In this episode of Retaili$tic, Manik Bhatia, Head of Cobranded Research at Coresight Research, dives into the evolution from omnichannel retail to unified commerce. He highlights the importance of integrating various retail channels to enhance the shopping experience and meet changing consumer expectations, emphasizing the need to break down data silos. The discussion covers consumer behavior, the role of mobile apps and social commerce, and the significance of data integration and operational efficiency in retail. Listen now to understand the challenges that retailers face in implementing unified commerce systems and to uncover critical insights to support successful unified commerce strategies, from the supply chain to front-end operations.
Takeaways
Chapters
00:00 This Week in Research: New Reports and Data
02:05 Understanding Unified Commerce
04:58 Consumer Behavior and Channel Integration
05:30 The Role of Mobile Apps and Social Commerce
06:32 Commerce Infrastructure Solutions
12:15 Customer Experience and Engagement Solutions
18:05 Shopper Data Integration Solutions
25:12 Sales and Operations Solutions
27:09 Unified Commerce: The Backbone of Retail Operations
29:51 Supply Chain and Inventory Management: Ensuring Availability
36:47 Challenges in Implementing Unified Commerce
47:06 Strategies for Executing Unified Commerce
53:43 The Future of Unified Commerce: Adapting to Change
Discover technology companies globally that provide unified commerce solutions with the Retail-Tech Landscape: Unified Commerce from Coresight Research.
Speaker 2 (00:00.398)
Welcome to Retaili$tic, the official podcast of Coresight Research for March 25th, 2025. Today, we have a conversation with Manik Bhatia, our Director of Custom Research, to discuss our Unified Commerce Landscape Report. But first, Georgina Smith is here from the London office to tell us all about the research publishing this week on Coresight.com and our coverage of Shoptalk live from Las Vegas. Hi, Georgina.
The latest installment of our monthly US Retail Sales Outlook series is now live. We track several major macroeconomic indicators and their likely effect on US retail sales. This month, six of the 14 key indicators we examine in this report will likely have a negative impact in the coming months, which marks a worse scenario than last month. Coresight Research's proprietary machine learning model offers lower growth projections through the remainder of 2025 than we previously forecast.
As with many of our data heavy research reports, you can access the data behind key charts and tables in the US retail sales outlook with the accompanying spreadsheet download. Of course, our weekly reports also continue this week, bringing you the latest data-driven updates on US consumer sentiment, as well as store openings and closures in the US and the UK. Elsewhere, our new retail tech landscape dives into unified commerce, technology and market trends. You can discover key solution providers in this field across multiple areas of specialty.
from customer experience to supply chain and inventory management. Unified Commerce is set to be a key theme at Shop Talk Spring this year and the much anticipated conference takes place in Las Vegas this week, which will be our primary focus in research. Core Site Research is a research partner of Shop Talk Spring. In addition to our comprehensive coverage of the exciting Shark Reef Startup Pitch Competition, we will also provide coverage of the conference panels and keynotes in reports that will be released following the morning sessions each day and then updated to capture all of the excitement from each afternoon.
So whether you are attending the event or looking to stay in the know remotely, CoreSight.com will be your definitive source for keeping up to date with critical insights as they unfold. If you are in Vegas for Shop Talk, our team on the ground would love to meet with you. Please reach out to us to book a meeting or catch us on the show floor to say hi.
Speaker 2 (02:05.836)
Thanks Georgina and I am delighted to welcome Monique Batia, our Director of Custom Research at CoreSight. Monique and his team just published a comprehensive report, The Retail Tech Landscape Unified Commerce, which highlights 50 solution providers that help retailers unify their channels. Monique, it's great to have you on the show today.
Thanks, Philip. I'm excited to be here and talk about unified commerce. It's a topic that's top of mind for many retail executives and also for us internally as an organization. So excited to be here.
great. To set the stage, you explain what unified commerce is and why it's important in retail today?
Certainly. Unified commerce is essentially the next evolution of omnichannel retail. Talking of omnichannel, retailers tried to offer multiple channels including stores, online, mobile, but those channels were managed separately. Unified commerce takes this a step further and links all these channels on the backend through a single platform. In other words, it connects your backend systems like inventory, order management, CRM,
with front-facing channels in real time. And the goal is to provide a seamless and integrated shopper experience across all touch points. So whatever a customer is browsing on a mobile app, shopping on the website, or they are in a physical store, the experience and information need to be consistent. And I think this real-time integration is what unified commerce is. And having a holistic view of the shopper and the stock levels.
Speaker 1 (03:41.654)
and ensuring that everybody gets consistent experiences across the shopping channels. That's what gives birth to Unified Commerce.
Got it, that makes sense. breaking down these channels sounds like something that everybody should be working on given how shopper behavior is changing over time. Can you talk a little bit about what we're seeing there?
Exactly. That's so accurate at the moment. Consumers today expect this seamlessness and our research at CoreSight found that nearly two-thirds of US consumers use multiple channels to some extent when shopping. They might discover a product on social media, they can go check it out in store on a website and of course they can go online or in store and buy it. At the same time, physical stores are still accounting for about 85 % of all retail sales.
and we're also seeing newer channels gain prominence. For example, social media continues to gain prominence and a recent survey revealed that 43 % of consumers in the US have used social media to discover, research or purchase products. And shoppers are also blending these channels fluidly and Unified Commerce is how retailers can keep up with that, making everything and every channel work as one.
