Digital transformation of businesses: reinventing commerce around customer experience

Nearly 90% of executives consider digital transformation a top priority, but only 40% have taken actionable steps to implement it. This disparity highlights a pressing issue: despite clear ambitions, many businesses struggle to identify specific strategies for effective digital transformation.

Successfully integrating software, structuring seamless customer journeys, and leveraging professional expertise are among the key challenges businesses face in shifting to a unified commerce model. This article explores the pivotal role of data in digital transformation, outlines the elements of an effective strategy, and identifies levers for driving innovation.

Understanding the foundations of unified commerce

Unified commerce and its challenges

Unified commerce is a holistic business strategy that connects all sales channels, both physical and digital, into a single ecosystem. For customers, it means enjoying a seamless experience—viewing a product online and picking it up in-store, tracking an order via a mobile app, or exchanging a marketplace purchase at a physical store. For businesses, the challenge lies in structuring all operations around a unified technological platform, providing a robust foundation for enterprise-wide digital transformation.

Centralizing processes in this way generates real-time actionable insights. Digital marketing managers can execute highly targeted campaigns based on integrated purchasing behaviors, while operations directors gain a unified view of activities, enabling more informed decision-making.

Key players and their role in digital transformation

The operations director plays a crucial role in steering digital transformation within a company. They ensure 

• consistency across various channels, 
• orchestrate the harmonization of systems, 
• adapt organizational structures to facilitate digital implementation. 

Collaborating closely with IT teams, logistics services, and store managers, they strive for seamless execution of transformation initiatives.

Complementing the operations director, the marketing manager drives the digitization of the customer journey, utilizing new relationship management tools and harnessing data to enhance customer engagement.

IT teams are responsible for integrating the technologies that align with the unified commerce model and ensuring robust platform security. They support various departments within the company during digital transformation, aiding in the adoption of new tools which is vital for effective digital utilization.

Sales associates in stores are integral to this transformation. Equipped with connected tablets, access to customer information, and real-time stock visibility, they become more agile and informed, enhancing the overall customer experience.

External partners, including software vendors, also play a significant role in accelerating digital transformation. Their technological expertise and support facilitate the seamless integration and implementation of new systems.

Customer data serving the transformation of the experience

The impact of data on decision-making

A unified commerce model consolidates data from various channels into a centralized database. This enables businesses to analyze purchasing behaviors, interactions, and customer preferences, proving crucial for optimizing decision-making. Centralizing and activating these insights is fundamental to achieving customer-focused digital transformation.

For example, a digital marketing manager can fine-tune campaigns in real time by analyzing conversion rates across channels. Operations managers can adjust inventory levels based on purchasing patterns. This dynamic flow management hinges on the ability to make real-time adjustments.

Effective data utilization requires appropriate tools such as unified CRM systems, analytical platforms, and dashboards. These solutions enable businesses to adopt predictive logic, analyzing information with both methodological rigor and contextual interpretation.

The CRM from Orisha Commerce centralizes data from all sales channels, offering a holistic view of every customer interaction. Featuring advanced segmentation, scoring, and automation, it enables highly personalized campaigns and tailored customer journeys. 

Analyzing behaviors to personalize interactions

To personalize interactions, businesses must perform detailed analysis of customer behaviors. This involves reconstructing individual journeys and identifying specific consumer preferences.

Such evaluation goes beyond traditional segmentation based on age or location, unveiling recurring usage patterns, like a customer who regularly checks for new arrivals on Friday nights. These insights allow the company to craft more relevant engagement strategies.

Personalization extends to in-store interactions and customer service. Using a unified CRM, advisors can access a customer’s comprehensive history and provide tailored recommendations.

Implementing an effective omnichannel strategy

Integration of physical and digital sales channels

Integrating physical and digital sales channels seeks to create a seamless customer journey. To achieve this, companies must ensure real-time system communication: 

• making in-store stock visible online, 
• enabling product reservations via mobile, 
• allowing returns of marketplace purchases in-store.

