We've explored some of the differences between omnichannel and unified commerce. Now we explain the different benefits unified commerce can offer your business.
Track and connect all customer interactions
The customer journey is no longer just A-Z. Instead, it could be A-G-P-Y. They might research a product online, visit your physical store, click a social media ad, open one of your emails, or all of the above and more.
Unified commerce lets you track every potential customer's interaction with your brand through a single platform. That allows you to engage and nurture them as effectively as possible. How? By delivering messaging targeted to the specific stage of their journey (think about cart abandonment emails or loyalty programs).
It also gives you information about what's working so you can make improvements across all stages of the customer journey.
Create personalised experiences
Mckinsey data shows that 71% of consumers expect businesses to offer personalised interactions. And 76% feel frustrated when they don't get them.
A unified commerce platform can help. As stated above, it gives you a complete view of a customer's interactions with your brand. That allows you to tailor their shopping experience and entice them to buy with bespoke product recommendations or personalised offers.
It will also help you improve your marketing efforts by providing customer data about their behaviour. That can help you send them the right messages at the right time.
Connect all your payments (and refunds)
Unifying your payments on one platform is vital if you're working across multiple sales channels. Why? Because it will give you much more agility to add new channels as needed.
Do you get frustrated dealing with multiple systems that don't all connect seamlessly (or communicate with each other)? Using unified commerce, you can choose software that meets your needs and instantly clicks into place in your tech stack.
Centralising your payments will also help you manage all transactions from a single platform and simplify your financial processes. As well as having all your payment data in one place, you can make reconciliation, reporting, and refunds much simpler and quicker – whether a customer paid at a point of sale, online, via a payment link, or even with a QR code.
Increase efficiency with real-time data
Getting the information you need across multiple channels and systems can be challenging. It takes expertise, time, and manual work. With unified commerce, that changes. By connecting everything on one platform, you get a single, comprehensive view of all your business operations and data.
Having one view of everything allows you to streamline your management systems, such as inventory management, customer experience, and order fulfilment.
It's also critical to show customers the correct information. And if you don't? Well, there's no better way to lose sales (or a customer's trust) than being unable to deliver a product they already purchased. Or showing them different prices across multiple touchpoints.
