notes Jason Cottrell, CEO of Orium. The market moves quickly. Brands need to be able to move alongside it.Benefits of composable commerceModular composability centered on APIs and the cloud provides:Targeted personalization: Leverage real-time data for contextualized messaging connecting commerce and contentContinuous experimentation: Rapidly test and scale what resonates without significant liftsFaster innovation cycles: Plug emerging engagement channels into your stackIf a new, better alternative comes on the market, swapping it out won't be an option. When you lock into a monolithic platform, your options will always be limited by their platform. With a truly composable stack based on MACH technologies, you'll be able to leverage the best solutions in the market for your needs. For example, if you need to understand user behavior (and you do), quantumetrics is an industry-leading solution that can be implemented into a modular composable architecture with relative ease. The same can't be said for monolithic counterparts.Overcoming implementation challengesSome brands hesitate to adopt composable commerce, fearing overly complex implementations involving stitching together disparate systems. However, MACH’s open APIs and microservices architecture streamline integrations. Composable also offers the freedom to work with preferred agency partners versus being locked into an agency ecosystem dictated by a suite vendor.With expert guidance, brands can launch composable stacks rapidly. Many even realize faster time-to-market versus monolithic solutions given leaner, more lightweight systems. Vendor-agnostic flexibility also allows engaging your preferred system integrator partners to streamline rollout.“As the space has evolved, moving to a MACH-based architecture has become easier. The emergence of accelerators, like Orium’s Accelerator, can smooth the process for brands, speeding time to first value without sacrificing the flexibility and scalability of a fully composable system,” notes Cottrell.Separating composable leaders from followersIncreasingly, legacy platforms now pay lip service to composability but lack the cloud DNA and API foundations required. Their tools remain a walled garden, restricting the versatility that authentic composable architecture provides. Even with approved partners, integration is complex, expensive and provides minimal capability.Forward-looking brands opt for these purpose-built composable commerce technologies to future-proof innovation potential. With composability anchored fundamentally in the cloud and powered entirely by APIs, curating cutting-edge yet cohesive stacks becomes simple — an unmatched advantage.ConclusionComposable commerce delivers instantly extensible, best-of-breed stacks aligned to business goals. In 2024 and beyond, composable architecture offers unmatched adaptability to address digital experience challenges through continuous experimentation powered by specialized tools. It lays the foundation for optimized customer journeys that convert. This unmatched advantage makes composable the obvious choice for digital experience success.

How to leverage real-time personalization for deeper customer engagement

Personalization across digital experiences is like having a linear conversation with a friend, where every interaction strengthens the relationship. Just as a friend remembers your likes and dislikes, knows your behaviors and maybe even has your coffee order memorized, the goal of digital personalization isn’t too far off.Personalization in digital experiences is no longer a luxury; it's a necessity. Today's consumers crave bespoke experiences designed for their unique needs and preferences. Brands that deliver these personalized experiences, quickly and at scale, can boost customer loyalty, drive up conversion rates and propel themselves into the global market. This tailored approach fosters a sense of connection, creating an ongoing dialogue that feels more intuitive, engaging, and authentic – much like having an effortless conversation with someone you know and trust.How? By leveraging a composable Digital Experience Platform (DXP).What is a composable DXP?Composable DXP, unlike its legacy counterparts, is inherently more flexible and adaptable. It's akin to a set of Lego blocks – you can assemble, disassemble and reassemble them to create whatever you envision. This flexibility allows businesses to build and modify their digital platforms per their changing requirements.Omnichannel personalizationThe magic of composable DXP really comes alive with omnichannel personalization.Imagine knowing exactly what your customer wants, when they want it, and being able to deliver it instantly. Sounds like a dream, right? With real-time personalization, this dream becomes reality. By analyzing a customer's behavior, preferences and interactions in real time, businesses can provide personalized experiences that hit the mark every single time.But why should you care about personalization? Let's look at some numbers. Personalization can reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50%; Increase revenues by 5-15%;And improve the efficiency of marketing spend by 10-30%. That's not all. Studies show that 84% of consumers expect to be treated