Unified Commerce: Your Customer Goes at the Center

Retailing is currently undergoing one of its most seismic shifts with further changes imminent. “Omni Channel,” “Multi Multi” and “Cross Channel” are being replaced by a “Unified Commerce” approach. By 2020, it is likely that shoppers will pay for home delivery. Pure-play retail will largely cease to exist; and truly self-serve stores will become a reality.

And have no doubt, customers expect reliable fulfillment. Recent research shows that nearly 50% of global shoppers are influenced by a retailer’s ability to offer convenient collection points for online purchases. Click & Collect is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a prerequisite that is driving further changes in retail operations, merchandise planning and velocity. Two decades ago, omni channel retailing emerged to enable
customers along the many paths that lead to purchase, from a store’s website to its brick-and-mortar locations. Today, retailers are weaving those paths into a cohesive journey—a strategy known as Unified Commerce.

Unified Commerce clearly means customers shop brands, not channels. To deliver on a Unified Commerce strategy, retailers must build a business model that leverages a harmonious integration of retail processes and systems to provide full transparency of consumers on the back end and seamless customer experiences on the front end, regardless of the journey to purchase.

To successfully transition from omni channel to Unified Commerce, retailers must evaluate their capabilities, assess customer touch points, and create a plan for moving forward.  Download this white paper, first in a three-part series, to learn more.