Sitecore unveils major release of Sitecore Commerce at NRF Big Show

Sitecore brands itself as the global leader in "experience management" software, and has unveiled Version 8.2 of its flagship Sitecore Commerce product at the National Retail Federation (NRF) "Big Show."

The new release aims to combine both content and commerce for a customer-first shopping experience versus transaction-first; also an experience that is easier on the retailer, brand or other merchandiser. With the Sitecore Experience Platform (XP), customer profiles, data, and interactions are securely tracked, managed, and analyzed.

The new release gives merchandisers tools with which to offer a lifelong customer experience, explains Sitecore Director of Product Strategy Nate Barad.

"We call it the ‘customer experience' and yes, you should treat everyone like a customer," he says. "But really, most are prospects. Once you do buy the product, now you're a customer, and that's truly when a customer experience starts. There are an infinite amount of chances to reconnect with customers and solve their needs; are they looking for another product? To remove a stain?"

The company offers a connector for Dynamics CRM, where customer online behavior updates their CRM profiles for more targeted experiences, and for Dynamics AX, where retailers can analyze and personalize online experiences in real time while delivering advanced back-office capabilities (e.g., support for loyalty programs, gift cards, call center management, order management). Sitecore also integrates with SharePoint at the page level, item level, and API level.

"So it's a full Dynamics ecosystem play where every experience is more targeted for the consumer," says Barad. "This makes each experience that we feed into Dynamics about consumers and segments more rich. And on the flipside, anything we're pulling from Dynamics has a rich view of the ...