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This enables them to deliver a tailored experience online or in physical stores . Importantly , these leaders also work to align the entire organisation , especially leaders in the business and technology functions , on the value of creating this seamless experience , and they foster cross-organisational efforts to make it happen .
This complete view of the customer is a key feature of ‘ unified commerce ’ – a term for deploying retail technology to provide a seamless customer experience across all sales channels and customer touchpoints .
Unified commerce comprises the technology and experience across the entire stack ; as retail tech leaders focus on the back-end connectivity of sales and customer touchpoint systems , operational and marketing leaders focus on the seamless experience on the front end for customers . Both elements are necessary to achieve business goals .
This type of approach has become table stakes for most retailers , who want to provide their customers with a wide range of omnichannel capabilities :
• Buy online and pick up in store ;
• Redeem online promo codes in a store ;
• Shop in a store and deliver to the home , or pick up in a neighbouring store ;
• Have visibility into the store ’ s inventory before visiting the store ;
• Make returns easily , whether the item was bought in a store or online ; and
• Pay with options like Klarna , PayPal , or Venmo , either in store or online .
But about half ( 45 %) of retailers lack a strategic roadmap to guide their investments in unified commerce and ensure that their organisation is creating value from the changes implemented .
To understand what unified commerce means for retailers , as well as what capabilities are required to deliver a superior shopping experience across channels and the challenges faced in doing so , Bain and Aptos surveyed more than 300 retail executives in the US , the UK and Canada who are responsible for unified commerce investments at their organisations .
Retail segments surveyed include apparel stores , department and general merchandise stores , electronics , home furnishing , luxury retail , sports and recreation , beauty , footwear , home and hardware stores , accessories , and travel and hospitality . Surveyed retailers ’ annual revenue is no less than US $ 150 million . Most respondents cited earnings between US $ 150 million and US $ 50 billion in annual revenue . p
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