Unified commerce brings together all of a store’s sales channels and activities, giving merchants the power to enhance the customer experience.
When merchants run their businesses from a single platform, they unlock new ways to harness data, manage orders, and personalize the customer journey.
Ahead, learn how unified commerce is making shopping simpler and more intuitive than ever.
What is unified commerce?
Unified commerce is a fully integrated retail system that lets merchants run their businesses from one place. Unified commerce platforms bring together sales channels, inventory management, order fulfillment, marketing, and other retail activities.
By using a unified commerce platform, merchants can manage different areas of their business that are often handled separately, such as B2B and D2C sales, or domestic and international shipping. The advantage of a unified system is that all tools and features are integrated, so data from across business activities is shared and merchants get the best view of customers and inventory.
Today’s shoppers often use multiple channels to make a purchase. Whether they interact with an online store, a promotional email, a shop-floor assistant, or a social media post, unified commerce helps provide a seamless shopping experience. Customers can buy online and pick up orders in-store—or try a product in person before purchasing from the comfort of home.
tokyobike: Unified commerce in action
Independent bicycle company tokyobike faced a challenge that most businesses dream of: people around the world loved their products, but they couldn’t open stores or find local stockists near every interested customer.
Often, people would travel to visit a tokyobike retail location for a test ride. If they decided not to make a purchase, they left with a business card, a list of bike specifications, and a credit card authorization form.
Many found it difficult to checkout using this method. And with long distances between potential customers and retail locations, they were unlikely to return.
After moving to Shopify’s Point of Sale (POS) system, tokyobike unified its sales channels, closing the distance between its online store and retail spaces.
Now, if a customer test rides a bike but leaves without buying, their shopping cart is saved and emailed to them—waiting in their inbox when they return home.
Customers who start their journey in-store can complete it online whenever they’re ready, reducing the chances of lost sales.
With unified commerce powered by Shopify, tokyobike can switch gears to support customers beyond its storefronts.
Unified commerce vs. omnichannel commerce
A few decades ago, most sales took place in a physical store. Today, commerce happens everywhere—from websites and apps to social media and pop-up events.
As new commerce channels emerged, omnichannel marketing helped businesses provide consistent branding and product information wherever customers shopped.
Omnichannel tools continue to improve front-end consistency for many businesses. But typically, they leave backend systems unconnected. This increases the risk of data conflicts and errors, and makes it difficult for merchants to offer flexible shopping options across channels.
Unified commerce builds on the features offered by omnichannel commerce. Sales channels, payment systems, and customer interactions are brought into a single platform, giving merchants more power to create smooth customer interactions.
With unified commerce, brands can better understand your needs and preferences by looking at your entire customer history. They can access your full purchase history, solve order issues faster, and even suggest products that might interest you, making your shopping experience feel more personal and connected.
The benefits of unified commerce
With a single view of inventory, orders, and customer data, unified commerce platforms keep track of what's happening across a business in real-time. Customers reap the benefits of up-to-date product inventories and the flexibility to browse, pay, and fulfill orders however they want.
Here are six ways that merchants can benefit from using a unified commerce platform:
1. Create a flexible buying journey
Unified platforms let businesses offer increased checkout options for customers. Shoppers can add products to their online carts, apply promo codes, and choose to pick up items in-store if it’s more convenient.
Order details and shipping information are accessible from point-of-sale devices, with real-time updates that benefit customers and staff. Shopify POS provides customers with tracking numbers for purchases made in-store and online, keeping them informed.
2. Track customer interactions
Here’s a common customer journey: a shopper sees your Facebook ad, clicks a link, and visits your online store. Then, they create a customer account, browse your product line, and add a product to their shopping cart. However, they abandon their cart and leave the website without making a purchase.
Tracking these interactions without a unified ecommerce platform can be challenging and time-consuming. Unified commerce simplifies this process, monitoring customers across touchpoints, allowing you to take action.
Using unified customer insights, you might send a targeted email containing a promo code or an invitation to book an in-store appointment at a local location.
3. Tailor shopping experiences
Customers expect personalization. With unified commerce, retailers can deliver on these expectations, using customer data to tailor marketing content and shopping experiences.
For example, site visitors who regularly browse particular products can be greeted with a shortcut to resume shopping. Timely product recommendations can be generated from customer analytics, and loyalty programs can be fine-tuned with perks based on customer habits.
4. Provide real-time product updates
It's frustrating when an item listed as available is actually out of stock. Inventory mismatches can damage customer trust, and your bottom line. In 2023, retailers lost an estimated $1.7 trillion in revenue due to issues like stockouts and overstocking.
Running multiple storefronts increases the risk of pricing discrepancies between channels. But with unified sales channels, it’s easy to adjust prices and ensure they’re consistent across listings.
A synchronized inventory makes it easier to move stock based on demand and anticipate the need to reorder items, reducing the risk of lost sales.
5. Offer convenient returns
When online stores and retail locations work in tandem, customers receive a better post-purchase experience. With systems like Shopify POS, it’s easy to offer a flexible return policy, where returns are accepted at any store location, no matter where the products were originally purchased.
Customers who have a positive returns experience are more likely to make future purchases. By making returns hassle-free, you not only build trust but can improve customer lifetime value.
6. Manage staff more effectively
A unified platform simplifies onboarding and training. Rather than juggling logins and interfaces, employees benefit from learning a single system. This streamlined approach is especially useful for businesses with high staff turnover.
Unified systems reduce the chance of human error. Automated inventory and customer information updates mean employees have less manual data entry to handle.
With systems like Shopify POS, it’s possible to create employee profiles to track sales performance and identify areas where they may benefit from additional training, ensuring your team is always equipped to deliver the best customer service.
The future of commerce is unified
Shopping is increasingly multichannel—about 60% of shopping experiences now start on one device and end on another.
Unified commerce ensures merchants are in control of every part of today’s customer journey, no matter how many channels are involved.
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Unified commerce FAQ
What are examples of unified commerce?
Unified commerce examples include integrating online and offline sales channels, providing seamless shopping experiences, and offering consistent customer service across all platforms. Retailers achieve this by using centralized data systems to manage inventory, customer information, and transactions, enabling features like buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), and cross-channel returns.
Why is unified commerce important?
Unified commerce helps businesses leverage their data at every stage in the buyer’s journey, minimizing lost opportunities and delivering a better customer experience.
What are unified commerce platforms?
Unified commerce platforms merge various retail functions—like online sales, physical store transactions, and customer support—into one streamlined system.
What is the purpose of unified commerce?
Unified commerce makes shopping smoother and management easier by combining all retail activities onto one platform. Retailers can make better decisions by accessing a complete view of sales, inventory, and customer data.