Adobe Summit 2023 & Shoptalk 2023: Highlights and Insights

March 2023 has been a month full of activities and inspiration, with Adobe Summit 2023 and Shoptalk gathering thousands of top ecommerce experts and keynote speakers.

I had the privilege to attend them both and take a razor-sharp focus on connected customer experience (CX) with the industry leaders. Although each of them had a relatively different focus, there were quite a few topics running as a red thread through both conferences.

Here’s my recap of top themes discussed at both tradeshows that will help you stay at the forefront of ecommerce trends.

Composable commerce

Most ecommerce platforms, even those that have historically been viewed as monoliths, pave their way to composable architecture. Organizations like the MACH Alliance headed by commercetools are only adding to the popularity of the concept.

Unlike traditional digital experience platforms (DXPs), the composable ones combine best-of-breed technologies to offer more flexibility for developing CXs:?

• No more unnecessary out-of-the-box tools that make website management way too complex.?
• Reduced expenses on platform maintenance, cutting the costs of software customization and integration.
• Plug-and-play architecture that allows you to experiment with your ecommerce software and adds to the agility of your business.

Composable addresses the challenges of DXPs quite successfully. More and more retailers will keep investing in it, making the rest of the platforms pivot and reinvent their current tech offerings.

Customer experience (CX)

CX is more than just UX; it’s about the details that make a loyal customer. To make these details stand out, you need to collect data, analyze customer behavior, improve CX on both desktop and mobile, optimize the delivery experience, etc.

Take Under Armour digital fitting rooms, for example. The brand ran user testing sessions and discovered that customers with positive fitting room experiences were 7 times more likely to purchase items. Given that most buying decisions are made in fitting rooms, Under Armour enhanced their in-store experiences in North America and China with installed displays with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in the fitting room that detect what product the customer has brought into the room. The interface allows shoppers to change the lighting in the room and request new sizes or colors without actually leaving the floor.?

A single detail may affect one’s purchasing decision, hence, your sales. That’s why you can’t go for it without detailed customer mapping and data analysis.

Personalization at scale

Have you ever realized that we personalize our conversations when talking to different people? Or that an in-store staff teammate tailors their consultation to each specific customer based on their request, taste, or body type? It’s time to make it real for online retail.

In ecommerce, personalization might work in?

• product search: based on the user’s prior search queries in the same store;
• product selection and categories: product categories are re-ordered according to your shoppers’ preferences;
• product bundles: personalized recommendations based on the algorithm “people who bought X also bought Y”;
• dynamic content: UI, landing pages, calls-to-action, pop-ups, etc. are tailored to different user categories.

Adobe Summit 2023 introduced a new concept of personalization at scale whereby CX is personalized at every customer touchpoint based on immediate context and previously observed behavior. That, of course, calls for more sophisticated technologies (see composable commerce above) and approaches (like omnichannel).

Products

I can chatter a lot about the new ways to display products and believe this section deserves a separate discussion. Web3 plays an integral role in pushing the boundaries of ecommerce, with 3D product modeling, augmented reality, virtual fitting rooms, and even same-day delivery gaining momentum.?

At Shoptalk, the co-CEO of PACSUN shared his insights on the challenges and successes of their metaverse experiments last year. Their PacSun Los Angeles Tycoon game targeting Gen Z shoppers has generated 4.8 million users and keeps growing.

Social commerce

Ecommerce has been a big storyline at both conferences, but emerging sales channels transform the concept as such. Since 2020, social commerce has doubled its growth and brought about retail media networks that eventually drive profitability. It’s also a great way to gain access to first-party customer data, which brings extra value to marketers and sales reps.

Platform competition

Choosing an ecommerce platform has always been a tough call. In the past, it was all about the out-of-the-box feature suites that each platform offered.?

But now, as vendor competition heats up, choosing the best is more about the platform’s ecosystem that allows retailers to innovate ecommerce experiences and scale one’s business. That’s why Adobe unveils new generative AI services, personalization, content management product analytics, and more across Adobe Experience Cloud.

People and networking

Last but least, the actual value of both Adobe Summit and Shoptalk 2023 was the people. Imagine getting quality content and invaluable insights from thought leaders and fantastic industry experts, and multiplying it by 10.000+ conference visitors in a single venue. Getting a chance to talk to them and network is worth flying thousands of miles.

Connecting the dots: how do we create a synergy of all the aforementioned trends and insights? That’s right, add more networking opportunities, which is exactly what the conference organizers did. A network of thought leaders is moving the whole industry forward, and I can’t wait to continue our conversations beyond the event.

Like it, share it, and comment below if you’ve heard something more at the events I haven’t shared. And see you at Shoptalk Europe in Barcelona in only five weeks!