Seamless Customer Experience – Modernizing Retail

The Path to Unified Commerce

Emerging technologies paved the way for omni-channel retail, but expectations from increasingly tech-savvy consumers grew faster than retailers could effectively manage. Retailers attempted to keep pace, but newly implemented systems were not well-integrated. Shoppers were left frustrated by the gaps and retailers lost customers, sales, and profits.

As rapidpace of change continues, retailers need an effective strategyto delivera unified customer experience. A Unified Commerce strategy is comprehensive and customer-centric, connecting people, processes, systems, and data. It is designed to effectively deliver the company’s brand with a seamless customer experience.

Achieving true Unified Commerce requires a multi-step, often multi-year strategyto transform an organization and set priorities around a common vision and roadmap.

We Broke the Customer Journey

Many customer facing solutions were deployed over time with unrealized benefits. When not fully integrated, visible gaps diminish the customer experience.

• Companies have not identifiedthe most relevant customer journeys andtouchpoints thatalign business functions around gaps in disparate solutions
• Customer-facing solutions fellshort of delivering a consistent brand to customersacross platforms(e.g.,loyalty,digital marketing, forecourt /instorePOS, self-checkout/frictionless commerce, mobile ordering, curbside/instore pick-up, ecommerce websites, kiosks)
• Unrealized capabilities along with visible gaps betweensystems create a disconnectedbrand experiencebetween points of contact(e.g.,single user interfaces, shared shopping cards, combined loyaltyand mobile ordering apps)
• With anurgency for mobile/online ordering and curbside pickupcapabilitiesduring the pandemic, many retailers brought these solutions to market with unintentionalgaps

The End Game: A Unified Customer Experience

The end-result is an organization that is universally customer-focused when prioritizing strategies and roadmaps.

• The company is transformed around a vision to modernize the customer experience
• Leadership proves its commitment to the vision by setting priorities to deliver on it
• The business is aligned cross-functionally to work in harmony around a common roadmap
• Retailersoffer a consistent and seamless brand experience at each point of contact
• Key stakeholders gain a 360° view of the customer across all brand touchpoints