Omnichannel and API Management: A Symbiotic Relationship

August 13, 2018

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In our last post, we talked about the changing dynamics of omnichannel customer experiences and how APIs can support. Beyond any doubt, APIs offer developers and business to deliver a connected customer experience where and when they want it.

An API management platform supports this by empowering API providers to package their data in an easy and secure manner to their API consumers: developers.

In this post we will discuss five key principles that businesses can adapt, coupled with a robust API management platform, to design and deliver promising omnichannel experiences to the digitally-empowered customers.

Proactivity
Due to the availability of numerous alternatives, customers can now switch to other services if the current service does not satisfy their needs, which is why businesses require the speed and agility to recognize and adapt to their customers’ changing preferences. As Forrester states, “customers want it now, and if you can’t provide it, they will quickly find it somewhere else”. This is where API management platform can benefit a company by making its services available, in the form of APIs, to other partners and developers community for quick, easy, and secure development of new features to surpass customer expectations.

Seamless Tailoring Across Platforms
Customers today expect a seamless transition between digital and physical interactions with a business. They now require time-efficient multitasking, like smart shopping experiences, which include allowing online order placement and in-store pickup, and personalized recommendations based on their previous online purchasing record. This can be facilitated by exposing business data to the developer community through a self-service portal. APIs allow developers and partners to creatively utilize business assets for the development of new apps and experiences, with agility, hence delivering optimized omnichannel experiences to the customers.

Combining Efforts
Digitally-empowered customers prefer using platforms that offer the utmost convenience. It's essential for the business to meet customers where they already are irrespective of the fact that they are buying from the business itself or its partners.

An API management platform with a strong developer portal essentially streamlines the onboarding of new partners. It helps to offer frictionless shopping experiences to the customers. By offering self-service access to APIs, the portal allows businesses to standardize partner onboarding procedure. This reduces partner’s time-to-productivity from months to even hours. To address privacy and control concerns, companies can easily choose what and how much to expose to the partners.

Flexibility and Adaptability
Digital Economy is constantly evolving, with the continuous introduction of various technologies, such as voice recognition, and shifts in market trends. APIs can help companies respond and adapt to the changing environment in a cost-efficient and swift manner. To fully utilize the significance of APIs, companies need an API management platform to secure, scale, analyze and manage the entire API lifecycle. API management platform offers performance and usage data required by businesses to respond to these changing market dynamics and pursue new business models and strategies.

Acting on Insights
Aided by API platform, companies can learn of customer and developer preferences with reference to their services, along with their performance via machine learning and digital analytics in order to attain the key to survival in the digital world; i.e. personalizing their services and features for the customers.