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Unified commerce is a retail business approach that combines all retail systems together to provide a consistent shopping experience across all selling channels. This allows associates to track cross-channel customer data, view enterprise-wide inventory, and access all order history, while simultaneously providing customers the flexibility to purchase products and navigate the retail experience seamlessly, either digitally or in-store. In order to provide this experience, retailers need a unified commerce platform. Unified commerce: the future of retail

keep the promises they make and meet modern omnichannel customer demands. When executed properly, according to the 2023 Unified Commerce Benchmark for Specialty Retail: “A unified commerce approach ensures every shopping journey becomes a brand loyalty opportunity” and “represents a significant opportunity to grow revenue.” Retailers who use a leading Unified Commerce strategy see a revenue increase of 3 to 6 times compared to those who do not. A specialty retailer could benefit from extra revenue by improving their unified commerce maturity. Four components Unified commerce is made up of components that enable optimised scalability, adaptability, and visibility, as well as seamless connectivity of customer and associate interactions. The four main components of unified commerce are: 1 Systems With a unified commerce platform, all back end and front end systems are connected and work as a cohesive unit to provide retailers with the ability to adapt and scale all functionality to their specific business needs. It enables unification of all stores, customer services, and distribution processes to achieve business goals, and doesn’t require time and resources spent on multiple solution providers. This unification provides access to actionable enterprise-wide data from multiple touchpoints with all customer and inventory data accessible from a single view, regardless of channel. And when all systems are working from one centralised platform, it allows integration of new technologies and seamless receiving of solution upgrades that address and keep up with omnichannel trends.

A unified commerce platform leverages real-time data regarding customers, inventory, and distribution network in one place-effectively connecting the back end of retail operations to the front end. Point of Sale (POS), inventory management, customer relations management (CRM), order management, and fulfilment management are all accessed within a single view and delivered symbiotically in one solution. With a unified commerce platform, retailers possess the technology capabilities required to

RETAILERS WHO USE A LEADING UNIFIED COMMERCE STRATEGY SEE A REVENUE INCREASE OF 3 TO 6 TIMES COMPARED TO THOSE WHO DO NOT.

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COMMERCE TRENDS - 2023/2024