How to transition from an omnichannel strategy to unified commerce to enhance the customer experience

With today’s ultra-connected consumers, unified commerce has emerged as a critical strategy for the future of the retail industry. It’s no longer about simply increasing the number of sales and communication channels, but integrating them to work seamlessly together. This cohesive approach better meets customer expectations by delivering a completely seamless experience.

This article explores the differences between unified commerce and an omnichannel strategy, the challenges that come with it, steps for successful implementation, and key indicators to monitor for managing long-term omnichannel performance.

Omnichannel strategy versus unified commerce

The challenges of an omnichannel strategy

Unlike a multichannel strategy, which manages each channel independently, an omnichannel strategy aims to deliver a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints, whether online or in-store. It allows customers to seamlessly navigate between channels, accessing the same information, offers, and services wherever they go. This strategy caters to consumers looking for personalized and uninterrupted experiences.

The biggest hurdle for an omnichannel strategy is centralizing data, such as inventory, customer details, purchase history, and commercial activities. Many businesses find this difficult due to siloed information systems and inadequately adapted internal processes.

Understanding unified commerce

Unified commerce takes the omnichannel strategy further by inherently integrating all sales and communication channels and their data into a single platform. This approach delivers a smoother customer experience across all channels, supported by a centralized architecture designed to ensure coherence between every channel from the start. Information flows seamlessly in real-time across physical stores, online platforms, websites, and customer service, creating a flawless customer journey.

Unified commerce is pivotal for the future of retail and successfully tackles the limitations of omnichannel strategies:

• It streamlines system integration,
• Sharpens the quality of data collected across each channel,
• Speeds up decision-making,
• Provides consistent services to consumers, whether online or in-store.

Brands benefit from this integrated strategy with greater control over the customer experience and expedited innovation, particularly in areas like personalization (targeted marketing communications) and omnichannel logistics (click and collect, ship-from-store, cross-channel returns).

Key distinctions between the two strategies

Omnichannel and unified commerce differ significantly in their technological and operational integration within a company:

• System integration: while omnichannel connects disparate systems, unified commerce relies on a centralized architecture;
• Data synchronization: unified commerce enables real-time points of sale synchronization, enhancing the customer experience;
• Customer experience: unified commerce provides a smoother, more personalized experience, increasing customer loyalty.

A recent study reveals that businesses adopting unified commerce report, on average, three times revenue growth, a 1.7 times increase in customer lifetime value, and a 31% reduction in execution costs.

Transition challenges

Obstacles businesses face

Many brands use an assortment of disparate systems (ERP, CRM, e-commerce, POS, inventory management) that typically aren’t designed to interact with one another. Moving to an integrated omnichannel model requires rethinking this architecture or migrating to a centralized system. This shift demands close collaboration across the company’s departments, a clear governance strategy, and a unified customer-centric culture. Unfortunately, many businesses still operate with disjointed processes, necessitating the creation of shared references and real-time management tools.

Impacts on customer experience

Unified commerce eliminates disruptions in the customer experience, turning touchpoints into loyalty opportunities. For instance, a customer can view a product online, check its in-store availability, reserve a pickup slot, or initiate a return via the mobile app after an in-store purchase—all without having to provide repeated information across channels. This seamless omnichannel coherence enhances customers’ perception of reliable, customer-focused service. Moreover, smooth omnichannel interactions enable high-value services like click and collect, omnichannel payments, centralized order tracking, and cross-channel returns.

A recent study shows that 61% of consumers are likely to spend more when they receive a personalized experience. Centralizing customer data on a single platform facilitates this level of personalization. A customer’s purchase history, preferences, and behaviors can be used in real-time by businesses, regardless of the channel used, forming the basis for personalized marketing communications and ensuring better customer retention.

Implications for unified management

To transcend an omnichannel strategy, businesses need a cross-functional view of their operations, where all functions are integrated rather than siloed. Unified commerce necessitates a single system for products, inventory, customers, and orders, preventing information discrepancies and update delays. All teams—including IT, marketing, logistics, store, and online shop—access the same real-time information.

An integrated omnichannel solution provides continuous monitoring of performance indicators across all sales and communication channels. Brands no longer need to compile separate dashboards for each touchpoint; sales data, inventory levels, customer returns, and conversion rates are visible in one place. This transparency is particularly valuable for identifying friction points and allocating resources efficiently.

