Category: Unified Commerce

  • Relentless Momentum: What I Learned From the Retail Leaders

    Paid Partnership with PMC

    Last month, I had the opportunity to attend PMC’s annual customer event, Relentless Momentum. This was held at Silverstone Museum, an apt venue for a room full of retailers discussing the importance of speed and transformation in an ever-evolving landscape.

    We heard from senior leaders like Nick Beighton, former CEO of ASOS and Matches, Paul Edney, Technology Director, Channels at Primark, Jeanette Copeland, Technology Director at Ann Summers, and Cecile Delforge, Associate Director, Systems Development at the AELTC/Wimbledon.

    The PMC event took place at Silverstone Museum.

    It was an inspiring day, rich with insights and lively discussions about how stay relevant in this digital era. In this post, I’m bringing you the top takeaways and I’d also recommend you check out my podcast episode, Digital Transformation Lessons with Primark and Ann Summers, for a more in-depth discussion.

    Always start with the customer

    It sounds like an obvious one, but retailers must ensure they’re putting the customer at the heart of their strategies. When Beighton was the CIO at Matalan, he would ask himself three questions whenever considering any technology investment: “What’s it going to do for the customer? What’s it going to do for the business? And how much is it going to cost?”

    Ex-ASOS and Matches CEO Nick Beighton is interviewed by PMC CEO Richard Lowe.

    You need to start with the customer, identifying points of friction and opportunities to enhance the experience, and then work backwards from that. As Primark’s Edney said: “Technology enables business change; it doesn’t lead change.”

    Be clear on purpose

    It all begins with what Beighton refers to as the inspiration layer. “You have to be purpose-driven, mission-led, and governed by values,” he said. “If you haven’t got that, or clarity of it, what have you got? Your organization is transactional. And if you have a transactional internal culture then you have a transactional external culture, and customers get it.”

    Primark’s Edney struck a similar tone when advising retailers to consider: “What makes you special? How do you differentiate? What’s beneficial for you and your customers?”

    Embrace continuous evolution

    The only constant in retail is change. Retailers must ensure their businesses are structured in a way that allows them to dynamically respond to such relentless change.

    Ann Summers’ Copeland shared three important digital transformation tips for retailers: “Keep these projects simple. Keep them short to remove fatigue. And know that it’s going to change. Rarely in technology do things last that long,” she said.

    All of the speakers stressed the importance of adopting a test-and-learn approach. Primark’s Edney argued that, although retailers need a long-term vision, it’s impossible to do everything at once. “The way to deliver at pace is to deliver in increments. It’s like a large conveyor belt of change which we ran for two years. We learned over time that the longer it takes to deliver something, the less value it can bring because it’s either outdated or the market has changed or [consumer] perception has changed.”

    Beighton shared how, during his time at ASOS, embracing a WAgile (Waterfall + Agile) approach allowed the business to maintain some control while still being able to quickly respond to changes. “Every day is a work in progress. If you’re not fixing something every day, then you’re not moving the business forward,” he said.

    Understand the need for speed

    Given our proximity to the home of the British Grand Prix, it would have been remiss of us not to talk about speed. “Connectivity and speed of service is key for our customers,” AELTC’s Delforge said. And that’s understandable given the daily Wimbledon queue can reach 10,000 people! She discussed how transitioning to mobile ticketing, including resale, has helped to streamline queuing and improve the overall guest experience.

    Jeanette Copeland, Ann Summers’ Technology Director, shares digital transformation lessons.

    Copeland, meanwhile, shared how Ann Summers, completed a 12-month digital transformation project in just four months. Despite implementing a best-in-class integration platform, Ann Summers encountered significant issues, including underutilisation, difficulties in hiring and retaining experienced developers, and high operating costs. “You know that kitchen drawer that everyone has that’s got all the cables and cellotape and fuses in it? We kind of pulled it all out, straightened it up, and put it back in there.”

    The result? A more cost-effective and efficient solution that delivers better business outcomes.

    Ignite cultural change

    The most successful retailers understand the importance of bringing your people with you on any digital transformation journey. At ASOS, Beighton instilled a values-driven culture where employees were encouraged to always be authentic, brave, creative, and disciplined. As CEO, he would meet all new starters every Wednesday at 4:30pm, encouraging them to ask him questions.

