A Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming a Unified Retailer

You may find several retailers who put their stores at the center of their unified retail and commerce strategy. A unified retailer store owners gain the most from an increase in in-store traffic! Yes, this is because omnichannel customers shop 1.7 times more and spend more than single-channel shoppers, according to a McKinsey report. These stores usually convert around 30%, while eCommerce conversion rates lag below 5%.

You also have the potential to witness such major market growth as a unified retailer if you have a retail store. How? Let’s get you some clarity below.

What Do You Mean by a Unified Retailer?

A unified retailer aims to create a shopping experience on the customer’s own terms rather than those imposed by the retail shop or the eCommerce sector. This is possible with the help of unified commerce, which integrates a retailer’s backend systems with their sales channels. It helps create a complete shopping experience for customers where processes run faster and more efficiently. 

Approximately 73% of retail executives consider unified commerce to be extremely important, according to a report by Aptos in partnership with Bain & Company. It has become more crucial in the present context because the retail sector has become demanding, different, and more dynamic. 

What is Unified Retailing?

Unified retailing is a process that helps create a unique shopping experience based on the customer’s terms rather than those imposed by the retailer. It usually breaks down the concept of different channels and considers the retail experience a holistic offering to customers. 

Unified retailing is an important business strategy that integrates all sales channels, data, and backend systems, like inventory management and CRM applications, into a single, efficient platform.

Sometimes, people also refer to unified retailing as unified commerce. It is often considered the foundation of competitive advantage for retailers, grocers, quick-serve restaurants, and other businesses.

Why is Unified Retailing Important?

Unified retailing is important in today’s business landscape for several reasons. It mostly relates to the evolution of consumer behavior and other technological advancements. Here is an explanation of why unified retailing or commerce is crucial. 

• Seamless Customer Experience

Unified retailing ensures a consistent and enjoyable experience for your consumers across all online or in-store channels. This consistency builds trust, convenience, and satisfaction. It also encourages repeat business and promotes brand loyalty. 

Hence, customers can transition between channels without any disruption, which improves their shopping journey. Examples include browsing online and picking up in-store products. 

• Multi-Channel Integration

Integrating multiple channels allows retailers to maintain consistent branding, messaging, and service quality across all touchpoints. It also helps them reach customers wherever they are. This integration broadens your customer base and increases sales opportunities. This is because consumers can engage with your brand through their preferred channels for a unified presence. 

• Real-Time Inventory Visibility

Real-time inventory visibility is crucial for maintaining accurate stock levels. It often reduces the risks of overstocking or stockouts. It further enhances customer service by providing up-to-date product availability. This builds trust among customers and improves their shopping experience. It also enables efficient order fulfillment by offering inventory from the most appropriate location for faster deliveries. 

• Data Integration and Analytics

Unified retailing uses integrated data from all channels to provide insights into customer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns. This data helps with informed decision-making and allows for personalized marketing and customer interactions. Moreover, advanced analytics help identify trends and opportunities. This keeps all retailers ahead of the competition and responsive to market demands.

• Operational Efficiency

Streamlining operations through unified retailing improves inventory, order, and customer service management. This leads to cost savings by reducing waste, minimizing errors, and optimizing resource allocation. Enhanced operational efficiency also promotes better collaboration across departments. It ensures cohesive efforts toward common business goals and drives productivity and profitability.

• Adaptation to Changing Consumer Trends

Unified retailing enables retailers to adapt to shifting consumer preferences and market conditions. It ensures ongoing relevance and competitiveness. Retailers can gather valuable insights that drive innovation in product offerings, marketing strategies, and customer service. They can do so by maintaining strong connections with customers across multiple channels. It also helps them respond to evolving consumer trends.

• Personalization Opportunities

Unified retailing enhances the customer experience by enabling personalized interactions and marketing efforts. Personalization increases customer loyalty, satisfaction, and even conversion rates. It means you are making your customers feel valued and understood. Retailers can also deliver targeted promotions and recommendations based on customer preferences and behaviors. This leads to more engaging and, of course, effective marketing campaigns.

