Unified commerce: a single solution to revolutionize retail

Issues facing the retail industry

The most significant change affecting the retail sector recently has been the evolution of unified commerce. However, this technology is primarily a response to the many other factors impacting retail in the last decade or so.

The past several years have proven transformative for retail. Customer behavior continuously changes with the bar set ever higher for retail businesses and their staff. Consumers now expect the omni-channel customer experiences formerly associated with only corporate retailers.

In other words, consumers expect a seamless experience across numerous channels and the ability to make purchases and returns or interact with customer service on their preferred channel. Staff, too, want technological access to the entire omni-channel experience so they can develop human connections with customers and simplify interactions with the brand.

In the past, providing consumers with a streamlined omni-channel experience has been a clunky business, with separate technology solutions frequently doubling information or creating incongruous data sets on the back end. Unfortunately for retailers, this has resulted in a customer experience (CX) that is less than smooth.

In addition, consumers expect more customization than ever before. Retailers should already be familiar with their customers' preferred products and services, and past purchases should spur new buying suggestions. Cutting-edge technologies like geospatial or location-based marketing, augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR) are adding more channels to the mix, giving retailers more to think about in terms of compliance and privacy regulations.

Unified commerce is a single solution to all these issues. Read on to learn more about the benefits and how it can transform your retail business.

Unified commerce explained

The technology was created to provide retailers with a streamlined experience on the back end, much like omni-channel was designed to streamline the customer experience.

In a single platform, retailers can interface with consumers on all channels, including voice and web chat, social media, and text messaging, as well as all the back-end retail systems for processing payments, inventory management, shipping, customer relationship management (CRM) and buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS).

Simply put, omni-channel was created for communicating directly with customers across multiple channels used for marketing, sales, and fulfillment. Unified commerce joins omni-channel with back-end functionality into an integrated platform.

Because each form of communication on omni-channel may operate disparately from the other channels, it can quickly become inefficient for retailers to align information across several different databases. In response, unified commerce delivers one trusted database for consumers and staff.

The advantages of unified commerce

Omni-channel and unified commerce share one objective: providing consumers with a streamlined and personalized purchasing experience. The two technologies put the consumer first. But unified commerce delivers added advantages that omni-channel does not:

• Improved CX: Upgrade omni-channel customer experiences and eliminate issues so customers can communicate with your retail organization via their preferred channel.
• Analysis and understanding: With consumer details housed in a single location, retailers have a unified view into their customers' experiences and preferences. Moreover, retail operators are empowered to implement customizations designed to improve consumers' long-term value, creating a stronger allegiance to the brand and motivation to refer the brand to family and friends.
• Enhanced operational efficacy: Unified commerce doesn't require reconciliation among disparate systems such as the inventory itemized on a retailer's app and website compared to the inventory on hand in its store. Retail operators don't have to spend time addressing errors and dealing with multiple sets of identical data. Instead, retailers can interact with consumers in a more timely manner, transact payments from across the globe in a single platform, and retrieve previous purchase records when responding to customer support situations.

<strong>Also read: <a href="/blog/revolutionize-your-retail-operations-with-cloud-technology">Revolutionize your retail operation with cloud technology</a></strong>

The implementation process

The gains from implementing a unified commerce platform are clear, making it an obvious choice for the next generation of retail operations. Still, the technology can pose issues during the implementation process:

• Compliance: As retailers strive to implement the latest technologies to meet or exceed consumer demands, consumer protection organizations and government regulators are watching. Retail operators must simultaneously keep up with compliance regulations, such as the way they handle, store, and secure data. The alternative could mean significant penalties, like hefty fines.
• Traditional technology: When retailers are locked into vendor contracts, they are often stuck with legacy systems for essential operations. However, upgrading traditional technology can result in lost consumer data, particularly for retail operators in the small business space. Area networks like 5G are essential for today's retail systems to function, but unfortunately, these local networks aren't always compatible with legacy technology systems.
• Disparate systems: As omni-channel concepts evolved to create high-quality customer experiences across channels, retail operations began to suffer efficiency losses through tool sprawl. Retailers invested in a multitude of apps and systems, each intended to serve a designated purpose. However, retailers often found information could not be shared uniformly within and across these newly created tools and systems. Unified commerce is the solution that allows retailers to upgrade these resources and consolidate them onto a single platform.

Unified commerce: a guide to getting started

Before implementation, retailers must audit the existing IT infrastructure and complete the required upgrades and investments. Be sure to address the following:

• Which existing systems and applications are integrated, highly functional, and mission-critical for operations?
• Where are the holes in technology that must be filled to meet customer expectations?
• Are there compliance and security considerations, and in what order of priority do they need to be addressed?
• How is customer data secured and privacy laws respected currently, and how will the unified commerce implementation affect those processes?
• What is the employee training process when new systems and applications are implemented?

This kind of audit will help you prioritize the systems that can migrate seamlessly and streamline technology conversion where needed. Once complete, retailers can make decisions guided by customer expectations and goals for creating memorable customer experiences across channels. This transformation aims to ensure customer interactions are streamlined and meaningful and staff can provide enhanced customer service that outshines competitors. During this process, retailers must ask:

• Where do customers buy our products and services, and how do we ensure positive engagement across all interactions and channels?
• What variables impede customer engagement or prevent our staff from delivering excellent customer service?
• What improvements, and in what order, must we make to accelerate exceptional CX and overtake our competition?

<strong>Read more: <a href="/resources/case-studies/retail-chain-meets-divestiture-timeline">Case Studies: Retail chain meets divestiture timeline</a></strong>

CX and what lies ahead

Unified commerce is changing CX by driving greater efficiencies and opening contact channels for retailers to deliver high-value experiences. Tomorrow, the interplay between consumer behavior and technology will drive transformational changes in brand interaction, including AI technology integration at every consumer touchpoint and all levels of back-end operations. Rollout of IoT devices for functions like inventory management will continue to increase efficiencies, and technologies like geospatial marketing will allow brands to deliver information directly to consumers in relevant locations and with applicable buying habits.

Consumers increasingly expect personalization. A recent survey showed that 87% of shoppers research a product online before purchasing in-store. Retail operators will fall behind if they don't invest in the necessary IT infrastructure and unified commerce solutions where customers can have these types of interactions.

A partnership with an expert technology service provider allows retailers to shift some of the burden from their IT staff to a support team. OnX has extensive experience implementing new technology for a cross-section of retail clients. OnX is here to support you, whether you're considering a unified commerce platform, upgrading your CMS, or improving inventory control systems. Our experts can advise you on what current and future technologies mean for your retail business.

Contact us today to speak with an OnX retail specialist.

Learn how OnX helped one retailer cut IT costs in half.