Unlocking the Power of Unified Commerce: People Organisation, Data Reporting and Business Legal Structure are Key Enablers

The retail industry has undergone a significant transformation in recent years , with the rise of digital commerce and the increasing demand for seamless customer experiences. In response to these changes, retailers have adopted various approaches, including omnichannel and multi-channel strategies. Among these, unified commerce stands out as a powerful approach to delivering a seamless and integrated shopping experience to customers.

Unified commerce involves the integration of all retail channels and touchpoints, including brick-and-mortar stores, online shops, mobile apps, and social media, to deliver a consistent and unified experience to customers. This approach is designed to ensure that customers can easily access products and services through any channel and receive personalised recommendations based on their preferences and shopping history. In this article, we will explore the key aspects of unified commerce, including its advantages, key components, and how it differs from omnichannel retail.

The difference between Unified Commerce and Omnichannel Retail

While both unified commerce and omnichannel retail aim to provide customers with seamless and consistent experiences across various channels, there are subtle differences between the two approaches. Omnichannel retail focuses on integrating the customer experience across multiple channels, ensuring that customers can easily switch between online and offline touchpoints without any friction. On the other hand, unified commerce takes this concept a step further by integrating not only customer-facing channels but also the backend systems, such as inventory management, order management, CRM, invoicing and customer care.

In a unified commerce environment, all data and processes are centralized , allowing retailers to have a single view of customer information, inventory, and sales data. This enables them to make more informed decisions and deliver a truly personalised experience to customers. In contrast, omnichannel retail often involves separate systems and data silos, which can lead to inconsistencies and inefficiencies.

Advantages of implementing Unified Commerce in Retail

There are several advantages to implementing a unified commerce strategy in retail. Some of these benefits include:

• Improved customer experience: with a unified commerce approach, customers can enjoy a seamless and consistent experience across all channels. They can easily access product information, make purchases, and receive personalised recommendations through any touchpoint, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty
• Increased operational efficiency: by integrating all retail systems and processes, unified commerce eliminates data silos and redundancies, streamlining operations and reducing the complexity of managing multiple channels. This can result in cost savings and improvements in overall efficiency
• Enhanced decision-making: with a single view of data across all channels, retailers can make more informed decisions on inventory management, pricing, promotions, and customer engagement. This can lead to increased sales and profitability
• Greater agility and scalability: unified commerce provides retailers with the flexibility to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and customer preferences, as well as the ability to scale their operations to accommodate growth and expansion

Key components of a Unified Commerce strategy

To implement a successful unified commerce strategy, retailers need to focus on some key components.

• Systems and processes need to be integrated: inventory management, order management, CRM, and point of sale (POS) systems, but also invoicing, customer care, marketing and HRIS platforms. But there's good news: this is all available on the market
• Unified commerce also requires a reliable logistics system that can handle the complexities of connected operations. This includes order fulfilment, delivery, and returns, as well as tracking and tracing capabilities. Also here there's good news: strong 3PL partners can offer the required level of service and tech capabilities

If the two elements above are often present in an omnichannel business model, three additional factors can be considered at this point as the true enablers of a unified commerce approach.

• People organisation is essential for a successful unified commerce strategy. All silos need to be removed by aggregating responsibilities and making sure objectives and levers are constantly aligned
• Data reporting is also critical for unified commerce's success. Sales allocation, staff commissions, cost allocations, sales & stock KPIs are crucial elements to be redesigned for the unified commerce world
• Finally, retailers need to review their business legal structure to ensure that it supports the unified commerce strategy. Geographies and channels would need to fall into the same legal entity matrix, favouring a structure that facilitates services to clients rather than internal requirements only

Organisational Structure for a successful Unified Commerce approach

An effective organizational structure is critical for the successful implementation of a unified commerce strategy. Customer centricity and clear levers and incentives are key.

In a business model where all silos have to be removed and full visibility is essential to being able to make the best possible decisions, ownership and responsibility would be more effective if they were unified as well. Organizational legacies and talent availability are important roadblocks to be faced, and solutions might not be immediate, but in a model where the client is at the centre, this centricity also has to be reflected in the internal organization. Some examples:

• Product assortment, stock allocation and the customer's purchase journey are dependent, one influences the other. Some products might be allocated offline to favour showrooming but shipped from a central warehouse in case they get sold. Others could be entirely allocated in stores if they are impulse buys and shipped from stores in the case of an online sale. A single on-/offline merchandise strategy needs a single merchandise visdion behind
• Influenced sales are one of the key components of the omnichannel funnel, where a client sees a product online but buys it offline, or vice versa. As the funnel is omnichannel, so are marketing investments, also at the local level: "Is the ROI higher if we plan an online drive-to-store push or if we work on a store event?" A unified glocal strategy needs to be put in place
• Client acquisition has become very expensive over the years , and efficiency has become important to increase the customer base. Having a single customer acquisition strategy helps maximise efficiency as investments would be made to favour the most productive tool, event, or investment. To do this, there's a need for a unique CRM-responsible person

Data Reporting and Analytics in Unified Commerce

Data reporting and analytics play a crucial role in the successful implementation of unified commerce. By leveraging a unified approach to data, retailers can make more informed decisions on inventory management, pricing, promotions, customer engagement, and employee remuneration.

