It wasn’t long ago that the long-term viability of the traditional bricks-and-mortar retail model stirred passionate debate. Now, we see COVID-born pure play eCommerce brands seeking out physical footprints as journeys from online to in-store and back again become the new normal. 

Today, the emerging model – unified commerce – offers retailers a more seamless, better integrated design than its omnichannel predecessor; with streamlined internal processes making room for them to scale their operations, reduce costs, and deliver an enriched customer experience.

Through centralising data channels, enhancing analytics and reporting, and improving inventory management and fulfilment options, unified commerce has emerged as the future of retail, and brands that resist—or worse, ignore—adapting risk being left behind in a rapidly evolving market. 

Capitalising on the unified commerce revolution is crucial if you’re a retail brand today, so it’s essential that brands understand what that entails. 

What is unified commerce, and what happened to omnichannel? 

Before unified commerce, there was omnichannel, which evolved from the traditional in-store retail model to enable consumers to continue to engage with brands at their convenience across a variety of new and emerging channels, like web, social media, apps, even events. 

Over time, brands recognised and responded to the need to cater better to customers wherever (and whenever) they were on their buying journey and so began adapting their offerings to meet those needs.

Yet while it improved the customer experience of a brand at the front end, omnichannel retail quickly led to dysfunctional, disconnected backend systems that were complex, inefficient, and time-consuming to manage.

Today, a more unified commerce model centralises the entire operation in one fully integrated backend system. It enables brands to monitor inventory, data, and customer behaviour behind the scenes, at different checkpoints—both on and offline—in real time.

When everything is running smoothly ‘behind the scenes’, customers are not just free to engage freely with brands as they wish, they benefit enormously from retailers’ capacity to accurately predict, support, and amplify their journey. Everyone wins.

The changing role of physical stores

Far from fading into obsolescence, bricks-and-mortar stores are fast evolving from transactional spaces to experiential hubs that support and enhance the overall customer lifecycle. Stores are now showcases for a brand’s ethos and values, a uniquely physical space through which to tell a brand’s story, helping to build powerful emotional connections with customers.

They’re gathering places being used to host events, workshops, collaborations, and other activities that foster brand loyalty and help build community. lululemon is a brand that does this well; their ‘Move it for Mental Health’ sunrise yoga event at Westfield Bondi Junction which included refreshments and the chance to win lululemon gear is a great example of the power of ‘place’ in retail.

More and more, stores are also now fulfilment centres in their own right. In 2019, The WORKING PARTY client and Aussie retailer JB Hi-Fi, realising it could better serve online customers by fulfilling orders in-store rather than via centralised distribution centres, merged JB and Good Guys support centres and warehouses in Melbourne. In-store, too, the simple introduction of headsets for floor staff helped radically improve communication and the flow of stock from the back of store into customers’ hands.

Unified commerce: how can your brand get started?

In an industry where everything can now be measured with data, being able to deliver increased revenue and profit—without sacrificing customer experience or brand equity—is everything. 

To help, here are some strategies to help get you started on transitioning your brand towards unified commerce today:

  1. Get serious about analytics. Leverage data into actionable insights. Utilise AI and advanced analytics to gain insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and trends, which in turn will help amplify your marketing efforts, improve inventory management, and personalise (and enhance) customer experience.
  2. Consistent brand experience. Is your brand messaging, visual identity, and customer service consistent across all channels? Make sure your marketing campaigns, promotions, and loyalty programs are always aligned to create a cohesive customer journey.
  3. Mobile integration. Ensure that your mobile app and mobile-optimised websites are seamlessly connected to other channels. Mobiles are often the first point of contact for customers, so a unified experience here can set the tone for the entire brand interaction.
  4. Invest in fully-integrated systems. Consider unified commerce as an investment in your future brand. At The WORKING PARTY we partner with Shopify Plus to enable brands to integrate online and offline channels, inventory management, customer data, and payment systems, seamlessly.
  5. Ask the experts. Outsourcing gives you access to specialised knowledge and skill sets which can accelerate the development and implementation of a unified commerce strategy.

Retail is a kaleidoscopic landscape founded on the principles of great design and powered by tech, and retailers who fail to address fast-changing market conditions and consumer expectations of a deeply personal, responsive, wholly unified brand experience will quickly lose their competitive edge against more agile competitors.

Kelly Brown is co-founder of The Working Party.