The document discusses achieving unified commerce through the right technology. It defines unified commerce as eliminating individual channel silos to offer a holistic customer experience across all touchpoints. Only 2% of retailers have adopted this approach. The document recommends retailers implement a single commerce platform, middleware/SOA, master data management, and business process management to enable unified commerce capabilities like personalized selling, real-time operations monitoring, and enterprise inventory visibility. This will allow retailers to sense and respond to customer needs in real-time.

1. WHITE PAPER:
Achieve Unified Commerce with the Right
Technology
Boston Retail Partners
October 2014
Sponsored by

2. Achieve Unified Commerce with the Right Technology | Page 2
Table of Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 3
State of Retail Technology................................................................................................................ 4
Silos – The Achilles Heel of Retail Technology ...........................................................................................4
Unified Commerce – The Catalyst to Move Beyond Channels....................................................................4
Technology Enabling the Experience ............................................................................................... 6
Unified Commerce – Laying the Foundation................................................................................................6
Single Commerce Platform ......................................................................................................................6
Middleware/SOA ......................................................................................................................................7
Master Data Management (MDM)............................................................................................................7
Business Process Management (BPM) ...................................................................................................8
Use Cases: Unified Commerce in Action.......................................................................................... 8
Customer Engagement: Personalized Selling and Promotions ...................................................................8
Store Operations: Monitor and Respond in Real-time .................................................................................9
Supply Chain: Enterprise Inventory Visibility – In Real-time ........................................................................9
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 10
About Boston Retail Partners.......................................................................................................... 10
Sponsor Perspective: Retail Agility Platform Powers Unified Commerce....................................... 11

3. Achieve Unified Commerce with the Right Technology | Page 3
Introduction
It’s very simple, customers perceive and shop retail brands not channels. This simple premise is the
catalyst for retailers shifting their focus to a holistic customer experience and what we term “unified
commerce.” Retailers can no longer fragment that experience by channel, but must deliver a customer
experience that transcends channels. Unified commerce is the new retail paradigm, driven by the
customer that is forever redefining retail.
In this year’s Boston Retail Partners CRM/Unified Commerce and POS/Customer Engagement
surveys, retailers indicated that establishing a unified commerce approach is a top company priority.
However, only a small percentage of retailers have successfully achieved a unified commerce model.
Unified commerce is a transformational undertaking that forces retailers to look not only outward at the
customer, but also inward at themselves. Retailers can no longer to afford to operate from within silos,
and must transform their organization, business processes and technology if they want to align with
their customers.
Our objective with this paper is to take a deeper dive into the technology that enables unified
commerce. We are at a strategic inflection point, where retailers can only hope to achieve a unified
commerce experience by leveraging the right technology. This is daunting to say the least, as retailers
consider new solutions and approaches that are quite different than the legacy thinking and technology
that is so prevalent in retail today.
Retailers can no longer afford to operate from
within silos, and must transform their
organization, business processes and
technology if they want to align with their
customers.

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State of Retail Technology
Silos – The Achilles Heel of Retail Technology
Retailers understand that to deliver a next-generation customer experience they must have technology that
supports the seamless convergence of in-store and digital experiences. Today’s customer can quickly, but
not yet as effortlessly as needed, navigate multiple touch-points, and expects real-time feedback to
personalize their experience. This means gathering, analyzing and disseminating customer, product, pricing
and inventory data in real-time.
The problem is legacy retail technology hasn’t been architected to handle these real-time requirements and
harmonizing of business processes across all customer touch-points. The technology most retailers have in
place is siloed by channel, as exampled by disparate solutions for POS and ecommerce and, in many
cases, mobile. The complexity is even greater when you consider that the other platforms that enable
commerce are disparate solutions as well, like customer relationship management (CRM), order
management and merchandising.
The inherent weaknesses of this model have become very apparent, as retailers chasing omni-channel
capabilities have to overcome the almost impossible hurdle of integrating disparate legacy systems.
Fortunately, retail technology has evolved, and retailers have many choices to consider, but they must
move beyond the siloed thinking of the past.
Unified Commerce – The Catalyst to Move Beyond Channels
Unified commerce goes a step beyond omni-channel, putting the customer experience first, breaking down
the walls between internal channel silos and leveraging a single commerce platform. To put unified
commerce in perspective and understand how it differs from its strategic predecessors, let’s review the
evolution of retail sales channels:
• First, was single channel, most retailers started with a single channel offering (i.e. only brick-and-
mortar or only Web-based).
• Second, retailers evolved to multi-channel, offering multiple channels, but with little to no integration
and frequently an inconsistent customer experience.
• Third, retailers attempted to adopt an omni-channel approach, integrating channels and the customer
experience, but from a standpoint of still operating in separate silos and utilizing disparate technologies
across channels.
• Enter unified commerce, which eliminates individual channel silos and offers a holistic customer
experience across all customer touch points, and solves the omni-channel integration challenges by
leveraging a single platform.

