Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Platforms, Q4 2023
How does Forrester define the Digital Experience Platforms market in 2023?
Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) are no longer single vendor solutions but are assembled by enterprises using composable applications from multiple vendors. The market has shifted toward vendors offering portfolios of composable applications built on unified platforms with shared services, harmonized for the intelligent century powered by generative AI. Vendors now promise DXP plus genAI to deliver brand voice at cloud scale across all touchpoints, with architectures that use data for insights, learn from customer interactions, and evolve experiences over time. The evaluation focuses on 15 providers offering MACH-certified or cloud-native applications that enable creation, orchestration, and optimization of digital experiences through integrated capabilities for content, customer data, transactions, analytics, and automation.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Platforms, Q4 2023 in 2023
- Publication Date: 05-Dec-2023
- Document ID: RES178451
- Summary: In our 24-criterion evaluation of digital experience platform (DXP) providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps tech leader professionals select the right one for their needs.
- Authors: Joe Cicman, Linda Ivy-Rosser, Sara Sjoblom
How did the Digital Experience Platforms market evolve in 2023?
- The generative AI breakthrough of late 2022 sent every vendor scrambling to pivot investments toward what enterprises need for the intelligent century
- DXPs exist, but they're built by enterprises, not bought from vendors - enterprises assemble their own platforms using parts from multiple vendors
- Vendors now offer a new promise: DXP plus genAI equals your brand voice at cloud scale across all touchpoints
- Data is core to the intelligent century - platform architecture must use data for insights, learn from customer interactions, and evolve experiences over time
- Vendors offer portfolios of composable applications that can be bought one at a time and work better together the more you buy from them
- Common capabilities are offered as shared services of underlying platforms that vendors build their applications on top of
- Not all vendors are at the same stage of cloud maturity or maturing their applications to take advantage of their underlying platform
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- An architectural approach to experience delivery. With extensibility and interoperability being core to the platform, these vendors provide APIs and integration frameworks. This integration strategy is supported by a marketplace of third-party connectors, apps, and add-ons.
- Software that enables the creation, orchestration, and optimization of digital experiences. By providing a critical mass of well-integrated capabilities (first or third party) comprising content, customer data, transactions, analytics, and automation, these platforms allow practitioners to actively manage customer engagement across owned and third-party digital channels.
- Enterprise relevance and a track record. Customers and partners confirm that the vendors' products act as a core anchor tenant within the enterprise architecture, and there are enterprise-scale reference customers.
- Mindshare among Forrester's enterprise customers. The vendors we evaluated are frequently mentioned in Forrester client inquiries, shortlists, consulting projects, and case studies.
What are the common features of top products in the Digital Experience Platforms space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Vendors without enterprise-scale reference customers
- Vendors not frequently mentioned in Forrester client inquiries, shortlists, consulting projects, and case studies
- Vendors without APIs and integration frameworks for extensibility and interoperability
- Vendors that cannot demonstrate their products act as core anchor tenants within enterprise architecture
- Vendors without a critical mass of capabilities for content, customer data, transactions, analytics, and automation
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- An architectural approach to experience delivery with extensibility and interoperability being core to the platform, providing APIs and integration frameworks supported by a marketplace of third-party connectors, apps, and add-ons
- Software that enables the creation, orchestration, and optimization of digital experiences by providing a critical mass of well-integrated capabilities comprising content, customer data, transactions, analytics, and automation
- Enterprise relevance and a track record with customers and partners confirming that the vendors' products act as a core anchor tenant within the enterprise architecture
- Mindshare among Forrester's enterprise customers, being frequently mentioned in client inquiries, shortlists, consulting projects, and case studies
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Practitioner tools — 5%
- Experience front end — 5%
- Search — 2%
- Experience experimentation — 10%
- Campaign management — 2%
- Digital commerce — 2%
- Content — 5%
- Customer data — 10%
- Customer analytics — 2%
- Journey orchestration — 2%
- AI/ML — 15%
- Developer tools — 10%
- Extensibility and integration — 15%
- Application architecture — 15%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 20%
- Innovation — 20%
- Roadmap — 15%
- Partner ecosystem — 20%
- Adoption — 10%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 5%
- Community — 5%
