Retailers recognize the value of a unified commerce strategy, survey

Unified commerce is a term that’s dominating panels at retail conferences—besides generative AI, of course. It’s the concept of connecting a business’s back-end systems with its consumer-facing channels through a single tool.

Nearly all (95%) of retailers surveyed identified unified commerce as “important” or “extremely important” for achieving success, according to data from retail technology company Aptos.

• But there seems to be a gap with implementation, given that 4 in 5 of those surveyed said a unified commerce strategy will help with profitability, only a slight majority (51%) have a strategy implemented.
• Also, two-thirds say that their budgets “suffice” and less than half believe the technology they have on hand is adequate.

According to Aptos, an important factor that diverges from the research is that only 45% of respondents identified a VP of store operations having a major impact on a unified commerce strategy, while roughly 85% of revenue came from stores themselves.

“We believe store operations leadership should have a major influence on any unified commerce project, and we recommend that they have ‘a seat at the table’ alongside marketing, e-commerce, and customer experience executives,” Dave Bruno, director of retail marketing insights at Aptos, said in a statement.