as individuals, not numbers. They desire personalized experiences that make them feel understood, valued, and connected to your brand. From local to globalNow, let's take a leap from local markets to the global arena. Composable DXPs help businesses expand their reach beyond geographical boundaries. By providing the ability to customize content per regional preferences, languages and cultures, a composable DXP makes it easier for businesses to cater to a global audience.Looking into the future, it's clear that composable DXPs will continue to shape the landscape of personalized digital experiences. This evolution offers an exciting opportunity for businesses to stay ahead of the curve by delivering what modern consumers desire — highly personalized, seamless and engaging experiences across all touchpoints.How real-time personalization worksModularity and flexibility enables you to mix and match different tools and functionalities to create personalized experiences without being limited by a monolithic system.Rapid deployment of new content facilitates faster personalization of experiences based on changing user needs and behaviors.When it’s time to expand your digital offerings or handle increased traffic, a composable DXP can accommodate these changes without significant rearchitecting or rebuilding.With the help of AI and automation, Composable DXPs can help in analyzing vast amounts of data to derive actionable insights, predict user preferences, and ultimately enhance the overall personalization process.With a modular structure, it becomes easier to iterate and test different personalized experiences. You can quickly test digital content, gather feedback, and make adjustments without disrupting your entire platform.How to leverage real-time personalizationNow, you must be wondering, "How do I leverage real-time personalization?" The answer is simpler than you think. With composable Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) like Contentstack, you can create and deliver personalized content across multiple channels in real time. Whether it's a promotional email, a product recommendation on your website, or a push notification on a mobile app, every piece of content can be customized to resonate with each customer.Conclusion In today's digital age, personalization isn't just about knowing your customer's name. It's about understanding their needs, preferences and behaviors to offer an experience that feels uniquely theirs.By delivering hyper-personalized experiences, businesses can deepen customer engagement, foster brand loyalty and drive significant business growth.Are you ready to step into the future and harness the power of real-time personalization? Remember, the future is not just about predicting what your customers want; it's about knowing it in real time and delivering personalized content that catches their attention.With a composable DXP, you can do it faster and easier than ever before.

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The MACH Alliance supports companies who want to take advantage of the most innovative and flexible enterprise technologies available — and to break the release cycle. Read the most recent research report.

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Bridging monolith and composable with automation, with Director of Engineering Keith Mazanec

Moving to composable technology almost never happens all at once. There is a transition period. How do you help teams make the most of the composable technology, while easing the transition between old and new? Keith Mazanec, Director of Software Engineering at Brad’s Deals shares how they used a composable content technology with automation capabilities (Contentstack) to create an easy transition that improved the lives of content editors straightaway - and created a better experience for everyone, customers included. Plus, hear about their favorite uses of Automation Hub to automate across the content lifecycle.Timestamps:1:05 The volume of content at Brad's Deals, and what that means for content editors1:56 Why Brad's Deals looked for a new content management technology2:27 An example of how automations helped reduce manual data entry for content editors3:57 The custom dashboard Brad's Deals built for their editors5:06 Example of automating a categorizing function to speed up content publishing process6:03 Versioning and automating making changes to the content model8:16 How Brad's Deals created continuity between their legacy technology and the new headless CMS9:57 Automating throughout the content lifecycle across different content & marketing applications

Building a scalable DXP - Part 3

