Tag: #omnichannel

How to Outperform Your Competitors with Unified Commerce

Posted on by Omprasad Devadiga

In today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape, the ability to provide a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels is paramount. Unified commerce, a strategic approach that integrates online and offline channels, offers a powerful solution to differentiate your business and outperform competitors. By breaking down silos and creating a cohesive customer journey, unified commerce enables retailers to deliver personalized experiences, enhance customer loyalty, and drive sales.

What is Unified Commerce?

Unified commerce strategy is more than just a technology solution; it’s a strategic mindset that prioritizes customer experience. It involves integrating various channels, such as e-commerce, brick-and-mortar stores, mobile apps, social media, and marketplaces, into a single, unified commerce platform. This integration allows retailers to offer a consistent and personalized experience across all touchpoints, regardless of where the customer chooses to interact with the brand.

Unified Retail Commerce: Key Benefits

Enhanced Customer Experience:

  • Seamless Omnichannel Shopping: Customers can easily transition between online and offline channels, such as browsing products online and picking them up in-store or returning items purchased online to a physical location.
  • Personalized Recommendations: By leveraging customer data from multiple channels, retailers can offer highly personalized product recommendations and marketing campaigns, increasing the likelihood of conversions.
  • Consistent Branding: A unified commerce approach ensures that customers experience consistent branding and messaging across all channels, reinforcing brand identity and loyalty.

Increased Operational Efficiency:

  • Streamlined Inventory Management: Unified commerce enables retailers to have a real-time view of inventory levels across all channels, reducing stockouts and overstocking.
  • Optimized Order Fulfillment: By integrating online and offline channels, retailers can leverage their entire network to fulfill orders efficiently, improving delivery times and reducing costs.
  • Simplified Returns: Customers can return products to any channel, regardless of where they were purchased, streamlining the returns process and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Improved Customer Loyalty:

  • Personalized Interactions: Unified retail commerce empowers retailers to deliver personalized experiences that resonate with individual customers, fostering a stronger emotional connection and increasing loyalty.
  • Consistent Customer Service: A unified view of customer data allows retailers to provide consistent and helpful customer service across all channels, building trust and loyalty.
  • Loyalty Program Integration: Unified commerce can seamlessly integrate with loyalty programs, offering personalized rewards and incentives to encourage repeat purchases.

Competitive Advantage:

  • Differentiation: By offering a superior customer experience through unified commerce, retailers can differentiate themselves from competitors and attract a larger customer base.
  • Increased Market Share: A unified commerce approach can help retailers expand their market reach and capture new customers by providing a more convenient and personalized shopping experience.
  • Enhanced Brand Reputation: A positive customer experience fueled by unified commerce can enhance a brand’s reputation and drive word-of-mouth marketing.

Implementing Unified Commerce: A Strategic Approach

To successfully provide unified commerce experience, retailers should follow a strategic approach:

  1. Define Goals and Objectives: Clearly articulate the desired outcomes of unified commerce, such as improving customer satisfaction, increasing sales, or enhancing operational efficiency.
  2. Assess Existing Infrastructure: Evaluate the current state of your technology infrastructure and identify areas that need to be upgraded or integrated to support unified commerce.
  3. Choose the Right Technology Partner: Select a technology partner with expertise in unified commerce solutions that can provide the necessary tools and support.
  4. Implement a Data Strategy: Develop a robust data strategy to collect, analyze, and leverage customer data across all channels.
  5. Provide Employee Training: Ensure that employees are equipped with the knowledge and skills to effectively support unified commerce initiatives.
  6. Continuously Monitor and Optimize: Regularly evaluate the performance of your unified commerce implementation and make necessary adjustments to optimize results.

By embracing unified commerce, retailers can create a more customer-centric, efficient, and profitable business. By breaking down silos, delivering personalized experiences, and enhancing operational efficiency, unified commerce offers a strategic advantage that can help businesses outperform their competitors and thrive in today’s competitive marketplace.

Contact ETP Group today to learn more about our unified commerce and how it can benefit your business.

5 Game-Changing Advantages of Unified Commerce for Retailers

Posted on by Omprasad Devadiga

Today’s shoppers are no longer confined to a single channel. They browse online, compare prices in-store, and expect a seamless experience no matter how they choose to interact with your brand. This omnichannel reality demands a retail approach that transcends the limitations of separate online and offline systems. Enter unified commerce: a revolutionary strategy that centralizes the data you’ve collected about customers and products on a single platform. These platforms can interconnect systems of e-commerce, mobile commerce, customer relationship management, order management systems, omnichannel order fulfilment, analytics, and more to help provide insights into how to improve the customer experience. 

