Unified commerce

What is unified commerce and why do you need it?

Unified commerce is a strategy that connects all your retail elements, from inventory and orders to customer engagement, across all channels and touchpoints. Unlike other strategies, unified commerce uses a single, centralized platform, which gives you a complete, real-time view of your business operations. This is the key to delivering a seamless, consistent, and personalized customer experience.

Boosting customer loyalty and satisfaction

By providing a consistent and customized experience across channels, you can build a strong relationship with your customers and make them come back and refer you to others.

Improving operational efficiency and cost savings

By having a single system that handles all your retail aspects, you can simplify and streamline your processes and systems, and reduce errors and waste.

Increasing flexibility and innovation

By having a system that can adapt and respond to changing customer needs and market conditions, you can be more agile and creative in your offerings and solutions.

Unified commerce strategy:
Getting started

Unified commerce is not just a goal, but an ongoing journey, where technology meets retail strategy. To implement unified commerce effectively, you need to follow some best practices:

Choosing the best solutions for each retail component

Instead of using a one-size-fits-all solution that may not meet all your needs and challenges, you should choose the best and most suitable solutions for each part of your retail operation, such as POS systems, inventory management, or customer relationship tools. This will ensure that you have a system that excels in each area, and that can integrate seamlessly with each other.

Collaborating with the best partners for each retail component

To get the most out of unified commerce, you need to work with the best and most suitable partners for each part of your retail operation, and that can offer you innovative tools and solutions that support your unique unified commerce strategy. Such a partner can help you plan, implement, and optimize your unified commerce journey, as well as provide you with ongoing support and advice.

Measuring and evaluating your performance across channels and touchpoints

To ensure that you achieve the desired results with unified commerce, you need to constantly monitor and analyze your performance across channels and touchpoints and compare it with your goals and expectations. This will help you identify any issues or opportunities for improvement and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Discover the transformative power of unified commerce in our latest whitepaper. Learn how integrating your retail operations across all channels can significantly enhance customer experiences and drive your business forward.

Key insights

Seamless integration of retail channels for enhanced customer experiences
Using real-time data for impactful strategic decisions
Exploring the role of innovative technologies in retail
Prioritizing customer-centric approaches
Essential security measures for modern retail

...and many more valuable insights!

Ready to redefine your retail strategy?
Download our whitepaper and step into the future of unified commerce.

The Fiftytwo way to unified commerce

Fiftytwo’s approach to unified commerce is centered around a ‘best of breed’ philosophy. We understand that unified commerce is not just a goal, but an evolving journey, where technology meets retail strategy. As a collaborative partner in this journey, Fiftytwo offers innovative tools and profound expertise that elevate the industry. Our commitment is to deliver versatile solutions that not only integrate effortlessly with existing systems, but also excel in their specific areas, supporting your unique unified commerce strategy.

Dynamic and flexible pricing

You can easily create and manage complex pricing rules and scenarios, such as discounts, coupons, loyalty programs, etc., and apply them to different products, categories, channels, or customer segments, based on various criteria, such as time, location, demand, etc.

Our dynamic pricing core, 52MASTERPRICER, enables the seamless interplay between pricing and promotions across various sales channels and touchpoints, offering real-time responsiveness and consistency.

Seamless and omnichannel POS

You can offer your customers a smooth and convenient checkout process, whether they shop in-store, online, or through mobile devices, and enable them to switch between channels without any hassle or friction

Our versatile and mobile POS solution, 52ViKING, functions as both a traditional POS and a mobile POS (MPOS), adaptable to any environment, and provides centralized control of pricing and data, enhancing the retail experience across multiple channels.

Data-driven and intelligent insights

You can leverage the power of data and analytics to optimize your unified commerce strategy and use AI and machine learning to automate and personalize your decisions, based on customer behavior, preferences, and feedback.

Our structured data collection and analysis tools help you monitor and evaluate your performance across channels and touchpoints and identify any issues or opportunities for improvement.

Before the Internet was a fundamental part of every customer's daily life, most retailers only sold their goods through a single channel - the physical store. With the advent of the Internet, many have expanded their presence, but the single channel business model still exists. Single channel means that you only sell your products through one channel. It can be either a physical store, a webshop, or something completely different.

Briefly explained multi channel means that you sell your goods on more than one channel (e.g., in a physical store and on a webshop), but your channels do not work together. Instead, they are divided into silos and handled as two or more different businesses. For example, if you have a physical store and a webshop, these will each have their inventory, management, business idea, marketing strategy, etc.

It will not be possible for your customers to use a gift card across your channels or return a product purchased at your webshop in your physical store.

Just like with a multi channel business model, you are present on several channels with a cross channel business model - the difference is that your channels are connected and not divided into silos. Cross channel can be seen as a nuanced version of multi channel, which is more centered around the customer. Your various channels are coordinated so that they complement each other, and you can offer your customers a more consistent experience when they shop with you. A product purchased at your webshop can be returned in your physical store, and a gift card can be used across your channels. You can also send your customers coupons via email that they can redeem in your physical store.

Omnichannel is perceived as a further development of the cross channel. The aim is that your customer's shopping journey, across your channels, work even more smoothly. They must be offered an even more seamless and relatable shopping experience - no matter which channel they choose to shop on. With a cross channel business model, your channels are connected. With an omnichannel business model, they are integrated. This is reflected in the fact that information your customers have entered on one channel can be transferred to other channels - both physical and digital. For example, your customer can create a profile on your webshop that will also be available on a mobile device application, which they may also be able to access from a screen in your physical store.

When you integrate your various channels, you only need to maintain data in one place, and that is, in addition to streamlining your time, associated with several benefits. You get more valid data, and you ensure that your customers experience consistency in prices and stock across your channels. That way, your business becomes more reliable, and your customers more loyal.

With an omnichannel business model, you can also offer your customers Click and Collect. With Click and Collect, your customers can order items on your website and get it delivered to your physical store. This does not only mean that you meet your customers' wishes and needs - but you also ensure an opportunity to achieve additional sales. A survey conducted by the e-Commerce portal InternetRetailing shows that around 60-75% of all Click and Collect customers end up putting extra items in the basket when they visit your physical store to pick up a preordered product.

Many retailers have caught sight of the concept of loyalty clubs', where their customers can get discounts, special offers, exclusive content, event invitations, etc. The idea of tying your customers closer to your business is undoubtedly useful, but it requires an integration of your channels and thus presupposes that you implement an omnichannel business model.

Although your sales channels with an omnichannel business model are integrated, your knowledge of your customer's current situation may be limited due to a lack of homogeneous and updated data. Therefore, you may end up sending your customers offers that are not relevant to them at that time, which may give them an impersonal experience.

To create the coherence required by an omnichannel business model, things must be seen from a bigger perspective, and the idea of channels must be ditched. Instead, the focus should be on your customer's experience with your overall business. However, it is easier said than done. You may be forced to work in channels if you lack the necessary solutions and integrations to create coherence between your systems, data, etc.

Unified commerce is a further development of omnichannel, which is a total solution that allows you to execute your omnichannel business model. Your database is integrated and exchanged directly between your channels. Thus, you achieve an overall picture of your customer that gives you insight into your customer's needs and desires here and now. With this knowledge, you can tailor personalized offers to your customers, and give them a personalized service when shopping in your physical store. That way, you can increase your chances of both upselling and additional sales.

Questions?

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Mail

sbr@fiftytwo.com

Phone

+45 31 68 35 99

Unified commerce
- the future of retail