Content And (Unified) Commerce Take Center Stage At Demandware XChange

By Alicia Fiorletta, Senior Editor 

I landed at Newark Liberty Airport about 6 a.m. this morning after attending Demandware’s XChange conference at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas.

Not only do I have two full days of content swirling in my head, but I’m also battling the worst kind of jet lag and lack of sleep that always plagues me when I fly.

But I don’t want to use my sleepiness as a crutch, so here are some fun tidbits and takeaways from the show. (For my sanity and yours, though, I’m going to use a handy-dandy bulleted list, in case I find myself rambling.) 

• Don’t fall into the double-door trap: So for those of you unfamiliar with this term, the “double doors” were outlined in a study Demandware completed with L2. You can check out our coverage of the study here. Basically, in their research, L2 and Demandware discovered that even retailers with the most mature content marketing strategies were still separating their branded/inspirational content and commerce. Although it’s exciting that so many different brands and retailers are prioritizing content marketing, they shouldn’t make consumers choose between these two paths. Instead, they should seamlessly weave content throughout the shopping journey, or even better, make digital content shoppable! 
• Retailers are pushing the limits on their organizational structure: Yes, we’re FINALLY there! (Okay, we’re almost there.) Many of the retailer sessions I attended and interviews I conducted touched on the internal retail infrastructure. How teams have evolved and converged with the rise of omnichannel. For example, all natural bath and body goods retailer LUSH has a team that consists of commerce execs, as well as copywriters, videographers, designers, photographers and a content strategist. Jewelry brand Dogeared has taken a similar approach as a result of its increased focus on content. Recently, Dogeared underwent a rebranding, and the new organizational structure played a pivotal role in executing its new brand image and story consistently across the business. 
• Unified Commerce will soon be a reality: Yes, retailers are moving from omnichannel to Unified Commerce. This concept, from a high level, is the complete integration between e-Commerce, mobile, in-store consumer-facing technology and in-store associate-facing technology. All technology will tout the same features and functionality, and also will enable data sharing across all channels. This will help ensure each team member has the same, central view of each customer, allowing them to deliver better service, campaigns and experiences online and in-store. 
• Personalization needs to be embedded naturally across the customer journey: It’s no longer just about including customer names and past purchases in emails. No, now it’s about getting predictive! During the show, Demandware executives honed in on the need to leverage shopper data to predict their future behaviors and preferences. With these insights, retailers can tailor experiences, messages and offers down to the individual. After all, to truly move the needle with personalization, it now needs to be engrained into the entire customer experience in a subtle and natural way. 
• The cloud promotes agility: I’ll be reporting on some new research L2 conducted with Demandware on the overall impact of the cloud. L2 analyzed its database of retailers, the systems they have in place and their overall profitability and market presence. In order to not give away all the juicy details, I’ll share the one key takeaway: Retailers and brands that have cloud-based systems in place not only have higher shareholder value, their overall market presence is better, they’re more agile and they expand globally faster and more successfully. 
• Wearables are dead: During his keynote presentation, Scott Galloway of L2 argued that the Apple Watch will inevitably kill the wearables market. Because the watch is a natural extension of the iPhone, that will be the key value proposition for consumers. He argues that the smartphone is the most powerful wearable device and that although some people purchase smartwatches, they often end up unused in a drawer. Yeesh.

Phew! That’s a lot, right?

Stay tuned for more coverage from the show!