The goal of unified commerce is to promote personalized shopping experiences that meet consumer expectations. It is necessary to align all the sales channels to offer the same information that the customer expects, ensure there is a constant flow of information being shared, and reduce data silos on a given channel.

This blog delves into the 5 game-changing advantages unified commerce offers retailers. 

But first, let’s discuss:

How does a unified commerce strategy differ from an omni-channel strategy?

Imagine shopping for a new jacket. You browse styles online, check for sizes in-store, and then decide to order it for home delivery. But what if the store says the jacket is out of stock online, even though you saw it on the website? Frustrating, right?

This is where a unified commerce platform comes in. It’s like having one big system for everything, instead of separate ones for online and in-store shopping. Here’s how it’s different from what most stores do now:

Regular stores:  Think of them as islands.  They might have different systems for online shopping and what happens in the store, and these systems don’t always talk to each other. This can lead to mistakes, like showing an item as out of stock when it’s actually on the shelf.

Unified commerce: It’s like a bridge connecting all the islands.  This system keeps everything in sync, so you get the same information and experience no matter how you shop. You can see what’s in stock online and in-store, buy online and pick up at the store, or even return an online purchase in-store. It’s all smooth and connected.

In short, unified commerce gives you a single, seamless shopping experience across all channels, online or offline.

5 Game-Changing Advantages of Unified Commerce for Retailers

1. Enhanced Customer Experience

Unified commerce enables retailers to offer a seamless and personalized shopping experience to their customers across multiple channels, including online, mobile, social media, and physical stores. 

By consolidating customer data from various touchpoints into a single, centralized platform, retailers gain a 360-degree view of their customer’s preferences, behaviors, and purchase histories. This allows retailers to deliver targeted promotions, recommendations, and personalized experiences that resonate with individual customers, driving greater satisfaction and loyalty.

2. Increased Operational Efficiency

By integrating disparate systems and processes into a unified commerce platform, retailers streamline their operations and eliminate the inefficiencies associated with managing multiple systems and databases. 

Its solutions enable retailers to automate key processes such as inventory management, order fulfillment, and customer service, reducing manual errors and improving overall efficiency. This not only frees up valuable time and resources but also allows retailers to focus on strategic initiatives that drive growth and innovation.

3. Seamless Omnichannel Selling

Omnichannel retailing has become the new norm, with consumers expecting a consistent shopping experience across all channels. It enables retailers to seamlessly integrate their online and offline channels, allowing customers to browse, shop, and transact across multiple touchpoints with ease. 

Whether it’s buying online and picking up in-store, browsing products on a mobile app, or engaging with a brand on social media, it ensures a frictionless experience for customers regardless of their preferred channel.

4. Real-time Inventory Visibility

Inventory management is a critical aspect of retail operations, and a lack of visibility into inventory levels leads to stockouts, overstocking, and lost sales opportunities. Its solutions provide retailers with real-time visibility into their inventory across all channels and locations.

Enabling them to optimize inventory levels, minimize stockouts, and fulfill orders more efficiently. This not only improves customer satisfaction by ensuring product availability but also helps retailers reduce carrying costs and improve inventory turnover rates.

ETP’s Unified Commerce Platform gives you a single, clear view of everything you have in stock across all your sales channels. No more scrambling to find the right product. The Unified Inventory Management System keeps everything organized to ensure you have the right items available at the right place and time, every time.

5. Data-Driven Insights and Decision-making

Its platforms generate a wealth of data from various customer interactions, transactions, and touchpoints, providing retailers with valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and business performance. By leveraging advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, retailers gain actionable insights that drive informed decision-making and strategic planning. 

Whether it’s identifying emerging trends, forecasting demand, or segmenting customers for targeted marketing campaigns, it empowers retailers to harness the power of data to drive growth and profitability.

In conclusion, it represents a paradigm shift in retailing, offering retailers a powerful and flexible platform. ETP offers an advanced Unified Commerce Strategy that empowers retailers to deliver seamless omnichannel experiences, streamline operations, and drive business growth. 