As a result, each channel serves as a complementary entry point to the entire product range. This integration brings about hybrid customer journeys: 

• click and collect, 
• delivery from store, 
• real-time stock consultation, 
• integrated loyalty programs.

These practices epitomize the connected point of sale concept, with each store acting as an extension of the company’s digital ecosystem. They highlight the impact of successful digital transformation. Additionally, channel integration relies on both technology and internal organization—employees must be trained, sharing common indicators and a unified vision of the customer journey.

Decathlon, a leading sporting goods retailer, has pursued an ambitious digital transformation. By integrating Openbravo POS, Decathlon has streamlined its IT infrastructure, enhancing operational agility and reducing costs. This infrastructure modernization and adoption of advanced technologies reinforce Decathlon’s competitive market position.

Unified communication across all touchpoints

Consistent communication hinges on reliable product information, irrespective of the channel. To accomplish this, companies must centralize the management of content, offers, and data. Achieving this consistency necessitates integrating tools like a unified commerce platform that systematically structures and disseminates information.

Additionally, promotional campaigns, price updates, or new product launches must be distributed simultaneously across all company touchpoints. This requires seamless synchronization processes and enhanced coordination among digital marketing, e-commerce, and retail teams.

Beyond the technical details, cohesive touchpoints help establish trust with consumers, reducing friction and bolstering the company’s credibility. Immersive technologies, such as augmented reality, further enrich this dynamic.

Miniso stands out as a company that has effectively harnessed digital transformation to modernize its stores.

Promoting innovation and sustainable growth

Adapting infrastructures to support digital transformation

For a successful digital transformation, businesses must adapt their infrastructures to meet new challenges. This involves more than just adopting new tools; it requires rethinking the entire technological architecture to ensure it is modular and adaptable. This approach sets the technical groundwork for a sustainable and scalable digital transformation.

A suitable infrastructure is built around a centralized SaaS platform capable of integrating diverse business systems, such as ERP, CRM, inventory management, POS software, e-commerce, and logistics. This interconnected framework ensures real-time data synchronization and automation of processes like multichannel order management and catalog updates.

Migrating to this type of infrastructure demands a gradual approach. The aim is to ensure technological compatibility and engage employees from the project’s inception. Selecting the right partners and adopting scalable tools are crucial steps in building a stable technological foundation that supports growth.

Retailer BUT has embarked on an ambitious digital transformation to fortify its omnichannel strategy. Confronted with diverse IT systems and escalating maintenance complexity, the company adopted Orisha Commerce’s solution. This SaaS platform streamlined its IT infrastructure, providing greater agility for deploying new services.

As a result of this modernization, BUT stores now contribute more effectively to online orders, facilitating click and collect and returns. This digital transformation has significantly improved the company’s ability to deliver a unified and coherent experience across all sales channels.

Supporting teams in evolving towards an innovation culture

Successful digital transformation requires a concurrent shift in company culture towards greater innovation. To support teams in this transition, businesses must foster an environment that encourages collaboration and adoption of new tools.

Employees need to grasp the importance of the changes the company is undergoing, their impact on work, and the expected benefits. Workshops, demonstrations, and testing sessions help demystify technologies and involve teams in strategic decision-making.

Fostering an innovative culture involves rethinking traditional hierarchies. By appreciating internal initiatives, field feedback, and ideas from sales points, companies can build an environment of trust and empowerment.

This shift towards an innovative culture is evident in store practices like mobile checkout. Providing sales associates with connected terminals enables them to complete sales anywhere on the sales floor, bypassing the central checkout. These connected, more mobile associates deliver faster and more efficient service.

Digital transformation also necessitates ongoing development of technical and interpersonal skills within the company to help teams adapt to new tools and changes. This transition requires agile management that can steer change and encourage experimentation throughout the organization.

Achieving successful digital transformation in unified commerce goes beyond mere tool changes; it’s a comprehensive project involving company infrastructure, data, teams, and customer relationships. The challenge lies in delivering a seamless experience across all channels while bolstering operational agility. The companies that excel are those that successfully integrate technology with relational intelligence. Orisha Commerce’s solutions offer the essential building blocks for unified, scalable, and customer-focused commerce.