payments, rewards, inventory, delivery options, product return, supply chain, fulfilment options, and more. The overarching goal is to ensure a seamless customer experience and deliver excellence in customer relationship management by harnessing more data and more comprehensive insights. A question I’m often asked is how unified commerce is any different from omnichannel commerce. While omnichannel commerce ensures the presence of the retail player in all types of channels, including website, smartphone apps, in-store, etc., it operates in silos and unconnected platforms. Unified commerce, on the other hand, connects all data-driven aspects of retail, from the back-end systems to customer interactions, to help create a continuous shopping experience. Unified commerce empowers retailers to deliver elevated and connected experiences to customers online and in-store. A retailer can benefit from the overall visibility of having everything data-driven on a single platform and use customer insights to create personalised experiences and drive customer loyalty. But what does that mean in practice for customers? How can retailers and brands use unified commerce to transform the customer experience, improve satisfaction, and drive loyalty? Here are four of the most common uses of unified commerce in customer journeys. They should be in all retailers’ playbooks. Buy online, return in-store One of the simplest and most common uses that unified commerce supports is the ability for a customer to return their online purchases to their nearest store. Smarter inventory management enabled by unified commerce allows stores to resell the item or return it to the warehouse. For the customer, this is convenient and saves time. The Digital Life Index 2021 survey highlights that when shopping online, Australians are more likely to buy from a brand that offers an easy-to-navigate interface on a website or mobile app (57 per cent), while 46 per cent show preference for an easy way to manage returns.  Example: Target Australia allows all items purchased from Target Online to be returned via post or to a local Target store within 60 days of delivery. Similarly, Zara allows its customers to return online store purchases free of charge within 30 days of shipping date, to any store or Australia Post drop point. Endless aisle There’s nothing more frustrating for a customer than visiting a store to find out the colour or size they want isn’t in stock. Sales staff can check on the stock availability in other stores and call to reserve it or have it shipped to their store, but this often necessitates a needless return trip for the customer. Unified commerce enables the customer to purchase an item in-store and have it shipped home. The smarter fulfilment models might even make this happen on the same or next day.  Example: When a customer shops at IKEA in-store, they can have the purchase delivered to their homes at a pre-scheduled date and time.  True cross-channel loyalty With centralised payments across all channels, customers no longer need to carry a wallet full of loyalty cards or recite their email/phone number at the checkout to claim loyalty bonuses. Simply using the usual payment method will be enough for them to claim points or loyalty bonuses at checkout (both in-store and online). Example: Sephora’s Beauty Pass reward allows shoppers to accumulate points when shopping online and in-store. Every dollar spent earns the shopper a point, which can be redeemed on Sephora’s Rewards Boutique to buy new products.  No more lines at checkouts In a unified commerce world, queueing at checkout is a thing of the past. While self-checkout might still be a long way off for many bricks-and-mortar brands, advances in mobile point of sale (POS) mean that a sales assistant can help a customer make a purchase anywhere in the store. It changes the shopping experience for the better. Example: Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology at the Amazon Fresh grocery store in Washington gives customers the option to come in, pick up what they want, and skip the checkout when done. The technology connects to the participating customer’s Amazon account or credit card. The customer is prompted at the store’s entry gates to choose if they want to use Just Walk Out shopping or the traditional checkout lanes.