With over 10,000 martech vendors to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to start when evaluating omnichannel marketing platforms. So many acronyms. So many variations of the same lines (hello ‘1:1 experiences for your customers’). 

There’s no need to shy away from the fact that yes, there are many similarities within tech platforms these days. But there are also key differentiators. Ultimately, what’s important is making sure you’re not left with the bitter taste of ‘hindsight’ post-selection. So here are 3 non-negotiables for evaluating a CDXP for marketing teams this year.

1. Your vendor’s people should be experts in your industry

When customer data and experience platforms promise growth (and can give examples of where they have delivered for brands like yours before), you know you’re not looking at a self-serve platform. You’re looking at a platform that comes with a partnership to help you unlock revenue growth that scales your business. 

This is great news for your brand. You’ve invested in an extension of your team who are proactively committed to your success.

So it makes sense that because this partnership is so integral to your brand’s growth, you need to evaluate the people in this partnership as if they were joining your own team.

Our CDXP Buyer’s Guide takes you through the criteria you should be looking out for during your ‘People Evaluation’, including how vendors can display key differentiators such as:

• Retail experience
• Outcome- focused advice
• Readily available platform experts
• Investment in your success

2. Your CDXP should drive outcomes that matter to retail

If your proposed CDXP can’t get specific about the benefits it will provide to your team and the overall business, not only will this be a red flag to senior stakeholders in the evaluation process, but ultimately it might show a lack of commitment to your brand’s growth. 

What are the retail marketing outcomes that matter?

• Increased CLV and revenue growth
• Boost in engagement and repeat purchases
• Platform consolidation and decreased tech-spend
• Elevated marketer autonomy
• Improved speed to market
• Simplified data governance and compliance

In today’s market, with email engagement down across the retail industry, your CDXP has to be able to fully cover every channel and for retailers with physical stores, an omnichannel approach is non-negotiable. When teams are tight on resources, speed to market is also a must. Can your future CDXP meet you where your team is at?

3. The direction of the Product Roadmap should directly impact you 

Speak to any Product Manager at a tech company and they’ll tell you, there’s already more than enough work to go around when it comes to product innovation and optimization. Even when their product only serves one industry. There are always sub-verticals to cater for with their separate niches (homeware vs footwear vs fashion for example).

So how do product teams cater to the needs of multiple industries who all use the same product? Banks, insurance companies, publishers to name a few all have different technical needs and a variety of feature requirements. Prioritizing the roadmap in a way that creates a level playing field for industry-specific product innovation can be tricky, and customers will feel this, with the highest-paying customers and verticals, like banking, dominating the roadmap.

This is definitely something to be wary of during your conversations with future vendors. When there’s a laser focus on just one industry, the product naturally develops in a way that is advantageous to each and every customer, not just a select group.

“One major differentiation we’ve seen with Ometria is the focus on retail. The platform has built-in actionability that allows us to drill into retail-specific metrics and take action on our findings.”

Hannah Sinclair, Director of DTC Retention Marketing and CRM at Steve Madden

To dig a bit deeper into these 3 CDXP must-haves, you can download the CDXP Buyer’s Guide to find out everything you need to understand CDXPs, evaluate your options and find the best fit for your brand.