Orisha Commerce helps brands develop their omnichannel strategy with a SaaS platform designed to centralize all key retail functions and adapt to the specific needs of each brand. Its integrated foundation, combining store management, online platform, CRM, inventory, and order management, facilitates the transition to integrated omnichannel management.

Creating an effective omnichannel strategy

Essential steps for brands

To successfully transition to an integrated approach, brands should follow these key steps:

1. Audit existing systems
   Brands need to map each channel, tool, flow, data, and process in place to identify disruptions in the customer journey and technical limitations.
2. Define a consumer-centered vision
   Rethink the overall customer experience, ensuring that all departments share this vision to align objectives on a common foundation.
3. Select the right platform
   Evaluate platforms based on their ability to centralize data from each channel, integrate with existing solutions, evolve over time, and facilitate smooth customer journeys. SaaS solutions allow quick starts.
4. Harmonize data
   Ensure data reliability and accessibility for all relevant teams. Establish common references for products, customers, prices, and inventory, along with a data governance plan.
5. Engage the teams
   The success of this transformation depends on employee engagement. Training staff on the new tools is crucial.
6. Deploy incrementally
   Avoid a sudden transition. Adopt a modular approach:

• Start with the most strategic channel,
• Test customer journeys within a limited scope,
• Adjust,
• Gradually expand the system.

1. Measure results and refine the strategy
   Once implemented, track key indicators to evaluate performance and continuously adjust the strategy as needed.

The importance of automation and adaptability

In a highly interconnected sales and communication environment, manual management is simply not viable. Automating stock synchronization, product updates, order orchestration, and customer segmentation ensures data consistency across all touchpoints.

The adaptability of an integrated omnichannel approach allows brands to respond swiftly to disruptions. Retail is often impacted by activity peaks, logistical issues, and sudden shifts in consumer behavior. A centralized system enables rapid reactions, such as adjusting promotions across all channels.

Suitable tools and technologies for integrated omnichannel management

Several technologies facilitate the transition to an integrated omnichannel approach. A unified commerce platform like Orisha Commerce allows brands to centralize managing physical and online channels within one environment. This solution seamlessly integrates essential features such as e-commerce, POS, inventory management, CRM, and OMS, enabling comprehensive operational management from one back-office.

The OMS (Order Management System) manages the customer promise: real-time stock checks, selecting the best fulfillment point, handling click and collect, ship-from-store, and omnichannel returns. Meanwhile, the PIM (Product Information Management) ensures product data consistency across all channels.

Evaluating success and refining the strategy

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Customer experience indicators help brands gauge the fluidity of customer journeys across all sales and communication channels, both online and in-store:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS), indicating overall customer satisfaction after a purchase;
• Customer retention rate;
• Response time from customer support;
• The number of contacts required to resolve a customer request.

Commercial indicators measure the profitability of customer journeys:

• Omnichannel conversion rate;
• Average value of omnichannel vs. single-channel customer baskets;
• Cross-channel return rate;
• Percentage of sales generated via an omnichannel journey.

Other indicators monitor the company’s internal process efficiency:

• Inventory accuracy;
• Product availability rate;
• Customer order processing time;
• Order error rate.

Analyzing customer feedback

The initial analysis step for a company involves gathering direct customer feedback, such as post-purchase surveys, product reviews, service evaluations, satisfaction forms, and customer service comments. This data, collected across all sales and communication channels, should be centralized on a single platform.

Indirect feedback is equally vital for brands: cart abandonment rates, clicks on contact buttons, time spent on FAQs, or spikes in calls at specific times are all subtle signals to analyze. These insights help understand moments when customers might not find the expected assistance in their journey.

Continuously adapting the strategy

Regular review of performance indicators is the starting point. Brands need to correlate these metrics with qualitative feedback. Based on these insights, various strategic adjustments can be applied, whether related to customer journeys, internal organization, tools, or relational strategies.

This adjustment phase should be perceived as a short cycle by the brands: test, measure, adapt. It relies on a culture of experimentation where agility becomes a competitive advantage.

Unified commerce represents a new milestone in retail transformation. By integrating all channels, data, and systems into one platform, it surpasses the omnichannel approach and delivers a fluid, cohesive, and personalized customer experience.

This strategy overcomes the limitations of fragmented systems by simplifying management and enhancing data quality. Far from being just a trend, unified commerce is a strategic lever for brands to meet the expectations of increasingly discerning consumers.