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customer-based pricing, single channel shopping
carts, product availability, etc. across all channels
and customer touch points.
“Retailers understand that to deliver a next-
generation customer experience they must have
technology that supports the seamless convergence
of in-store and digital experiences,” says a Boston
Retail Partners study.
While core merchandising, marketing, supply
chain and business administration applications
will likely continue to be the system of record in
many cases, a unified commerce platform extracts
value from back office applications and manages all
consumer interactions and transactions
throughout the consumer shopping jour-
ney, explains the consultant firm.
Deployment Plans
In the near-term, 53 percent of U.S.
retailers say they plan to implement a
single, unified commerce platform to
consolidate key data elements, busi-
ness rules and functionality historically
housed in multiple systems, according
to a survey performed on behalf of the
National Retail Federation, Ecommerce
Europe and the Ecommerce Founda-
tion. This represents a nearly 50 percent
increase in anticipated adoption year-
over-year. During the next 10 years, a full
86 percent of surveyed retail executives
plan to leverage a unified commerce
platform, suggesting an emerging stan-
dard as the technology matures.
In the meantime, while a vast major-
ity of survey respondents envision
a unified commerce platform on the
horizon, retailers are at various stages in
their journeys toward realization. Cur-
rently, about one in 10 retailers surveyed
by NRF are currently in the “realization
stage” of operating a single platform and
measuring the benefits to gauge future
investments. An additional 13 percent
say they are in the “execution stage,” or
implementing a business and technical
strategy to manage the change. As for the
rest, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of
retail organizations surveyed are infor-
mally planning this business and techni-
cal transformation by conducting initial
research, engaging strategic vendors and
beginning business case development,
suggests NRF’s figures. And this all de-
spite the fact that no single vendor offers
a mature and robust unified commerce
platform to date, says Morris.
Not unexpectedly, intended invest-
ment is largely targeted at improving
TM
In Store. Online. Mobile.
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etailers in 2015
ut of EMV (chip and
hat are your plans
r 2015 mandate
for 2015
erformance
Phases of Journey Toward Unified Commerce Platform
Source: Boston Retail Partners, NRF
24%
search Group; PeopleForBikes
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
24%
14%
14%
13%
-16%
-22%
-23%
eady
ject
rtial
015
this
y by
015
our
ycle
r service
3%
66%
20%
63%
44%
46%
55%
44%
34%
24%
6%
Exploration
Consideration
Strategy
Execution
Realization
13%
23%
36%
13%
9%
Monitoring Single
Platform Trend
and Gathering
Information for
Education
Actively
Discussing
Viability of a
Single Platform
Aproach, but no
Formal Plan or
Budget in Place
Creating a
Formal Plan,
Developing
Business Case,
and Seeking
Budget
Implementing
a Strategy -
Business and
Technical - to
Manage Change
Operating a
Single Platform
and Measuring
Benefits to
Gauge Future
Investments
Key Initiatives Addressed by a Unified Commerce Platform
Source: Boston Retail Group, NRF
Percent of Retailers that Anticipate Significant B
Benefits Derived from a Unified Commerce Platfor
Source: Boston Partners Partners
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
25%
24%
19%
15%
14%
4%
Quickly
Respond to
Consumer
Demands
Margin
Brand Value
Re
% of respondents
% anticipating
significant benefit
Increase
Associate
Productivity
Support
Omni-channel
Strategy
Rationalize
Portfolio and
Reduce
Complexity
Transform
Store to be
Digital
Efficiently Ope
New Store
Formats
(e.g. Pop-up
Stores)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
52%
46%
• Inventory Turn
• Out-of-Stock
• Returns
• Operational Efficiency • Total Customer Value
• Net Promoter Score • A
• Pr
• C
Inside
Outdoor
|
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