In parts one and two, we covered the basics of building a scalable DXP and how to scale your DXP. In taking on the initiative to scale your DXP, it is fundamentally important to know why you are doing it. Let’s dive in. Why should I scale? If building and scaling your DXP sounds like a lot of work and critical thinking, it is. So why should you do it? You may be enticed by the revenue you want to increase or the costs you want to decrease, but if your reasoning only extends to cash flow, you will open yourself and your company up to potentially bad decisions.  Of course, any sound strategy you take with your digital experience platform (DXP) ought to lead to increased financial returns on your investment and effort, but that is only one of many potential outcomes. If those additional returns aren’t quickly felt by the team undertaking the work and feeling the brunt of the change process, such as in a bonus strategy or revenue share, then those returns won’t be durable enough to instill a lasting approach to scalability in your digital organization. A DXP puts the customer first The first reason you want to build a scalable DXP is for your customers. Adopting a scalable approach will allow you to reach them better, faster and more efficiently. It will allow you to continue to evolve your mission and increase your engagement with your audience. Scalability for your DXP means your customers can efficiently interact with your brand, including sales, support and even your community of customers. It means that orders are accurate and filled quickly. It means that the latest and greatest news and information from your company are always right there ready for your customers to experience in their preferred context.  Create and manage more content It also means that you can create and manage more contexts. Consider a traditional monolithic CMS that is designed purely for publishing on the web. Perhaps you’ve cobbled together bold-on API solutions that allow you to publish simultaneously to the web and your mobile application, and perhaps you’ve optimized a slew of copy-and-paste processes to their maximum efficiency. But adding another distribution channel, say, a voice app or integration with an IoT device, feels like months, if not years away from your present state.  Now consider how replacing your monolithic CMS with a headless CMS would tear down walls for your team, allowing your content managers to focus on crafting delightful and optimized content while your designers and developers focus on the presentation of that content in numerous contexts. Unlock the potential of your people This leads us to the second main reason you want to scale: your people. Time not spent copying, pasting and emailing content and collateral is time that is available for ingenuity and innovation. As you unlock scale within your DXP, you free up your team to focus on the areas where they can create real value, which is typically a rewarding and uplifting result in your staff’s day-to-day work. Although it may be tempting —and at times, necessary — to optimize and scale your DXP or other business processes to reduce team size, that should rarely, if ever, be the sole motivating factor for pursuing scalability.  Instead, pursue scalability across your organization and DXP as if you are upgrading everyone’s daily lives or giving them a new suit of clothes to replace the old ones that don’t fit so well anymore so that they can do their very best high-value work. Your team will thank you for setting them free, and your customers will thank you for the ease with which you provide them with your services. After all, businesses are run by people to provide goods and services for others, and meeting the needs of both groups of people efficiently and optimally is the definition of good business, which inexorably leads to growth. A scalable DXP drives business growth   While many companies are fortunate enough to achieve growth, not all of them can achieve scale. Often what holds a business back is more the result of how teams look at their internal systems and processes than it is about market conditions. In fact, by looking deeply and understanding the end-to-end processes within your organization, you have the potential to actually drive demand by making your products better and cheaper than your competitors. This is precisely the outcome Ransom Olds achieved for Oldsmobile in 1901 when he implemented the first automobile assembly line and increased output by 500% in one year. Today, blazing-fast mobile connectivity, the Internet of Things (IoT), and new devices on the market all point in the same direction: the number of places where your customers expect to engage with your brand online is growing, which means that your capacity to meet them there should also be growing if you want to maintain your competitive edge. By understanding the assembly line that makes up your DXP, you can see each system and step in your publishing process clearly, which will allow you to make intentional changes in your core technologies and people processes that will unlock scale. We are fortunate to be at a time when there have never been so many tools and options available to optimize and scale your DXP. From back-of-house big data, inventory and digital asset management tools to headless CMS, automation tools and instantaneous publishing on CDN geographically close to the user, the ability for digital teams to reassess their DXP implementation and optimize for scale has never been more within reach for everyone. Equipped with a firm grasp of what it truly means to scale and the steps outlined above, you and your teams should now be ready to unlock efficiencies that have previously held you back and embark on the exciting journey of scaling your DXP. Learn about our Developer Fast Track to see how you can start building today.

