Omnichannel isn’t enough to survive, never mind scale in 2024: retailers need a customer experience that lives across every platform

At first glance, the UK is not a promising environment for retailers. With continued economic instability, some enterprise-retailers could be forgiven for thinking the future is bleak. They’re not alone. According to Shopify’s latest State of Commerce report, only 16% of British consumers are optimistic about both the economy and their personal situation. 

However, the market is also ripe with opportunity for innovation. The same survey found that 55% of shoppers believe AI will make the shopping experience easier for them, and 25% said they’d be more loyal to brands that offer tech-enabled experiences. But a substantial 70% of businesses still say they face a skills gap around AI, while 27% say the lack of skills within their organisation on how to use AI is their biggest challenge. Further compounding this challenge is the issue that UK businesses lag behind their European counterparts. 68% aren’t focussed on integrating the online and in-store experience, while only 58% plan to or have invested in AI to make operational efficiencies – compared to 78% in Germany. 

Facing much negative pressure, retailers need an evolved operating strategy that will revolutionise how they understand and reach consumers. That approach should be unified commerce. Think omnichannel, but optimised; a shopping experience where customers can move seamlessly from one channel to another to purchase wherever and whenever is easiest for them, and your tech stack enables them to do so. 

Offering a cohesive system that breaks down silos to create a single, efficient solution, unified commerce enables retailers to reduce costs and improve customer experience at the same time.
 

The new consumer shopping habits 

Before retailers can implement a unified commerce strategy, they must gain an initial understanding of today’s shopping habits. 

Across five European countries, our State of Commerce research identified four key consumer personas. Making up half of all respondents, Cost Sensitive Consumers are price-led (50%). The second largest demographic highlighted was the Quality Focused Consumers, who are prepared to pay more but only if the quality is good enough (39%). 

There are two small, but important groups retailers need to be mindful of. Conscious Consumers prioritise sustainable products and are potentially even willing to pay a premium if it helps to lower their carbon footprint (9%). They are followed by the Connected Consumers. While only forming 2% of all respondents, they are highly focused on connecting with brands online. 

For enterprise retailers, these wide-ranging personas add an additional layer of challenge. Meeting them in the right place with the right product – and at the right price – has never been more difficult. The goal therefore needs to be to focus on building customer loyalty.

Customer experience is the new battleground

 Consumers’ changing shopping behaviours means that price and quality alone will not drive mass appeal. Instead, Customer experience is increasingly playing a role in how shoppers buy beyond simply purchasing a product or service, so they feel connected to the retailer regardless of whether they’re in-store or online. 

Free returns, the ability to accept digital payments, and same-day shipping are all now expectations, not nice-to-haves, according to 61%, 37% and 23% of British consumers respectively. These preferences demonstrate the growing need for a more connected approach to commerce that blends the online and offline experience. 

Two fifths (38%) of UK consumers also said they expect click-and-collect as part of their in-store shopping experience, blurring the lines with online services further. However, the current multichannel approach simply isn’t good enough anymore. With a robust unified commerce strategy in place that enables a consistent experience throughout the buying process and seamlessly across platforms, retailers can help consumers do what they want to do - shop.
 

Unified commerce leads to better experiences

Given 38% of UK consumers are happy shopping online and offline, it’s clear that businesses need a unified commerce strategy urgently. Retailers must provide consistency across channels, especially as nearly two-thirds (65%) of UK consumers said it’s important that brands offer a good integrated experience. That rises to 74% of those who have increased their discretionary spending in the last year, suggesting that the more channels integrated and available to a customer to buy from, the greater their potential lifetime value. 

Worryingly, 68% of businesses said that they are not focused on integrating the online and in-store experience, leaving them at risk of being left behind. Taking retail to the next level, unified commerce enables a retailer to integrate its channels into one cohesive system that breaks down silos. It enables centralised data, synchronised operations, real-time inventory fulfilment and order management, and more —all while reducing costs and further enhancing the customer experience.
 

Be consistent or lose out

British retailers must be proactive. Just 11% of UK merchants in the research said that improving their digital infrastructure to sell across channels is their number one priority, the lowest in Europe and far behind German respondents (21%). But as the barriers between online and in-store become more blurred, British businesses appear to be failing to keep up. This is why it’s so important to deploy a unified commerce strategy that makes it easy to understand and connect with consumers wherever and however they shop to optimise the buying experience. 

Unified commerce brings a range of benefits that retailers want and need to keep shoppers coming back. Operational and cost efficiencies, deeper customer insights, and the ability to integrate innovative technologies like VR and AR across platforms, can help to deliver a better experience that engenders loyalty and grow revenue. But unless businesses take action soon, they risk losing to competitors within the UK and abroad who offer a consistent experience wherever shoppers are buying.