This week one of my colleagues and I were fortunate to attend Demandware’s 2016 XChange conference in Hollywood Florida for 4 days of collaboration, learning, and of course networking.
Being in the Retail space, we attend many conferences during the year but this one is consistently my favorite. We choose our partners based on people we want to be aligned with in the market, and Demandware is doing some truly amazing things with customers who adore them. This spirit of success and innovation is something very apparent through interactions and presentations at this show.
So, what makes me excited? Hearing about plans to provide a unified customer experience. This makes me excited as a partner of the retail market, but also as a consumer. It is recognized that siloed call center applications, catalog operations, Ecommerce, mobile, and brick-and-mortar store do not work. Retail is complicated, but when your systems can’t talk to each other or see what each other are doing, your customer can tell. When your data is disparate and not easily accessible, your customers can tell. However, what I also appreciated is the message that this is not all going to come at once. It’s going to take failure and risks in order to get the technology to a place where this is truly achievable. The good news is, Retailers are ready to take these risks, to fail, and fix. If they do not join this wave of innovation they will die and they know that.
As a consumer, what we want could change tomorrow. By making these strides, I feel confident that our customers who partner with Demandware will be ready to meet that consumer and not only have a clear view of who she is, but how she should be communicated with in order to provide the best possible experience. This will be done through innovation to their core product, mimicking the success they see on the digital front, and expanding to Store and Order Management, along with their partners who make their offering complete.
I look forward to hearing from our shared customers as they embark on this journey and change the way that all of us shop. We’ll be there along the way to make sure that as you adapt, the data at the core of your business is fit for purpose. Thanks for having us, Demandware, and we look forward to next year!
To any customers or partners we met, feel free to connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, or drop me an email: Melanie.clark@experian.com.
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