Building a scalable DXP - Part 2

Let’s start with a shared definition of the territory. Gartner has a nice definition of a digital experience platform (DXP): “A digital experience platform (DXP) is an integrated set of core technologies that support the composition, management, delivery and optimization of contextualized digital experiences.”  There are three main aspects of this definition, each of which can vary depending on the specific needs of an organization:  The set of core technologies The content management processes The digital experience context Let’s unravel each of them separately. Core technologies of a DXP The core technologies of a DXP consist of things like a content management system (CMS), customer relationship management system (CRM), digital asset management system (DAM), inventory management system, website, web host, payment processor, mobile application and so on. Core technologies also include any code you write or maintain, DevOps, backups, redundancies, and the technical support required to maintain them.  The technologies that make up any given DXP typically take center stage in an organization, and staff can usually list several of them by name even if they aren’t on the digital team because, collectively, these technologies tend to touch almost every person in a modern organization in some way. Content management processes of a DXP Content management processes are a mix of automated and manual steps that transform, augment and assemble media from ideation to publication. These processes will vary widely from one organization to another, but they typically include things like selecting and editing images, writing and editing content, and updating and maintaining inventory data, like prices and product descriptions. Depending on the size and configuration of your digital team, content management processes can span across multiple teams, each providing their own expertise and applying their craft along the line from ideation to final publication.  While these processes are typically powered by people, they will also often include automated steps leveraging the core technologies mentioned above. For example, a photographer may manually capture several images for an upcoming article. When the photographer uploads the images to the DAM, the images are automatically resized, tagged and optimized for their publishing context, and an automated message is sent to an editor letting them know the images are ready to be used. The digital experience context of a DXP The contextual domain of the DXP refers to where the assembled content is published. Contexts include websites and parts of websites, social media, mobile applications, the Internet of Things (IoT), extended reality (XR) and more. The publication context is one of the more complex components of any DXP because of the variety of contexts in which a piece of content can appear, the amounts and myriad formats of data insights available for each context, and the limited visibility into the minds of individuals who are the end consumers of DX, where the content, context and technologies all come together to provide some sensory experience.  For example, one piece of content, like a blog or product entry, may appear in a mobile app, mobile website, desktop website, and digital display simultaneously, each with slightly different and nuanced requirements. Now that we’ve defined the space we’ll be exploring, we’re ready to begin building our scalable DXP. Most companies already have a DXP, so this process focuses on evolving your existing DXP to make it more scalable. The same principles apply to building a scalable DXP for a brand-new organization, but some steps you will need to come back to once you have your team in place. In general, it’s a good idea to come back to this process periodically because even subtle systems or structural changes can unlock new — or hinder existing — scalability over time. The 5 principles of building a DXP 1. Define your content and its components Taking a content inventory is the first step in implementing a scalable DXP. Your end-to-end DXP is a pathway for content to come together and be presented for your audience to experience, and ignoring the realities of the individual pieces that make up your content or that are needed to make it successful will ultimately inhibit scale. Think of content as anything you want your audience to encounter independent of the context in which they will experience it. Start by listing out each type of content, such as static pages, blog entries, product pages, etc. Then, list out the components that make up each of those types of content. Here, you want to capture details that show how the media is assembled for the end user. For instance, if a blog entry has a hero image, body text, excerpt, author and other metadata, document it. Likewise, if a product page includes five photos, a video, a 3D walkthrough, a price, a SKU and a call to action button, note these details, too. If your organization has a lot of existing content with a lot of variation, which is often true of large and growing companies, then you may want to consider creating one version of your inventory document reflecting your current content and dependencies and another version reflecting a more ideal and streamlined state. Similarly, if your business maintains hundreds of websites, you may only want to focus on one specific content segment in your organization, like your corporate newsroom or product catalog. A good rule of thumb is to try to keep your content inventory documentation simple and clear. At this step, you don’t need to list things like social media posts if those posts would just be redistributing content you originally published elsewhere, like on your brand website. The purpose of this step is to assess the breadth of your content and the components that comprise it, and to create an anchor for your team as you work toward a shared understanding of context and process. 