In today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving world, the concept of unified commerce is gaining significant traction. But what exactly is unified commerce, and why is it so crucial in a world that often feels more divided than ever? Let’s dive into this topic in simple, conversational language to unravel its importance and implications, and see how ETP Unify is leading the charge.
Understanding Unified Commerce
Unified commerce goes beyond the traditional retail model. It’s not just about selling products in a store or online; it’s about creating a seamless, integrated experience for the customer across all channels. Imagine walking into a store, finding an item you like, and then realising it’s not in your size. With unified commerce, you can easily check the online inventory, order the item, and have it delivered to your home without any hassle. It’s about breaking down the barriers between different shopping channels to ensure a smooth and consistent experience.
The Divided World
We live in a world that often feels fragmented. Different countries, cultures, and even communities can sometimes feel worlds apart. This division isn’t just social or political; it extends to how businesses operate and how consumers shop. There’s a growing gap between physical and digital retail experiences, and many businesses struggle to bridge this divide. Consumers demand convenience, speed, and a personalised touch, regardless of where or how they shop.
The Power of Integration with ETP Unify
Unified commerce aims to bridge this gap by integrating all points of interaction into one cohesive system. This means your in-store, online, and mobile shopping experiences are interconnected. ETP Unify, a leading unified commerce company, provides a unified commerce platform that delivers this seamless experience. For businesses, this integration provides a single view of the customer, inventory, and sales, which translates to better decision-making and improved customer satisfaction.
Consider this: A customer who browses your online store, adds items to their cart, but decides to visit the physical store to see the products in person. ETP Unify – unified retail commerce ensures that the items in their online cart are readily accessible in-store, providing a seamless transition from digital to physical. This not only enhances the shopping experience but also increases the likelihood of a sale.
Benefits of Adopting a Unified Commerce Strategy
For businesses, the advantages of adopting a unified commerce strategy with ETP Unify are manifold. Here are a few key benefits:
Improved Customer Experience: By providing a consistent and personalised experience across all channels, businesses can meet customer expectations more effectively.
Enhanced Efficiency: ETP Unify’s systems streamline operations, reducing redundancies and improving overall efficiency.
Better Data Insights: Integrated systems provide a comprehensive view of customer behavior, allowing for more targeted marketing and inventory management.
Increased Sales: A seamless shopping experience often translates to higher conversion rates and customer loyalty.
Overcoming Challenges
While the benefits are clear, implementing a unified commerce system isn’t without its challenges. Businesses must navigate issues such as legacy systems, data integration, and ensure that their technology infrastructure can support such an integrated approach. ETP Unify specialises in addressing these challenges, providing tailored solutions that make the transition smooth and efficient.
The Future of Shopping – Unified Retail Commerce
As technology continues to evolve, the gap between physical and digital worlds will continue to close. Augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are just a few of the innovations driving this change. Imagine trying on clothes virtually or receiving AI-driven personal shopping assistants who know your preferences better than you do.
Unified retail isn’t just a trend; it’s the future of shopping. ETP, a unified commerce company is at the forefront of this transformation, providing the tools and expertise businesses need to thrive in this new landscape.
Conclusion
In a world that often feels divided, unified commerce offers a way to bring things together. By integrating all shopping channels into one seamless experience, businesses can meet the needs of their customers more effectively, improve efficiency, and drive sales.
ETP Unify is dedicated to helping businesses achieve this vision through its innovative unified commerce platform. It’s about creating a cohesive, personalised shopping journey that bridges the gap between the digital and physical worlds. So, whether you’re a retailer looking to stay ahead of the curve or a consumer craving a more streamlined shopping experience, ETP Unify is the way forward.
Bridge the commerce gap and unify your customer experience with ETP Unify. Book a free demo today!
Did you know poor inventory management is a nearly $2 trillion problem today?
These days, with so many selling channels, managing inventory between them can be an enormous headache. A business is easily put at risk of running out of stock or having too much of it on hand, both contributing to lost sales and upset customers, especially with all the spreadsheet juggling, siloed systems, and manual updates that leave organizations exposed.
A Unified Inventory Management system functions as the central nervous system of your entire inventory operation. A strong UIM system from ETP Unify, a powerful unified commerce retail platform, will streamline these processes, bringing in a host of advantages to transform your business.
