https://go.stripe.global/rs/072-MDK-283/images/VML-Stripe-Hard-to-Attract-Easy-to-Lose.pdf
The holy grail of omni-channel, checkout and
unified commerce
Despite a drive towards online shopping, the message from consumers is loud and clear…
they want and demand omni-channel shopping experiences. Regardless of the negative
press around high street retail, 60% of consumers say they prefer to shop with retailers that
have digital and physical stores.
The challenge of course is that consumers today expect these omni-channel experiences to
be seamlessly integrated – something that 56% of them claim is important.
The reality is that, too often, the channels are not fully integrated. An omni-channel strategy
typically depends on multiple technology platforms that are integrated to varying degrees.
For example, a business may have eCommerce and brick-and-mortar stores, but customers
may not be able to do things like: 1 Accessing purchase history or customer support across all channels with a
single account. For example, a customer’s in-app and online purchase history may
only be viewed in those respective channels, while their in-store transaction history
wouldn’t be available online or in-app.
2 Engaging across multiple channels throughout the buying journey. For example,
a customer might not be able to return online purchases in-store or ask a store
associate to ship an out-of-stock item to their home address.
3 Accruing rewards points across all channels. For example, loyalty points may
only be awarded for online or in-app purchases, meaning in-store purchases are not
connected to a customer’s loyalty account and do not accrue points.
The nirvana is to move to a connected and unified commerce experience with a
personalized customer experience and unified data. Unified commerce is effectively a
centralized platform connecting back-end systems (such as order fulfillment, inventory
management and CRM) with customer-facing channels. It creates a unified view of shopper
interactions, products, and management systems. And without this set-up, pursuing an
omni-channel approach to support customer journeys is effectively a non-starter!
Merchants should consider investing in modern terminal devices which are tightly integrated
with their payments provider so that the online and offline transactions and experience can
be unified.
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Conclusion
The message is clear… consumers will not put up with an experience or a checkout that
is not up to their expectations. And neither should they! With a few simple tweaks, online
retailers and brands can prevent their acquisition spend going to waste with a poor online
experience, and can ensure that they maximize conversion on their sites.
So what’s next, and how can we help?
Next steps
→ Start by undertaking a full review of your online commerce experience from
inspiration, to search, to transaction, assessing the number of steps it takes to
pass from start to finish and identifying any friction points that delay or obstruct
getting to the transaction point.
→ Focus on the checkout and on reducing the time it takes to transact.
→ Implement key practices (such as the ability to store payment methods) to reduce
checkout time for returning customers.
→ Localize your payment and checkout – think and act globally so as not to deter
international customers.
→ Think (and invest in) mobile – and ensure that payment is fast, efficient and easy.
→ Approach checkout design with an omni-channel perspective, allowing consumers
to seamlessly find inspiration, search and purchase across all channels, be they
digital or physical.
→ Review your tech infrastructure. Does your commerce platform offer the agility,
scalability and features to support the expectations of your customers today and
in the future? Talk to us about migrating your current commerce platform to a
decoupled architecture (i.e. microservices, agile, cloud-first and/or headless) to
create the foundations for building more flexible, responsive customer experiences.
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