    “Smart people understand that influence scales whereas control is finite,” Nick told the room. He argued that businesses should focus more on outputs than inputs.

    Edney also shared how Primark’s culture has evolved since embarking on its digital transformation journey four years ago. “It was never a one-off. It was a new way of working. It was all about a new ethos, a new culture.”

    Never too late to innovate

    There is no standing still in retail. As we’ve already touched on, customer centricity and perpetual innovation are key pillars for any winning retail strategy.

    That said, not everyone can achieve first-mover advantage and there is value in being deliberately late, whether that’s Primark launching click & collect or the digitization of Wimbledon. Early adopters don’t always win.

    As AELTC’s Delforge said, “We never stop innovating but we’re never going to be the first to do something. We are risk-averse and prefer to deploy proven technology.”

    That’s especially understandable in Wimbledon’s case. As one of the most-watched sporting events in the world, broadcast to over 200 territories, there is absolutely no margin for error.

    For more information on PMC, visit: PMC – Technology Services for Commerce | IT Support and Services

  • Marketplaces are the New E-Commerce

    Marc Vicente, Group Digital Director at Kingfisher, joins Natalie for a comprehensive discussion around e-commerce, AI, marketplaces, retail media, and more.

    They explore:

    • Why omnichannel retailers are now embracing the marketplace model
    • The role of physical stores in e-commerce
    • Innovative partnerships: Deliveroo and the importance of speed
    • The significance of Black Friday for Kingfisher and why it starts earlier every year
    • Retail media: monetizing the marketplace and understanding the 3 stages of retail media implementation
    • From chatbots to personalized recommendations and visual search, how is Kingfisher enhancing the customer experience with AI?
    • The future of retail: what is Marc most excited about for 2025 and beyond?

    Marc’s bio:

    Marc leads the digital transformation and oversees the strategy and operations at one of the largest home improvement retailers in Europe – which has 82,000 colleagues across 2,000 stores in eight European countries, and a number of retail banners including B&Q, Screwfix and Castorama. Before Kingfisher, Marc spent 15 years delivering disruptive technology-based growth in senior international roles such as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Officer at Rakuten Europe and Chief Operating Officer at Cdiscount.com, the French e-commerce leader.

    Connect with Marc on LinkedIn. 

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Stop Making Customers Think in Channels

    Paid partnership with Manhattan Associates

    At the recent Manhattan Exchange in Barcelona, Natalie had the opportunity to sit down with Pieter Van den Broecke, EMEA Leader, Supply Chain Commerce Strategies, at Manhattan Associates. They discussed opportunities with AI, rethinking the post-purchase experience and achieving a truly unified commerce offering.

    AI isn’t exactly a recent development. Why all the hype now?

    You’re right. In fact, during World War II, artificial intelligence was used to mobilise troops!

    Retailers have used AI for decades to help them make decisions in a world of constraints. A machine can only produce 100 bottles of champagne in an hour. A ship moving goods from China to the port of Barcelona takes three weeks. Retail operations are all about fulfilling demand to the consumer, while dealing with many real-life physical constraints and uncertainty. AI helps businesses to work around those constraints and make sure that the right product is getting into the hands of the right consumer at the right time.

    Generative AI is, of course, what’s new. By providing insights based on collective memory, Gen AI helps operational engineers to design the right solutions for the business. Gen AI can assist in building solutions by taking over configuration tasks, testing, and even coding certain elements of the system.

    Pieter Van den Broecke, EMEA Leader, Supply Chain Commerce Strategies, Manhattan Associates

    I can see how Gen AI drives operational efficiencies for retailers. But how does it improve the experience for the customer?

    When we talk about the online customer experience, we’re really referring to the “order and fulfilment experience”. When customers change their minds or when things go wrong, they want an immediate solution and ideally through self-service. This is where Gen AI comes in. Gen AI chatbots, for example, can deal with very complex queries in real-time. A customer simply needs to say, “Hey, I placed an order a week ago and I’m still waiting on delivery.” Or “Remind me what items I ordered again – was it a blue shirt or a red shirt?”.  So it’s very natural, personalised and, most importantly, it’s contextually and factually correct.