Real-time Visibility: A Single Source of Truth
Imagine a crystal ball that shows exactly how much stock you have in real time, across all locations and channels. That is the power of a Unified Inventory Management System. ETP Unify’s unified commerce platform pulls information from all your retail stores, online marketplaces, and web stores to give one version of the truth in inventory. No more sweating over reconciling different data—you have a clear and accurate picture of what’s available, allowing you to make informed decisions.
Reduced Stockouts and Improved Customer Satisfaction
Have you ever had a customer walk out disappointed because you were out of stock of their desired item? Stockouts not only result in lost sales but also damage customer trust. A Unified Inventory Management system helps by providing accurate inventory levels. You can set reorder points so that purchase orders are automatically created when stock levels fall to or below those points, ensuring the product is always in stock to meet demand.
Improved Inventory Optimization and Reduced Costs
Overstocking ties up valuable capital and may lead to product obsolescence. Through a Unified Inventory Management system, you gain valuable insights into sales trends and can better optimize inventory levels. Coupled with forecasting tools, ETP Unify’s unified commerce strategy helps calculate demand to order the right quantity that satisfies customer demand without holding excess stock. This reduction in storage costs, along with improved cash flow and increased profitability, positively impacts the bottom line.
Enhanced Efficiency and Streamlined Operations
Managing inventory across multiple locations is time-consuming and labor-intensive. A unified retail commerce system automates many of these tasks, freeing your team to focus on other critical areas. ETP Unify’s unified retail commerce simplifies processes such as order fulfillment, picking and packing, and cycle counts, saving time and reducing the risk of human error.
Improved Data-Driven Decision Making
The Unified Inventory Management system is equipped with extensive data that can be harnessed for informed business decisions. ETP Unify’s platform includes robust reporting tools to analyze sales trends, identify slow-moving inventory, and track KPIs. These insights help optimize product offerings, create targeted marketing campaigns, and make data-driven decisions to drive growth.
Better Customer Experience
A strong Unified Inventory Management system is crucial for a smooth customer experience. With accurate inventory data, customers can see real-time availability online and avoid disappointment by ordering out-of-stock items. Features like order follow-up during fulfillment and click-and-collect options further enhance the customer journey.
Benefits Beyond Inventory Management
A Unified Inventory Management system goes beyond just managing inventory. ETP Unify’s unified commerce strategy integrates seamlessly with various business applications, providing a single location to manage your entire operation. This integration improves communication and collaboration across departments, resulting in greater business efficiency.
ETP Unify: Your Unified Inventory Management Partner
ETP Unify is an all-in-one Unified Inventory Management system suitable for businesses of any size. Whether you operate a single store or a multi-channel retail network, it is fundamental to controlling inventory, improving efficiency, and delivering a great customer experience.
Key Features of ETP Unify’s Unified Inventory Management:
Real-time inventory visibility across all channels
Endless Aisle to avoid lost sales
Streamlined order fulfillment
Robust reporting and analytics
Scalable and secure platform
In today’s competitive retail environment, Unified Inventory Management is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. With ETP Unify’s unified retail commerce, you will be better equipped to enhance inventory management, increase productivity, and provide a superior customer experience. Take control of your inventory and unlock the power of a truly unified system.
Contact ETP Unify today to learn more about how our Unified Inventory Management system can help your business thrive.
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.
Imagine this: a customer meticulously curates a cart full of clothes online, only to vanish before checkout. You’ve seen it a hundred times—the dreaded abandoned cart.
A recent study by the Baymard Institute found that a whopping 70.19% of online shopping carts are abandoned before purchase. This is just one symptom of the challenges plaguing modern retail. Fierce competition, ever-evolving customer expectations, and the ever-present threat of online giants all contribute to a retail landscape that can feel like a rollercoaster ride. But all is not lost, fellow retailers!
Here’s where the ETP’s Unified Commerce comes to your rescue.
In this blog series, we’ll be exploring how ETP’s powerful cloud-native platform, the Unified Commerce Platform, brings the best of retail and e-commerce functionality to the user in one, easy-to-use and beautiful interface, helping create an amazing experience for consumers. And why retailers should switch to ETP’s Unified Commerce.
But first, let’s dive briefly into whether ETP’s unified commerce platform has the potential to revolutionize retail.
