In recent years, the terms ‘unified commerce’ and ‘omnichannel’ have reached buzzword status. Both are used to describe the delivery of seamless customer experiences across physical and digital channels.
But while they’re used interchangeably, there’s a significant difference between them.
Unified commerce is the next-generation architecture that finally delivers on what omnichannel promised.
A unified commerce platform provides a central hub that breaks down the silos between channels to deliver truly seamless experiences, while also solving omnichannel’s biggest weakness – operational complexity.
At a time when only 25% of retailers can connect their online and in-store transaction data it’s gaining momentum, with 20% of retailers heavily investing in it, 32% beginning to invest and 36% considering doing so. And retailers who used unified commerce in 2022 saw a solid 7% revenue boost over those who did not.
Omnichannel offers options, but creates operational complexity
Omnichannel strategies talked about creating a seamless and consistent customer experience across all channels, but the execution has left a large gap in the user experience.
Why? Retailers have to quickly spin up new channels as consumers demand them. An omnichannel approach does connect numerous channels, but they all operate in functional silos. That means customers can’t hop between channels in one seamless interaction and most attempts to deliver unified experiences fall well short.
Omnichannel makes things much harder for retailers in five ways:
Integrating data silos: Often loosely connected with manual processes and custom integrations, omnichannel solutions are fragile, inefficient and costly to maintain. The silos generate a cascade of inconsistent, inaccurate data shared across the business, making it virtually impossible to deliver a seamless customer experience.
Inventory that isn’t real time: Many omnichannel systems only access rudimentary sales and inventory positions. This prevents retailers from offering the ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ options that are best for customers and most profitable for them.
Adding modern technologies and capabilities: Connecting legacy systems with modern technologies requires custom integrations, making the creation of new brand experiences complex, expensive, time consuming and risky.
Obtaining a single view of the customer: Silos negatively impact customers because they have to deal with inconsistencies and gaps, such as partial sales histories, different answers to questions or having to start new conversations in each channel.
Loss of innovation: Day-to-day inefficiencies mean that internal teams are tied up in remediation and troubleshooting and have less time to spend on creating the innovative, personalised experiences customers desire.
Here’s an example of how omnichannel creates operational complexity:
An omnichannel architecture could allow a retailer to look up inventory across all its stores but they would struggle to make all items available online. This is because many retailers have items that are difficult to ship, such as fragile items, dangerous goods or large and bulky or heavy products. With no ability to create customised views of inventory to make them available for click and collect but exclude them from home delivery or inter-store transfers, they can only offer these items in stores.
Unified commerce puts the customer experience first
Customers today expect to transact when, where and however they want. They don’t care how you achieve it and will reward you if you have it - or shop elsewhere if you don’t.
The only way to meet these demands for a truly unified experience is to move beyond omnichannel to unified commerce.
Unified commerce is an architectural approach that delivers seamless customer journeys across all channels, touchpoints and locations.
It breaks down the walls between internal channel silos by using a centralised commerce platform that combines point of sale, inventory, ordering and fulfilment, loyalty, pricing and business intelligence.
With a unified view of the customer, and all channels and engagement points connected in real-time, you can deliver a personalised and consistent customer experience.
Your customers get a ‘one brand’ experience: one person with one account, interacting with one unified brand. No hitches, and no inconsistencies.
You can make purchasing online and in-stores more seamless and convenient through endless aisle, digital payments and ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ services.
And you can quickly respond to changing customer expectations and new technologies by using microservices and APIs to expose data and connect third-party services.
A unified commerce platform enriches your customer experience and positively impacts your entire business in so many ways:
Simplify your technology
Accelerate speed to market
Optimise inventory and availability
Boost in-store productivity and sales
Personalise your customer experience
Create relevant and agile experiences.
This blog was originally published in January 2020 and updated 17 October 2023.
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