5 Digital Experience Platform Trends Business Leaders Should Know

**Today, consumers expect flawless online experiences — both in terms of aesthetics and underlying technology. As a result, IT leaders are consistently looking for ways to streamline integrating and optimizing their tech to drive more engagement. They want to make sure their businesses can meet customers wherever they are in their journey — without breaking the bank. These challenges suggest why the Digital Experience Platform (DXP) market is growing quickly. A composable DXP consists of several core solutions – typically from varying vendors – that integrate with each other and encourage the creation, management, and delivery of highly engaging digital experiences. In simpler language, DXPs play a critical role in today's digital-driven landscape, helping organizations manage both existing and new tech to more easily deliver better online customer experiences. Architecting a composable DXP allows organizations to select best-of-breed technology while remaining agile to shift with evolving consumer needs. But new vendors and technologies emerge every day, disrupting the DXP space. So: what trends should you know about in order to make sure your DXP is truly keeping up with what customers expect? The five key trends

1. The "SaaSification" of platforms The first trend you should be aware of in the DXP space is the "SaaSification" of platforms. Enterprises are only starting to embrace composability, but a prerequisite for that is having a cloud-native architecture. "SaaSification" involves taking existing software platforms that were traditionally sold as on-premise solutions and reimagining them as cloud-based services. The benefits of this approach include:

• Faster deployment times and updates. Without SaaS, upgrades and innovation of any kind become very challenging
• Higher accessibility to users, regardless of their physical location
• Optimal performance
• Lower upfront costs, since users subscribe to services and pay regular subscription fees
• Better collaboration among users, and integrations with other software that allows you to create custom workflows Currently, B2B vendors are trying to "take apart" monolithic platforms and"SaaSify" them — because who doesn't want to be more manageable and agile? To do that, though, they need to modernize their entire cloud infrastructure. That's proving to be a huge challenge for most monolithic vendors.

1. The end of the third-party cookie era Much has been made of the "decline of the cookie" — but for good reason. With Google and Apple removing the ability for brands to use third-party cookies to track consumers across sites, businesses need new methods for meeting customers' expectations for personalization and relevance. They need a single view of the customer across their entire journey, and to be able to activate this data on all paid and owned channels. As a result, your business needs a tech architecture that allows you to meet customers across all first and third-party touchpoints in the post-cookie era. A composable DXP enables you to maximize first-party data in particular to ensure that you maintain a deep understanding of your customers without needing external tracking mechanisms.
2. Integrations with Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) This is closely tied to the previous trend. Because businesses want a unified view of the customer throughout their journey, there's a strong push towards integrating CDPs within a business's broader digital experience platform — whether it is built in-house natively or provided via another vendor. A CDP is a specialized software platform that collects, centralizes, and organizes customer data from various sources to create comprehensive customer profiles. (If you're unfamiliar with the term, CDPs allow you to map out the customer journey based on actual data, helping you identify pain points, opportunities for improvement, and areas where personalized interactions can make a difference.) With increasing concerns about data privacy and regulations like GDPR and CCPA, integrating with a CDP can help you manage customer data more responsibly and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. Take a look at your CDP and see if it can be integrated with your existing digital experience solutions.
3. The rise of copilots AI "copilots" will soon exist everywhere, and if you aren't using them or building them, you'll miss the opportunity to participate in an emerging sub-economy. Copilots broadly refer to advanced AI-driven tools, automation platforms, or intelligent assistants that help businesses with decision-making, data analysis, or other tasks. These tools can range from virtual assistants (like chatbots) that aid in customer service or data processing, to AI assistants that help programmers write code. Start to think about how this copilot concept will change aspects of your business. In terms of bringing online experiences to life, you'll soon be able to tell a copilot to build an entire website for you, complete specifics on text, imagery, third-party integrations, and more.
4. Front-end-as-a-Service (FEaaS) "Front End as a Service" (FEaaS) refers to the concept of outsourcing or using a third-party service to handle the development, deployment, and management of the front-end components of a software application. (The front end of a software application is the user interface that users interact with directly, and includes elements such as the user interface design and client-side functionality.) Headless CMS vendors give you the best opportunity to build custom experiences, since the backend is decoupled from the frontend. As a result of this, though, FEaaS vendors are sprouting up to integrate and provide pre-built UI components and frameworks that accelerate the development and launch of online experiences. FEaaS provide greater flexibility and customization options for businesses using a headless CMS — and using one is a must for a truly custom, composable approach. If we can toot our own horn for a moment: this is where Yext shines. By fully integrating the three components needed to manage and publish websites – the content where your data is stored, the backend that builds your website, and the frontend deployment layer where your site is hosted – we're uniquely positioned to offer the same performance benefits of a modern web architecture with significantly less resources and setup time. Click here to learn more. Conclusion IT leaders need to be prepared to initiate the "next wave" of online customer experiences. Considering these trends can help: buyers should think about all five in the context of their business needs, existing architectures, and online experiences. Ready to learn more? Check out ourrecent blog on how to wow your customers with better online experiences.**