ETP’s Unified Commerce Platform: A Retail Game Changer
ETP Unified Commerce Retail Software is an enterprise-class, scalable, and secure cloud-native, AI-powered SAAS platform. Built using MACH architecture, it’s easy to use, and has a beautiful interface that stores all information in one database, enabling retail merchants and managers to have all the information and tools at their fingertips to serve customers across channels.
One of the key differences between unified commerce solutions and omnichannel retail solutions is that unified commerce unifies, orchestrates, and provides seamless experiences across channels. Whereas, the main goal of omni-channel retail is to give customers an overall experience that gives them an accurate view of all products across all platforms.
In other words, unified commerce is a 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.
What is the goal, you ask? 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.
How would retailers benefit from the Unified Commerce Retail Platform?
Real-time inventory visibility: Always know what’s in stock, online and in-store, for a smooth shopping experience.
Enhanced point-of-sale systems: Offer faster checkouts, easier delivery options, and gather valuable customer data – all at once.
Automatic payments and reduced integration hassles: Simplify the checkout process with effortless integrations and automatic payments.
This unified approach saves time, improves customer satisfaction, and gives you a clearer view of your entire retail business.
Why retailers should switch to ETP’s newly launched Unified Commerce Retail Platform?
Enhances Customer Experience:
ETP Unify makes shopping an easy task, no matter how your customers shop.
They can browse online and pick up their finds in-store, or find something they like in-store and complete their purchase seamlessly online. This frictionless shopping experience will keep your customers happy and make them come back to you, increasing brand loyalty.
Get Real-time Visibility of Your Inventory:
The ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform enables you to track your inventory in real-time. You can ditch your outdated stock levels and gain complete transparency into what’s available online and in-store. Eliminates the risk of overselling and ensures you can always fulfill customer orders promptly. The benefits go beyond just inventory control. Real-time data translates to faster in-store service, reduced backorders, and ultimately, happier customers.
Increase Profitability with Artificial Intelligence:
Here, the ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform steps in with its intelligent AI engine. This real-time system curates personalized product recommendations for your customers across all channels, seamlessly suggesting complementary items and boosting cart value. But that’s not all! The built-in AI also acts as a vigilant fraud watchguard, detecting suspicious orders in real-time to prevent financial losses. This powerful one-two punch of sales acceleration and fraud prevention empowers retailers to maximize revenue and minimize risk, leading to a significant boost in profitability.
Powerful Order Fulfilment:
Imagine fulfilling orders across your online store, physical locations, and marketplaces with the ease of managing just one channel! The ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform unifies your inventory and order data, streamlining the entire process from purchase to delivery. This translates to significant benefits for both you and your customers:
Centralized Information Management:
Want every piece of information to be stored in one centralized location? Say no more! The ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform stores everything in one place, accessible to everyone in your organization. From customer details, product data, and sales orders, to promotions, access it whenever you want. What does that mean? It means smoother operations, accurate decisions every time, faster action in spotting trends, etc.
Unprecedented Scalability:
The ETP Unified Commerce Platform is a cloud-based system built to scale seamlessly alongside your goals. Whether you’re expanding into new markets, adding brands, or experiencing explosive sales growth, ETP Unify adapts effortlessly. Automatic updates and new features ensure you’re always equipped with the latest tools, allowing you to focus on what matters most: running your thriving business.
A high-quality shopping experience is no longer enough—consumers want an engaging shopping experience that offers them value, both in terms of pricing as well as functionality. Once they’ve gotten used to those benefits from other companies, they expect those same things from you. So, your first step towards switching to an ETP’s Unified Commerce would be to book a free demo with us right now!
Are you looking for a technology partner who can accommodate all of your unique needs and demands? Click here for a free ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform demo!
The retail industry is constantly evolving, and both customers and businesses are facing unique challenges in today’s landscape. From long lines and limited selection in brick-and-mortar stores to complex online navigation and data privacy concerns, navigating the world of retail can feel like a maze.
Customers navigate crowded aisles, limited selections, and the ever-present question: “Is this the best price?” Businesses must balance maintaining a physical presence with the convenience and competition of online shopping, all while building customer loyalty in a saturated market: “Is there a way forward that benefits everyone? How can retailers overcome such a challenge?
Introducing Unified Commerce Retail Software by ETP, a cloud-native and AI-powered SAAS platform, can create a smoother, more satisfying shopping experience for everyone.