So consumers don't really think in terms of different channels. They just shop. They just want to buy what they want to buy and they'll take, you know, any entry point that's available to them, I guess. So if multi-channel shoppers represent the vast majority of purchases, they're still touching the store in some way, correct? So the retailers have to act to integrate that into a unified shopping experience. That makes perfect sense.
Speaker 2 (05:25.57)
how are we seeing mobile apps and social commerce changing over time?
Absolutely.
So I just gave you a stat on social commerce. think I'll also give you some context on mobile apps. For example, mobile apps today have become a key part of unified commerce strategy and we are seeing more retailers leverage mobile apps for loyalty and for wayfinding for checkouts and so on. And one example from a report that that stands out for me at the moment is is Dollar General's mobile app that has truly evolved into an all-in-one shopping tool.
that includes in-store navigation, digital coupons, product locators, and even checkout capabilities. It bridges online and in-store by letting customers find products in the aisle, get personalized offers on their phone, and even checkout. Social commerce is another piece. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest now have shop features. Retailers are integrating them into a unified commerce approach and
The big picture here is meeting customers wherever they are and delivering a consistent experience.
Speaker 2 (06:32.074)
Okay, those are some great initial examples, but let's dig into the report because there's over 50 companies in this report that just is publishing. That's a lot to think about, but they actually break down into different categories. And the report talks about the commerce infrastructure, customer experience and engagement, shopper data integration, sales and operations, and then the supply chain and inventory management. Can we go through each category and talk about some specifics?
short.
That would be great.
Let's start with Commerce Infrastructure Solutions.
Sure, commerce infrastructure providers offer the foundational platforms that are unifying various commerce channels and operations. Essentially, these are the systems that a retailer would use to run their online and in-store commerce on a single unified platform. For example, they would link point of sale, e-commerce, order management, etc. Just one unified platform. In our report, we identified 12 key players in the commerce infrastructure segment.
Speaker 1 (07:35.862)
I'll give you a brief overview of these. We have Aptos and they provide a unified commerce platform for integrating in-store and online operations. We have BigCommerce. They are software as a service e-commerce platform known for multi-channel sales tools. We have Cart.com. They offer an order management system to centralize orders and inventory across channels. We have Equid, a user-friendly platform for small businesses to add online stores.
integrated with their existing sites or social media. We also have GOC retail that's a cloud-based unified commerce solution for multi-store retailers focusing on integrated sales and service. We also have Lightspeed. They are a cloud-based POS and they also integrate with e-commerce and they help retailers manage inventory and sales in one place. We also have Magento, Adobe Commerce, OneView Commerce, OpenBravo.
SAP Commerce Cloud, Shopify, and Spryker. I'll give you a quick overview of these as well. So Magento, is now Adobe Commerce, is a highly customizable e-commerce platform, and they unify online and offline channels. OneView offers headless commerce platforms. Open Bravo provides cloud-based retail management and inventory integration. SAP Commerce Cloud and Shopify are major.
commerce platforms and they enable unified operations for online and store. Spryker is a modular platform and it allows retailers to build tailored commerce solutions across all their selling channels. And all of these commerce infrastructure solutions truly focus on integrating the sales channels and operational tools into one platform. And I think the purpose is again, unifying things for streamlined management and
Truly speaking, this is the backbone of unified commerce. If you get your commerce platform right, you have a single source of truth and you can manage business functions and also sell products and manage orders in a unified manner.
Speaker 2 (09:47.202)
Got it. So a retailer might use one of these platforms to make sure, for example, that the inventory on their website and in their stores is always in sync and that an order can be fulfilled from anywhere. It sounds like the big benefit is centralizing commerce operations, so nothing falls through the cracks between, say, the online store and the physical store.
Exactly. That's what a unified commerce platform means. One database for inventory, one order management system and one view of the customer. Even if the customer is shopping in multiple places, it's pivotal and imperative for retailers to have one single view of their behavior and also their shopping habits and also their real-time purchases. So if a customer buys the last unit of an item in a store, the e-commerce site needs to instantly know that the product is out of stock and
that would eventually prevent an oversell and vice versa. Or a customer could buy online and pick up in store. That's more on the delivery and fulfillment side. And this unified infrastructure is what enables those Omni-channel capabilities such as BOPES that's buying online, pick up in store you have. Now it's turned into buy online, pick up anywhere. That's what some people are calling it. And endless aisle. In fact,
These capabilities have become table stakes now. Things like POPIS, cross-channel returns, seeing store inventory online, etc. are expected by customers. And if there's no solid commerce platform, it is very hard to offer that. So these commerce infrastructure companies are really critical to enabling unified commerce. And just to give you an example, let's pick Shopify.
It highlights that using one unified system for online and in-person sales can cut total costs. And to put a number to that, retailers using Shopify for POS and e-commerce saw 22 % lower costs of ownership compared to integrating separate systems. So the efficiency and real-time accuracy that you're getting from unification is definitely a big win.
Speaker 2 (11:55.086)
At this point, like you said, table stakes, it almost sounds like a retailer that isn't using one of these integrated commerce platforms will just get competed out of the marketplace. It's really the backbone that's necessary to be competitive these days. So let's move on to the next category, the customer experience and engagement solutions. What did we see there?
Sure, customer experience and engagement solutions are all about how retailers are interacting with their customers and because it's unified that interaction spans multiple channels seamlessly. In our landscape, we included 11 companies in this section. We have Adobe Experience Cloud, Braze, Fresh Desk, Hootsuite, Clavio, Moengage, ServiceNow, Salesforce Service Cloud, Twilio, Ubic, and Zendesk.
These companies are quite diverse, but generally they cover things like digital marketing, customer service, and in-store engagement tools. The common thread is creating a cohesive customer journey and consistent service across multiple touch points. For instance, Adobe Experience Cloud is a suite for digital marketing and analytics, and it's helping retailers personalize content on their website or their app and carry that personalization through email campaigns.
or even in-store via targeted offers. Braze, Clavio, Moengage, Iterable. These are customer engagement and marketing automation platforms and they allow real-time personalized messaging via email push notifications, SMS, etc. based on the unified customer data. So if a customer browses products on the website and abandons their cart, a Braze or Clavio can trigger a follow-up message. Or if they make a purchase in-store,
It can send a personalized thank you or a recommendation some days down the line. Then you have customer service and communication platforms, FreshDesk, Salesforce to name a few. And these help customers support across channels. So a customer could start a help chat on a website and later call the support line and the agent can see the prior chat history because it's all unified. Twilio is also interesting here. It's a cloud communications platform.
Speaker 1 (14:12.074)
basically enabling things like SMS alerts or voice communications integrated into retail apps or workflows. And retailers use Twilio to send order status updates to customers or enable two-way communication, for instance, messaging the store. And we also have Hootsuite for social media management, ensuring the brand's social channels are managed and analyzed in one place, which is a part of unified engagement strategy.
Ubik here is more about the employee side of engagement. It's a platform for training and communicating with your frontline retail employees. And that's done via a mobile app. That might seem a bit tangential, but it's actually crucial. So if you have well-trained staff and they are aware about the inventory and they know what a customer truly wants, they'll be able to deliver consistent customer experiences. And that consistency
is derived from unified customer profiles, which are built from online and various channels, including the in-store interactions. And that makes the customer engagement standard. And that's, of course, built on standardized information. So overall, these customer experience solutions help retailers maintain a consistent and personalized dialogue with their customers. And they also ensure, for example, that marketing campaigns
and customer service are working off the same customer data. A unified commerce approach is not just about technology integration, it's also about building unified customer relationships and that includes marketing, sales, post-purchase service.
I get it so the customer should feel like the brand knows them and values them obviously whether you're on a website or talking to someone in person in the store so for instance if i frequently buy running shoes from a retailer emails i get the ads on social media even recommendations of a store associate might be all informed by that unified profile of me as a customer.
Speaker 2 (16:16.386)
So these tools, CDPs, marketing platforms, service platforms, what makes that all possible?
Exactly. I'll give you a quick real world scenario to make things more clear. Let's say you contact customer service about an online order and then a week later you walk into the store to buy something else. if the retailer has a unified system, the store associate could pull up your profile and see that you had an issue last week and also how it was resolved and maybe have additional notes like your style preferences. And based on all that information, they can give you more informed service.
Without unified data, those experiences will always remain fragmented. in fact, that's one of the biggest challenges in Omni-channel that the customer experience and service has been inconsistent. And sometimes retailers may have exceptional online experiences for their shoppers, but it doesn't mean that would translate to store as well. I think the goal of these engagement solutions is to eliminate that inconsistency across channels.
It's interesting, a survey found that 43 % of shoppers are more likely now to use appointment shopping and comparing it versus before the pandemic. They would like to book time with a stylist or an expert. So that kind of high touch service can only be enhanced by unified customer data. So all of these tools from CRM to social listening contribute pieces to the unified commerce puzzle. And that keeps the customer experience smooth, informed.
and of course consistent.
Speaker 2 (17:52.426)
Okay, well, so that ties into the next category, which is the shopper data integration. We've touched on data a lot, having unified data clearly critical. So let's talk about the solutions that focus on that in the report.
In this is indeed a big category and we have identified 14 companies here. These companies reflect how important data is to unified commerce. We have a long list here, but generally the companies that we have here are customer data platforms and they are analytics providers and also personalization engines. The focus of these companies is integrating data across systems.
and analyzing it to derive actionable insights about customer behavior and preferences. In simpler terms, they help create that single unified view of the customer and that is done by aggregating data from all the sources. Once you have all that data unified, you can do the fun stuff that's analytics, can do your shopper segmentation, you can do personalized targeting and so on. Let me break it down with a few examples. We have Thelium, Treasuredata, Blueconic,
M-Particle and these companies are well-known CDP platforms. They collect events and data from various customer touchpoints and stitch together customer profiles. instance, Tilium's audience stream can take your web browsing behavior, blend it with your in-store purchases, look at your email interactions and then combine those into one real-time profile. That means marketing or service tools that we just discussed can use these
profiles for personalized communication. Algonomi, formerly Manthan, and Bluecore. These are more focused on retail analytics and AI-driven insights. Algonomi provides advanced retail analytics to support personalization goals. And this is again powered by real-time data. And Bluecore is known for helping retail marketers predict customer behavior and send them personalized emails and ads accordingly. We have Insider, CleverTap, Iterable, Cordial,
Speaker 1 (20:00.334)
and these companies have some overlap with marketing automation but from a data perspective they're also working on unification. For example, iterable is a cross-channel marketing platform and it has a built-in CDP component. CleverTap and Cordial likewise combine customer data with engagement tools. They often help mobile heavy companies understand user behavior across app and also web and respond in real time.
We have another interesting company here called Rel2U. It's a master data management platform. Putting it in retail context, it can pull together customer data from many enterprise systems and reconcile duplicates to provide a clean master profile. Just to give you an example, that means John Doe in the e-commerce system and J Doe in the loyalty program are known to be the same person. And we have NG Data here. They have what they call an intelligent engagement platform.
which is also effectively a CDP with AI. These guys focus on real time segmentation and personalization that's powered by machine learning. Another interesting company here is VAS. So this is actually a digital solutions consulting firm, but we included them here because they offer a customer data platform solution and also integration services. They emphasize data quality and governance as a part of unifying customer data. The reason so many solutions fall into this
Data integration bucket is because data is the glue of unified commerce. That's truly what I could think of right now in terms of highlighting the importance of data. And if your channels are unified, but your data isn't, you'll struggle to personalize experiences. And for that matter, you won't be able to get the basics of unified commerce right. So many retailers historically had siloed data and separate databases for in-store sales versus online sales, or let's say for different brands.
and also for the regions that they're selling in. And these tools are solving that by ingesting and syncing data from everywhere. The payoff here is huge. So with a unified customer data set, you can do things like accurate customer lifetime value calculations across channels. You can also send them personalized offers and recommendations based on activity across channels. And of course, better decision making to support all your business goals.
Speaker 2 (22:24.822)
And it's not just theoretical. I remember a study noting that one of the biggest roadblocks to omnichannel and unified commerce was just this, the lack of unified analytics. I think 66 % of retailers cited missing cross-channel analytics capabilities as a top challenge, and about 45 % cited poor data quality, which are exactly the problems these solutions address.
So having a strong CDP or data integration layer, almost a prerequisite to get the most out of these customer engagement tools that we talked about.
Yes, that is a
great reference, Philip. Data silos and poor quality are the major obstacles. If you don't integrate your data, you can't measure performance or understand customers holistically. We have seen retailers invest in fancy front-end systems, but then they struggle because the data is fragmented underneath. That's primarily why many retailers are now investing in unified data platforms or CDPs as a foundation. To give a real example, say a retailer wants to implement a loyalty program and
That loyalty program spans online and in-store. Without data integration, the online system might not know about in-store purchases, so customers can't earn or redeem rewards across channels seamlessly. A shopper data integration solution would solve that by consolidating purchase history from point of sale, that's your in-store, and e-commerce into one record. And the magic then happens. Your loyalty solution is truly unified.
Speaker 1 (23:55.222)
Also true for the customer because they are seeing one loyalty account and that's irrespective of where they are shopping. Another example is personalization. So one of these platforms might identify that a customer has been browsing baby products on let's say a mobile app and also made a purchase of the same product. And now if a retailer has that insight, they can go and target that customer with a personalized promotion for let's say a baby product, which could be a stroller. They could send an email.
and they could give them a pop-up notification when they log on to the website again. So I think it's the relevancy in customer experience that truly drives these sales and detains customer. Also, according to various industry studies, personalization and integrated data has historically had a significant impact on conversions and also the long-term loyalty.
What we have here is truly about enabling those data-driven decisions and having personalized marketing at scale.
It seems to really underpin everything, which makes sense. The next category in your report is a bit more internally focused. That's the sales and operations. There's fewer companies in this list, but still important for unifying the back office, right?
Absolutely. Sales and operations solutions in our context are essentially about backend operational efficiency and unified management of your core business processes. So we highlighted four companies here. We have Sage Intact Zoho Inventory. We have Microsoft's Microsoft Dynamics 365 and NetSuite by Oracle. So these companies that we have here skew towards enterprise resource planning or inventory management systems that are cloud-based.
Speaker 1 (25:41.518)
and tailored for retail. So just to give you a quick example, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a suite of ERP and CRM applications in the cloud. Many retailers use Dynamics 365 for things like supply chain, finance, and also managing point of sale data. It does tie together everything from sales transactions to inventory to financial reporting in one unified platform. Sage Intact is more focused on financial management for growing businesses.
but it made a list because it can integrate with retail operations and also handle multi-entity financials. A retailer using Sage Intact would ensure that their sales data flows into accounting seamlessly, which is a part of running unified commerce profitably. And you need to know the financial performance of omni-channel operations without doing a bunch of manual consolidation. Oracle NetSuite is a cloud ERP system. It's very popular with mid-market retailers and brands.
and it integrates order management, inventory, warehouse, CRM and financials. We have Zoho Inventory. This is an inventory management system that integrates with various sales platforms. It's a bit more SMB focused, but it allows smaller retailers to synchronize stock across online marketplaces, their own website and physical stores. So in summary, this category is more about the operational backbone that's supporting unified commerce.
These systems make sure that orders, inventory and financial information are all flowing seamlessly across the organization. So if you have a unified commerce front end but your backend is fragmented, you will hit internal bottlenecks. For instance, a customer might see a unified front, they order a product online to pick it up in store. But if the backend operations are not in sync, the store might not have that item.
and the accounting might treat that as two separate transactions. Sales and operations solutions solve those issues and they provide a unified system for making the internal teams function as one.
Speaker 2 (27:48.312)
So there is some overlap with the commerce infrastructure, but the focus is more on the retailer's internal systems, finance, inventory, control, etc. I guess it ensures that from an organizational standpoint, everything is streamlined. There's one version of the truth for orders and inventory, which obviously supports unified commerce, because if the inventory counts or product information aren't consistent internally, you can't reliably expose that to customers across channels.
Exactly. So think of it this way. Commerce infrastructure, I think that's the first category we discussed today, that often covers the customer facing transaction systems like your e-commerce site and store POS. The sales and operations category covers the behind the scenes systems that those front ends connect to, like your enterprise resource planning, inventory database, or financials. So in a truly unified commerce environment, the front end and back end talk to each other and
This is happening in real time. So these ERP and operations solutions need to integrate with the commerce platforms and many retailers will use, let's say Shopify or Magento on the front end and then integrate it with NetSuite or Dynamics 365 on the backend. So from a challenges perspective, integrating those systems is key. Many retailers struggle if their store systems and ERP are separate. That's why choosing cloud based API friendly systems
like the ones we listed can be beneficial. They are designed to connect easily and share data. When done right, the moment a sale happens anywhere, all your systems, inventory, finance, supply chain, update instantly. And that is unified commerce in practice.
Great. Now, the last category in the report, supply chain and inventory management solutions. These seem crucial because if you promise the customer something across channels, you need the supply chain to deliver it. So let's talk about who's in this category and how they enable unified commerce.
Speaker 1 (29:51.148)
In unified commerce, supply chain and inventory management tools are what ensure, let's say, that the products are in the right place and at the right time and that you have a view of stock across all channels. In this category, we have identified nine companies and these range from inventory management software to sophisticated supply chain planning and even logistics solutions. I'll give you a quick overview of the companies we have here. We have SIN7 and Fishbowl.
They both provide inventory management software, especially for multi-channel retail. SIN7 is known for integrating inventory with sales channels and warehousing, helping retailers keep optimal stock levels and also sink their inventory levels across stores and online. Fishbowl similarly helps track inventory across multiple locations. Plus it offers demand forecasting tools. A retailer that's using these solutions can avoid the classic problem of selling something online. That's
actually out of stock in the store because you have a unified view of your inventory. We have Blue Yonder and this is a heavyweight in supply chain. They offer AI driven supply chain management, everything from demand forecasting to warehouse and labor management. Speaking in unified commerce terms, Blue Yonder can help a large retailer forecast demand across channels so they stock the right amount in each store versus distribution center and can fulfill from the optimal location.
It is about optimization and efficiency in the supply chain. think that eventually means customers get their orders fast and stores have localized assortment. And that means they're carrying what the shoppers truly want. In this category, we also have impact analytics and they have solutions like forecast smart and inventory smart. They're powered by AI for demand forecasting and inventory optimization. Essentially, they help retailers use data to predict
demand and avoid overstock or stock outs. This is vital for unified commerce because if you're promising buy anywhere, fulfill anywhere, you must have a very good handle on your inventory levels and product flow across all your selling channels. We have Invent.ai and they are another provider focusing on unifying disparate supply chain functions, leveraging the power of AI. And they emphasize things like network planning and allocation optimization.
Speaker 1 (32:15.256)
For example, deciding how to allocate inventory to your stores versus online fulfillment centers and of course in an optimal way. I think this becomes complex because online demand can pull inventory from store and store shoppers also need inventory. So I think you really need to have smart algorithms to balance that. We also have Rolex solutions in this category and Rolex offers a supply chain planning platform and they even use digital twin modeling for scenario planning.
They connect forecasting, replenishment, and allocation on a unified platform for end-to-end supply chain optimization. So let's say for a grocery or specialty retailer, Rolex might power things like automatic replenishment, ensuring each store or let's say channel has the right stock as conditions change in real time. And in unified commerce, that kind of automation helps keep inventory availability consistent across all your selling channels.
We also have ShipBob here. So this is a bit different. It's a tech enabled third party logistics provider, but we have included it because many direct to consumer retailers use ShipBob to handle fulfillment. And ShipBob offers a network of fulfillment centers and software that integrates with retailers online stores. And in context of unified commerce, a brand might use ShipBob to fulfill online orders while
also stocking some inventory in their own stores. So ShipBob's system can ensure inventory counts stay updated between what's in the warehouse versus what's in store. I think it basically helps smaller retailers achieve greater fulfillment speeds. Amazon like fulfillment speeds. And I think that's increasingly expected now. We also have TradeGecko here, which was an inventory and order management system. It was acquired by Intuit and
It's now a part of QuickBooks commerce. So it's used by small businesses to unify their sales channels with their inventory and accounting. If a small retailer sells on Shopify, Amazon, and in a physical boutique, Tradegecko commerce can centralize the orders and inventory so they don't oversell or run out of stocks. That again is about single source of inventory across channels. We have Veco that is now owned by Amazon and that's a multi-channel
Speaker 1 (34:40.277)
inventory and order management system. It's designed for e-commerce retailers to manage stock across marketplaces, websites and even stores. Veco integrates with channels like Shopify, Amazon, eBay and with the POS systems and that keeps the stock synced. This is crucial for unified commerce so if you run out of an item at a warehouse, Veco can route the order to another location.
or update all channels that a specific product is out of stock. That basically prevents the scenario of running out of stocks or helps route orders to the best fulfillment locations. So collectively, this category is about fulfillment, inventory visibility, and supply chain optimization. These solutions are ensuring that when the front end systems say an item is available, it truly is. And the retailers can promise things like two-day delivery, in-store pickup,
and they can do that with confidence. They also help optimize costs. Unified commerce can be expensive if you're shipping ineffectively. And solutions like BlueYonder, Rolex, or Impact Analytics help retailers be smart about it.
Unified commerce requires that you have total transparency. Inventory is in the chain, where it is in the stores. I this is something that Amazon figured out years ago and for a brick and mortar retailer to compete with Amazon and some of the other online retailers like Tmoo and Shein, you've got to get all this stuff figured out to remain competitive and deliver on that.
optimal customer experience that's going to keep them coming back to you as a retailer rather than using one of these online alternatives. So you've got to have that single view of the inventory. It's one of the most important technologies for omnichannel success. So you can deliver on buy online, pick up in store, ship from store, even just the basic e-commerce on your website. You've got to have this backend in place in order for it to be realized and actually delivered to the customer.
Speaker 2 (36:42.518)
It's clear why this category is the pillar of unified commerce.
That is so true, Philip. I think I recall one of the retail executives in a Bain study that I read recently said, Unified commerce is difficult to achieve because of existing legacy systems. The more retail locations a company has, the more challenging it is. Often they were talking about inventory and fulfillment systems there. It's challenging, but I think solving for it yields much bigger benefits. And when retailers are able to connect
their inventory across their selling channels, warehouses, stores and treat it as one pool. They can sell more. They can also avoid losing sales. I think it's the inventory nirvana. Every item in your system is available to sell to any customer and the systems will figure out how to get it done and how to get that item to the shopper. That's what these supply chain solutions aim for. And you're right. It hugely impacts customer satisfaction and for retailers, their bottom line.
So I've covered five categories just to recap in Unified Commerce Tech. The customer platform, CDPs, the customer experience tools like Zendesk, the data integration layer, the operational systems, and the supply chain piece. It's clear that they all interlock to enable the vision of Unified Commerce. Now I want to address the elephant in the room. What are the real world challenges
retailers face in implementing these unified commerce systems. You know, it sounds great on paper who wouldn't want all this integration, but we do know many retailers struggle with it. What obstacles are they encountering?
Speaker 1 (38:25.686)
That's a critical question and I think there are challenges that we have often discussed. From our research and industry studies, there some of the major challenges that I would like to discuss now. So starting off with legacy systems and lack of integration. Many large retailers today have old and siloed systems for their different selling channels. So let's say maybe a decade old POS in store and a separate e-commerce platform.
plus various warehouse and ERP systems. Now unifying them is a massive integration task. As one study with Bay noted, retailers are burdened by legacy systems that make interoperability difficult, leading to poor data quality in many cases. We also encountered the same challenge in many of our core site studies. And lack of integration within business functions is one of the largest tech adoption barrier, I would say.
and also a deterrent to unified commerce. So the more stores and systems a company has, the harder it is to integrate everything. Often unified commerce requires either replacing legacy systems with modern integrated ones or building complex middleware. And I think both of these options are costly and risky at the same time. Second, there's a lack of clear strategy and a roadmap. So surprisingly, a lot of retailers know that
Unified commerce is important, but they don't have a concrete plan yet. And in a recent survey by Aptos and Bain, 45 % of retailers said that they lack a strategic roadmap for unified commerce. And our research with them showed only about 56 % have a clear strategy to execute on it. So without a roadmap, investments can be piecemeal and fail to deliver results. I think it requires top-down commitment and also a phased plan.
That's something that unfortunately not every organization has put in place. Stemming from that, I'll talk about the organizational silos. So technology aside, now this is the human element that's being a deterrent. Many retailers, e-commerce and store teams are still operating in silos and they're having minimal communication. Perhaps they even have separate P &Ls and I think this can breed internal competition.
Speaker 1 (40:47.86)
whereas they should be collaborating. just to give you an example, the online team and store team might argue over who gets credit for a sale that involves both channels. The KPIs have been different too. So stores care about same store sales, foot traffic, and e-commerce cares about web traffic, conversions, acquisition costs. So these misaligned KPIs can conflict with the unified commerce goals and changing incentive structures and team structures is also hard.
I think it requires an organizational transformation and that's something that most organizations are not ready for. Coming to the cornerstone, data. I think data management and quality are also a big challenge. We touched on this. If the data is inconsistent or low quality, it undermines everything. It is foundational. So combining data from multiple sources means that you're resolving discrepancies and
you are building unified shopper profiles. So implementing a unified commerce approach might involve cleansing data, also setting up new data governance and investing in a robust data platform. Moving forward, I think let's discuss finances. Cost and ROI are often a big challenge in implementing technology and I see them a big challenge for unified commerce too. When we're talking unified commerce, we are talking multiple moving parts and I think
That is something that requires significant investment. You would need new platforms. You would need integration projects. You would need staff retraining. One external study pointed out that one of the most significant barriers is the perceived upfront expense of implementing unified systems. Retailers do worry about cost and disruption because the environment is increasingly uncertain. The margins are squeezed. Consumer preferences are fast changing. The sentiment is declining.
And if a company has just spent millions on an e-commerce revamp, they may hesitate to rip it out for a new unified platform, even if the old one doesn't talk to the store POS. It's also about justifying these costs. And as I said, the environment is, of course, very uncertain and justifying ROIs is very important for retailers. But I believe that if they don't do this, there's also a cost attached.
Speaker 1 (43:08.502)
So you'll have fragmented systems and going down the line in the long term, they can be very costly. You lose customers. It's the classic do nothing versus invest dilemma. But I think retailers need to understand and of course go back to the first challenge that we talked about, have a strategic approach and then build it in a phased manner. Moving forward, I think there's fulfillment and operational complexity. Yes. So when you start offering things like Bopes, curbside pickup, ship from store,
there comes a lot of operational complexity and your stores become mini fulfillment centers. This is a challenge we have heard from retailers. It is increasing the workload on store staff and sometimes there's lack of inventory, there's inventory unavailability to service more piss orders. So if not managed well, store employees might be juggling, serving in store customers, picking, packing online orders and leading to burnout or poor service. So retailers have to rethink store processes.
maybe dedicate staff to online orders or use automation to ease the burden. I think it's a change management issue at the store level. Lastly, another challenge I can think of is ensuring consistency in customer service across channels. This can partly be solved by tech. So having all the customer info in one place, having it delivered to your store associates, having it in a centralized location, but that requires training and that also requires
hardware investment. So store associates need to be as knowledgeable as what the customer may have already researched online or read about or surveyed across stores, so on. Customer service reps need visibility into the store inventory and policies that they require to assist customers effectively or guidelines. So I think that consistency across channels can be tough, but
If the company unifies the information in a singular platform, invests in retraining their store associates, this challenge can be overcome and can be taken care of. Yes.
Speaker 2 (45:17.26)
When you consider all the different challenges, it's as much technical as it is personal. And that means it's not really a solution that's going to be handled at the VP level in a company. I mean, this has got to be elevated up to the CEO because you've got all of these different, you've got the tech legacy and in many cases where the CIO is going to be asking for money for new systems, but that has implications for
the head of human resources or head of operations because you've also got to have kind of a mind reset on how the store associates are going to use all of these new systems and the implications for their daily activities. Sounds like a big hurdle. You've got to overcome the legacy tech, but you've also got to overcome the legacy mindsets and siloed teams.
That's a great point that you raise and that's absolutely correct, Philip. Unified commerce implementation is a multi-dimensional challenge and it does touch people, processes, along with technology. Companies that succeed usually have executive buy-in to drive a cultural shift. And they also often invest in change management, retraining staff, adjusting metrics, maybe reorganizing teams if needed. And I think from a tech perspective, they might face the rollout.
and start with unifying inventory systems and then move on to more difficult tasks having unified customer data then move on to unified shopper engagement I think it's all about phasing it out and not having a big bang all at once
Okay, so let's say the chairman of the board or the CEO decides, yes, we've got to really commit to unified commerce. What advice would you give to the executives trying to move this forward?
Speaker 1 (47:06.488)
That's a good question. So I think we can start off by solving the challenge that we called out. Develop a clear strategy and have a roadmap. I think this is foundational. So you really need to outline what unified commerce means for your organization, what technologies you need, what is the capability that you need, and then plan the changes that are required in your organization. So you need to prioritize the initiatives and tackle them in phases.
Those with a roadmap are definitely going to be ahead of the competitors. I also think you can invest in integration and data infrastructure. It might not be flashy, but ensure you have a robust integration layer, whether that's a middleware and enterprise service bus, or let's say a modern integration platform as a service. So you can connect legacy systems as an interim step. And the next step would be your
data infrastructure, can simultaneously invest in a customer data platform or a data warehouse to aggregate key data. And many retailers are starting by building unified customer database and unified inventory visibility. And these two ideas give quick wins. I think it's all about fixing the plumbing so data flows freely, which would of course take care of offering that consistent experience that unified commerce is all about. And one thing that we talked about
was silos. So that is one thing that needs to be done. Tackling organizational silos would mean having clear communication, would mean restructuring teams, would mean encouraging cross-functional collaboration. So just to give you an example, some retailers can create an omni-channel task force, and folks from e-comm, stores, and even IT can work together. So
I think aligning everyone on common KPIs and introducing metrics like customer lifetime value across channels. So something like overall customer lifetime value, net promoter score, cross channel conversion, and something to encourage the teams to work cooperatively. Another interesting approach that I can think of is to reorganize KPIs by customer segment rather than by channel. So the same team would handle both online and offline for a segment or region.
Speaker 1 (49:27.692)
that can break down silos. can train and empower staff. I think that's another critical lever to it. We can't forget the human element on the front lines. So store associates are critical. They need to understand the value of unified commerce. Example, a store associate should be encouraged to help a customer buy online if that's best for that customer. And that can be done if historically the associate has only cared about store sales.
Some retailers are starting to incentivize staff based on overall company sales or omni-channel performance to encourage this. And talking about the customer, think having a customer-centric approach is really critical and always circle back to the customer experience. Use customer journey mapping to identify the key friction points across channels. And if customers complain that say returns are a hassle when buying online and returning in store,
address that policy and system issues first. Often quick improvements in policy can be achieved with minor tech tweaks and I think that can translate to a big customer experience shift or gain. And finally I would say measure and also celebrate progress. So we talked about having a phased rollout and I think measurement is something that closes the loop on this. So you really need to measure your progress.
Unified commerce transformation can take years. So it's important to track key metrics and those could be increase in sales across channels, reduction in stock outs and improvement in customer satisfaction scores. We know from research that retailers investing in unified commerce expect significant benefits like improved profitability, higher customer loyalty and lower operating costs.
Nearly all retailers agree it can reduce lost sales and increase customer lifetime value. So keeping these end benefits in sight can help justify the journey.
Speaker 2 (51:27.522)
The marketplace has really changed significantly over the last 20 years with Amazon leading the way and then Tmoo and Shein coming in. It is critical for brick and mortar retailers for their survival to be able to deliver on this customer experience.
If you can't deliver a customer experience that makes people want to shop with you instead of the convenience of going on to a website and ordering it and having it show up on their porch the next day, then you're just out of the game, essentially. Obviously, unified commerce is key to delivering on that consumer promise. Obviously, lot of challenges, but you just have to do it. There's no alternative at this point. You're just going to fall behind your
competitors if you don't do it.
Absolutely. Retail is so competitive and shoppers will gravitate to whoever offers the easiest, most seamless experience. I was just going through some of our consumer survey insights and I found that if customers find out of stocks in a store, two in three customers would not shop from the same retailer. We often say today that customer is in control. They choose how they want to shop and retailers have to adapt to that.
I unified commerce is the answer and those who are executing it well will see gains and those who don't well we have seen some high profile retailers struggle or lose market share because they couldn't break down their channel silos and deliver on modern shopper expectations.
Speaker 2 (53:02.848)
more than just lose gains. There's lots of retailers that are going bankrupt and just going out of business. it's critical that those who haven't already addressed these unified commerce challenges get on the stick. You said it can take years to achieve. that's got to be two years and not five or seven because you won't be around in seven years if you don't address this right now. This has been a really insightful discussion.
We've covered a lot of ground from the core concepts of unified commerce to the data infrastructure that's necessary to execute. As we wrap up, any final thoughts or takeaways for the listeners, especially those retail executives who are contemplating unified commerce solutions?
I'll it down to this one sentence. Unified commerce is no more optional and I think it is essential for retail longevity. And customers are already shopping across channels. They assume they can engage with retailers however they want and get a consistent experience. Table stakes. So the question is whether you can meet that assumption. The technology solutions are out there, as we discussed. There are mature platforms for just about every piece of the puzzle.
from front end to back end. And the companies in our report are innovating constantly to make integration easier and improve customer experience. But implementing unified commerce is strategic and is a big managerial exercise as a technical one. So for executives, the key takeaways would be have a clear vision of what you truly want and get your organization aligned on that vision and then take the investment step and take it piece by piece.
So you can't ignore the foundational pieces like data and inventory. They might not be as exciting as, let's say, a new app feature, but they enable those great customer-facing features to actually work properly and keep the customer's perspective front and center in every decision. So if you do that, the ROI will follow. And we know unified commerce done right can drive conversions, loyalty, retention. One more thing.
Speaker 1 (55:11.018)
Unified commerce is a moving target. New channels and touch points will continue to emerge. Think voice commerce, think augmented reality and virtual reality in store. So designing your commerce strategy and architecture to be adaptable is truly important. It's not just about unifying what you have today, but being able to unify new channels of tomorrow as well. So the detailers that build that agility will definitely stay ahead.
That is an important point. Things are changing quickly, which for some executives might want to sit and wait and see, but you really can't do that, can you? You've got to be proactive and design that flexibility into your strategy and your roadmap so that you can accommodate those changes as they arise. That is a great point. And hopefully our premium subscribers will be on top of all of that because we report on this kind of thing.
regularly and for those who are considering subscribing, hope our conversation with Monik today will encourage you to check out Coresight.com. It's been a pleasure Monik and thank you for joining us on Retailistic today!
My pleasure, Philip. It was great chatting about this.
And thank you. For more insights from Corsight Research, visit us at corsight.com where you can also find information about our AI Council and our Strategic Advisory Services. Also, follow us on LinkedIn. Have a great day and we'll see you next week.