Give marketers control over the customer experience

In the course of the 2000s, online commerce picked up speed significantly - initially in the B2C sector and later also in the B2B sector. According to a representative survey by the digital network Initiative D21, 55% of German citizens used the internet in 2005, rising to 72% in 2010. In view of the rapidly growing number of websites, systems were needed to manage all the information and data efficiently. The first generation of web content management and e-commerce platforms was born. After a few years, they had already reached their limits: Control over these systems lay entirely with the IT department. Marketers and merchandisers had to send a request to the developers every time they wanted to edit or create new web content - this was inefficient and unsatisfactory for both sides.

New technologies demand flexibility

The software manufacturers responded with the monolithic suite approach. This included content management functionalities with which anyone could design websites without any major training. Around 2010, the World Wide Web reached a new stage of evolution: mobile devices, apps and video content were the new favorites of Internet users and competed with traditional websites. Since then, new technologies have been appearing all the time to create an even better digital experience. Whether it's responsive design, chatbots, virtual reality or digital voice assistants - the list is constantly growing. And that's not all: the topic of personalization is also becoming increasingly important. The aim is to present customers with the individual information and offers that are relevant to them right away. Keeping pace here is increasingly becoming a feat of strength with a monolithic e-commerce suite. Integrating new sales channels and technologies demands a great deal of integration effort from the developers every time - and it is not uncommon for the marketing team to realize afterwards that the universally acclaimed hot trend is not really captivating their own target groups. Agile is different.

Customer experience as a knockout criterion

So should companies conclude, "I'm not interested in trends - my customers can find me on the website and on Facebook, that's enough"? In today's digital world with its enormous pace of change, customer experience is becoming a decisive competitive factor. Millennials, who already make up more than 20 percent of all German private households in 2020 according to GfK, take a smooth digital user experience for granted. For example, this generation expects good customer service based on modern technologies. This applies all the more to the following "Generation Z" - people born between 1995 and 2012. According to a survey conducted by Adobe among members of this age group in Europe, 69 percent have no problem sharing their personal data with companies for the benefit of a better customer experience. This clearly shows that no, it is not an option to close yourself off to new developments.

Why the IT department must relinquish control

If monolithic e-commerce systems are too cumbersome, what is needed? Providing companies with the necessary flexibility is the aim of the so-called headless approach: in a headless commerce system, the front end (the "head") is only loosely connected to the IT back end via an interface and can be designed independently of it. Thanks to the API structure, it is easy for developers to quickly integrate new touchpoints and end devices. That's right, the developers. The marketing team is left out of the loop with a pure headless approach. However, there is no way around marketers and merchandisers emancipating themselves from IT. After all, they are the ones - together with the service department - who are closest to the customers, their ideas and needs. And they are also the ones who have to have their own performance measured by key figures. Companies should therefore place extensive control over the digital experience in the hands of the marketing team.

Sensible working basis for both sides

A head-optional approach - as a logical development of the headless principle - enables precisely this: the API-based architecture allows user-friendly tools for front-end design to be connected, which are also easy to use for business users. This provides marketing teams with all the functionalities they need to implement consistent, personalized and inspiring customer experiences independently. Content editing and preview modes, personalization options, promotion of search results and product categories, A/B testing and analytics are just some of them. In addition, marketers gain a solid data basis on which they can build their customer-centric activities, because: All user information and interactions from all channels flow together centrally in a single backend. On the other hand, IT developers also benefit from such a system because they can focus on the big picture and are no longer constantly interrupted by "Can you quickly adapt the landing page for me?" requests from marketing. The fact that chatbots, digital voice assistants and the like can be flexibly integrated also makes IT staff's work easier.

Conclusion

The speed at which companies need to implement innovative and personalized user experiences has never been as high as it is today. At the same time, the amount of data is growing immeasurably, which is why it is important to channel the data sensibly and make it strategically usable. Anyone who wants to continue to be successful under these circumstances must take one thing into account: You need an IT architecture that places control of the customer experience in the hands of the marketing team - while the development team retains sovereignty over the backend structures without having to deal with day-to-day front-end design issues. So everyone does what they do best.