• Competitive Advantage

Implementing a unified retailing strategy provides a competitive edge by offering superior customer experiences and service quality. This differentiation helps attract and retain customers and promotes long-term relationships. Retailers who excel in unified retailing can position themselves as market leaders. They can even gain market shares and establish a strong brand presence in a crowded marketplace.

• Flexibility and Scalability

Unified retail systems scale with business growth. They enable retailers to expand operations without major disruptions. These flexible systems enable quick adaptation to new technologies, market trends, and consumer behaviors. It ensures that the retailer remains relevant and competitive. Investing in unified retailing helps future-proof the business. It further facilitates the integration of new sales channels, products, and services with significant market transformations over time.

Considering all the benefits that unified retailing offers, one can consider thinking of switching to unified retail operations. However, how can one become a unified retailer? Let’s look at the steps of becoming a unified retailer. 

How Can I Become a Unified Retailer?

Leveraging unified commerce for your business requires effort. You need to unify the processes running the backend of your retail business, to begin with the process. Moreover, you must operate the entire retail operations from a single point, which connects the underlying dots in your industry.

Then, you must follow these steps to become a unified retailer.

• Combine All Your Retail Channels

This is your first step towards embracing unified commerce. There may be situations when your online, in-store, email, or social media channels work against each other. You can resolve this issue by unifying all these channels and making all your platforms have the same brand voice. 

You can achieve this by combining your point-of-sale, inventory management, and other customer service platforms. 

• Develop Unique Customer Profiles

Combining all your channels can help you develop a holistic view of the customer, which will help you create a holistic profile for all your customers over time. Start by collecting data from various sources. The common ones include in-store purchases, online orders, and social media interactions. Now, use the same retail store data to create a single customer profile. 

You can use these profiles later to personalize the customer experience. With their help, you can also offer targeted promotions and recommendations to your customers. Do not forget to display the entire history of the buyer’s journey in their respective customer profiles.

• Implement New Technologies for Better Customer Experience

Embrace innovation and new technologies to ensure you combine your channels well and maintain your customers’ profiles. Try using different technologies to improve your in-store customer experience. You can also use customer profiles to drive sales over time. 

Improve your scheduling, communication, and real-time data collection processes on the shop floor to customize the customer experience online and in-store. 

Besides, there are other strategies as well to become a unified retailer and enhance your operations. Now, let’s look at how you will benefit from switching your operations to unified retailing. 

Benefits of Unified Retailing

The benefits of omnichannel excellence through unified commerce are within reach for almost all retailers.

• Increased Sales

Unified commerce makes life easier for your customers and simplifies your life as a retailer. This increase in sales is due to the highly personalized and relevant customer experiences that come with unified retailing. Moreover, conveniences like in-aisle checkout, self-checkout, and enhanced loyalty programs drive sales further. 

This further enables your customers to complete their purchases across any platform, regardless of their initial point of contact. This personalized shopping experience increases the likelihood of sales for your retail business and improves customer satisfaction. 

• Reduced Costs

Unified commerce helps bring efficiency to retail operations. It often urges businesses to apply retail principles that help manage the efficiency and flow of resources. It enables mid-market retailers to optimize operations and compete against online and global retailers effectively. It also helps them win on product availability, convenience, and the value they provide to their respective customers. 

• Sustainable Growth

Leveraging unified commerce connects all core retail systems to run a thriving chain and achieve omnichannel excellence in the market. This also frees up capital and resources, allowing retailers to grow their chains profitably. This transition within your retail business ensures a long-term relationship with your customers. 

Wrapping up, 

Unified commerce makes technology simpler so that you can achieve omnichannel excellence as a retailer. It also helps you create great customer experiences and grow your business profitably. Hence, embracing unified commerce can help you offer them that much-awaited experience by leveraging data collection points and using them to the best of your knowledge. 

The only way to enhance customer experience in the present context is to embrace unified retailing or commerce. However, before transforming your business strategies, you must gather all the knowledge associated with the process. 

Soumyajit