So what is ETP’s Unify? The key to success in the modern retail world is to put your customers’s experiences first. ETP Unify is a tool that helps you do just that. It gives your retail business the power to center everything around your customers’ needs and desires.
To dive deeper into ETP’s retail software, first, let us give you a brief overview of unified commerce and why it is so important for retailers.
What is unified commerce?
Unified Commerce refers to a retail business model that integrates both offline and online channels to create a unified platform that provides a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. In more simple terms, imagine shopping seamlessly between your phone, laptop, and favorite store. That’s the magic of unified commerce! It’s like having everything in one shopping basket but for your entire shopping journey. So no more wondering if that jacket you saw online is in stock at the store.
Plus, everything is stored in one giant filing cabinet (one central database). This means no more duplicate information and constantly updating stuff. It’s like having a single source of truth, giving you, the shopper, and the store a clear picture of your purchases and interactions. Pretty cool, right?
How does this benefit retailers? Well, retailers can manage their operations more efficiently. The aim is to break down the silos between different channels, creating a unified retail environment.
We have explored what exactly is ETP Unify and why it is important for retailers. But how exactly does it translate to exceptional customer service? Let’s delve into the specific features of the ETP Unified Commerce Platform and see how they revolutionize the way you interact with your customers.
A Feature Powerhouse for Seamless Retail & e-Commerce Operations
Effortlessly Manage & Publish Products Across Channels
Forget the hassle of logging into every single online seller platform! ETP Unify’s PIM system streamlines product management across all your channels. Just upload your product information once, and it gets distributed everywhere you sell. Update prices, stock levels, images, and promotions easily—all in one central location.
Search, filter, and manage products better with custom tags
Drive multichannel promotions and price offers with ease
Consolidate and automate your digital media assets
Manage your product masters and catalogs in one place
Unified Inventory Management System:
Ensure 100% Fulfilment & One Version of Truth
Say goodbye to inventory headaches! 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 Systemkeeps everything organized so you can ensure you have the right items available at the right place and time, every time.
Unified data across multiple nodes, stores, and warehouses
Real-time sync across physical stores, marketplaces, and webstores
Reduced cost for better cash flow management
Artificial Intelligence:
AI-driven Actionable Insights & Innovations for Unified Commerce Success
ETP Unify helps customers discover new favorites at checkout with AI-powered product recommendations, considering factors like product features and customer demographics. Cashiers can easily add these recommended items to the bill, boosting sales and keeping customers happy. Moreover, its AI-driven Order Management System prevents fraudulent purchases before they happen by analyzing various order details and identifying suspicious orders in real-time with machine learning. It helps retailers streamline their operations and protect their inventories.
Halt order anomalies in their tracks with early detection
Identify, isolate, and manage orders with irregularities in real-time
Monitor anomalies instantly across various order attributes like channel, product, quantity, discount, payment, etc
Assess real-time e-Commerce risk levels with our AI Score
Smart Order Management System:
Streamline workflows and inventory in real-time across channels
ETP Unify’s Smart Order Management System takes the complexity out of online orders. From the moment a customer clicks “buy” to the package arriving at their door, everything is handled smoothly. This includes receiving orders, routing them efficiently, and processing them quickly. Need to cancel or return something? No problem; the system handles that too. So you can focus on what matters most: running your business and keeping your customers happy.
Order receiving rules for whether to hold or pass orders based on various criteria
Smart order routing for allocating orders as per factors like node priority, stock levels, & more
Order processing, from order acceptance & rejection to picking, packing, labeling, and shipping
Order returns to plan for reverse logistics, perform quality checks, and approve or reject returns
6 Ways ETP Unified Commerce Empowers Retailers to Thrive in a Competitive Landscape
Enhanced Customer Experience for Increased Customer Loyalty
Shop Anywhere, Anytime!
No matter how you shop, ETP Unify makes it a breeze. Browse online and pick up in-store, or find something amazing in-store and complete your purchase seamlessly online. This effortless experience across all channels enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty toward your brand.
Real-time Visibility of Inventory for Higher Inventory Turnaround
Say Goodbye to Stockouts!
The ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform gives you the power of real-time inventory tracking across all your channels. No more worrying about outdated stock levels! This means you can always see exactly what’s available, reducing the risk of selling items you don’t have and leaving customers disappointed. The result? Improved in-store service, faster order fulfillment, fewer backorders, and happier customers all around.
