Amplify24: Content-driven commerce takes centre stage

Content management provider showcases latest developments and growing role in connecting with customers at every stage of their shopping journeys, reports Miya Knights, Retail Technology Publisher

The importance of content in connecting customers to products and the ensuing challenge of producing high-quality, relevant content at scale is only growing, retailers revealed yesterday. 

Digital-only and omnichannel retailers, including the UK’s The Very Group and department store John Lewis, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) based Landmark Group shared their experiences. 

They were on hand to share learnings and emerging best practices with their peers at the customer event of content management system (CMS) provider Amplience.

Amplience also used the first time it had hosted its customers at an event in three years to showcase how its latest developments could support advanced content generation.

Content generation and AI

Jeremy Straker, chief commercial officer, stressed how important content has become in commerce: “Amplience is home to over 700 million assets that we store and serve at lightning speed to your customers.”

He said Amplience customers add some 9 million content-based assets to its platform per month. During the annual peak trading period of Black Friday and Cyber Monday through to Christmas last year, it served 360 billion requests for content or 256,000 per second. 

To meet this demand John Williams, Amplience co-CEO and chief technology officer, introduced new artificial intelligence (AI) driven services and tools, such as Content Studio, to enhance content production at speed and scale, and the concept of content factories to meet demand.

“Inside Content Studio, you can set up your brands and how you want your brand values to translate into your content,” said WIlliams. “Our next development is around content factories.” 

Spotlight on accessibility 

Williams also highlighted developments to generate alternative text to explain image content to the blind and partially sighted. “I'm partially sighted,“ he explained. 

“So, this is really close to my heart, and I'm really proud that we're working on this. Every single image that is uploaded into our system will automatically get alt text if you want this service.”

Muktar Mahama, head of digital product for UK multi-brand online retailer The Very Group, agreed that accessibility was a particularly important consideration for its digital-only offerings. 

He said that accessibility added to the need to develop evermore sophisticated content: “Brands are starting to personalise their entire site experience for new versus existing customers.”

Modernisation and internationalisation

The event also showcased the various stages of CMS maturity of other Amplience customers. Lottie Beadle, John Lewis digital product manager, discussed legacy system challenges. 

Beadle explained the department store retailer was using an outdated CMS that was highly customised and reliant on manual input. “Unfortunately, we have issues with design consistency and responsiveness,” she said.

In moving to Amplience, she added: “The aim is to try and democratise our content creation.” This would help John Lewis translate its store staff’s expertise into updates to its Buying Guides. 

Ashmina Agrawal, head of content for the UAE-based Landmark Group, described the challenges the multi-brand retailer is tackling in internationalising content for multiple markets. 

“In any given year, the number of assets that we produce is over one million,” she said. “We have six brands online that have to be available in English and Arabic, which is very complex.”

Future strategy and AI investment

Agrawal also outlined the Group's strategy to adapt to increased competition. “We already have Shein here from China, and Primark is looking to expand into the region,” she said.

In response, she emphasised a strategic focus on personalisation and relevant customer service, along with the need to manage increasing content demands. 

“We are planning to fill out this whole personalisation piece and to provide relevant customer service,” said Agrawal. “So, we are looking at AI to see how it can help us cope with this.”

RetailTechnology.co.uk was also on hand to speak exclusively to Amplience co-CEO, John Williams, about how his company was addressing these content trends and challenges. Click here to read the exclusive interview.