2. Define your contexts Now that you have an idea of the content your team will be publishing, it’s time to document the contexts in which it will appear. In this exercise, start by writing down everywhere your content may appear to your audience. This document will likely include publishing destinations like the web, mobile apps, digital signage, social media, ads, mailing lists, voice UI, podcasts, etc., and it may also include subcontexts if there are important distinctions that affect content production for any given context, such as differently sized mobile devices, accessibility tools, and the variety of social media experiences. Contexts can become overwhelming very quickly; they include how content is presented through any device and how and when individuals interact with it, like in the morning or while driving. Because of this reality, the goal of this step is not to exhaustively list every possible context you can think of. Instead, focus on the contexts you can directly control that require significant differences in content assembly. For example, it might make sense for your list to include individual contexts for Twitter and Facebook because you actively craft different and unique content for each platform. But it may not be important for you to list iOS and Android as different contexts for your mobile website if the same technologies and content power both experiences. Referencing your content inventory, note which content appears in which contexts. While it’s common that most content appears in some fashion across each context, that’s not always the case. A voice UI app may read a blog post to your users, but the context doesn’t allow for images. Similarly, you may post blog entries that feature products to your social media accounts but opt not to post actual product page content on its own. The important insight to gather at this phase is the variety of contexts in which your content appears. This is important because content needs to be optimized for its context. For instance, the same blog hero image may appear across multiple contexts, but it may require different sizes when presented in each context to provide the best experience. It is a fundamental necessity to understand the content moving through your DXP to this level of detail. By having a firm grasp on your content’s components and the variety of contexts in which your users experience that content, you will be well equipped to design efficient systems and processes to create and publish that content. 3. Walk a mile Human-Centered Design (HCD or “design thinking”) is a powerful philosophy and rich set of tools that can empower any digital or technology team. One such tool is called a “walk-a-mile immersion”, which is the simple process of walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. Envision an assembly line where every step contributes some value to the end result of your content being published in a variety of contexts. The assembly line has stations where certain processes are performed by your team as components are created, put together, and modified before final delivery. In this step, you talk to each team involved in creating, editing and managing each content component. You get to know the systems in use, the scope of their functionality, and how the individuals on your team use the tools. If you are creating a new DXP or building a new team, then envisioning and jotting down hypothetical teams and content handoffs can work just as well. The goal of this step is to document each of the key steps and tools used along the path of creating your content, from ideation to publication. For example, if you maintain an inventory database, a DAM, a CMS, a CRM — or if you use desktop tools or a monolithic system — document all of them along with the nature of the work and effort involved in completing each step to produce your content. If ideation starts on a whiteboard and your content is published in five different places, document the steps, systems and effort required from the beginning to the end. At the conclusion of this step, you should have a clear understanding of your content and its components, the many and varied places your content appears, and the processes and systems your teams leverage to create, edit and publish content. 4. Analyze your assembly line By now, you’ve documented your content and contexts and have a map of the systems and processes required to take your content from ideation to publication. In this step, we analyze the content assembly line to highlight steps with high effort and low added value to set the stage for scalability. Start by looking for duplicative effort and content. For example, if your team has to create multiple different sizes of an image to publish in each of your contexts, or if your team has to perform manual, repetitive tasks that add low value and require significant effort, then these are opportunities for improvement. Look for how upstream ingredients, like product pricing and inventory systems, feed into your CMS and are married to descriptions, images, reviews and more.  In legacy DXPs, many of these steps and processes can occur in one or just a few systems, but modern DXPs will typically have various systems, allowing for specialized focus by team members at discrete touch points along the content assembly line. Identify steps and processes where teams typically report being blocked by other teams. Any team or process blocked by another team or a previous step in the assembly line often indicates that optimization is needed upstream. If the content publishers in the final step of your publishing process are always waiting or having multiple conversations for images to be resized, for instance, this step of the process is a potential opportunity for improvement.  Once you highlight areas with high effort, or “friction”, shift your focus to steps and processes that are efficient. For example, if you have a backlog of ideas that are waiting to be realized into articles or a backlog of products in need of descriptions, these surpluses likely indicate high efficiencies at these steps, which means other steps and processes could potentially improve to meet these efficiencies. At the conclusion of this step, you should have a clear picture of the end-to-end assembly line for creating and publishing your digital content, including all elements, assets, texts, metadata and other media coming together for final publication in each given context. You should clearly see each individual system used for each step in the assembly line, as well as every human process and general level of effort required along the way for a piece of content to be published.  