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Improved Profitability
Double Your Profits!
Want your customer to add more items to their cart? The answer is ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform! Its real-time smart AI engine recommends the perfect products to customers across all channels, leading to more items added to carts and higher overall sales. Moreover, the built-in AI also detects suspicious orders in real time, preventing fraudulent purchases and protecting your profits. This powerful combination of AI features helps retailers like you maximize sales and minimize losses, leading to a significant boost in profitability.
Powerful Order Fulfillment for Superior Customer Service
Unlock Faster Fulfillment!
Imagine fulfilling orders across multiple channels with the ease of just one! The ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform provides a single, unified view of your inventory and orders, streamlining the entire process. The result?
Reduced Shipping Costs: Say goodbye to wasted resources! ETP Unify helps you choose the most efficient shipping options.
Lightning-Fast Processing: Orders fly out the door with ETP Unify’s efficient processing. No more keeping customers waiting.
Happy Customers, Guaranteed: ETP Unify helps you meet and exceed customer expectations for fast, accurate deliveries.
Centralized Information Management for Higher Employee Productivity
Break Down Information Silos!
The ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform puts an end to scattered information! Customer details, product data, sales orders, promotions—everything is stored in one central location, accessible to everyone in your organization. This means smoother operations, accurate decisions every time, faster action in spotting trends, etc. Eventually, it helps your entire organization work together seamlessly, leading to better results all around.
Unprecedented Scalability to Support Your Growth
Grow Fearlessly!
This cloud-based system effortlessly adapts to your changing needs, whether you’re expanding into new markets, adding brands, or experiencing a surge in sales. Plus, updates and new features are rolled out seamlessly, so you can focus on running your business without interruptions. The ETP Unified Commerce Platform gives you the flexibility you need to scale up your success hassle-free.
The Winning Formula: Delighting Customers and Driving Retail Innovation
Let us summarize the ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform for you. With its focus on centralized information, real-time data, AI-powered automation, effortless product management, and inventory management, ETP’s Unify equips you to meet the evolving needs of your customers and stay ahead of the competition.
So why wait? Take control of your retail future with ETP Unify today. Its scalable design ensures it grows alongside your business, while its seamless updates keep you on the cutting edge of technology.
Empower your team, streamline your operations, and unlock new levels of customer satisfaction. Choose ETP Unify, the unified commerce platform built for tomorrow’s thriving retail businesses.
Want to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction? Click here for a free ETP Unified Commerce Retail Platform demo!
Consumer expectations have undergone a significant shift, with a focus on convenience, connected shopping experiences, and personalization. Discover how to leverage your stores to elevate and distinguish your customer experience.
Omni-channel retailers now regard their stores as crucial assets worthy of investment. Last year, offline sales outpaced e-commerce for the first time, with physical stores growing at 18.5 percent compared to e-commerce’s 14 percent growth. While e-commerce is projected to surpass physical stores in future growth, the spotlight remains on stores. For most omni-channel retailers, this e-commerce growth implies increased investments in physical retail. Stores play a pivotal role in creating and satisfying customer demand, even if transactions eventually occur online.
Stores enhance brands by providing a tactile, human-centric experience that is impossible to replicate online. Store staff build trusted relationships with customers through advice, service, support and sales. They are often better at acquiring customers and stimulating repeat purchases than digital channels..
Furthermore, stores support e-commerce by positioning inventory near customers—the source of demand. Practices like click and collect, ship from store, and in-store returns have become standard for fulfilling online orders. Without a store, many online orders would not happen, and would be unprofitable. Thus, store-based retail is not going away, in-fact quite the opposite – its importance in the human interaction and social sharing aspect of retail is only becoming more sacred.
For multi-store retailers, the concept of stores is evolving from mere storage to spaces of exploration. The quality of this exploration is now more critical than ever. However, many retailers struggle to meet customers’ omni-channel demands and lack the infrastructure for modern shopping journeys expected by digitally-savvy post-pandemic consumers. They rely on disjointed, siloed backend systems that are cumbersome, inefficient, and costly to integrate. While they’d implemented quick fixes during the pandemic, they now require a comprehensive, long-term solution for unified data across all channels. The pressure is mounting on them to implement change rapidly and create the new “phygital” customer experiences demanded by the business.
