Personalization has always been one of the most sought-after features for brands, allowing them to deliver tailored digital experiences. Sitecore’s CMS products XP and XM have built-in personalization capabilities, ensuring that the right content reaches the right contacts, for example, by showing, hiding, or adjusting content.
In recent years, the shift towards headless solutions has gained significant momentum, enabling greater flexibility, omnichannel delivery, and seamless integrations with modern digital ecosystems – making Sitecore XM Cloud the next choice or most obvious step in a brand’s digital transformation. However, with the shift from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XM Cloud, customers will notice a significant change in how personalization works behind the scenes. While XM Cloud provides a cloud-first, headless, and scalable solution, it does come with certain limitations in personalization compared to XP. This blog will explore how personalization in Sitecore XM Cloud differs from XP, its strengths, and how marketers and developers can still leverage its capabilities effectively.
Personalization in Sitecore XM Cloud
Personalization in XM Cloud, also known as Embedded Personalization in XM Cloud pages, offers a predefined set of built-in, page-based personalization features. Users can easily define audience segments and serve them customized page variations. The embedded personalization capabilities include real-time data stream collection, predefined conditions, and comprehensive site and page analytics.
The Differences
For those migrating from Sitecore XP, the most significant change is the absence of a provision to create custom conditions for rule-based personalization. Sitecore XP provided extensive flexibility, allowing users to define custom conditions and personalize based on deep visitor analytics. However, in XM Cloud, personalization is streamlined and focused on a more structured OOTB (Out-of-the-Box) approach.
Here’s what changes:
- No Custom Conditions: XM Cloud does not support creating custom personalization rules, unlike XP.
- Page Builder Integration: Personalization is managed within the Personalize tab inside the Page Builder.
- Page Variants Instead of Component-Level Personalization: XM Cloud primarily offers page-level personalization, meaning different page variants can be displayed based on predefined conditions.
- Simplified OOTB Conditions: The personalization engine in XM Cloud allows authors to define conditions using a pre-defined set of rules but with limited extensibility.
Elements of Personalization in Sitecore XM Cloud
The personalization model in XM Cloud is straightforward and designed for ease of use. Here’s how it functions:
- Using the Personalize Tab: Within the Page Builder, authors can access the Personalize tab to define different user experiences.
- Page Variants: Instead of component-level changes, XM Cloud enables authors to create and manage different page versions to be served based on specific conditions
- Defining Conditions: While the conditions are OOTB and non-extensible, they still allow for basic personalization, such as user location, visit, point of sale, device type, etc.
- Analyze and Optimize: The Analyze section helps track performance, providing insights into which variants perform better.
Personalization in Sitecore XM Cloud takes a different approach than XP. Despite its limitations, personalization in XM Cloud still offers benefits: it favors simplicity and scalability over deep customization. While some brands may feel the impact of losing advanced personalization rules, the benefits of speed, cloud-native architecture, and ease of use make XM Cloud an attractive option. Combining XM Cloud with Sitecore Personalize can be a game-changer for those needing deeper personalization.
In the next few blogs, we’ll explore the details of embedded personalization and how Sitecore Personalize can enhance personalization in XM Cloud.
