Rise in Mobile Causing Shift to Unified Commerce

The rising adoption of mobile devices among consumers today is driving the “rapid shift” of retailers unifying commerce, as they now understand that today’s always-connected shopper expects a personalized, seamless and safe experience regardless of location, time or method of shopping, a new report from retail consultancy Boston Retail Partners reveals.

Four key pillars define what is required to develop such an experience: personal, mobile, seamless and secure, the “2017 POS/Customer Engagement Benchmarking Survey” reports. They are:

• Personal
  Today’s informed consumer researches products and shops anywhere and anytime – and expects a personalized experience wherever he or she shops. Three-quarters of survey respondents (75 percent) plan to use Wi-Fi to identify customers with their mobile devices in their stores by the end of 2019, and 80 percent will suggestively sell based on previous purchases within three years.
• Mobile
  A constant, virtually unlimited array of information at our fingertips through mobile devices has changed the shopping experience and elevated customer expectations for customer service. Nearly nine in 10 respondents (89 percent) will offer mobile solutions for associates within three years, while 84 percent will use mobile point-of-sale (POS) within three years.
• Seamless
  Real-time retail is the ability to deliver a seamless and personalized experience to the customer whenever, wherever and however she chooses to shop. Roughly seven in 10 respondents (71 percent) plan to have a unified commerce platform by the end of 2019, while six in 10 (60 percent) plan to have centralized POS within two years.
• Secure
  Today’s retail environment requires security beyond retailers’ current focus on payments and networks. Almost all respondents (96 percent) plan to have end-to-end encryption by the end of 2019, while nearly three-quarters (73 percent) will provide a single token solution across the enterprise within three years.