Why Unified Commerce is Powering Retail Growth

The retail landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation driven by evolving customer expectations and technological advancements. According to a recent KPMG report, a significant majority of financial institutions (93 percent) and retailers (87 percent) are actively modernizing their payment infrastructure or planning to do so within the next six months. This requires significant investments to overcome challenges related to legacy systems, data security, and privacy.

While implementation costs and staff training pose hurdles, retailers recognize the innovation potential of modern payment systems, especially as younger consumers prefer contactless and mobile payment methods. Despite confidence in their offerings, retailers face potential "blind spots" in understanding preferences, especially regarding payment options and checkout experiences. To thrive, retailers must prioritize seamless and personalized payment experiences, empowering customers with greater control over their shopping journey.

Simplify the Shopping Experience With Digital Wallets

The rise of mobile-first shoppers is fueling the adoption of digital wallets, drawn to convenience and security. Retailers can gain a competitive edge by embracing digital wallets. The short-term future lies in pure mobile payments, where a customer's smartphone initiates the payment, eliminating the need for dedicated merchant hardware and enhancing security through virtual wallet technology. This shift paves the way for smarter, faster checkouts and enhanced in-store experiences, including next-generation self-checkout solutions.

Related story: Shoppers Expect Omnichannel, Personalized Experiences — Does Your Brand Have What it Takes?

Upgrade and Redefine Self-Checkout

Self-checkout kiosks are evolving into sophisticated and easy-to-use tools that enhance the customer experience. Modern self-checkout systems offer larger screens, multitender options, and computer vision technology that can recognize items and reduce fraud. By streamlining the checkout process, retailers can cut wait times and empower customers.

However, according to a recent FreedomPay and Verifone study, retailers should be mindful that 45 percent of consumers still prefer traditional cashier-attended checkouts, highlighting a potential blind spot for retailers overly focused on self-checkout solutions.

Personalized Payment Experiences Drive Conversions and Retention

Meeting the diverse needs of today's shoppers requires offering various payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, mobile wallets, and buy now, pay later (BNPL) services. Providing this payment flexibility is key to increasing sales and boosting customer satisfaction. In fact, 70 percent of consumers say the availability of their preferred payment options influences where they shop (FreedomPay and Verifone Study). By catering to different preferences and spending habits, retailers create a more inclusive and customer-centric shopping experience, fostering loyalty.

Integrate Payment Tech to Create a Modern Retail Experience

To truly deliver a customer-friendly experience, retailers need to integrate these trends into a unified commerce platform. It should connect all aspects of the business, from payment processing to inventory management to customer services and data. By unifying the experience, retailers can gain business intelligence and a holistic view of their customers that enables more personalized offers and recommendations.

Modern retail technology also provides robust payment security essential for retaining customer trust. With advanced security measures like PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and tokenization, retailers can streamline operations, safeguard transactions, and deliver frictionless omnichannel experiences. The resulting data empowers retailers to personalize the customer shopping journey. By analyzing sales performance, purchase patterns, preferences and behaviors across all channels, retailers can tailor offers, recommend products, and create targeted loyalty programs.

The future of retail hinges on unifying commerce — i.e., empowering customers with greater control over their shopping journey and enabling merchants with greater visibility of their customers. By embracing unified payment technology, retailers can cultivate a more convenient experience that drives sales and builds lasting customer loyalty. As the technology continues to evolve, retailers must proactively adapt to customer needs and embrace emerging payment methods if they want to rise above the competition to create the successful businesses of the future.

Christopher Kronenthal is president and CTO of FreedomPay, a global leader in Next Level Commerce™.