I. In Search of the Perfect (Customer) Relationship In recent business history, perhaps no “holy grail” has been sought longer, or at greater expense, than the perfect customer relationship. In the ideal dyad, a company has deeply prescient knowledge of individual customers’ needs and serves up the ideal products and services to fulfill them, at precisely the right moment. Starting in the 1990s, sparked by statistics such as “companies can boost profits by almost 100 percent by retaining just 5 percent more of their customers,”1 customer-focused organizations focused on perfecting customer relationships through the communication channel that, next to face-to-face commerce, was then the most prevalent: the telephone. They invested billions in customer relationship management (CRM) and call center applications. Technology improves customer relationships — right? Today, with the majority of consumers rating online purchasing as their “overall favorite,” “easiest” and “most, convenient,”23 companies are still looking to build the perfect customer relationship. They depend on sophisticated commerce platforms to maintain fluid customer conversations that cross now-dominant channels including websites, mobile and social platforms, and technologies that bridge online and in-store, such as Quick Response (QR) codes. But that’s not working very well. While commerce applications create profitable experiences when the customer is on the website, they typically require more to keep the conversation going beyond the point of conversion: more systems, more coordination with other departments, more hassle for commerce markters. That typically makes for brief, and far from perfect, customer relationships. Sitecore keeps the conversation flowing Sitecore, the leader in customer engagement solutions, plays an integral role in a large and growing number of commerce environments, globally. The Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) is used by companies for which online and mobile commerce is an essential, and often sole, revenue stream. Sitecore allows these forward-thinking companies to easily marry the most sophisticated capabilities of popular commerce platforms with a world-class content management engine that intuitively determines what information a customer needs, when, and delivers it through the appropriate channel. Unlike any other solution before it, Sitecore CEP enables companies to drive the fluid conversations that drive conversions into first and repeat purchases, fostering the life-long loyalty that is the true hallmark of the perfect customer relationship. This white paper explains how Sitecore adds an essential element of customer engagement to commerce environments, whether they are built on leading commerce platforms such as Magento, Hybris, InsiteCommerce and uCommerce, or created completely with the Sitecore solution set. It concludes with a customer snapshot (easyJet) that illustrates the persuasive effect Sitecore can have in real-world environments — with commensurate revenue impact. II. The New Rules of Customer Engagement In any relationship, engagement — which can be defined as “involvement with, commitment to, and satisfaction with” another person or entity — drives interaction and longevity. In relationships between online commerce firms and their customers, engagement levels intuitively correlate with initial conversions and repeat purchases. Fostering high levels of engagement therefore entails adhering to today’s three new rules of customer engagement — which are, in fact, modern twists on proven strategies that marketers have used for decades. Rule #1: Know Your Customer A “360-degree view of the customer” has been a popular sales concept since the 1990s. It pertains to having access to information about customers’ past, present and future behaviors. Today, because many customer interactions are digital, occurring across multiple channels (including offline and in-store), online commerce marketers benefit from having knowledge of: The past is a meaningful and easily digested view of the individual customer’s history, including purchases, returns, activity on the commerce site and across all channels of interaction: email, mobile and social, as well as QR codes and in-store point of purchase. The present requires intuitively presenting the right information to each customer, in the moment, based on a unique visitor’s “digital body language,” if available, or a new visitor’s “digital fingerprint.” The future: What will the customer need in the future? What are the cross-sell/up-sell opportunities? More than any other factor, engagement is the most accurate predictor of what a customer will do in the future. Personalization: It Starts with a Digital Fingerprint Personalization is one of the key catalysts in maximizing engagement. It allows individual users to be targeted with highly relevant content. The Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform makes personalization a natural and intuitive part of the content production process; with Sitecore CEP marketers can easily configure a wide range of campaign landing pages, emails or other site elements on the commerce site (such as site-wide calls to action, videos, sidebars, etc.) to deliver personalized content. These personalization capabilities start with the moment a visitor arrives on the commerce site; the Sitecore solution immediately catalogs key “digital fingerprint” information, as illustrated, to present relevant information in real-time. [Download PDF to see Image] Rule #2: Content Is (Still) King “Content is king” was the rallying cry from the land-grab days of the early web. In the 15-plus years since then, commerce companies’ core channels of interaction have expanded from just the web to include email, mobile/ tablet and social — not to mention future, yet-to-be-identified devices. As a result, the notion of high-value content is changing; the content must not only be on-target for the customer, but channel-appropriate. It must incorporate information that bridges departments (and enterprise systems) that have been traditionally siloed, such as sales organizations customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) applications, as appropriate. To achieve and maintain maximum engagement, presenting the right content, at the right time, to the right customer, is now a business imperative. Rule #3: Customer Conversations (Can) Last Forever With the shift in purchasing to predominantly digital channels, relationships have followed, making it easier