{"id":2156,"date":"2017-01-13T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T16:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/industry\/blog\/uncategorized\/unifying-the-retail-experience\/"},"modified":"2023-07-17T12:20:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T19:20:57","slug":"unifying-the-retail-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/retail\/2017\/01\/13\/unifying-the-retail-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Unifying the retail experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

We speak with Microsoft\u2019s Pinar Salk to understand how new unified commerce models are enabling retailers to bring together their digital and physical shopping experiences<\/h2>\n

France-based cosmetic company The L\u2019Or\u00e9al Group wants its global customers to enjoy a unique immersive and customized digital experience whenever they visit the online stores of its 32 international beauty brands. After adopting Sitecore\u2019s customer experience management software on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, The L\u2019Or\u00e9al Group is well on its way to achieving this aim.<\/p>\n

Using Sitecore\u2019s platform, the company built a central enterprise framework for customer experience management so it can quickly deliver connected digital beauty experiences in multiple languages and countries. The L\u2019Or\u00e9al Group\u2019s team gains real-time insights about each individual customer who interacts with its brands to create compelling marketing content that is specifically relevant to them. Now that the marketing team can engage with customers in a personalized way, The L\u2019Or\u00e9al Group expects to boost sales and customer loyalty.<\/p>\n

According to Pinar Salk, Microsoft\u2019s industry solutions director for retail, The L\u2019Or\u00e9al Group is just one of many retail brands that is exploring new and more innovative ways to put the customer experience at the centre of their business model.<\/p>\n

\u201cProducts and prices are no longer key differentiators for retailers; now they beat competitors by offering a personalized and connected customer experience across all channels,\u201d Salk says. \u201cTo date, it\u2019s been very challenging for most retailers to deliver this experience because they have disparate physical and digital customer engagement channels, as well as separate systems for their marketing, product, sales and corporate teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

To provide customers with a more consistent cross-channel shopping experience, many retailers have adopted omnichannel solutions that stitch together all their systems. This includes everything from their online store, to their social media sites, in-store kiosks and beacons, POS devices, and back-end systems for customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning. However, Salk claims that the real breakthrough is the new unified commerce business model.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond omnichannel is unified commerce, which brings all physical and digital channels together in real time,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhen any of the retailer\u2019s operational systems captures customer data, this information is instantly fed into the unified customer experience management platform and becomes visible in every channel. This gives retailers an accurate 360-degree overview of every individual\u2019s preferences, purchase history, social media presence and more. Consequently, they can immediately identify a customer and deliver the same seamless, personalized experience whenever and wherever they interact with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, a consumer can start her shopping journey using a retailer\u2019s bot in her living room and create a list of clothes to try. When she goes to the store, beacons connected to the retailer\u2019s mobile app would detect her presence and notify a sales associate who will be able to see consumer\u2019s information, try list and recommended items. The store associate can use the information to capitalize on cross-sell and upsell opportunities that might otherwise have been missed. Meanwhile, the consumer can continue her shopping journey by scanning items with her mobile app and adding them to her try list. When she is trying on clothes in her assigned fitting room, she will be able to use a kiosk pre-populated with her try list to ask for a different size or add a recommended item. Unified commerce allows retailers to combine the best of physical and digital assets and proactively engage with a customer in the right way, at the right time, changing and migrating inside a single transaction across the customer\u2019s shopping journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen customers can\u2019t find the same products and discounts on a retailer\u2019s online and physical stores, they get frustrated which means they\u2019re more likely to go elsewhere to buy the product,\u201d comments Salk. \u201cA customer should be able to start their shopping journey by looking for products on their laptop at home, then seamlessly move to a mobile app to access a personalized discount while they\u2019re on the bus, and instantly pick up where they left off as they walk into the store.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, emphasis Salk, making customers feel like valued individuals is key to boosting loyalty and driving sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers are greeted by name and receive tailored product recommendations and offers when they visit a retailer\u2019s online stores so why shouldn\u2019t they get the same service in physical stores?\u201d asks Salk. \u201cPeople feel important if a store associate addresses them personally, knows their likes and dislikes, and guides them to the products they\u2019ve been looking at online, or recommends products that best suit their tastes, needs and lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salk adds: \u201cUnified customer experience management should be a top priority for retailers who want to remain competitive in the age of the connected customer. Together with our partners Sitecore, Episerver and Orckestra, Microsoft is using its secure, scalable enterprise cloud and mobile app development platform to develop unified customer experience management solutions that will enable retailers to achieve this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
This article was originally published on The Record.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retailers bring together their digital and physical shopping experiences<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":843,"featured_media":10119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"post_tag":[],"content-type":[1483],"coauthors":[4309],"class_list":["post-2156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retail","content-type-thought-leadership"],"yoast_head":"\nUnifying the retail experience - Microsoft Industry Blogs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/retail\/2017\/01\/13\/unifying-the-retail-experience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unifying the retail experience - 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