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In a recent study, 63 percent of respondents are currently operating as multi-channel retailers and 14
percent operate in an omni-channel environment (Exhibit 1).1
Furthermore, only 2 percent of retailers
surveyed have adopted a unified commerce approach, suggesting the majority of retailers have their work
cut out for them to offer a truly seamless customer experience.2
1
Boston Retail Partners. 15th
Annual POS/ Customer Engagement Benchmarking Survey. N.p. 2014
2
Boston Retail Partners. 15th
Annual POS/ Customer Engagement Benchmarking Survey. N.p. 2014
Exhibit 1 – Current Channel Integration
20.4%
63.6%
13.6%
2.2% Single channel - a single type of
customer purchase point (i.e.
only brick-and-mortar or only
web-based)
Multi-channel - multiple
customer purchase points but
limited integration among touch
points
Omni-channel - multiple
customer purchase points with
seamless integration
Unified Commerce - a holistic
customer experience across all
customer touch points with no
individual channel silos

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Technology Enabling the Experience
Unified Commerce – Laying the Foundation
Unified Commerce requires retailers to carefully consider technology choices, as it only takes one weak link
in the new paradigm to determine success or failure. Never has retail been more transparent than it is now,
and retail systems need to all work in concert if a retailer is to deliver on unified commerce. There is first-
mover advantage for retailers that act quickly and implement the right unified commerce technology.
Single Commerce Platform
As we previously mentioned, a key tenet of unified commerce is leveraging a single commerce platform.
The simplest way to support instantaneous transactions and real-time capabilities across all customer
touch-points is to implement a centralized commerce platform. This greatly simplifies the integration
challenges that are inherent in omni-channel initiatives. A unified commerce platform is not simply the future
point-of-sale or Web platform, but combines point-of-sale, mobile and Web into one platform to deliver a
single shopping cart that can follow the customer as they interact with a retailer at multiple touch-points.
Not only is a centralized model more conducive to support the customer experience, it also affords retailers
additional benefits. A centralized commerce platform offers retailers the opportunity to leverage a leaner
and more flexible store-level environment through the consolidation of servers, operating system and
applications at the data center or within the cloud, rather than at the store. Centralization allows for fewer
devices and licenses to deploy and maintain, and helps application updates be deployed centrally to
improve efficiency. Cloud computing is the quickest and surest path to enabling next-generation store
systems. The speed and agility of cloud computing gives retailers a solution to support the ever-increasing
dynamic and complex needs of back-office commerce solutions.
The first step for many retailers is to implement this single centralized commerce platform, but there are
other considerations in designing an end-to-end unified commerce architecture. Retailers must construct the
right foundation by investing in both a robust middleware or service-oriented architecture (SOA) layer for