than ever for customers to stay engaged with the companies and brands they love. Consumers want to stay connected, informed, entertained and inspired. But as the conversation skips between the website, mobile devices and tablets, email and social mediums like Facebook and Twitter, and in-store interactions, how can commerce marketers keep up? III. How Engagement Ignites Commerce The Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform uniquely allows commerce marketers to weave individual conversation threads across multiple channels, to the point of purchase decision — and beyond. In doing so, Sitecore helps to sustain high levels of engagement, the key to driving conversions for initial and repeat purchases. [Download PDF to see Image] 1. Sitecore makes customer conversations more relevant To carry on any conversation, the content must be relevant. On a commerce site, to definitively know what engages visitors and what doesn’t, content, design and interaction flows must be tested. Sitecore helps ensure that content engages vistors into conversations with easy testing and refinement. Sitecore CEP allows hypotheses to be readily tested with integrated A/B split and multivariate testing tools. An A/B split test is a simple test of one element with several variations. Variations are defined as the original element tested against n number of variations. Elements can be anything, from a colored spot to a call to action on a button. A multivariate (MV) test entails testing several elements with several variations. For example, on a website with landing pages that result in low engagement, multivariate testing allows elements including headline, picture and call-to-action message to be tests against each other, to see which combination results in the highest engagement. 2. Continued engagement through marketing automation Successful conversations depend on delivering the right message to the customer at the right time, through the appropriate channel. Sitecore CEP provides Engagement Automation functionality that allows commerce marketers to create engagement plans, or process flows, that can be used to nurture interest and get potential buyers purchase-ready. Using Engagement Automation is a straightforward process involving Relevancy Maps and User Journeys. These models interpret visitor intent and behavior into buying cycles. Relevancy Maps and User Journeys then can be synthesized into an Engagement Plan, which can be used by commerce providers in many ways, including lead nurturing, in-store follow-up, QR code activation and other initiatives. The example Engagement Plan below pertains to follow-up after a fictitious camera company’s event to attract new local dealers; it contains scheduled reminders and follow-ups, with an aim of further engaging the event’s attendees. [Download PDF to see Image] In executing Engagement Plans, Sitecore CEP features an integrated Email Campaign Manager that can be used to send out trigger-based emails. These can be initiated by interactions such as specific activity on the commerce site, Facebook “likes,” Twitter hashtags and QR code activations. The statistics generated by these email campaigns, such as open and click-through rates, are automatically captured in the Sitecore Engagement Analytics database. The Email Campaign Manager can also be used to proactively send emails to segmented recipients for more traditional email marketing campaigns. This segmentation can be done within Sitecore or can be based on a customer database that is integrated with Sitecore. 3. Sitecore predicts current intent Beyond digital fingerprints, the Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform helps commerce marketers to read and more fully understand visitor behavior — “digital body language” — and dynamically adapt the site to customers’ needs. Recognizing that commerce site visitors take different paths and have different intents, Sitecore starts with a digital fingerprint and then goes much deeper, analyzing visitors’ digital body language to intensify customer engagement. The Sitecore solution senses visitor needs based on digital body language and adapts the presented information accordingly, a capability Sitecore calls Predictive Personalization. 4. Superior customer interactions through enterprise data integration Many commerce systems deliver rich functionality, but do not readily integrate with enterprise systems. Sitecore CEP, which includes Sitecore Content Management System (CMS), easily connects with any third party enterprise system, such as CRM and SFA, as well as product information management (PIM) and inventory. Sitecore CMS integrates with any database, web service, or other external service with prebuilt connectors, data abstraction layers and out-of-the-box integration capabilities. As a result, commerce providers can easily leverage enterprise data integration to: Share and reuse content: Easily connect to any source and access content as if it were native to Sitecore, eliminating duplication of content and additional manual effort. Enable sales organizations with real-time insight: Sitecore integrates with CRM systems to automatically deliver actionable opportunity data to sales teams — a critical capability in environments where offline pre-sales activity culminates in online transactions. • Reduce developer effort and project risk: Sitecore’s out-of-the-box integration capabilities reduce custom programming, project costs and risk. 5. Maximize the revenue potential of return shoppers Recognizing that content is at the center of both engagement and commerce, Sitecore works seamlessly with top commerce platforms such as Hybris, Magento, InsiteCommerce, uCommerce and others, as well as PIM systems including inRiver and Perfion. Sitecore CEP helps commerce providers using these systems to maximize conversions, marrying Sitecore’s world-class engagement capabilities with the commerce platforms’ functions like discounts, vouchers, wish lists, multiple ship-to addresses and more. Companies that enhance their commerce platform investments with Sitecore can expect to: Deliver value to customers at every step in their journey, whether it takes place on the main commerce website, the mobile site, or any combination of other on- and offline channels. Facilitate discovery and engagement by providing a rich, highly personalized experience during every interaction of the customer conversation. Enhance their brand through the exemplary stewardship evidenced by exceptional customer experiences. [Download PDF to