    In those cases where the Gen AI chatbot can’t solve a customer query, a conversation summary is produced and passed on to a real human being. This allows the customer support team to continue the conversation without having to go through the questions again, saving both the retailer and customer time.

    Let’s talk about the post-purchase experience. What are the benefits of allowing customers to modify their online orders?

    Sometimes we change our minds and need to cancel or change an order. By facilitating late order cancellations, ideally before the order has been shipped, the retailer is firstly improving the experience for the customer by removing the need for a return and also by being refunded immediately. The retailer benefits by keeping the product in stock and commercially available, plus the delivery (and potentially return) costs are eliminated. And of course, it’s a more sustainable way of retailing if we don’t have to deliver something that would ultimately be returned. It really is a win for the consumer, a win for the planet and a win for the retailer.

    What exactly do we mean by unified commerce and can you give us an example?

    Unified commerce is putting customers at the centre of the retail brand experience. Customers don’t want to think in channels and retailers shouldn’t be forcing that on them, but it still happens too often today.

    As a retail organisation, it’s critical to really think from the ground up with a unified commerce mindset. You have to embrace technology with your heart and mind. It’s not an afterthought. Your digital core has to be strong, at any level of the organization, and with the consumer in the centre.

    You might have heard about a concept called Omnicart, which is a shopping basket that can be filled digitally. If you opt to collect the goods in-store, that digital shopping basket then becomes a physical one, unifying the customer’s journey. This means that orders initiated in any channel can be completed, returned or exchanged in any other channel, and it also gives store associates greater upsell/cross-sell opportunities.

    There’s a huge opportunity to unify promotional activity here. Traditionally, promotions have been very channel-specific but technology is breaking down those silos. So, if a customer sees a 10% discount online for an item, this can also be applied to an in-store purchase along with any other discounts on different items. I think this is a really nice example of stretching people’s minds on what unified commerce can look like in practice.

    In one sentence, what is the most important thing that retailers can do after reading this?

    Identify the biggest friction that you create for your customer and start addressing this immediately.

    This is an abridged version of Pieter’s interview with Natalie on the Retail Disrupted podcast. Listen to the full episode here.

  • Gen AI’s Impact on Customer Service

    Paid partnership with Manhattan Associates

    Last week, I travelled to the beautiful city of Barcelona to attend Manhattan Exchange. This is Manhattan Associates’ annual European conference and always a great opportunity to hear directly from some of the region’s biggest retailers and brands. So what stood out for me this year?

    There were a few distinct themes that permeated throughout the event – unification of physical and digital commerce, store employee empowerment, and the need for both retailers and technology companies to continue to “shatter the status quo”, in CEO Eddie Capel’s words.

    But what really sparked my interest was learning more about generative AI’s impact on customer service. Real-time responsiveness is very much a trend to watch for 2025. Here are my top takeaways:

    • Retailers are increasingly comfortable experimenting with gen AI but most of the use cases that we talk about today are centred on e-commerce operations – writing marketing copy, coding, creating images, etc. So, it was interesting to hear how European retailers are now encouraging staff to use gen AI in-store. Using voice, rather than text, this enables store associates to quickly identify solutions and better serve the customer. Expect a whole lot more of this in the coming months.
    • There was a clear consensus that AI chatbots in their current form (ie. not the gen AI kind) are an abominable experience for the customer. They often spit out generic or irrelevant information, or redirect the user elsewhere, all of which lead to customer frustration and potentially lasting brand damage.
    • Gen AI chatbots, meanwhile, are going to be a gamechanger. This next iteration of the chatbot, like Manhattan Active Maven, can resolve more complex issues. For example, instead of just asking “Where’s my order?”, customers can ask things like: “What size was that polo shirt I ordered last year?” or “Remind me how much tax I paid on that purchase.”
    • One of the top reasons customers get in touch with a contact centre is because they forgot to add a discount code at the checkout. This can be quickly resolved by a gen AI chatbot. Similarly, if a customer changes their mind after making a purchase – for example, they want to modify or cancel the order or alter their fulfilment method – this is another easy task for gen AI that benefits the retailer, customer, and planet.  
    • Traditional chatbots can handle between 20-30% of inbound customer queries without any human intervention. With gen AI chatbots, this rises to more than 50%, freeing up staff time to focus on more valuable tasks like upselling or dealing with more complex customer issues.
    • Gen AI chatbots will drive efficiencies and improve the customer experience, but they won’t replace humans. For example, gen AI will draft an email for a contact centre employee to send to the customer following an interaction, but the employee can tweak this and must sign it off before sending. Similarly, the tool will generate post-interaction notes, saving employees another 45-50 seconds each time. 