With a focus on enhancing the customer experience, increasing operational efficiency, and leveraging data-driven insights, ETP helps retailers stay ahead of the curve in today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape. By partnering with ETP, retailers unlock the full potential of unified commerce and achieve sustained success in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Transforming Retail Experiences with Omni Channel Retail Solutions

Posted on by Omprasad Devadiga

Retail is rapidly evolving, and customers are seeking seamless and personalized shopping experiences across multiple channels. In response to this shift, retailers are adopting omni channel retail solutions to meet customer expectations and stay competitive. Omni channel retail solutions integrate online and offline channels, providing a unified and consistent shopping experience. This blog post explores the benefits and impact of omni channel retail solutions on transforming retail experiences.

Seamless Customer Journey:

Omni channel retail solutions enable retailers to offer a seamless customer journey across various touchpoints. Customers can browse products online, make purchases through mobile apps, visit physical stores, or even utilize social media platforms for shopping. The integration of these channels ensures that customers can transition between different touchpoints effortlessly. For example, customers can start shopping online and complete in-store purchases or vice versa. This seamless experience enhances convenience and satisfaction, increasing customer loyalty and engagement.

Personalization and Customer Insights:

Omni channel retail solutions allow retailers to gather customer data from multiple channels, providing valuable insights for personalization. By analyzing customer behaviour, preferences, and purchase history, retailers can deliver targeted marketing messages, personalized recommendations, and customized promotions. This level of personalization creates a more tailored and engaging shopping experience for customers, increasing the likelihood of conversions and repeat business.

Inventory Visibility and Fulfillment:

One of the key advantages of omni channel retail solutions is the ability to provide real-time inventory visibility across channels. Customers can easily check product availability online and in-store, reducing the chances of disappointment due to out-of-stock items. Retailers can optimize inventory management and fulfilment processes, ensuring efficient order processing and delivery. For instance, customers can buy online and pick up their purchases in-store, providing a flexible and convenient option for shoppers.

Improved Customer Service:

Omni channel retail solutions enhance customer service by enabling seamless communication between customers and retailers. Customers can reach out for support through various channels like live chat, social media, or in-person assistance at physical stores. Retailers can respond promptly and provide consistent support of the channel the customer uses. This level of responsiveness and accessibility strengthens customer relationships and fosters trust in the brand.

Enhanced Brand Experience:

By embracing omni channel retail solutions, retailers can create a cohesive brand experience across all channels. Consistent branding, messaging, and visual identity create a unified perception of the brand in customers’ minds. Whether they interact with the brand through a website, social media, or a physical store, customers should have a consistent and recognizable experience. This consistency strengthens brand loyalty and helps retailers differentiate themselves in a competitive market.

Data-Driven Decision-Making:

Omni channel retail solutions provide retailers with valuable data and analytics that can drive strategic decision-making. By analyzing customer data, retailers can gain insights into customer preferences, market trends, and the performance of different channels. This data-driven approach allows retailers to make informed decisions regarding inventory management, marketing campaigns, pricing strategies, and channel optimization. Retailers can continually refine their operations and improve the overall customer experience based on data-driven insights.

Conclusion:

Omni channel retail solutions have revolutionized the retail industry by providing a seamless, personalized, and consistent shopping experience across multiple channels. By integrating online and offline touchpoints, retailers can enhance customer satisfaction, build loyalty, and drive business growth. The benefits of omni channel retail solutions, such as seamless customer journeys, personalization, inventory visibility, improved customer service, enhanced brand experiences, and data-driven decision-making, are transforming how retailers engage with customers. Embracing omni channel retail solutions is essential for retailers to stay competitive in the evolving retail landscape.

To explore the range of omni channel retail solutions and learn how they can alter your business, visit ETP Group.

Six Emerging Trends Shaping Modern Grocery Retailing in Southeast Asia

Posted on by Omprasad Devadiga

Introduction

In the dynamic landscape of Southeast Asian grocery retailing, several emerging trends are shaping the industry and influencing the way consumers shop for their daily needs. These trends reflect changing consumer priorities, the evolving competitive environment, and the industry’s collective push for profitability, sustainability, and enhanced customer experiences. Here, we delve into these six critical trends that are redefining modern grocery retailing in Southeast Asia:

The ASEAN region offers substantial growth prospects for contemporary grocery retailers. With a population exceeding 600 million, yearly grocery expenditures reach $200 billion. Traditional trade still dominates, accounting for roughly two-thirds of these expenses, signifying untapped potential for the modern grocery sector to gain a larger market share. Anticipated overall consumer spending across ASEAN is projected to increase by approximately 5% in the coming year, contingent on global economic influences. Urban consumers, in particular, demonstrate a growing demand, transitioning their spending habits from fragmented to modern shopping channels. This shift is propelling significant growth in modern retail, with our analysis forecasting annual expansion rates of 6 to 7% until 2025. As a result, ASEAN stands out as one of the world’s swiftest-growing and most promising regions for contemporary grocers. (see image below)

The penetration of modern retail tends to follow growth in GDP per capita, with wide variations across Southeast Asia.