see Image] IV. Strategic Highlights: Sitecore for Commerce Sitecore has two tiers of commerce offerings. First, for companies that already have made large investments in sophisticated commerce platforms, or are considering them, Sitecore E-Commerce Services (SES) puts a new twist on a classic enterprise strategy: SES complements and extends those commerce platforms, extracting significant incremental value at a relatively low cost. Sitecore E-Commerce Services are delivered through an integration layer that is designed to support popular high-end commerce systems. Thus, companies can still use their commerce platforms’ sophisticated features while enhancing their efficacy with the unique capabilities of the Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform, illustrated in Figure 5 below. Alternatively, for companies that have smaller-scale commerce operations, Sitecore E-Commerce Foundation (SEF) is an ideal an all-in-one solution. Sitecore E-Commerce Foundation includes a shopping cart, ordering system, customer management system, product information manager and a promotion system. Both Sitecore E-Commerce Services and Sitecore E-Commerce Foundation include the functionality of the Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform, which comprises four broad functions: Content Management, User Experience, Measurement & Learning, and Engagement. [Download PDF to see Image] A note on architecture Sitecore is architected to meet the needs of marketers, with a structured content approach that separates content from presentation. Specifically, the Sitecore system dynamically creates each page by assembling each piece of ‘data,’ or content, for that page. Content can be text, images, video, tables or other content format. Sitecore’s approach makes it particularly easy for commerce providers to optimize their sites for display on computers, mobile devices and tablets, since content presented on one page can easily be reused and redisplayed across a multitude of devices, as appropriate. Content may also be displayed differently across pages or devices, in any way or combination of ways. Separating content from presentation affords maximum flexibility and scalability, and is essential to quickly capitalize on consumers’ growing appetite for mobile shopping. Sitecore allows commerce providers to achieve a consistent online presence across today’s popular devices, as well as future Internet-enabled devices such as glasses and TVs. V. Sitecore in Action: easyJet Distinctively branded with an energetic shade of orange, easyJet is Europe’s leading airline. It has over 600 routes in 30 countries, more than 200 aircraft, and in 2011 served over 58 million passengers, reaching revenues of £3.8 billion. On the web, easyJet is the number one travel search term in the UK; the website supports 14 languages and attracts visitors from 221 countries. easyJet is passionate about helping its customers by making travel easy and affordable. The company has been relentless in its drive to make easyjet.com simple and straightforward, refining its booking journey to help customers make a flight booking within 30 seconds, or even less on a mobile device. Superior journeys require personalization easyJet began to realize that although the company had made booking quick and simple, it was not able to personalize the booking journey and help customers with relevant content. Prior to implementing Sitecore, the content displayed to any given visitor was either too generic or simply irrelevant — for example, web visitors residing in Liverpool were presented with promotions for flights from Edinburgh. The visitor was left to do all the searching to find the appropriate flight. easyJet, together with partner True Clarity, implemented a Sitecore solution to deliver a personalized home page for every easyJet website visitor. Using search or GeoIP data, Sitecore now dynamically personalizes the easyJet home page for the unique visitor — showing flights from their nearest airport, plus imagery and content that appeal to their previous behaviors. The home page shows live pricing for relevant flights from a local airport; with a click, the visitor can add those flights to their shopping basket Promotions that fill two planes a minute The Sitecore solution is robust, delivering personalized home pages to 2.5 million users at peak during easyJet’s January Sale in 2012. easyJet claims the sale was their best ever, with five sales per second, or the equivalent of filling two planes per minute. Overall, easyJet has enjoyed a significant increase in conversions as a result of website changes and its successful ‘Europe by easyJet’ marketing campaign. Home page personalization has been rolled out to all 19 regional easyJet websites — and easyJet recognizes that personalizing its home page is just the start of exploiting the potential of Sitecore. VI. Summary As the volume of commerce continues to shift to online channels, the Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform gives commerce providers an advantage in following today’s New Rules of Engagement: Rule #1: Know Your Customer: Within Sitecore, gaining a 360-degree view of customer behavior — past, present and future, on- and offline — is now possible, and more important than ever. Rule #2: Content Is (Still) King: In today’s environment, Sitecore allows content to be personalized, informationrich and on-target for each customer, on any communication channel they may chose. Rule #3: Customer Conversations (Can) Last Forever: With consumers now buying more online, relationships have followed. Sitecore makes it easy for customers to stay engaged with the companies and brands they love. The Sitecore Customer Engagement Platform uniquely allows commerce marketers to engage with individual customers, weaving the conversation thread across multiple channels. In doing so, Sitecore helps to sustain high levels of engagement, the key to driving conversions for initial and repeat purchases. Whether you choose Sitecore E-Commerce Services to enhance your company’s investment in a leading commerce platform like Hybris, Magento, InsiteCommerce or uCommerce, or use Sitecore E-Commerce Foundation to build a complete commerce site, you can expect to receive essential benefits. These include the abilities to: Speak with one voice across all of the channels on an individual basis Coordinate the customer journey in an organized fashion Understand the individual visitor and important segments Build lifetime customer engagement, loyalty and value.