    • However, sometimes no AI is needed at all, and customers just want a human – albeit one that is still very much tech-enabled. We heard how a major European retailer allocates a QR code to each store employee, allowing shoppers to scan the code and continue the conversation with that member of staff after leaving the store. Now, as Green Retail World editor Ben Sillitoe pointed out on my podcast recently, we might not be rushing to scan the QR code of staff at our supermarket checkout, but for those more considered, bigger-ticket discretionary purchases (think fashion, beauty, luxury, home, electronics) this is exactly the kind of innovation retailers should be pursuing.

    For more on Manhattan Associates, visit www.manh.com

  • Gen AI Chatbots, Empowering Staff and Sustainability

    Live from Barcelona, Green Retail World’s Editor Ben Sillitoe joins Natalie on the podcast to share what they learned at Manhattan Exchange this week. They explore how generative AI chatbots are going to revolutionize customer service, why the days of frontline staff being told to “sell, not think” are over and what sustainability looks like for retailers in 2025.

    If you missed the episode with Manhattan Associates’ Pieter Van den Broecke, you can catch up here.

    Links:

    Manhattan Associates
    Green Retail World

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Embrace Technology With Heart and Mind

    Live from Barcelona, Pieter Van den Broecke, EMEA Leader, Supply Chain Commerce Strategies at Manhattan Associates joins Natalie to discuss:

    • Europe’s retail CIOs – what’s keeping them up at night?
    • Generative AI – what are the opportunities and challenges?
    • Customer experience – how to service your customers in real-time and learning to trust AI to be the first port of call.
    • Why giving shoppers greater control post-purchase is a win for retailers, customers and the planet.
    • Unified commerce – what does this look like in practice and where are the opportunities going forward?
    • Why Pieter believes the digitization of physical retail isn’t over.

    More on Manhattan Exchange.

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • How Do You Actually Achieve Unified Commerce?

    Paid partnership with Manhattan Associates

    What do you call a retailer with a relentless drive to enhance the customer experience? This may sound like the start of a geeky retail joke but it’s a serious question. We used to brand these more nimble businesses as “disruptors”. They were the ones ripping up the rulebook, defying the status quo and continuously elevating the shopper experience.

    Today, I’d argue that all retailers need to adopt a mentality of perpetual disruption. In the fast-moving world of retail, today’s innovations quickly become tomorrow’s norms. You’ve got to keep evolving and experimenting. Failing fast has become a prerequisite. 

    This was evidenced in a new study from Manhattan Associates. The inaugural Unified Commerce Benchmark for Specialty Retail in Europe assessed 50 retailers across three verticals (apparel and footwear, home and DIY, luxury) in five European markets (France, Germany, Italy, UK, the Netherlands).

    Retailers were categorised as Leaders, Challengers, Followers and Laggards. The study then revealed common attributes of successful retailers across four categories: Search and Discovery; Cart and Checkout; Promising and Fulfilment; Service and Support. So what have we learned?

    Firstly, the study called out four participating retailers as true leaders in Unified Commerce: Adidas, H&M, Leroy Merlin and M&S. These businesses aren’t just ticking boxes by offering capabilities such as real-time inventory statistics and product recommendation tools; they are actively embracing technologies that enable them to deliver more nuanced, and increasingly personalised, customer experiences.

    And it’s paying off. The study found that Unified Commerce leaders’ revenue growth outperforms non-leaders by at least twofold.