So, what are the new capabilities retailers need to modernize their customer experience for digital-first retailing?
Stores that Amplify the Digital Experience: The rise of live online customer experiences extends beyond social media and chat assistants to virtual shopping appointments. Retailers leverage store staff expertise to boost digital sales and service by providing in-store teams tools to connect with shoppers digitally. Unified commerce solutions automate the end-to-end process, from customer communications to seamless sales transactions and quick deliveries.
Digital Convenience in Stores: The POS used to be the epicentre of the store technology experience. But today, consumers expect unlimited access to information and functionality to inform their purchasing decisions, and demand digital convenience inside the store. Retailers empower customers by integrating digital services, enabling loyalty point lookup, exploring product information, and creating digital wishlists in stores. Digital screens for instant browsing and shopping provide ‘endless aisle’ capabilities for browsing and ordering from the entire inventory.
Self-checkout evolution into Self-service: Retailers modernize the checkout experience for customer convenience. They’re putting customers in control with fast and flexible self-guided assistance, mobile point of sale, and contactless payments anywhere in-store, out in the warehouse, or at trade shows and pop-up stores. Self-serve kiosks are practical for larger stores; grocery and convenience store retailers are taking advantage of new self-service software for touchscreen terminals, creating fast and memorable experiences.
Endless Aisle for Seamless Ordering: Consumers choose retailers based on the ease and flexibility of the end-to-end experience. Retailers focus on the entire customer journey, implementing a ‘buy anywhere, fulfill anywhere’ strategy and a central unified commerce platform. This provides real-time visibility of inventory, orders, and customer data across the business. That means customers can shop for products of their choice, whenever they feel like it, using their most convenient channel. Endless aisle access to inventory lets customers order any product and get it delivered to any address.
Flexible Omni-channel Fulfilment: With ecommerce sales returning to pre-pandemic growth levels, services such as ship-from-store, click-and-collect, endless aisle and returns anywhere are all just table stakes today. Retailers are prioritising capabilities that help them to launch and scale omni-channel experiences faster by improving store fulfilment efficiency and enhancing the store pick-up experience. They create hybrid stores supporting online sales while meeting customers’ expectations for fast pick-up and delivery. Ship-from-store capabilities not only enable ecommerce orders to be shipped from stores, but stores can also ship orders placed in other stores. And with a unified view of inventory across all stores and DCs they can quickly see where inventory is located, and choose the fastest route to fulfil orders.
Unified Channels Enhance Personalization: As buying journeys start online and store visits become more planned, customer expectations for a seamless ‘one brand’ experience rise. However, many retailers have channel silos – which means any interaction or activity that the customer had with them online is not available to the customer or staff within the store. Retailers deliver personalized experiences using AI and intelligence across online and offline channels, delivering timely and relevant communications, recommendations, offers, and rewards. This extends into other communications such as e-receipts and shipping notifications.
Unified Employee Experiences: A great customer experience depends on a great employee experience. Retailers invest in employee efficiency and enablement, equipping in-store teams with relevant customer intelligence like loyalty points, wishlists, and sales histories – to equip them to add more value to their customer interactions. AI technology offers personalized upselling recommendations during click-and-collect pickups. Localized pricing ensures up-to-date, competitive pricing, empowering teams to make informed, on-the-spot decisions.
In conclusion, there’s a colossal shift taking place right now in how multi-store retailers plan, build and deliver their in-store customer experience. The prime driver behind this upheaval is the boom in ecommerce that is creating new online shopping habits and reshaping consumers’ expectations of in-store experiences. The synergy between the online and offline embodiment of a brand, understanding the customer’s path to purchase and shopping history have all become fundamental to creating lifetime customer value.
ETP Group has a proven and reference-able track-record of success supporting multi-store retailers at the forefront of omni-channel innovation, with a robust product capability and experience, and the right people and processes to move fast.
Traditionally, the retail industry has been focused on selling products that have been produced and in order to be able to sell those products, it was necessary for retail marketers to follow the principles of the AIDA model. In other words, they had to draw attention of consumers towards new products in the market and spike their interest in those products by various methods. Their very next move was to cultivate that interest into a desire for the product and then drive consumers towards taking an action, in most cases, purchasing the product and thus completing the sale for the business.