7. Achieve Unified Commerce with the Right Technology | Page 7
integration or the “glue” between retail systems, and a master data management (MDM) solution that
guarantees all systems are operating with consistent and accurate data. Finally, retailers should consider
implementing a business process management (BPM) solution to provide process automation and
optimization, which is key to enabling and supporting a consistent customer experience across all touch-
points.
Middleware/SOA
A robust middleware layer, or service-oriented architecture (SOA), is essential in effectively enabling real-
time capabilities and uniting various retail systems to deliver unified commerce. Many customer interactions
or retail transactions require data from various retail systems to be gathered, analyzed and disseminated in
real-time. Therefore, every customer or associate transaction traverses the middleware layer, which brings
the commerce platform to life.
Utilizing middleware or SOA, retailers construct Web services that enable these instantaneous transactions
by supporting the integration amongst several different retail systems. These Web services reduce
application development time and costs, as they are reusable and can be leveraged across the enterprise.
Specifically, application development complexity and time to deployment decreases as developers can
leverage standard Web services across multiple applications. For example, a common transaction is a
customer contact search by attributes like name, phone number or loyalty ID. Developers leveraging
middleware or SOA will build a common set of Web services that can be reused in any application that
requires a customer search or lookup. Legacy integration approaches, such as point-to-point integration,
were often not built to support robust real-time requirements nor do they offer the benefits of reusable Web
services.
Master Data Management (MDM)
While middleware enables a centralized platform and other retail systems to effectively supply data across
the enterprise, a MDM solution ensures this data is consistent, accurate and up-to-date. By utilizing
business rules and data governance to harmonize and merge the information from various retail systems,
MDM provides a central repository for master files. Acting as a central repository, MDM maintains a single
version of the truth for product, customer, vendor, location and asset information.
Inaccurate or inconsistent data works against the goals of unified commerce and a holistic customer
experience. MDM significantly decreases data errors within an organization, driving operational efficiencies
and enhanced reporting and analysis.
Middleware

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Business Process Management (BPM)
A BPM solution is what enables the definition, execution, monitoring, and optimization of business
processes across the retail enterprise. Furthermore, a modern BPM system is able to identify structured and
unstructured processes that involve system interactions and human interactions, including both internal
(within the four walls of the retailer) and external (suppliers of goods and services). This is especially
valuable since retail processes include multiple systems, channels and touch-points.
Once processes are identified, BPM enables process automation to reduce errors, maximize profits and
ensure processes are unified. Additionally, a BPM solution can be leveraged for active business activity
monitoring. An example is real-time store operations monitoring, which could provide employees with real-
time visibility to store conditions based on key performance indicators (KPIs). A retailer starts the process
by setting business rules and deviation thresholds in a closed loop structure. If a threshold is met or an
anomaly occurs, a manager can be alerted immediately, enabling real-time corrective action.
BPM improves processes by identifying inefficiencies and bottlenecks within processes so retailers can
quickly make adjustments. Finally, with the increased agility BPM offers, if evolving customer demands
require a new process to be created, BPM enables business users to rapidly collaborate and construct this
new process. With BPM, retailers are able to make more informed decisions, improve performance and
ultimately deliver a unified, continuous customer experience.
Use Cases: Unified Commerce in Action
With a unified commerce approach and the right enabling technology, retailers have the ability to “quickly”
add new unified commerce capabilities that leverage real-time customer and product information. This
provides retailers opportunities to personalize the customer experience and sense and respond in real-time
to optimize revenue and margins.
Customer Engagement: Personalized Selling and Promotions
Real-time retail allows retailers the ability to offer an innovative experience to their customers, through
guided selling, personalized promotions and clienteling. Specifically, retailers can use tools such as
proximity identification systems to identify a customer when they enter the store. The retailer is then able to
leverage legacy customer information, via Web services, to locate the customer master data in real-time
and display this to a sales associate – providing a powerful 360-degree view of the customer including past
purchases, preferences and online and in-store browsing history, available from a centralized commerce
platform.
BPM then uses business rules, developed by leveraging internal expert knowledge, to prompt the sales
associate with pre-defined processes for guided selling. These processes are generated to exclusively meet
the needs of the specific customer. For example, the customer mentions she is looking for a new scarf and
the sales associate can instantly provide recommendations based on items that can be paired with the
customer’s closet – clienteling in action, powered by Web services and MDM accessing real-time inventory,
product and promotion data.
The details of this transaction are instantly updated via Web services to the centralized commerce platform
as well as the CRM system. This data can then be leveraged for future customer interactions, online or in
the store.