1 Retail sales value, including sales tax.

2 The Log10 (or common logarithm) is used to simplify the scale for countries with large differences in GDP per capita. For example, log10 of 3 is 1,000; log10 of 4 is 10,000; and log10 of 5 is 10,000.

Source: Euromonitor

1. Priorities Influencing Consumer Purchasing Decisions

In the fast-paced world of grocery retailing, consumers are influenced by several key priorities. These include:

  • Consumers are becoming more value-conscious. They seek quality products at reasonable prices. Grocery retailers that offer competitive pricing, promotions, and loyalty programs are gaining a competitive edge.
  • Healthy Nutrition: There’s a growing awareness of the importance of healthy eating. Consumers are looking for fresh, organic, and locally-sourced products. Retailers are responding by expanding their offerings of fresh and nutritious products.
  • Willingness to Purchase Food Online: The convenience of online grocery shopping has gained popularity. Retailers are investing in robust e-commerce platforms, ensuring a seamless online shopping experience.

2. Fierce Competition from Ecosystem Players

The grocery retail sector in Southeast Asia faces fierce competition from ecosystem players, including digital giants and online marketplaces. These competitors have an advantage in terms of data on consumer behaviour and can attract and retain consumers by creating exceptional shopping experiences. The pressure on traditional fresh food offerings is particularly palpable as digital players expand their influence. Grocery retailers are responding by leveraging data-driven insights and investing in technologies that enhance the consumer experience. Solutions like ETP V5 are pivotal in staying competitive and relevant in this ecosystem.

Table 1: Advantages of Ecosystem Players in Grocery Retail

AdvantagesImpact on Grocery Retailers
Data on Consumer BehaviourInformed decision-making for targeted offerings
Creating Exceptional Customer ExperiencesEnhanced customer loyalty and satisfaction
Pressuring Fresh OfferingsTraditional grocery retailers innovate and compete more effectively

3. A Shift from Growth to Profitability

While grocery retailers have made impressive progress towards growth, breaking even and achieving profitability still remains a challenge. Grocery retailers are re-evaluating their strategies to find new sources of profitability. By embracing technology solutions like ETP V5, retailers can streamline operations, improve inventory management, and optimize the supply chain, leading to reduced costs and improved profitability. The shift from growth-focused expansion to a profit-centric approach is becoming imperative for long-term sustainability.

4. Reframe Your Playing Field to Embrace Consumer Tech

To stay relevant, grocery retailers are adopting a consumer tech mindset. This approach involves converging into a “consumer tech” ecosystem and thinking like disruptors. It empowers them to focus on providing the best consumer experiences, from seamless online shopping to in-store innovation. By embracing technology, grocery retailers can enhance customer interactions, boost loyalty, and reimagine their roles in the lives of consumers.

5. Competing Demands on Omni-channel

Omni-channel retailing is no longer a novelty but a necessity in the grocery sector. The surge in e-commerce penetration has increased the gross merchandise value and amplified user acquisition and retention. Retailers are navigating the competing demands of this complex ecosystem by optimizing their online and offline channels, offering a convenient and consistent shopping experience to consumers regardless of their preferred platform.

Table 2: The Impact of E-commerce on Grocery Retail

E-commerce ImpactResponse from Grocery Retailers
Increased Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)Expanding online product offerings
Growing User Acquisition and RetentionEnhancing customer loyalty programs

6. A Growing Emphasis on Sustainability

Sustainability is a significant theme in the grocery retailing landscape of Southeast Asia. Retailers are not only focusing on profit but also on pursuing profitable, sustainable, and inclusive growth. This includes initiatives to reduce food waste, source products responsibly, and decrease the environmental footprint of operations. Consumers are increasingly considering the social and environmental responsibility of retailers when making purchasing decisions, and businesses that align with these values are poised for success.

