A digital experience platform (DXP) is software that helps businesses deliver outstanding digital experiences across all customer touchpoints. As consumer expectations evolve, DXPs empower companies to gain deep insights into customer behavior and craft personalized engagements that foster loyalty and satisfaction.
The demand for DXPs is skyrocketing as organizations aim to provide consistent, relevant experiences across websites, mobile apps, social media, and other channels. DXPs consolidate all digital touchpoints into one managed ecosystem to enhance understanding and optimization.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explain what DXPs are, their key benefits, and provide an in-depth look at 10 top platforms to consider in 2023.
What is a Digital Experience Platform?
A digital experience platform is an integrated software solution to:
- Create, manage and optimize digital experiences across channels
- Understand customers through data collection and analytics
- Deliver personalized content based on interests, behaviors and preferences
- Connect backend systems and merge data sources into one view
- Accelerate digital transformation initiatives
DXPs combine capabilities for content management, commerce, customer data, analytics, personalization, and more onto one centralized platform. This consolidates the entire digital customer journey into one place for streamlined optimization.
Key capabilities of DXPs include:
Content Management: Intuitive tools to produce, organize and publish content across channels. This maintains brand consistency and allows seamless editing.
Customer Data Platform: Collects data from all sources and creates a unified customer profile. This enables personalization at scale.
Analytics: Analyzes interactions and activities to glean actionable insights. This drives data-based decisions.
Personalization: Tailors content and experiences to individual interests and needs. This makes customers feel valued.
Omnichannel Delivery: Manages digital presence across all touchpoints including web, mobile, social, in-store kiosks, etc.
Integration: Connects easily with existing martech stacks through flexible APIs. This avoids siloed data issues.
With these robust features, DXPs aim to help brands better understand, engage and convert customers across the entire digital customer lifecycle.
Types of DXPs
There are two primary types of digital experience platforms:
Open DXP
Open DXPs allow you to integrate different products from various vendors into one centralized system. This provides the flexibility to connect your preferred tools and technologies. Open DXPs can work with external CRM systems, analytics programs, automation software and more. You can mix and match components to meet your unique needs.
Closed DXP
Closed DXPs come with all products built into the platform by the provider. No need to integrate third-party tools, as all components are pre-packaged. However, closed DXPs can still connect with external tools if required. Closed options provide seamless interoperability between baked-in modules.
Most companies prefer open DXPs for greater flexibility and freedom to customize. But closed DXPs offer simplicity for those lacking integration resources.
Benefits of Using a DXP
Let‘s explore some of the top advantages of implementing a digital experience platform:
1. Data-Driven Decisions
DXPs allow you to gather customer data from all channels and teams into a centralized location. This may include information from content departments, sales teams, service agents and more.
Advanced analytics and business intelligence features generate actionable insights from the unified data. This empowers data-driven strategies, better marketing campaigns, optimized customer journeys and superior content creation.
2. Omnichannel Personalization
With a consolidated view of each customer, DXPs can power personalized messaging across all digital touchpoints. This includes websites, mobile apps, portals, kiosks, wearables and more.
Personalized content tailored to individual interests and needs enhances satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Consistent Branding
DXPs equip marketing teams with intuitive content authoring and management tools. This allows quick editing and publishing while maintaining brand voice, tone and messaging.
Centralized branding, messaging and asset management streamlines cross-channel content deployment. This ensures consistency across digital properties.
4. Agile Content
Headless architecture and APIs allow DXPs to deliver content to any frontend presentation layer. This omnichannel content delivery empowers agile adjustments based on audience, context and goals.
APIs also enable seamless integrations with surrounding martech stacks. This avoids siloed data issues.
5. Improved Workflows
Collaborative features streamline workflows between content producers, developers and designers. All teams can access centralized assets and data sources to work efficiently under one roof.
Automation capabilities also help accelerate processes and reduce dependence on IT resources. This results in faster time-to-market.
6. Enhanced Scalability
DXPs built on microservices and cloud infrastructure provide reliability and elastic scalability. The platform smoothly scales up or down to accommodate changes in traffic and demand.
This foundation ensures consistent uptime and performance as audience size and digital touchpoints expand.
With these significant advantages, implementing a capable DXP solution can profoundly impact customer experiences, brand growth and business agility. Let‘s look at 10 top digital experience platform options for 2023.
10 Best DXP Platforms for 2023
1. Bloomreach (Brilliance)
Bloomreach is a leading enterprise-level DXP that enables businesses to deliver personalized omnichannel content and commerce experiences.
It features powerful discovery and merchandising tools leveraging AI and ML technology. This allows brands to match customers with relevant products and recommendations.
