Customer experience management system Sitecore has announced at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention the availability of Sitecore Commerce 8 powered by Microsoft Dynamics.
Integrating the leading experience management capabilities of the Sitecore Experience Platform with the omni-channel commerce capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics for Retail, the solution enables enterprises to bridge the gap between in-store and digital experiences.
One year ago, Sitecore and Microsoft announced they would collaborate on an offering to bring the best of experience marketing and commerce together. Today, that vision has been realised, with the release of Sitecore Commerce 8 powered by Microsoft Dynamics.
Over the past 12 months, Sitecore and Microsoft have developed the product together and co-designed its architecture to capitalise on the strengths of both Sitecore and Microsoft Dynamics. The combined solution allows businesses to create seamlessly connected customer experiences optimised for visitors’ digital behaviours, devices and preferences, complete with real-time order management across any channel.
“We’ve been pleased with Sitecore’s rich experience management capability,” said Robert White, chief information officer, Ashley Furniture. “We look forward to leveraging the integrated and sophisticated online and offline commerce features offered by this new solution to connect the dots between ecommerce and in-store transactions.”
“Businesses, until now, haven’t had a unified way to connect the customer experience between the worlds of online and brick-and-mortar,” said Darren Guarnaccia, chief strategy officer, Sitecore. “This partnership fills a real customer need by marrying the expertise and technology of two trusted global enterprise solutions. You can expect to hear more about the success of significant implementations over the coming months.”
The new solution further diversifies Sitecore’s commerce offering. The release offers significant opportunities for customers with a retail presence to aggregate their content across all sales channels, particularly for those customers already using or evaluating Microsoft Dynamics for Retail.
“Retailers want to create a connected experience as they look to extend engagement beyond point-of-sale,” said Ashvin Mathew, general manager, commerce & retail solutions, Microsoft. “The new solution combines the rich commerce capabilities of Dynamics with Sitecore’s experience platform and represents a significant step in our partnership and commitment to deliver innovative and personalised solutions for our mutual customers.”
Key features include:
- Shared Services Between Online and Brick-and-Mortar: All aspects of order capture (e.g. pricing, tax, discounts) are shared between digital and brick and mortar channels, supporting a consistent experience regardless of channel.
- Additional Omni-Channel Capabilities: Microsoft Dynamics’s comprehensive features in the areas of loyalty programs; store location with real-time inventory; buy online, pickup in store; order management, including returns; customer service and call center are all enabled in digital experiences built using Sitecore.
- Synchronisation and Publishing: Synchronisation service to aggregate catalog data from Dynamics and Sitecore’s Commerce Catalog to facilitate very high traffic digital experiences.
- Storefront Solutions: Support for multiple storefronts representing different countries and legal entities in the same deployment. A reference storefront is provided to accelerate customer deployments.
