Retailers and service providers better be ready for their closeups, as digitization is allowing customers to compare and contrast products before making a purchase.

“I’d say it’s the era of the empowered customer,” said Des Cahill (pictured), vice president and head CX evangelist at Oracle Corp. The Amazon Effect  — whereby customers have increased ability to research and choose among a plethora of products — is growing, he added.

Cahill spoke to John Furrier (@furrier) and Peter Burris (@plburris), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during this week’s at Oracle Modern Marketing Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. (*Disclosure below.)

It isn’t just e-commerce platforms, but social and mobile apps and cloud that are tipping market power toward the buyer, he said. The digital transformation underway is largely about helping companies present themselves better on these new platforms.

“The reason they’re going through this transformative process is to meet the demands of their customers,” Cahill stated.

As the number of apps and digital platforms expand, these customers want a seamless marketing experience across them. In other words, when they call their cellular provider, they would like the operator to have the same relevant information about them that Facebook may have.

Data communication breakdown

“Going back to Oracle’s strategy on this, it’s about having a connected, end-to-end suite of cloud applications, so that there’s a consistent set of data that is enabling these consistent, personalized and immediate experiences,” Cahill explained.

Combining first-party and third-party data throughout Oracle’s cloud suite and rendering it with artificial intelligence can give everyone in an organization the same up-to-the-minute, accurate picture of a customer, he added.

“This is real-time interaction, so we’re getting signals every time someone clicks; it’s not a batch-mode, one-off kind of thing,” Cahill said.

For instance, a photographer and loyal customer might seek a replacement for a broken camera through the company’s 800-number. The call center employee might drone that he or she is not authorized to replace the item — and that’s it, the customer is never buying from them again.

“If it was the CEO getting that call, the CEO would be like, ‘We’re going to get you a camera immediately,’ but that person that they’re talking to is five levels down in a call center in Bismarck, North Dakota,” Cahill said. Consistent data and AI could allow that person to make the same authoritative, intelligent choice, he pointed out.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Oracle’s Modern Marketing Experience. (*Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner at Oracle’s Modern Marketing Experience. The conference sponsor, Oracle, does not have editorial oversight of content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE