The business that soars in 2020 will ditch omni-channel retail and embrace the single platform of unified commerce. 

A recent IHL/NCR unified commerce Study discovered single platforms to customers can lead to a 210% spike in sales, while a single order management system can lead to a sales increase of 15%.

A survey conducted on 500 major North American retailers by Boston Retail Partners identified that 81% of retailers will deploy a unified platform by 2020. 

Yawn. How did words such as omni, channel, unified and commerce combine to create something sounding so boring? Just let me run my business so I can holiday in Tahiti.

To succeed this decade and drink from the coconut, you need to pay attention to what unified commerce is immediately. Because your competitors already have.

To understand what it is and why it’s here, we need to digest the last 20 years.

The 21st century revolutionised buying for consumers. Business-to-consumer (B2C) relations skyrocketed based purely on a newfound simplistic method of doing business.

“Hi thumbs, I’m screen.” 

Customers want efficiency. But most importantly, a better buying experience.

A recent study shows in 2020, customers will value the purchase experience over product and price. That essential factor is now the vital brand differentiator.

People want to be served where, when and how in a consistent personalised way. Every time. 

When buying my Apple Watch in their Perth retail store, the salesperson and I somehow discussed snowboarding, camping and great restaurants to take our partners.

We chatted like old friends for 10 minutes. Buying the watch took one minute because I suddenly didn’t care about the price. 

Sure, Apple products are great. But they engender loyalty by connecting to their customers. They feel respected and heard, that’s why they go back.

It’s why people camp for days outside stores when new products are about to drop. Anyone preaching Samsung near that army would be slapped in the face with an iPad.

You might laugh witnessing these product evangelists on the news, but they are the strongest advertisement possible for Apple.

Why omnichannel retailing was created

Better customer connection is clearly essential. Over the last five years or so, all businesses started operating via omni-channels. The term ‘omni’ means ‘in all ways or places.’ 

Put simply, retailers started selling across all channels they could master. They had to keep up with technology, because the customers certainly did. 

Over two-thirds of modern shoppers now use multiple channels. Businesses are in store, on websites, social pages and online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon. 

Cast a bigger net, catch more fish. But omni-channel retailing has major downsides.

Why omnichannel retailing has become slow and expensive

Tech companies commonly force businesses into neat packages to suit their own software. Costing you a fortune for functionality and features you may never use. 

The worst part however, is trying to manage omni-channel obligations for your business. It’s a nightmare controlling this across multiple platforms and tools. 

It’s why business-to-business (B2B) transaction speeds lag behind their business to consumer (B2C) counterparts. 

By running each individual channel, staff replicate tasks and efficiency plummets. Price updates, product listings, inventory, stock, promotions, deliveries, returns and accounting require revisits because they don’t update instantly. 

While omni-channel retailing has the right intentions, transactions between yourself to your supplier and back to your customer has become a long rally of tennis. It’s retailers screaming their lungs out. 

Meet unified commerce, a single platform to manage everything once. Instantly.

Now businesses can hit an ace, keep their voice and focus on the next point.

Why retailers now want unified commerce

The reason why unified commerce is exploding as a business revolution is because it simplifies the scattered technology behind omni-channel retailing by turning it into a single platform. 

You manage everything once. Instantly. Because it’s all consolidated in one place.

Your whole business can also be run through unified commerce as a stand-alone ERP system, or simply integrated into your existing business software. 

POS, payment, inventory, warehousing, stock, sales channels, pricing, shipping, returns, communications, customer data and tracking money they owe you is all at your fingertips. 

Now the annoying patching between each system is removed entirely, because it’s one channel. 

Change your system. Not your vision. 

To view the beneficial features of unified commerce available with Spenda, click here.