Wrapping up, the grocery retail landscape in Southeast Asia is rapidly evolving, driven by consumer preferences and technological advancements. Grocery retail is adapting to meet the changing consumer landscape and leveraging technology to enhance its operations, all while placing an increasing emphasis on sustainability and the consumer experience. By embracing these trends, grocery retailers can stay competitive, achieve profitability, and provide an innovative and sustainable shopping experience for their customers. With the right strategies and retail technology solutions like ETP V5, they can successfully secure their position in the modern grocery retailing landscape of Southeast Asia.

To know more about the business benefits that ETP V5 omni-channel retail software offers the grocery retail segment, visit https://www.etpgroup.com/industries/grocery/ or write to contactus@etpgroup.com

Leverage the Power of Omni Channel Retail Software: Strategies for Seamless Customer Experiences

Posted on by Omprasad Devadiga

With the rise of technology, omni channel retail software has become an invaluable tool for retailers. This powerful software enables businesses to integrate their various sales channels such as online stores, physical stores, and mobile apps into a single unified platform. In today’s highly competitive retail landscape, delivering seamless customer experiences across multiple channels is crucial for business success. In this blog, let’s look at the strategies to leverage the power of omni channel retail software and enhance customer experiences.

Understand Your Customers’ Journey:

To provide seamless experiences, it is vital to understand your customers’ journey across different channels. Omni channel retail software allows you to gather and analyze data from various touchpoints, providing valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviour. Comprehending how customers interact with your brand allows you to personalize their experiences and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly.

Integrate Inventory Management:

One of the key advantages of omni channel retail software is the ability to synchronize inventory across all channels. This integration ensures accurate stock levels, preventing a customer from placing an order only to find out that the item is out of stock. With real-time inventory visibility, you can offer customers the possibility to buy online and pick up in-store or vice versa and endless aisle, improving convenience and reducing the chances of lost sales.

Provide Consistent Product Information:

Consistency in product information is essential for building trust and providing exceptional customer experiences. With omni-channel retail software, you can maintain a centralized product catalogue, ensuring that all channels display accurate and up-to-date information. Whether a customer is browsing your website, or mobile app, or visiting a physical store, they should have access to consistent details about your products, such as descriptions, pricing, and availability.

Enable Cross-Channel Communication:

Omni-channel retail software enables seamless communication between different channels, allowing customers to switch between them without disruption. For instance, a customer can start an interaction on your website and continue it through a live chat on your mobile app. This cross-channel communication ensures that customers receive consistent and timely support, enhancing their overall experience with your brand.

Personalize Customer Experiences:

Personalization is a powerful tool for creating memorable customer experiences. Omni-channel retail software can track customer preferences and purchase history, enabling you to offer personalized recommendations and promotions. By leveraging this data, you can tailor marketing campaigns to specific customer segments and deliver relevant content across all channels. Personalization enhances the customer experience, increases customer loyalty, and drives sales.

Implement a Unified Loyalty Program:

An effective loyalty program can significantly impact customer retention and engagement. With omni-channel retail software, you can implement a unified loyalty program that rewards customers regardless of the channel they choose to shop from. This integration allows customers to earn and redeem points seamlessly, encouraging repeat purchases and fostering brand loyalty.

Embrace Mobile Technology:

Mobile devices have become an essential part of customers’ shopping journeys. Omni-channel retail software provides mobile-friendly features such as mobile apps, mobile-responsive websites, and mobile payment options. By embracing mobile technology, you can engage customers on their preferred devices, offering a convenient and streamlined shopping experience.

Conclusion:

In today’s omni-channel retail landscape, leveraging the power of omni-channel retail software is vital for delivering seamless customer experiences. By understanding your customers’ journey, integrating inventory management, providing consistent product information, enabling cross-channel communication, personalizing customer experiences, implementing a unified loyalty program, and embracing mobile technology, you can create a cohesive and exceptional shopping experience that drives customer satisfaction, loyalty, and business growth.

Embrace the power of ETP omni-channel retail software and stay ahead in the competitive retail industry.

Unlocking the Benefits of Personalization in Omni-channel Retailing

Posted on by Omprasad Devadiga

In today’s highly competitive retail landscape, staying ahead of the curve requires embracing the power of personalization. As customers increasingly expect tailored experiences, omni-channel retailing presents a valuable opportunity to engage and retain them. Retailers can provide a unified and personalized shopping journey by integrating multiple channels seamlessly. In this blog, we explore the numerous benefits that personalization brings to the table in the context of Omni-channel Retailing.

