IBM and Adobe Deliver Best-in-Class Experience-Driven Commerce

Today’s customers don’t talk about online or offline, they live in an always on, connected world. They expect frictionless experiences that contextually adapt to their shopping needs across all channels. The problem is that most shopping sites are not meeting these needs. According to a 2015 Razorfish study, over half of all shoppers agree that online shopping sites need improvement. As customers switch channels, this dissatisfaction increases due to inconsistent experiences, lost context and misaligned capabilities. The proliferation of new touch points such as wearables and interactive store displays further compounds these challenges.

To help companies address these challenges and respond to demanding customers, Adobe is further extending the vision of experience-driven commerce by integrating with IBM Commerce.

“Consumers and buyers expect iconic brand experiences which enable them to interact with a brand across any medium,” says Adam Orentlicher, Director of eCommerce Offerings & Strategy for IBM. “With this new partnership, our most creative clients can leverage the full power of IBM WebSphere Commerce and Adobe Experience Manager as a compelling option to deliver highly personalized, experience-driven commerce.”

Living in an Omnichannel World

Being noticed and differentiating sites in today’s crowded digital world requires high fidelity shopping experiences that bring products to life, or provide rich information to simplify complex procurements scenarios. The integrated solution will empower line of business to create and deliver high fidelity experiences across all digital channels. With the latest version of Adobe Creative Cloud, creative assets are automatically synchronized with Adobe Experience Manager providing a seamless flow from creation to execution for all content, creative and digital assets. This enables marketers to create, manage and deliver powerful shopping experiences without relying on IT.

Continuous Optimization Personalizes Shopper Journeys

Simply supporting omnichannel and responding with the same experience across channels is not enough. The majority of shoppers expect experiences to contextually adapt to their changing needs. In fact, 71% of shoppers agree that personalization makes it easier to find the products thatthey want to buy. The combined solution enables companies to dynamically personalize and adapt experiences as shoppers’ needs change. IBM’s advanced merchandising capabilities personalizes and curates assortments while Adobe Target optimizes the experience in response to real time conditions or changing shopper needs.

Reimagining Commerce

Across all industries, the velocity of change and disruption continues to accelerate in the hypercompetitive commerce arena. KPMG’s CEO study reveals that 90% of CEOs are concerned about being disrupted and the ability of competitors to take business away from them. In response, it is crucial to continuously innovate and evolve business models to maintain strategic advantage. A systematic approach to innovation enables companies to iteratively innovate their brand and omnichannel shopping experiences. The integrated solution was designed with this in mind providing unprecedented agility to innovate and respond to changing shopper preferences and business needs.

Partner Extensions

The Adobe and IBM partner community will extend the capabilities of the integrated solution offering industry-specific accelerators and extensions. For example, in retail, partner extensions will enable companies to respond to unique shopping behaviors seamlessly connecting digital and physical retailing environments.

“Today’s shoppers expect contextually relevant and engaging experiences,” says Gary Schoch, General Manager of Commerce at Rosetta. “Having integrated Adobe Experience Manager and IBM WebSphere Commerce for the past two years, we have seen how powerful these technologies are in enabling content driven commerce. We are excited to be collaborating with Adobe and IBM to extend this solution and help clients rethink how they deliver content and commerce experiences online and in store environments.”

For more information check out Adobe Experience Driven Commerce.