Bloomreach also provides in-depth analytics on customer behavior and journeys to optimize engagements. The flexible API-based architecture integrates with any commerce solution.
Globally recognized companies like Neiman Marcus, TD Bank, and Dollar Shave Club use Bloomreach to drive digital experiences.
2. Sitecore
Sitecore is a robust, enterprise-scale DXP providing powerful analytics, automation, personalization and omnichannel content delivery.
It offers complete profiling of customer interactions across channels to inform personalized messaging and journeys. AI optimizers and built-in testing tools enable the creation of high-converting experiences.
The scalable SaaS or on-premise deployment empowers content management across global digital properties. Sitecore is trusted by major brands like Microsoft, Nestle, and Volkswagen.
3. Liferay
Liferay DXP enables businesses to build customized digital experiences that boost engagement and self-service.
It offers integrated portals for employees, customers, and partners featuring personalized content, streamlined workflows, and collaboration features.
Liferay is highly extensible and integrates with surrounding martech stacks. Deployment options include cloud, on-premise or hybrid.
Customers include Allianz, Cisco, AT&T, Airbus, and the United Nations.
4. Optimizely
Optimizely‘s DXP provides experimentation and personalization capabilities to optimize digital experiences.
Sophisticated AI learns from customer behaviors and tests content variations to deliver the most relevant experiences. Integration with data platforms like Snowflake enables real-time personalization.
Optimizely acquired Zaius adding a customer data platform for unified profiles. Leading brands like Microsoft, Forbes, and IBM leverage Optimizely to fine-tune engagements.
5. Adobe Experience Manager
Part of Adobe Experience Cloud, AEM offers an end-to-end DXP to manage experiences across the entire customer lifecycle.
It empowers teams to design, organize, preview, and publish content to any channel or device. Integration with Adobe Analytics and Audience Manager allows data-driven personalization.
AEM has a track record enhancing customer experiences for major companies like Audi, Philips, and Church & Dwight.
6. Acquia
Acquia provides an open digital experience platform built on Drupal. It combines content management, personalization, integrated marketing, commerce, and analytics.
Acquia leverages the flexibility of Drupal while adding capabilities for omnichannel delivery, journey orchestration, and customer data management.
Customers include Warner Media, Fitbit, Australian Open and Charles Schwab.
7. BloomReach (Hippo)
In addition to Brilliance, BloomReach offers the Hippo DXP focused on agile, headless content delivery using Java and open-source technology.
It decouples content from presentation to publish across channels. Hippo enables enterprise-scale personalization with a fully integrated customer data platform.
Customers like IKEA, Intercontinental Hotels, and Donaldson take advantage of BloomReach‘s secure, scalable architecture.
8. Jahia
Jahia offers an open-source, Java-based DXP focused on interoperability and extensibility.
It combines content management, commerce, and portal capabilities alongside tools for mobile app development, search, reporting, and more.
Jahia complements surrounding martech stacks for organizations like NASA,intypes Museum, and Canadian Tire.
9. CoreMedia
CoreMedia provides an API-driven, headless DXP combining content, commerce and marketing systems on one integrated platform.
It focuses on development of contextual digital experiences across omnichannel customer touchpoints. Real-time personalization responds to individual behaviors and preferences.
Luxury retailers like Deckers Brands and Crabtree & Evelyn use CoreMedia to support innovative customer experiences.
10. Contentstack
Contentstack enables omnichannel content delivery with enterprise scalability and containerized architecture.
It decouples content from presentation layers for greater flexibility across digital properties. Contentstack integrates tightly with common martech stacks.
Leading companies like Chase, BASF, and Peloton are among Contentstack users optimizing content velocity.
Key Takeaways
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DXPs help companies gain customer insights to craft personalized engagements across digital touchpoints. This drives loyalty and satisfaction.
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Core capabilities include content, commerce, customer data, analytics and omnichannel delivery features.
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Open vs closed architectures provide integration flexibility vs out-of-box interoperability.
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DXP benefits include data centralization, personalized experiences, workflow improvements and scalability.
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Leading solutions include Bloomreach, Sitecore, Liferay, Optimizely, Adobe, Acquia, Jahia, CoreMedia and Contentstack.
Conclusion
As consumers increasingly expect seamless, consistent brand interactions, DXPs provide the tools to make that achievable. Consolidating data and systems onto a centralized platform is instrumental in understanding customers and serving their needs across channels.
Implementing a robust digital experience platform solution can profoundly impact a brand‘s ability to engage audiences and drive business success through optimized customer journeys. The DXPs featured above represent some of the top enterprise-ready options capable of supporting transformation initiatives.
