Transforming Retail: Unified Commerce Strategies for Specialty Retailers
In today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape, industry leaders are balancing a multitude of complexities all while adapting to satisfy shifting consumer expectations. Navigating these behaviours and preferences in the digital era has become ever more challenging. From browsing online to physically making purchases in store, brands must learn to unify these operations to create one seamless, unified commerce experience if they want to maintain a competitive edge for the future.
As a global leader in supply chain and unified commerce, Manhattan Associates in partnership with Connect Media, hosted an executive roundtable to discuss these trends in unified commerce, explore opportunities for innovation and understand how leaders can stay ahead in the ever-changing retail industry. Following the release of the Unified Commerce Benchmark Index for Australia published by Incisiv a global research agency in collaboration with Manhattan Associates, the conversation was led by Raghav Sibal, Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, Manhattan Associates, with exclusive insights from Matt Hassall, General Manager, Omni Fulfilment, Super Retail Group. This article presents a high-level overview of these discussions and learnings that drove the evening.
Data Insights for Informed Decision Making |
Incisiv’s Unified Commerce Benchmark Report
Earlier this year, Manhattan Associates in collaboration with Incisiv, revealed insights from the industry’s first real-world analysis on unified commerce for specialty retail in Australia. The report evaluated 29 retailers across the country over four specialty segments, exploring 290+ unique attributes of unified commerce. The findings were based on data from actual purchases, returns and customer journeys across digital and physical channels.
“We looked at every variable out there and put these capabilities together with Incisiv to determine – where Australian retailers sit in comparison to their industry and competitors and what where they can start to becomes a more unified commerce retailer getting closer to their customers and driving top line revenue” Daniel Osborne, APAC Marketing Director at Manhattan Associates
Data from this report has been invaluable for brands looking to drive a suite of transformation efforts in unified commerce – from identifying opportunities for investment and growth in operations to reevaluating approaches to how brands engage with their consumers. When implemented effectively, retailers have the potential to go beyond simply selling products, but to craft authentic, cross channel experiences that resonate with their customers at every step of the purchasing journey.
As Raghav Sibal, Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, Manhattan Associates shared during the roundtable, “It’s about the continuous experience, more than just the speed of delivery. It’s about connecting the dots between what your customers expect and what you can deliver.”
Customised Consumer Offerings | The Next Frontier of Retail
Delivering highly personlised shopping experiences across every touch point have become more important than ever before. Customer expectations have been driven by tech innovations, social dynamics, and evolving consumer values, particularly among Gen Z and younger millennials who demand more authentic, interactive engagement. Retailers must move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach and continue to refine their offerings to meet the growing needs of their consumer base.
For many businesses, personlisation has become a vital part of their unified commerce strategy. By embracing a unified approach, brands are able to consolidate their customer touchpoints into a single, centralized view – enabling deeper insights into an individual’s path-to-purchase. This data allows brands to reassess their strengths, identify opportunities for development and evaluate how best to adapt their customer offerings accordingly.
True personalisation means understanding each customer’s unique preferences, behaviors, and needs—tailoring every interaction accordingly to create customised experiences that ignite curiosity and a desire to return to the store for more. From rethinking a brand’s fulfillment options, to creating hyper-personlised consumer shopping experiences – a unified approach allows brands to unlock a truly customer-centric journey to purchase.
In an increasingly digitised world however, brands must strike a balance between their online and physical store operations to create the frictionless, cross channel experiences that consumers expect – regardless of their preferred mode of shopping.
A Unified Solution | Bridging Silos in Multi-Channel Operations
The customer journey has evolved from the days of linear, fragmented channel interactions, as brands scramble to offer a range of multi-channel shopping experiences both in-person and digitally. Businesses must shift towards connecting these gaps in operations to create a single, cohesive ecosystem from the 4 walls of the warehouse to the store floors. As Matt Hassall, General Manager, Omni Fulfilment at Super Retail Group shared during the roundtable,
“Whether you walk into a store, or you’re sitting at home browsing, brands must ensure these experiences translate effortlessly. Customers should always feel like they are engaging with a brand from the same place.”
Traditional approaches to distribution have focused on optimising specific areas of the supply chain, often working in silos to improve efficiency and reduce costs. By integrating a unified approach to operations however, businesses can activate every aspect of their supply chain – from inbound to outbound logistics — with greater visibility and efficiency.
This approach has helped businesses like Rebel Sport enhance order fulfillment needs. Using Manhattan Active Omni – a technology solution from Manhattan Associates, Rebel Sport along with other Super Retail Group brands haves been able to make real-time calls to their inventory, enabling them to accurately predict product availability and delivery timelines at the point of purchase. As a result, the business saw a double digit increase in conversion for customers using the delivery options widget on their website.
To maintain a competitive edge in the future, successful retailers will be those that can synchronize these systems across all channels, ensuring that their customers have the same frictionless, brand interactions and experiences regardless of their preferred touch point. This is true unification.
Conclusions | The Road Ahead
Unified Commerce is more than just a trend as mentioned by Daniel Osborne, APAC Marketing Director at Manhattan Associates “Unified Commerce is not a one step journey. And what a lot of companies struggle with is they’re trying to do too many things at different times, or they’re struggling with the structure of their own organisation to actually move themselves forward and this benchmark index breaks down all the attributes that make up a leading Unified Commerce strategy and pinpoints what areas a specific retailer can tackle today to get closer to their customers and increase top line revenue avoiding the common situation of trying to do too many things at once and not seeing any improvements.
It is a revolution in business strategy that can transform a brand’s ecosystem. In today’s evolving landscape where consumers expect seamless, customised shopping experiences, retailers are realising that fragmented systems will only lead to inefficiencies and frustrations for both customers and operations alike. The future of retail lies in bridging these gaps – from supply chain logistics and delivery to a customer’s path to purchase experience. The insights provided by Incisiv’s Unified Commerce Benchmark Report for Australia offers a roadmap for retailers looking to bolster their capabilities and unlock opportunities for growth in the future. Those that can embrace this unified approach across their business today, will only continue to thrive in the future.
Written by Mitch Cohen, Content Manager, Connect Media
