, the channels start looking connected,” Dr Jason Pallant, a senior lecturer at RMIT University, told Inside Retail. “They might be able to see in-store stock levels online, order online for pick-up in-store or have flexibility with returns. Behind the scenes though, you have different channels often on different platforms and systems, and different processes. While you’ve improved CX overall, you still have a problem if data is managed differently across channels, and even synced at different rates.” Recently, a growing number of retailers have started talking about a new way of connecting their channels and systems to address these challenges, called unified commerce. What is unified commerce? “Unified commerce is where you put the customer at the heart of every decision, so it’s a customer-centric retail strategy that seamlessly connects all sales channels, both physical and digital, through a single, integrated platform,” Nick Gray, founder of retail consultancy agency I Got You, told Inside Retail. Unified commerce allows retailers to provide a consistent shopping experience between channels, which builds cognitive trust and a more personalised shopping experience for the consumer. But how does this differ from omnichannel retail? “You have one central platform that processes all interactions and transactions together,” Pallant explained. “So rather than each channel operating a different platform or database, they’re all in together, hence ‘unified’.” He acknowledged that this may be harder to achieve than it sounds – like everything to do with tech and data. “While you have fewer systems to operate, you suddenly have a much more complex one that controls everything,” Pallant explained. “Get something wrong and you’ve broken the whole system at once, and it’s harder to tailor solutions to individual channel needs.” Another challenge is that it usually requires retailers to overhaul their operations completely around a new ‘unified’ system, rather than taking a gradual approach to making various parts of the customer experience more seamless. What do retailers need to get started? While every retailer may not be ready to embrace unified commerce, for those that are, how can they get started? An obvious area to focus on “is integrating backend systems, including inventory management, customer relationship management, and point-of-sale systems, into a single platform,” Gray said. “This is critical to achieving real-time visibility.” Retailers also need to understand what their North Star is – what they hope to achieve through unified commerce – and the emotional drivers of their target market. “Retailers need to understand the emotions and feelings they are selling, not just the product itself. It’s only with this emotional connection, combined with leveraging data analytics to personalise the shopping experience, that retailers can centralise customer data across all touchpoints to create a true unified view of the customer,” Gray explained. What does this look like moving forward? “In the next few years, unified commerce will become the industry standard, rather than the exception,” Gray said. “We already see retailers heavily investing in tech like AI, machine learning and real-time data analytics to improve their capabilities. I believe there is a competitive advantage that lies deeper in societal and consumer dynamics.” As Gray pointed out, 2025 marks the birth of a new generation, Generation Beta, who will grow up in a world like no other, one shaped by hyper-tech integration, where AI, automation and technology are embedded into every facet of life. “This generation will require unprecedented innovation, diversity and adaptability, and so will retailers if they are to meet their expectations,” he concluded. This story is from Inside Retail’s 2025 Australian Retail Outlook powered by KPMG. Download the full report here.