What Is Unified Commerce?
Unified commerce is an approach to retail that allows for a single platform for the customer experience. It enables customers to access products and services across multiple channels, such as in store, online, mobile, and more.
This approach allows retailers to provide a seamless shopping experience with a consistent set of information, data, and services. Unified commerce also allows retailers to create tailored offers and promotions based on customer data and preferences.
The Ultimate Integrated Shopping Experience
The concept of unified commerce has been around since the early 2000s but has become more popular in recent years as technological advances have made it easier for retailers to provide customers with an integrated shopping experience. By eliminating siloed systems and allowing customers to interact with their favorite stores using multiple channels, unified commerce helps drive customer loyalty and leads to higher revenue.
It's All About the Customers
At its core, unified commerce is about providing customers with a seamless shopping journey that allows them to get what they need when they want it. By centralizing operations and leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), a unified commerce platform can help retailers deliver personalized experiences that meet customer needs while still providing cost savings.
Omnichannel vs. Unified Commerce
A key distinction between omnichannel and unified commerce is the scope of services that each provides.
The Main Difference
Omnichannel services focus on providing customers with a unified experience across multiple channels, such as online, physical stores, and marketplaces. This includes offering the same product selection and prices regardless of the channel.
In contrast, unified commerce encompasses all aspects of a business’s operations, including sales, marketing, inventory management, customer service, and analytics. It also includes creating an integrated platform that enables customers to shop across different channels in a seamless way.
How Unified Commerce Delivers More
A unified commerce strategy beyond simply providing omnichannel platforms. Rather than just connecting multiple channels together, a unified commerce platform provides a complete view of consumer data across all points of sale. This enables businesses to gain insights into customer behavior and tailor their offerings accordingly.
A unified commerce platform also allows businesses to streamline their supply chain operations by managing inventory levels across multiple channels in real time. This can help businesses predict demand for products more accurately and reduce costs associated with surplus stock or unfulfilled orders due to stock shortages.
What Is a Unified Commerce Platform?
Now that we've found out what unified commerce is, let's answer the question: What is a unified commerce platform?
A unified eCommerce platform is an integrated software solution that provides businesses with a single platform to manage all aspects of their online sales operations. This platform typically includes features such as product catalog management, order management, payment processing, shipping and fulfillment, consumer relationship management, and analytics and reporting.
With a platform focused on unified commerce architecture, businesses can streamline their operations and improve efficiency by eliminating the need to manage multiple separate systems or platforms. This can lead to reduced costs, improved customer experience, and increased revenue.
Unified eCommerce platforms also typically offer customizable features and integrations with other business systems, allowing businesses to tailor their online sales operations to their specific needs and workflows with a single centralized platform.
The Advantages of Delivering Unified Customer Experiences
Delivering a unified customer experience can bring a range of advantages to businesses, including:
- Improved Customer Satisfaction: Customers want a seamless experience when they interact with a business, regardless of the channels they use. By delivering a unified experience, businesses can meet this expectation, improving customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.
- Increased Sales: A unified experience can help businesses to streamline the buying process, reduce friction, and increase conversions. By providing a consistent experience across channels, businesses can also improve cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
- Reduced Costs: By consolidating systems and platforms, businesses can reduce operational costs and improve efficiency. This can also free up resources to focus on more strategic initiatives.
- Better Insights: A unified customer experience platform can provide businesses with a 360-degree view of the customer across channels, enabling better data analysis and insights. This can inform decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and customer engagement.
- Improved Agility: A unified platform can help businesses to respond quickly to changing market conditions, customer needs, and emerging trends. By enabling real-time updates and adjustments, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and deliver a better experience.
Overall, delivering a unified experience can help businesses to improve customer satisfaction, increase sales, reduce costs, and gain a competitive advantage in the market.
The Challenges of a Unified Customer Model
Implementing a unified customer model can be challenging for businesses. Here are some of the common challenges they may face:
- Data Silos: Data silos can exist in different departments or systems within a business, making it difficult to achieve a unified customer model. The challenge is to consolidate customer data from multiple sources and systems into a single, unified view.
- Integration: Integrating different systems and platforms can be complex and time-consuming. Businesses need to ensure that the unified customer model integrates smoothly with their existing systems and data sources.
- Data Quality: Incomplete or inaccurate data can lead to incorrect insights and decisions. Businesses need to ensure that the data in the unified customer model is accurate, complete, and up-to-date.
- Privacy and Security: Collecting and storing data requires businesses to comply with various privacy and security regulations. It is important to ensure that the unified customer model complies with these regulations and is secure from cyber threats.
- Organizational Change: Implementing a unified customer model requires changes in organizational structures, processes, and culture. It can be challenging to get buy-in from different departments and stakeholders within a business.
- Technology: Implementing a unified customer model requires the right technology infrastructure, tools, and resources. Businesses need to ensure that they have the necessary technical capabilities to support a unified customer model.
Overall, businesses need to address these challenges to successfully implement a unified customer model. By overcoming these challenges, businesses can gain a better understanding of their customers and deliver a more seamless and personalized customer experience.
Conclusion: What's Your Unified Commerce Strategy?
Unified commerce represents a new era in eCommerce, one that prioritizes customer experience and satisfaction. By combining the capabilities of omnichannel and unified commerce solutions, businesses can offer customers seamless experiences across all touchpoints.
Unified platforms also help businesses become more efficient and profitable by streamlining operations. While there are challenges associated with this strategy, such as the need for increased investment in technology and resources, the benefits far outweigh the potential drawbacks.
Ultimately, unified commerce provides businesses with an invaluable tool to create loyal customers through exceptional experiences that leverage the latest technologies and trends.