- Supporting services and offerings — 5%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research covers a 24-criterion evaluation of 15 digital experience platform (DXP) providers, analyzing their current offerings, strategies, and market presence. It evaluates vendors on capabilities including experience experimentation, customer data, AI/ML, developer tools, extensibility and integration, application architecture, vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, and adoption. The evaluation categorizes vendors as Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, and Challengers.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: This research should be used by tech leader professionals who are selecting a digital experience platform provider for their enterprise. It serves as a guide for buyers considering purchasing options in the DXP technology marketplace, helping them understand how each provider measures up across key criteria and which vendors are best fit for specific use cases, industries, and organizational needs. The Excel-based vendor comparison tool allows readers to customize weightings based on their individual requirements.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Vendors included in this evaluation must have: 1) An architectural approach with APIs and integration frameworks supported by a marketplace of third-party connectors and apps; 2) Software enabling creation, orchestration, and optimization of digital experiences with integrated capabilities for content, customer data, transactions, analytics, and automation; 3) Enterprise relevance with customers and partners confirming their products act as core anchor tenants in enterprise architecture; and 4) Strong mindshare among Forrester's enterprise customers through frequent mentions in inquiries, shortlists, and consulting projects.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Lack of enterprise-scale reference customers to demonstrate track record
- Insufficient mindshare among Forrester's enterprise customers
- Missing architectural approach with APIs and integration frameworks for extensibility
- Inability to provide critical mass of integrated capabilities across content, customer data, transactions, analytics, and automation
- Products not acting as core anchor tenants within enterprise architectures
- Limited presence in Forrester client inquiries, shortlists, and consulting projects
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Look for providers with a strategy for harnessing generative AI that offers content generation in your proprietary brand voice, with differentiated expertise, and informed by customer data
- Evaluate whether vendors have built a platform to harmonize their applications with high-scale data at its core, services shared across applications, and consistent security, scaling, and extension mechanisms
- Assess the vendor's framework for harmonizing third-party applications through APIs, events, good data connectivity, and decoupled evolution
- Prioritize vendors that orient around continuous optimization with experience experimentation capabilities that use genAI-created content and propensity models
- Consider the vendor's stage of cloud maturity and their progress in maturing applications to take advantage of underlying platform capabilities
- Evaluate the vendor's ability to unify applications through single design systems, identical customer profiles across applications, and seamless practitioner workflows
- Assess whether the vendor's AI vision goes beyond basic content generation to reimagined interactions like conversational interfaces and intelligent shopping assistants
Q: How has the Digital Experience Platforms market evolved in 2023?
A:
- The generative AI breakthrough of late 2022 drove vendors to pivot investments toward capabilities for the intelligent century
- Enterprises have spent years assembling their own DXPs using parts from multiple vendors rather than buying complete platforms from single vendors
- Vendors now offer portfolios of composable applications that can be purchased individually and work better together as more are adopted
- Cloud-native architecture is accelerating the rate at which vendors build new applications on top of their platforms
- Data has become core to the intelligent century, requiring platform architectures that use data for insights, learn from customer interactions, and evolve experiences over time
- Many vendors released basic 'generate content' buttons overnight, leveling the playing field, but differentiation comes from generating content in proprietary brand voices with customer data
- The shift from monolithic DXPs to composed platforms means enterprises are the composers, selecting best-in-class capabilities from multiple vendors
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Current Offering (50% weighting) evaluates vendors on their existing product capabilities across 14 criteria including experience experimentation, customer data, AI/ML, developer tools, extensibility and integration, and application architecture. Strategy (50% weighting) assesses vendors' future direction across 8 criteria including vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, and adoption. Current Offering focuses on what vendors can deliver today, while Strategy evaluates their ability to execute on future market needs and their positioning for long-term success.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Digital Experience Platforms, Q4 2023, 05-Dec-2023, ID RES178451
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