Times have changed and the traditional model of retail has undergone a massive disruption where the focus has moved from selling to understanding and then fulfilling the needs of the customer. The retail industry of today has the customer in the driver’s seat, and for retailers it is all about getting to know the customers’ desire better and create products and services that are able to satisfy those needs. Having said that, the basic principles of marketing in retail – attention, interest, desire and action, still hold good but the context of application of these principles may have changed since the modern day customers are mostly aware and attuned to what they want and generally from where they are going to purchase their products or receive the service(s) they seek.
While the retail industry has treaded this journey from a traditional being to what we call as omni-channel retail in the modern day world, there is one factor that principally, still has a formidable impact on the success of any retail business. And that is ‘location’. Let’s deep dive into this conundrum.
Again going back to the past, while the retail market was product/service oriented, the essentiality of getting these to be noticed by customers compelled retailers to look for the best location to station their offerings, generally a busy place where prospective customers usually frequented. And this importance on the physical location is still a foothold for most retail brands who are running their brick-and-mortar stores. Because, in spite of the rise of e-commerce and mobile commerce, most consumers still prefer to shop at stores and many stats have proven this fact.
Now that’s just one aspect in the context of the location where in the physical location plays an essential part in the success of the retail business. Today, retail is about omni-channel and about unified commerce, and the customer is at the epicenter of the business. The rat race to win the customer is on and the location factor plays an important role to win this race. However, here is where the other aspect in the context of the location comes handy. Taking some cues from the past, getting the products/services to where the customers are is still the right thing to do. But with the advent of the internet and mobile devices and social media, the customer has now become the location as he/she is all over. So today, it is not only about the physical presence, but also the virtual or online presence of the retail brands and moreover, the presence in the right places and channels that’s what is extremely critical. Getting the right product at the right time at the right price is necessary but also at the right place is more than half the battle won. The remaining bit is getting the right message/communication across at the right time and through the right channels or mediums to the customer will enable retailers to have maximum impact and stand out from the rest, to seal the deal with their end customers.
Picture this – a young, tech-savvy and discerning shopper wants to buy a mobile phone. She researches on the internet for the latest and best phones in the market. Overwhelmed with options during her research, she realizes and determines her needs and the configuration that will best suit them and then refines her search for the phone. She picks a few options of phones of different brands and variants. While on the way back from the office the next day, she drops by a mobile store and checks out the phones she had picked up earlier and a few others as well that interest her while at the store With all the information at her disposal, she zeros down on the phone she wants to buy but decides to wait. Her desire to buy the phone fizzles down however she comes across advertisements of offers going on for the phones she had considered earlier and this spikes her interest again. The next day she selects the best offer and places an order for the mobile phone through her own hand-held device and chooses to collect it from a near buy store within 24 hours of ordering, get her used devise exchanged and make the payment at the store. While she goes to pick up and pay at the store she stumbles upon a set of headphones that she likes instantly and decides to bundle that with her phone purchase, hands over her used phone, makes the payment and walks out with the new product.
The above mentioned is one of the many scenarios of the complicated shopping process that involve different permutations and combinations of the various stages of the shopping journey intermingled with the various retail channels customers can use to interact and shop. Moreover, there is a whole set of operations and systems that need to be running at the back-end to support such complex, dynamic and comprehensive shopping processes. One of the biggest challenges for retailers’ of today, in the age where ‘customer is king’, lies in tying these channels, systems and operations together, in a way that the entire retail shopping process becomes friction-less and retail brands are able to deliver a seamless experience to their customers. To counter this challenge there is one sure shot solution and that is ‘omni-channel’.
Omni-channel essentially necessitates that the different channels not only be connected but also integrated. In order to accomplish this, various systems and operations must therefore be integrated in a manner that enables the systems and processes and the channels to work as a cohesive unit. Further, the data and information flow across the various processes must be streamlined in a way that there is one single version of the truth and a uniform representation of the brand across all the channels. In other words, accurate and real-time inventory and customer information must be accessible and available across the business operations and processes, and channels. Having said that, it also must be easy to manage all these systems, operations and information centrally for better control and risk mitigation. When all this is achieved, it will lead to unified commerce where the customers can enjoy seamless experiences due to frictionless operations and processes.
