Global Businesses Look to Become More Adaptive in 2022 Amid Heightened Digital Experience Expectations

LONDON, UK, November 17, 2021 -- Leading digital experience platform provider, Optimizely, today announced the results of a new global study, revealing that despite brands’ progress and desire to deliver adaptive digital experiences (DX), they continue to face barriers causing them to fall short of consumers’ rising expectations.

Examining precisely where brands and consumers are at today in terms of their digital maturity and expectations for DX, Optimizely surveyed 1,177 business executives across eCommerce, marketing and IT functions in addition to 5,000 consumers based in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Sweden.

According to the survey, 91% of business executives have taken steps over the past year to improve customer experiences, including 84% doing more experimentation than ever during the pandemic – using this time to test and iterate to see what worked and what didn’t.

And while nine in 10 respondents believes their company must be able to adapt — quickly and at scale — to drive value for their customers, under a half (46%) say they are currently adaptive today. Even more, 78% of consumers say brands need to do a better job at adapting to meet the needs of the current moment.

Underscoring this disconnect between brands’ aspirations and intent versus the DX they currently deliver, 70% of business executives admit that they cannot optimize as quickly as they would like and nearly the same amount (72%) reports having difficulty being able to scale efforts that meet global needs.

Ultimately, despite good intentions, organizations face a number of challenges in executing their strategies and achieving objectives, including a lack of customer understanding due to disconnected data and rising expectations from consumers for improved digital experiences.

“As the world has become increasingly digital in nature, brands have been required to adapt,” said Alex Atzberger, CEO of Optimizely. “For those that pivoted with a quick fix for a specific need, that may be enough to survive for now. But, for long-term growth and success, businesses must continually evolve — quickly and at scale — meeting broader market and customer expectations. Truly adaptive businesses are those that understand their customers, run experiments and focus on driving outsized outcomes.”

To view additional survey findings and learn more about how brands can deliver excellent DX amid heightened, evolving customer expectations, download our report, “Becoming an Adaptive, Outcomes-focused Business.”

About the Survey

Optimizely commissioned Regina Corso Consulting to conduct a survey of over 5,000 consumers and 1,177 business executives across eCommerce, marketing and IT functions based in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Sweden. This survey, which was conducted online between August 20 and 29, 2021, explored how businesses and consumers perceive digital experience today, where priorities and challenges lie, as well as the key steps to getting on the path to becoming adaptive, driving outcomes and meeting customer expectations.