Particularly, sales & cost allocation and staff commissions & bonuses have to be redesigned for the omnichannel client:

• If a sale is made in store by a client advisor but shipped from a remote warehouse hundreds of miles away, to whom should it be allocated? To the client advisor who made the effort to convert the prospect? Or to the warehouse that made the shipment?
• Who should be allocated the acquisition cost of a client who came in store after s/he received an email triggered by her/his participation in an online event?

These are just a couple of real-life examples of the questions that need to be answered when approaching an omnichannel operational model.

Possible solutions are usually developed in the following 3 directions:

• revenues allocated to whom converts the prospect
• revenues allocated to the entity/channel that owned the product at the moment of the sale
• affiliation model, where revenues are allocated in % to the channels/entities that participated in the prospect conversion (and what about the lead generation?)

The key role of Business Legal Structure when putting the client at the centre

A customer centric business legal structure is essential for realising the full potential of unified commerce. By placing the customer at the centre of all decision-making processes, retailers can ensure that their strategies and initiatives are aligned with the needs and preferences of their target audience. This can help drive customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, revenue growth.

A client asking for a cross-channel in-store change is usually a useful example to clarify the challenges faced by administrative, fiscal, and finance departments.

Imagine a client who was sold (and shipped) the product by the legal entity representing the online store. If the client wishes to change it in a store with a different legal entity than the one in question, the sales assistant (hired under a different legal entity) would need to accept a return on behalf of the different legal entity and allow for the money refund (which will usually take some days to be accredited to the client), then sell the product immediately from his stocks (in-store or endless aisle). Therefore, the client would be debited for the same sale for a few days, waiting for the first credit to be allocated to her/his wallet by the credit card provider. But what if the sale is of a high amount and the client does not have a sufficient plafond available?

If in the above scenario, the legal entity representing both the online store and the physical store would be the same, then the sales assistant could have done the exchange using the amount of the first purchase as a credit for the second purchase, allowing for a debit or credit to the client's credit card only for the price difference between the two products.

This is why legacies in business legal structures are usually important roadblocks to overcome at the beginning for companies that want to push the unified commerce accelerators.

Integrating services for a seamless customer experience

A key aspect of unified commerce involves integrating various services to deliver a seamless customer experience. Most of the time, some crucial services are given lower priority or are taken for granted, and these are the times when a brand can fail at the last mile. These can include:

1. Integrating payment systems across channels, ensuring that customers can easily make purchases with one single payment tool irrespective of where s/he is, where the product will be shipped from, how many deliveries s/he will get or what's the brand's corporate structure behind
2. Integrating customer support services, such as chatbots, live chat, and call centres, to provide consistent and efficient assistance to customers across all channels. Customer service representatives should be able to access all client events from one single source, including sales from all channels, returns or reparation requests from all geographies, comments and feedback shared through all available channels
3. Price and promotions are not usually referred to as client services, but failing to provide a unified approach to them is bad service. Ensuring final prices are the same across distribution channels is considered a pillar of a brand promise. For global brands, geographic alignment is also on the rise as a strategic brand leverage

Case studies: successful Unified Commerce implementations

Several retailers have successfully adopted unified commerce strategies, demonstrating the potential of this approach to drive growth and profitability. Some notable examples include:

• Starbucks: The coffee giant has successfully leveraged unified commerce to deliver a seamless and personalised experience to customers across channels. By integrating its mobile app with its in-store ordering and payment systems, Starbucks has made it easy for customers to order and pay for their drinks and food through any channel, whether it's in-store, online, or through the mobile app
• Nike has implemented a successful unified commerce approach, enabling customers to seamlessly shop across channels and access personalised offers and recommendations based on their preferences and purchase history. Nike has also invested in advanced analytics tools and technologies to gain deeper insights into customer behaviour and preferences
• Walmart has embraced an omnichannel strategy, that incorporates elements of unified commerce, to provide a seamless and integrated shopping experience to customers. By leveraging its vast network of physical stores and e-commerce platforms, Walmart has made it easy for customers to access products and services through any channel, while also providing features such as click-and-collect and same-day delivery

Conclusion and future outlook for Unified Commerce in Retail

Unified commerce is a powerful approach to delivering a seamless and personalised experience to customers across all touchpoints. By integrating all retail channels and systems, retailers can gain a single view of customer information, inventory, and sales data, enabling them to make more informed decisions and drive growth and profitability.

While there are challenges to adopting a unified commerce approach, retailers that successfully implement this strategy can enjoy numerous benefits, including increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, improved operational efficiency, and greater agility and scalability.

Looking ahead, we can expect to see more and more retailers adopting unified commerce strategies as the demand for seamless and integrated experiences continues to grow. As technology continues to evolve, retailers will also have access to advanced analytics tools and technologies, enabling them to gain deeper insights into customer behaviour and preferences and deliver even more personalised experiences.

#unifiedcommerce #omnichannel #retail #people #organization #data #business #technlogy #cx