Five technology providers have banded together to launch the Commerce Experience Collective or CommX, an online community for retailers to grow e-commerce for businesses worldwide, supported with research and data to help the collective in its mission.

CommX says that as shoppers increasingly look to brands to deliver personalized, differentiated digital experiences, the collective hopes to help businesses achieve end-to-end commerce experiences that satisfy each consumer. To this end, the collective will be an ecosystem of solutions, each powering specific elements of the commerce experience—from marketing and site search to checkout and fulfillment. The technologies, CommX adds, will enable a new era of digital commerce that connects brands and customers in a meaningful way.

“Together with our partners, we created CommX as a way to define, build, and set best practices within the commerce experience as a discipline,” the collective declares on the CommX website. “The group will uncover growth drivers that have a measurable impact on results, optimizing revenue through modern technology, empower businesses to own the CX process, and foster collaboration that is key to the future of e-commerce.”

CommX also notes that it will share collective experiences and insights through custom research reports, case studies, media stories, benchmarking data, best-in-class practices, and interactive guides, bringing new resources to the digital e-commerce space.

The five founding members of CommX are Bloomreach, the provider of cloud-based business software and solutions from  Mountain View, California; Fast, the San Francisco-based provider of single-click online checkout experiences; Mirakl, the provider of marketplace solutions headquartered in Paris, France; ShipBob, the global fulfillment platform provider from Chicago; and Sinch, the provider a of voice-over-IP (VoIP) platform with rich customer communications options headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Research for CommX will be provided by CommerceNext, also a New York City-based e-commerce conference organizer, founded in 2007 for retail and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands addressing issues relating to customer acquisition, social media growth, and retail expansion.

Brian Walker, the chief strategy officer at CommX founding member-company Bloomreach, says the collective is excited about empowering business to unlock opportunities. “The next big thing in digital commerce is not a single platform, but a collaborative group of modern innovative technology providers, all dedicated to client success and the evolution of the commerce experience,” Walker says. “As leading providers of these technologies, the CommX members will help guide businesses into a new era of e-commerce, an era focused on highly personalized and optimized commerce experiences that drive measurable growth.”

CommX is launching at a critical time for e-commerce, the collective says. Following what the group describes as a “tumultuous acceleration” in 2020 and a “customer retention race” in 2021, CommX says many businesses are now considering this year to be “transformational.” According to 2022 Digital Trends & Investment Priorities, the inaugural CommX research report conducted by CommerceNext, 55% of retailers are forecasting e-commerce growth north of 20% for 2022. As a result, retailers are pondering how growth this year could impact their acquisition and retention strategies as well as investment priorities, the report states.

“Despite the pandemic’s challenges, e-commerce’s evolution has entered its next innovation era,” says Scott Silverman, co-founder of CommerceNext. “Businesses need to consider what comes next—how they plan to drive loyalty, how social media will evolve, how the customer experience can become even better. CommerceNext is excited to partner with CommX to help share industry-leading research that provides an important point of view for retailers and brands investing in the future.”

CommX is an open community, with resources and research freely available to all on its website.