For e-commerce DX, this might mean understanding the processes in the back-of-house where pricing and inventory levels are kept up to date, combining in a subsequent step to add ancillary product metadata and media, being checked in a following step for accuracy and legal compliance, and finally being deployed to a live site, where it is cached on a CDN for low latency access. For a media organization, your assembly line may instead start with ideation in a Trello board, followed by an outline, and then a draft, and finally combined with image assets and published in a CMS that feeds into a newsreader app.  The number of potential combinations of steps in creating an assembly line is virtually limitless, and at this time there is no single right way to structure these systems and processes. Though, as you may now be able to see in your assembly line, the number of wrong ways to do it is also myriad. 5. Strategies for scale Honing in on your digital experience assembly line and locating areas for improvement is enlightening, but without instituting real and intentional change, the friction remains. Now that we know where lie the strengths and weaknesses in our existing processes, how do we prioritize and implement changes that scale? If you’ve successfully completed each previous step, you should be able to readily identify two or three places in your assembly line that clearly stand out as higher effort or higher cost of input than other steps in your publishing workflow. In some cases, friction is expected, such as in the actual writing of articles or sending teams out in the field to gather photos or raw audio that must be edited by hand. In other cases, you may identify a step in the process that always seems to be blocked, such as a publishing team waiting on transcripts, translations, file format changes, image resizes, SEO metadata, and so on. Begin by prioritizing repetitive tasks. Any high volume of repetitions performed by a human often indicates that there is a more optimal process available. Examine the systems used at this step and determine if they provide the most up-to-date tools to perform these operations. For instance, many DAM and CMS solutions automatically resize images and store them in multiple formats optimized for various contexts. There are also very good tools that automatically transcribe audio and translate text into almost any language, which could significantly reduce these high-touch steps in your assembly line.  Optimizing your assembly line for scale will typically involve a combination of reorganizing processes and workflows to improve the pace of handoffs from one step to the next, along with updates to the core technologies your team uses to realize your digital experience. Composable DXPs are on the rise In recent years, there has been a trend toward composability, wherein digital teams are looking deeper into their publishing workflows in order to combine the best set of tools for each step of the process.  Composing a DXP is the opposite of purchasing one single off-the-shelf system. When you adopt a composable approach, you accept the reality that your business needs are unique, and it’s unrealistic to expect one or two products alone to offer everything your team needs exactly how you need it, given the variety of content and contexts your digital experience can take on.  The most essential need for the systems that make up your DXP is interoperability, which is often referred to as “API-first”. Application Program Interfaces (APIs) allow systems to talk to one another and share information in a safe and secure manner. For your business, this unlocks the possibility of automating hand-offs and removing blocks where content components are manually delivered to the next team for assembly. Webhooks and automation tools leverage APIs and are extremely handy to let you remove rote human-powered processes and exchange them for more efficient machine-driven processes.  Headless CMS is another popular solution, which focuses the content management in a single-purpose powerful solution designed for managing and shipping your content to virtually any context without needing to make any changes to your core systems — you simply deploy a new app, website or other technology that safely consumes content via your APIs. Where you find one single product doing most of the work in your assembly line, chances are that there is high friction between it and any adjoining steps in your publishing workflow. These systems also sometimes lead to siloed teams and ivory tower cultural friction between those with access to the monolith and those without access.  Benefits of composable solutions By replacing a monolith with a multi-product platform with focused independent interconnected tools or a variety of API-connected solutions that focus on doing one or just a few things extremely efficiently, you hedge against siloing and begin to move in the direction of more streamlined processes.  Moreover, many composable solutions are extendable, meaning that you can integrate them with other systems in a few clicks or lines of code. And if one solution becomes too costly or fails to unlock the efficiencies you are looking to gain, then it can be relatively easily replaced without the need for a wholesale migration or hugely disruptive technology change. What’s next? Unlock the scale of your DXP When you complete this step, you ought to finally have the complete picture of your end-to-end digital assembly line, along with each system, team and process that must work in concert to create and deliver your digital content across your chosen contexts. From this vantage point, you can easily identify where scale is blocked and where it is already well established, as well as which areas stand out as the highest priority to optimize first. You will be ready to begin taking action to unlock the scale of your DXP. In part three, we will cover the only question left to answer: Why should you scale? Stay tuned! To read part one, click here.