A new report on unified commerce was just released, and it analyzes how leading retailers around the world use unified commerce to boost the customer experience, improve operational efficiency, and more. It went over several crucial insights, like the importance of AI, the pressure retailers face, and the ways brands can grow and succeed.
Overview of the Report
The report, which was created by Manhattan Associates Inc. and conducted by Incisiv, a retail research firm, looked closely at how hundreds of leading retailers from around the world use unified commerce to improve operations.
For those unfamiliar, unified commerce is a retail method and business strategy that combines and integrates all sales channels (such as online, mobile, social, and in-store) to offer customers a smoother and more streamlined experience.
Specifically, this report uses both industry data and executive insights to cover the strategies companies use to find success, issues they may encounter, the competitive reality of the industry, and several other important pieces of information for brands to know.
The Importance of AI in Unified Commerce
One of the main insights covered in the report is that AI is changing commerce as we know it. The first wave of AI in the retail space was all about things like automating tasks and reducing costs. While these are still priorities, the next wave is focused on intelligence.
This may include systems that predict and anticipate demand, offer real-time personalization, and deal with friction before it ever reaches customers. In addition to that, generative AI is expected to unlock over $500 billion in value around the globe by 2030.
AI is also expected to have a huge impact on ecommerce purchases in particular, as a recent report found that more than 90% of ecommerce leaders expect that AI agents will influence at least 20% of all online orders by 2027.
Speaking of agentic, the report also highlighted that AI is transforming fulfillment from reactive to proactive. Companies are deploying AI agents to predict stockouts, automate returns, and reroute orders dynamically.
AI is also allowing for personalization at scale, as it helps brands move beyond just segment-based targeting to individual experiences for each customer. Things like content, promotions, recommendations, and more can adapt and change in real-time according to a customer’s preferences, behavior, and intent.
Finally, AI-powered conversation channels are becoming primary touchpoints, as companies move beyond simple chatbots to context-aware agents that resolve issues without human involvement and remember details from one interaction to the next.
Added Pressure on Retailers
The report also touches on a major source of economic pressure that retailers deal with today, and that’s the rising global logistics and fulfillment costs. In fact, these costs have risen by more than 20% in the last three years.
Despite these costs increasing for businesses, customer expectations are also rising. Customers want faster deliveries, flexible options, and incredible service, not as a premium, but as the standard.
In fact, fast shipping is one of the most important elements for online shoppers for consumers, and free deliveries are one of the fulfillment details that customers care about most.
As a result, companies are in the difficult position of having to deal with both higher costs and more rigid expectations from customers. Retailers that can manage these challenges may have a better chance of finding success, while those that can’t may struggle.
The Customer Journey is Becoming Fragmented
Another key insight that the report covers is that the customer journey is becoming more fragmented than ever. In fact, over 66% of consumers use at least two or more channels before completing a purchase.
As a result, gone are the days of most customers simply visiting a website and making a purchase immediately. Instead, consumers today may use marketplaces, social platforms, and messaging apps to discover and/or evaluate a variety of options before deciding what to buy and where to buy it.
So if a business relies on its own storefronts and doesn’t use any other channels to sell or market products, it may lose out to brands that are more active in the other spaces where customers increasingly search for information about products.
Ways Brands Can Find Success
It also goes over a few tactics and strategies that companies can use to find success and grow. First, companies need to turn discovery into decisions by bridging the gap between browsing and buying. This is often done through brands offering real-time and personalized engagement on every channel.
Next, companies shouldn’t only focus on growing volume, but also on value. While more traffic to your site or store is great, if you just chase traffic, it may lead to less money in your pocket. For example, if a company lowers its prices and offers an amazing deal, it’ll likely bring in more traffic, but may require a significant amount of sales to generate a suitable amount of profit.
Instead, the report said that many leaders across the world are using strategies like intelligent cross-selling, connected inventory, and assisted trade-up to grow average order value organically, without having to mark prices down or offer discounts.
Finally, the report highlights that reliability is a major differentiator. When customers have so many options, the companies that can stick to their promises regarding things like delivery times have the best chance of growing and succeeding.
Regional Performance
Finally, the report mentions the factors shaping regional performance and unified commerce in general in the different parts of the world.
In the USA, retailers benefit from a deep ecommerce foundation, a very mature data infrastructure, and plenty of cross-channel investment. All of this leads to strong performance in checkout and shopping experiences.
In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), retailers have strong cross-border fulfillment and operational consistency. Also, advanced logistics networks and integrated service models help with reliable execution across the many diverse markets in the region.
In Latin America, there’s plenty of infrastructure fragmentation, but the market is developing more quickly than any other region. This is due to things like the speedy adoption of alternative payment methods, mobile-first fulfillment models, and messaging-led service through WhatsApp.
All in all, I believe there are plenty of important insights and pieces of data in this report that all companies, especially those that take an omnichannel approach, can use to improve their operations.
