Simone Dominici, CEO of KIKO Milano, Çağrı Orçan, Co-founder&CSO at Akinon and Otto Williams, Senior Vice President, Head of Product, Partnerships & Solutions CEMEA at Visa discussed with Raffaella Campagnoli,  Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer, Majid Al Futtaim Retail the challenges hybrid retail entails for businesses.

The complexity of maintaining a unified brand identity across diverse markets is exemplified by KIKO Milano’s international expansion. This expansion underscores the necessity for clear brand guidelines that ensure a coherent presentation across various channels and geographies, addressing the unique needs and behaviors of individual consumers in a globally diversified market. Highlighting the project’s complexity, there is substantial investment in integrating various platforms and hardware across a large number of stores and training thousands of staff.

The transition from viewing unified commerce as merely a convenience to recognizing its role in empowering consumers, suggests a shift towards evaluating success through customer satisfaction and net promoter scores rather than traditional key performance indicators. This approach signifies a move towards prioritizing the quality of customer experience over quantifiable metrics in isolation.

However, the integration of digital commerce platforms emphasizes the operational complexities of a unified commerce ecosystem that aims to create a seamless operational flow and accommodate multiple purchasing paths and enable sales across any channel at any time. Customer satisfaction and operational excellence should be the core objectives from the beginning. By prioritizing a straightforward approach initially, then progressively implementing more sophisticated systems like order management, Akinon facilitates a transition to unified commerce. Failure to implement systems like order management from the start can lead to failed deliveries and dissatisfied customers, underscoring the critical nature of a well-orchestrated unified commerce strategy that places the customer at the center of all operations.

The integration of payment processing within the unified commerce framework highlights the strategic importance of converging consumer data, inventory management, and payment systems. This convergence enhances customer satisfaction by offering convenience, security, and personalized engagement through innovative payment solutions that cater to both offline and online transactions.  There is a notable shift from traditional brick-and-mortar to a click-and-mortar approach where consumers enjoy both in-store experiences and online interactions. Visa’s solutions, like card-linked offers, enable a unified shopping experience across channels, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, strategies need to include managing fraud and risk more effectively, and ultimately growing basket size, especially with emerging payment preferences like buy now, pay later among Gen Z consumers. The integration of these elements not only improves the customer experience but also contributes to operational efficiency and cost reduction for retailers.

Hybrid retail emerges as a key strategy for businesses looking to adapt to the changing preferences of their target audiences and maintain a competitive edge in the market. Transitioning to unified commerce necessitates substantial investments in technology, training, and consultancy, justified by the potential for increased market penetration, customer loyalty, and operational efficiency.