Enhanced Customer Experience

Personalization lies at the heart of delivering exceptional customer experiences in omni-channel retailing. By leveraging customer data such as buyer preferences, purchase history, and browsing behaviour, retailers can customize interactions across various touchpoints. Whether targeted product recommendations, personalized offers, or tailored content, customers feel valued and understood. This fosters loyalty and drives repeat sales.

Increased Customer Engagement

In the vast sea of marketing messages, personalized experiences stand out. Through omni-channel personalization, retailers can craft highly relevant and timely communications that capture customers’ attention and resonate with their needs. By connecting with customers deeper, retailers can boost engagement metrics, such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and social media interactions, leading to more increased sales and brand advocacy.

Seamless Channel Integration

Omni-channel retailing breaks down the barriers between online and offline channels, providing customers with a seamless shopping experience. Personalization plays a pivotal role in ensuring this integration remains smooth and consistent. By tracking customer interactions across channels, retailers can deliver contextually relevant experiences such as personalized recommendations, payment method, or order fulfilment option based on previous in-store purchases. This channel synergy enhances convenience, reduces friction, and strengthens brand perception.

Improved Customer Retention

Personalization has the power to transform one-time customers into loyal brand advocates. By understanding customers’ preferences and purchase patterns, retailers can anticipate their needs, proactively offering tailored recommendations and incentives. Retailers can foster stronger connections through personalized loyalty programs and exclusive perks, driving customer retention and reducing churn rates. Satisfied, loyal customers are likelier to promote the brand through word-of-mouth, referrals, and positive online reviews.

Efficient Marketing Spend

In traditional retail, mass marketing campaigns targeting a broad audience often result in wasted resources. Personalization in omni-channel retailing allows retailers to optimize their marketing spend by focusing on high-value customers. By analyzing customer data, retailers can identify segments with the highest potential for conversion and allocate marketing resources accordingly. This targeted approach ensures that marketing efforts reach the right audience, maximizing return on investment and minimizing waste.

Data-Driven Insights

Personalization in Omni-channel Retailing generates a wealth of valuable data. Retailers gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends by analysing their interactions across channels. These data-driven insights provide a competitive advantage enabling retailers to make informed business decisions. From product assortment planning to inventory management and pricing strategies, personalization-driven data empowers retailers to optimize operations and stay ahead of market trends.

As the retail landscape continues to evolve, personalization remains a powerful tool for success in omni-channel retailing. It helps retailers to thrive in a highly competitive environment by enabling them to offer enhanced customer experiences, foster engagement, and drive customer loyalty. The seamless integration of channels, improved customer retention, optimized marketing spend, and data-driven insights further cement personalization as a strategic imperative for retailers. By embracing personalization in omni-channel retailing with ETP V5, ETP Group’s robust and outstanding retail software solution, retailers can create meaningful connections with customers, delivering tailored experiences that leave a lasting impact.

 

 

Adopting Unified Commerce – the Next Generation of Retail

Posted on by admin

Adopting Unified Commerce – the Next Generation of Retail

Imagine you are buying your favourite luxury car that offers you a choice between manual, automatic, and driverless options; passive, active, interconnected front and rear suspensions; disc, drum, or anti-lock braking systems; plush amenities such as higher-quality interiors, high-viability headlights, auto-dimming mirrors, safety features; and, comes in petrol, electric and hybrid variants. But imagine if the car dealer said he could offer you a choice in only one or the other category. What kind of a horrid car buying experience would that be! Versus that, if another car dealership across the town offers you a choice in each of the categories along with a few extra features such as a great infotainment system or a voice-activated security system, wouldn’t that be a truly amazing experience? And now, imagine if the ‘you’ in the example above is actually your end customer, the ‘car dealership’ is your retail brand and the ‘luxury car’ along with its various features is the retail technology suite your brand is relying upon to offer a truly amazing unified shopping experience that makes your customers keep coming back for more.

If you’re in retail or even e-commerce, then you already know that omnichannel retail has changed the game in terms of how businesses reach and interact with their customers. If you want to stay competitive, it’s no longer enough to have a multichannel presence where the different channels function in silos and, it never will be again. What you need is unified commerce solutions, which enable your business to deliver consistent experiences across all channels — in-store, mobile, and digital — to make sure that your brand is staying ahead of the competition.