Therefore it is necessary for retail brands who are looking to not only strike the right chord with their customers and improve their operations but also planning to scale up their operations or add more products/channels or even expand in other geographies, to select an omni-channel retail software partner who has the domain expertise and is trusted by market leaders.
While the debates about retail apocalypse and the demise of physical retail continue, one thing is for sure, these are merely exaggerations based on certain instances, as the big picture depicts otherwise. At this juncture there is one truth only – retail as a business is being re-imagined, re-invented and re-engineered and this is happening because of technology.
Technology has been the principal driver and the enabler of the retail revolution process, leading to the modern day retail scenario where omni-channel is the new norm. All this has been possible because technology has found its place in almost every aspect of retail – right from production to supply-chain to distribution to sales to post sales services. Moreover, it has also influenced various stages of the customer journey, consequentially leading to changes in consumers’ behavior and preferences.
Omni-channel is the offspring of technology. Omni channel thrives on technology and this is one of the major reasons why, from being a mere buzzword about a decade ago, today it has become the ‘way of life’ for retail businesses and brands. Omni-channel fundamentally offers 5 highly desired abilities – reach, convenience, speed, collaboration and unified commerce. And in-turn these abilities are the basic benefits of going omni-channel.
In order to be omni-channel ready, retail businesses must use multiple retail touch-points to interact and service their customers. Subsequently, adding more channels expands the horizon of the retail businesses and enables them to reach more customers, while customers on the other hand can reach and interact with their brands through multiple touch-points. With more than one channel to shop from, customers can use different channels during their shopping journey at their own convenience, and as for retailers, they can easily make use of the different channels to influence their consumers along the shopping process. Omni-channel also enables retail brands with speedy access to information related to inventory and customers as well as helps retailers to service customers faster, while customers can receive quick gratification of their purchases or move through the shopping process faster by switching between channels. Omni-channel essentially necessitates the integration of multiple channels, systems and processes, thus facilitating them to work in collaboration, in a way that enables unified commerce. This makes it possible for retailers to have a single version of the truth about their customer and inventory information across the business and also supports them to provide a seamless and unified experience to their customers.
While omni-channel is necessary, it has potentials that can really do wonders to the retail business and retailers must try to capitalize on this. Employing the right omni-channel retail software will help retailers become truly and holistically omni-channel and thereafter reap its benefits big time.
Price and product are important parameters for customers to make decisions related to their preferred brands and have long been dominating the decision making process. But now, customer experience is the biggest differentiator for retail brands standing out. So much so that it has already overtaken price and product as the most sought after parameter for the customers. Thus competition amongst retailers on the customer experience front seems to be intensifying immensely. As reported by Gartner 89% of retail businesses are expected to compete mainly on customer experience. Howbeit, adding more customer touchpoints, retailers are finding it increasingly difficult to manage a harmonious customer experience across channels.
The need for a unified and seamless customer experience is profound in this new age of shopping. The lingering fear of customer churn owing to inconsistent shopping experiences, the probabilities of lost sales and loyalty shift to competitor brands are some of the major concerns that modern day retail businesses are battling against. One dependable solution that retailers must look to for emerging champions in the customer experience arena is ‘unified commerce’.
Going by an important statistic according to a Boston Retail Partners (BPR) report, more than 70% of retailers have plans to implement a unified commerce platform before the turn of the decade. Further, a definition of unified commerce by BPR states that ‘unified commerce places the customer experience as first priority by leveraging a single commerce platform. A single platform rids of internal channels that operate in their own silos. Instead, merchants leverage a “single, centralized, real-time platform for all customer engagement points.” In this way, unified commerce is achieved’.
Following the definition above, it is clear that ‘unified commerce’ relies on two fundamental aspects that are key for achieving a unified customer experience:
i) a single version of the data that is true
ii) the single version of the data available in real time
Deriving further the above aspects, no matter which channel is used by a retail brand for interaction with their customers, there should be a single true data regarding the products, prices, offers and so on for the customers consumption. So also, information related to the customer such as name, age, address, and purchase history amongst others must be a single version of the truth for the retailer to process. When this data is shared in real-time and is accessible to the customer and retail business whenever, wherever, the result will be a seamless and unified customer experience.
Retailers have not only realized this but are also striving to make it a reality. However, this is still a pain point for many of them. Having the right technological capabilities by employing innovative and futureproof solutions such as ETP retail software can help retailers unify their customer experience across all channels.
