Shopping journeys no longer follow one path. People discover on social, compare on marketplaces, then purchase through an app or in-store. Unified commerce is how brands meet that reality with one operating model and one live data backbone. This article outlines the essentials of unified commerce and shares expert insights to illustrate them in practice.
What is the difference between omnichannel and unified commerce?
Omnichannel links the customer-facing journey, so shoppers see a similar experience across touchpoints, yet the systems behind it often stay separate. Unified commerce is a single commerce data backbone that keeps inventory, orders, pricing and customer data in one place for every channel. Every channel and system works from the same live data, which keeps information consistent and commitments reliable in-store and online.
From the customer’s seat, consistency is not identical page designs. It is access to the same assortment and prices, recognition of their loyalty status, and predictable fulfilment and returns wherever they check out. As Matthias Schulte, CEO at Tradebyte, puts it, “Everything that makes shopping convenient needs a consistent approach. It starts with how you log in, how you pay and how you return an item. All those fundamentals should be handled in a unified way.”
If you want the full framework and terminology, see our earlier deep dive in mastering unified commerce. In this article, we’ll focus on what changes for customers and where decision-makers must align.
“The consumer now is looking for more, and they're expecting a particular experience from the brand across those channels.”
The consumer and operational drivers
The demand for unification starts with shoppers. People are using whatever channel suits them. Shoppers are not concerned with which system or department supports the experience; they expect the same prices, transparent promotions and predictable fulfilment wherever they interact. Many consumers now discover new brands on social media, with European social commerce reaching $33 billion in 2024 and projected to grow to $48 billion by 2028. Yet, shoppers often take inspiration online but complete their purchase still in-store.
The concept of unified commerce is to improve the customer experience: shoppers can start anywhere and finish anywhere without price or policy surprises. This matters especially in our modern, connected world, where shopping often spans marketplaces, social and stores in the same week.
As Matthias Schulte notes, customers do not see the tech stack: “[Customers] don’t understand different payment providers or separate returns flows. Bringing them into one consistent experience makes sense.”
Why is unified commerce important for retailers?
Operational pressure tells the same story. Growth requires clean, connected data that enables real-time action, from dynamic pricing to accurate stock updates. Europe’s retail e‑commerce revenues are set to exceed €500 billion, which raises the stakes for accuracy at scale. 88% of retailers say unified commerce is very important or critical to their goals over the next two years. In short, retailers see unified commerce as critical because it aligns growth with reliable operations and lower friction for customers.
Where brands get stuck: Strategy before systems
What challenges do brands face in adopting unified commerce? Two appear again and again. The first is culture. Teams are organised by channel and measured on channel KPIs, which rewards local wins over customer outcomes. Decision-makers need to reset incentives and ways of working so the whole company optimises for the same journey. Schulte’s advice is clear: “First, start with a strategy to break out of silos, then look at the capabilities you need along the way.” That means aligning goals around the customer, not channel ownership.
The second blocker is technology. Fragmented data models and non‑API‑first systems create bottlenecks that make real-time visibility hard to achieve. As Luis Ribeiro, ZEOS VP of Technology, puts it, “Clean data isn’t just about IT hygiene; it’s the core ingredient for every seamless customer journey.” Without clean, connected data, promises break and teams fly blind.
A pragmatic way forward is to map the real customer journey, then standardise the few data objects that power it: product, inventory, order and customer. Treat these as shared assets with clear ownership and governance before adding new features. This is the most reliable unified commerce strategy to avoid rework later. The payoff is immediate – fewer contradictions for shoppers and faster decisions for teams.
Building a modern operating model
Few brands can realistically build everything in-house, so modern brands should adopt a modular commerce systems approach. This means building an ecosystem with a core “operating system” that orchestrates best-of-breed components without hard vendor lock-in. This allows brands to focus on their core strengths – like assortment strategy, merchandising and brand storytelling – while partnering for technical and operational complexity.
A modular system is built on real-time integrations that connect the data objects that matter most: product, inventory, order and customer information. A solid unified commerce platform should start by addressing the areas where latency causes the most pain, such as stock accuracy and cross-channel returns, and then expand from there.
Data as the core of a unified strategy
For retailers, the benefits of unified commerce include fewer stockouts, faster service and more accurate planning from a single commerce data backbone.
Unified commerce relies on data that moves instantly. When an item sells on one channel, every other touchpoint should know within seconds. Service teams need the same customer profile, order history and policies that the website or app uses.
With data as a centralised asset, brands can move from simply reacting to making proactive, informed decisions. Unification enables better personalisation, more accurate forecasting and more profitable steering across all channels.
A simple starting checklist:
Define data masters for product, inventory, order and customer, and make every other system a consumer or enricher.
Instrument key events across the journey, from account login to checkout and returns, so you can measure and improve with confidence.
Publish changes in real time so stock, pricing and loyalty balances remain consistent across channels.
If you want a refresher on why these basics matter, our post on own e-commerce in fashion covers foundational choices that make unification far easier later on.
Put unified commerce into practice: start with one clear step
Unified commerce is not a tool list. It is a way of operating where strategy, organisation and systems work from the same truth, in the same moment. Expect faster, more accurate inventory and order management once every system reads the same data.
Begin with the journey you want customers to experience, then align teams and data around that vision. As Schulte notes, strategy comes first, capabilities second, execution third.
Watch the Business Casual episode [Link back to the embedded video] to hear the full conversation. It adds colour on practical trade‑offs, including how to avoid silos without rebuilding everything at once.