What Is Unified Commerce? What Does It Mean?

If you’re new to unified commerce, you may be wondering what exactly it is. The term can be defined as one platform serving several use cases. It encompasses many different tools, whether online or in-store, that customers utilize at different points throughout their journeys. Customers make purchases across platforms like mobile apps, websites, retail locations, social media pages, and connected devices. With the proper utilization of all these channels, interactions between brands and consumers can take place in real-time. For example, if an e-commerce company has an app that offers customers an easy way to shop for products anytime or anywhere they want (including on the go), it’s offering a very specific type of unified commerce experience.

Unified Commerce Vs Omnichannel – Evolving into One Version of Transactional Truth

The rapid growth of omnichannel has left retailers with one distinct problem – how to provide a seamless customer experience across all channels when managing multiple systems can be quite complex. The rapid proliferation of digital touchpoints has created complexities that leave retailers struggling to manage multiple systems, networks, and data silos in order to create a customer-centric experience. However, there is hope on the horizon with unified commerce platforms that bring order out of chaos by aggregating product data into a single source of truth. By integrating POS, WMS, ERP, CRM/CMO solutions into a single platform for managing merchandising content, brands can deliver more personalized shopping experiences while also unlocking critical insights about customers throughout their journey.

Retailers Aren’t Yet Delivering the Truly Seamless Customers Experiences that Shoppers Want

If you’re a retailer, then chances are your website is already unified. In fact, you probably already have a mobile shopping app for your brands. But what about in-store shopping? That’s where you might be falling behind. According to Gartner, over 30% of retail sales still take place in physical stores, but in 2025 more than 65% of sales will occur online. If that prediction holds true, then it doesn’t bode well for retailers that aren’t prioritizing unified commerce solutions at their brick-and-mortar locations or on their websites.

What Is a Unified Commerce Platform?

A unified commerce platform is a single, all-encompassing digital storefront that gives customers complete access to your brand, products, customer service channels, mobile apps, social media accounts, websites, etc. The goal of unified commerce is to encourage your customers to interact with your brand through multiple channels while simultaneously making it easy for them to find the information/product they are looking for. To do so successfully requires cross-channel product listings that are consistently accurate. Also critical is an omnichannel experience where any interaction with your brand automatically updates in real-time across every channel. Even more importantly, it allows you to meet each customer on his or her own terms by offering customized interactions tailored directly to their preferences.

Unified Infrastructure Designed for Company Growth

Most retailers are already experiencing growth in sales, which means their infrastructure should be ready to support increased growth. For example, if a company has only 200 customers today but expects 1,000 new customers within 12 months, then unified commerce is critical. With integrated systems across all channels of communication, businesses can better understand who their customers are. This will allow them to deliver an experience that’s personalized for each individual customer. Because of omnichannel capabilities combined with retailer-specific features designed to grow your business, unified commerce helps you grow your bottom line while staying ahead of industry changes.

The Advantages of Delivering Unified Customer Experiences

The first advantage of unified commerce is that it allows businesses to offer customer-centric shopping experiences. Customers want a seamless shopping experience, which means it should be easy for them to browse products on their smartphones and buy those products quickly and efficiently through an e-commerce site or a mobile app. Giving your customers quick access to your inventory as well as options like click-and-collect delivery services increases their chances of making a purchase with you. Giving them multiple ways to complete purchases, such as email receipts and pick-up codes for shoppers who order online but don’t have home delivery service available in their area, also makes purchasing easier for them — and makes them more likely to shop with you again in the future.

How to Deliver Unified Commerce Experiences & Preparing for 2025 and beyond with a Unified Commerce Strategy

When we at ETP were building our product roadmap in 2015-2016, we already had a good idea that omnichannel retail solutions would be one of our most in-demand products over the next six years. However, once we had firmly established ourselves as an Omni-channel Retail Solutions provider for luxury and lifestyle retailers across APAC, India, and the Middle East in 2018-2019, we saw that unified commerce was quickly becoming a trending topic in the immediate future as well. At that point, it was clear that unified commerce was going to be one of our key points of focus for our 2025 strategy. As such, we decided to develop specialized products that can benefit that various types of retailers. We have also created a dedicated page on its core components and main advantages to help you better understand unified commerce and omnichannel retail solutions.