    Guided Inspiration, Rich Findability and Immersive StoryTelling

    Leaders in ‘Search and Discovery’ help shoppers discover meaningful products, whether they are looking to fulfil an immediate need or are looking for inspiration. Most leaders in this space already bundle product offerings (offer suggestions to ‘buy the look’ or ‘buy the set’), and I imagine this will become the norm in the very near future as more retailers embrace the power of AI.

    There is always room for improvement and Manhattan specifically calls out capabilities like offering real-time visibility on product description pages (PDP), inventory status callouts for low/out-of-stock items, and personalised recommendations on home page. Retailers should also strive for greater visibility of delivery times, for example by allowing shoppers to filter by fulfilment method.

    Most leaders offer back-in-stock notifications and 100% of them provide product sourcing information and detailed content on sustainability practices. This is an important point – retailers must go beyond product features and really immerse the shopper in the brand’s ethos. Transparency is going to be key going forward. 

    Unified Basket, Payment Flexibility, Frictionless Checkout

    The biggest point of friction in today’s retail customer experience is due to the loss of context when transiting between the physical and the digital. Those retailers leading the way in ‘Cart and Checkout’ understand that a unified cart or basket is a foundational capability when it comes to that all-important connection across channels: 40% of leaders show personalised promotions and offers on PDPs and cart, compared to 6% of non-leaders. Most leaders also allow shoppers to view promo codes in cart and check product availability status by store in cart.

    Given the proliferation of payment options today, most leaders also offer checkout with buy now, pay later (100%), Apple Pay or PayPal (70%), as well as the ability to use mixed payment methods for the same order (40%).

    In-store and online cart abandonment is still far too regular of an occurrence in retail. In fact, more than one-third (35%) of shoppers said that they abandon their shopping cart because of lengthy checkout process and a whopping 37% said they will not retry if asked to re-enter payment or delivery details. It’s essential that retailers provide seamless checkout experiences that reduce unnecessary friction at the point of conversion.

    Flawless Fulfilment

    I’ve often said that the post-purchase experience tends to be more of an afterthought than a strategic priority. Well, that is finally changing as retailers recognise that a shopper’s product pick-up or delivery experience must be as seamless as their shopping journey. Not only do leaders in ‘Promising and Fulfilment’ make sure retailers meet or beat their delivery promises consistently, they do also so while being more environmentally friendly too.

    Offering shoppers greater post-order flexibility, including complete or partial cancellations, and greater delivery/pick-up options are all areas leaders excel in. Sixty percent of leaders offer shoppers the ability to cancel orders post-purchase compared to 28% of non-leaders.

    And shoppers are crying out for this: more than two-thirds of shoppers want a self-service option to be able to edit order after placing them. Meanwhile, nearly three quarters (73%) of shoppers value expedited deliver (same business day) but are only willing to pay less than €5 for the service.

    Manhattan calls out the ability to highlight the carbon footprint / impact of fulfilment choice as an area for improvement. Shoppers are hyper-informed when it comes to pricing and product information, but too often they are fumbling in the dark when it comes to sustainability. I believe this will change considerably over the next decade and retailers must prioritise transparency to drive greener purchasing decisions.

    360 Degree Service

    Leaders in the ‘Service and Support’ segment offer shoppers a wide variety of service options from call centres to in-store assistance, social media support and live agents available via their website and mobile app. What is most important, however, isn’t the breadth of support options but the fact that they offer seamless continuity, consistent quality and always-on availability.

    Leaders empower shoppers to self-serve most of their needs. Nearly all (92%) offer support on order modifications, returns and exchanges via chat/call and 75% offer their customers the ability to return purchases to drop-off locations.

    In addition to problem solving, leaders also offer value-added services such as customisations, style/fit guidance and in-store hospitality to turn service interactions into a secret sauce of brand stickiness. Most leaders empower their store associates to check a shopper’s online purchase history while in-store (75% compared to 48% of non-leaders). They should also be striving for in-store appointment scheduling via their digital channels, product personalisation and allowing store associates to create or manage a shopper’s wishlist.

    As I have said on numerous occasions, we are witnessing a democratisation of white-glove service within the retail industry. Don’t get left behind.

    Download the full report.