As the retail universe scrambles to accommodate today’s rapidly evolving consumer behaviours, more businesses are turning to unified commerce to solve the issues affecting current customer experience management methods. Well, what exactly is unified commerce, and why must retailers adopt it as part of their core customer experience strategy?
Unified commerce is the practice of using a robust customer data platform to streamline data from all sales and customer engagement channels, forming a single source of transactional truth for the customer.
This strategy integrates the retail front end and back end, eliminating technological barriers and dissolving information silos. The result is a real-time, interconnected flow of data projecting a single customer view through all points of contact, creating a seamless customer journey from start to finish.
The rise of digital, coupled with the advent of social has increasingly shaped retail over the past three decades. Flanked at every turn by many different means of brand interaction, the modern retail customer comes with a progressively growing list of expectations.
Today’s customer:
Given this expansive catalogue of customer concerns, how can retailers use unified commerce to build a buyer experience that sets the stage for customer retention and many happy returns?
Illustrating how unified commerce answers the question above means revisiting the multi-channel and omnichannel commerce models.
Multi-channel commerce uses various marketing channels like email, direct mail, and social in combination with sales channels such as the online shop or brick-and-mortar stores.
Each channel in the multi-channel model exists as a standalone purchase opportunity. With the product at the centre, this strategy is about penetrating as many avenues as possible and reaching as many customers as possible.
Multi-channel commerce certainly succeeds at being everywhere, every time, for its target market. However, as each channel acts in isolation, crucial aspects like customer profiling, messaging and offers, and point of sale and inventory tend to become disjointed.
Let’s say Adam browses a website that sells sneakers. He sees a pair he likes that are on sale and wants to try them on at the nearest branch. Once in-store, the salesperson tells him that not only are the sneakers not on sale, but the store also doesn’t have them in stock. Adam leaves the store empty-handed and frustrated. Poor customer experience alert!
Omnichannel commerce improves multi-channel by connecting these customer engagement touchpoints to each other. It effectively weaves a cohesive, personalised buyer’s journey.
In an omnichannel approach, the customer is the centre of a web of engagement channels. The channels work in harmony so that the customer can interact with the brand and complete their transactions on any channel — be it in-store, via mobile, or on desktop — seamlessly and satisfactorily.
Where omnichannel falls short, however, is in its technology. Transitioning from multi-channel to omnichannel often means retroactively linking disparate commerce, marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools via multiple stacks in the retail back end.
Without the right tool or support, this can result in unwieldy IT infrastructures and persistent technological difficulties, which fundamentally harm the consistency of the customer experience.
Unified commerce uses a single technology stack to cultivate a customer-centric ecosystem that handles everything from marketing and order fulfilment to after-sales customer care.
Key to this execution is a multi-functional, end-to-end customer data platform that provides customers with a frictionless shopping experience as they move from touchpoint to touchpoint. It also provides businesses with an all-angle view of how the customers interact with their brand.
With unified commerce, retailers can enjoy benefits like no other.
Robust, real-time customer insights for better decision-making
Unified commerce connects customer-facing channels with all back-end systems to allow critical data to flow between these systems while ensuring its accuracy and timeliness.
With access to everything from product description, pricing, and stock availability, to customer profile and social network integrations, retailers can track customer activity across all touchpoints. This kind of visibility allows you to understand your customers’ unique path to purchase and create a superior customer experience.
Cross-channel consistency for a genuinely personalised customer experience
A unified customer data platform can provide a holistic snapshot of customer behaviour, such as purchase history, preferred channels, promotion usage, and more. Retailers can take all this data and nuances into consideration to design and deliver contextual buyer journeys for a truly unique and delightful customer experience.
Optimised supply chain, inventory, and order fulfilment preferences
Unified visibility across the supply chain, in-store inventory, and order fulfilment options empowers retailers to give customers the satisfaction of starting the sale anywhere and finishing the sale anywhere.
Whether customers prefer to “buy online, pick up in-store”, i.e. click and collect, or to arrange for same-day touchless delivery, integrating marketing, sales, and engagement data makes order fulfilment a hassle-free affair for both the customer and the retailer.
Process efficiency and scalability at a lower cost
Unified commerce uses a single customer experience software that allows optimisation and partner integration at speed and scale. It also eliminates the complex application interdependencies that legacy systems involve. Enhancing existing capabilities and adding new features is simple, streamlined, and cost-effective.
According to Australia Post’s annual Inside Australian Online Shopping report, Australian online shopping reached an all-time high in 2020, with online purchases growing 57% year on year. The phenomenal rise of the eCommerce consumer has challenged retailers to meet ever-evolving customer experience requirements.
To truly succeed in the digital era and the new normal, retailers must not only understand their customers but also stay one step ahead of their wants and needs.
Connect with us today and see how Omneo can help you start creating a truly connected and personalised experience for your customers.
