Why Your Digital Commerce Strategy Should Include the 2017 Modern Commerce Experience Event

We all know that customer satisfaction has a strong influence on retaining customers and driving loyalty online. Studies have suggested correlations between brands with higher customer satisfaction ratings achieving higher trends in stock market performance. Other research has estimated that every customer you keep represents at least 3 that you don’t have to attract and that the cost of acquiring a new customer is higher then keeping an existing one.

Digital commerce strategies like having multiple return options, providing loyalty perks and special return shopper promotions, and providing seamless security are all table stakes. A priority in 2017 should be to focus on customer retention and delivering the customer experiences needed to improve loyalty.

The bad news? Digital commerce is getting more difficult.

The once idealistic linear customer journey now looks more like a honeycomb of options with online and offline channels and devices galore and the customer in control of which brands they choose to interact with. Layer in today's hyper-competitive digital commerce market where the average consumer is not increasing their online spend year-over-year, and most ecommerce brands and brick-and-mortar retailers cannot hope to survive without addressing their CX strategy. Not only has the web grown increasingly useful and fluid, but the experiences have evolved to a point where for many brands it seems impossible to predict the way consumers will interact with them.

The good news? You own the customer experience. 

The silver lining in all this is that brands still own the customer experience and they have access to better technology today -- that was once only available to enterprise brands -- to help them gain more customer intelligence, automate personalized experiences, and scale growth.

I believe that in order to drive higher customer satisfaction you need to start upstream and develop an empowered business culture where your ecommerce or digital team has the ability and capability to innovate, strategize and ultimately act on their vision. Without this agile culture it's hard to realize a high performance potential because the team will tend to be more reactive versus proactive as they continue to struggle against internal technology barriers, development bottlenecks and business bureaucracy. This requires investing in modern technology. We all know today's modern cloud commerce technology for example, is not only more advanced, but it's more affordable than ever and therefore more accessible. This also requires investing in education and changing the culture of your business.

This April Oracle will host it's third annual Modern Commerce Experience conference in Las Vegas. This conference is quickly becoming a cornerstone digital commerce event to help executives educate themselves and build high performance brands. If you have a goal in 2017 to keep more customers and implement modern customer experiences that will earn more sales, this is the event for you. Here are 8 reasons why I'm excited for this year's Modern Commerce Experience event as part of Modern Customer Experience 2017:

8 Reasons to Attend Modern Commerce Experience 2017

1. The introduction of innovation talks. I tend to believe that the most valuable information I receive at conferences are the networking chats in-between sessions and at dinners. TED Talks are great for their informational, concise, high energy format. Leveraging this way of presenting, the team is bringing you exciting content from Oracle Commerce Cloud product management, analysts, and your fellow ecommerce peers. It's all designed in a format that trims the formalities and gets to the heart of what successful brands are doing.
2. Hear from industry leaders about the latest digital commerce trends. From the rise of mobile, to the sophistication of the omnichannel experience and the recent innovations in online payments. The breakout sessions will be full with valuable, timely information brands can act on immediately.
3. Learn how to increase customer loyalty. I've touched upon this already. Explore the key components and drivers of customer loyalty in 2017 and beyond.
4. Learn how to amplify and personalize customer experiences through the use of integrated data and analytics. You require trusted data. You should also require this data to be uniform and accessible across all platforms and interfaces. You should also expect automation best practices and begin to understand how to leverage exciting A.I. technology to leapfrog the competition.
5. Know what's next with mobile. Understand how businesses are leveraging mobile experiences to drive increased digital revenues.
6. Get hands-on experience with modern commerce technology. Experience Oracle Commerce Cloud demos like never before. Gain insights into reducing TCO while shifting resources to focus on customer interactions with modern technology.
7. The ever-popular Ask the Experts one-on-one meetings with product experts. Schedule a meeting with an Oracle commerce product expert, and get answers to your burning questions.
8. Go beyond commerce. Commerce may be your most important revenue channel, but you need to also connect marketing, sales and service to really achieve a complete view of your customer. Are you aware that Oracle has the only complete and integrated CX suite in the market? Attend this event to learn more and get hands-on experience with all of Oracle's CX products.

Go beyond digital commerce and think about how you'll drive the company's digital transformation. We'll see you at the event.

The early bird rate of $999 (a $1,000 savings) ends January 22, 2017. If you attended last year, use the code DALM17 for a rate of $899.