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Store Operations: Monitor and Respond in Real-time
Retailers can more effectively monitor in-store KPIs and react in a proactive manner with the help of unified
commerce. One example is a retailer running a special on a high-margin item with a devoted end-cap to the
product in all stores. With real-time KPI monitoring enabled by BPM, the retailer is able to oversee and gain
visibility of all stores to ensure the product receives the intended sales lift by setting rules that if a store is
performing below a certain threshold (sales or movement), the store manager is notified.
By utilizing centralized commerce and inventory data accessible via Web services, the BPM solution
identifies that at one store, the product has not seen any lift and the store’s manager is prompted to inspect
the specific end-cap. The manager finds the wrong product at the end-cap and immediately takes corrective
action. BPM allows the retailer to gain data insights from the entire chain and quickly identify problems and
react; instead of recognizing issues after the damage is done.
Retailers can also use BPM to monitor real-time data and dynamically react to local demands. Traditionally,
promotions were driven by batch information and were not associated to local trends. However, utilizing
data from the centralized commerce and inventory systems, BPM via Web services can determine once a
store has sold all their most popular sizes (specific to demographics of the area). This location can then be
notified to markdown the remaining sizes in that style at the store and the retailer is able to more effectively
meet demand and manage profit margins.
Similarly, retailers can use real-time data to improve loss prevention by setting rules to identify exceptions
that are considerably outside the normal ranges. For instance, a retailer notices an increased number of
post voids are occurring hours after the sales are recorded. Using a BPM tool, the retailer can set rules for
the loss prevention department to be alerted immediately if a post void occurs after a certain threshold. By
identifying anomalies, retailers can catch the thief in the act, rather than days later, if ever.
Supply Chain: Enterprise Inventory Visibility – In Real-time
Customers not only want, but demand visibility to inventory. For instance, a customer is in the store and is
desperately searching for a one-of-a-kind item that very few retailers sell. This retailer unfortunately does
not have the item in stock at the store but is able to utilize Web services and centralized commerce to
perform a real-time, enterprise-wide store inventory lookup. Real-time inventory visibility requires complete
visibility of inventory throughout all stages of the supply chain. Middleware or SOA provides the integration
between commerce systems, order management, merchandising and the warehouse management system
(WMS) to assemble the view of real-time inventory.
Furthermore, BPM provides business rules for inventory fulfillment routing and margin optimization. BPM
business rules are leveraged for margin optimization, by analyzing data such as lowest cost freight,
shipping times, inventory proximity, and inventory levels. Using the centralized commerce platform, the
sales associate completes the transaction and has the product sent to the customer’s home address or to
the store for pick-up when it arrives.

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Conclusion
While the road to unified commerce seems daunting, the retailers that take action now will reap the first
mover advantage. Many retailers have embraced the imperative for change, but have struggled with the
integration of existing channels, disparate technologies, and siloed processes. More so than ever, the
customer is in the driver’s seat and smart retailers are adopting a unified commerce approach to win and
meet the expectations of today’s and tomorrow’s customer.
It’s clear the time to start the unified commerce journey is now, as customers and competition will not wait.
The next step is selecting the right agile technology and partners that will enable the seamless customer
experience your customer is demanding.
About Boston Retail Partners
Boston Retail Partners (BRP) is an innovative and independent retail management consulting firm
dedicated to providing superior service and enduring value to our clients. BRP combines its consultants'
deep retail business knowledge and cross-functional capabilities to deliver superior design and
implementation of strategy, technology, and process solutions. The firm's unique combination of industry
focus, knowledge-based approach, and rapid, end-to-end solution deployment helps clients to achieve their
business potential. BRP’s consulting services include:
Strategy Business Intelligence Business Process Optimization
Point of Sale (POS) Mobile POS Store Systems and Operations
CRM Unified Commerce Customer Experience & Engagement
Order Management eCommerce Merchandise Management
Supply Chain Information Technology Private Equity
For more information or assistance on any of the topics covered in this white paper, please contact:
Brian Brunk, Principal
(405) 590-0542
bbrunk@bostonretailpartners.com
David Naumann, Director of Marketing
(916) 673-7757
dnaumann@bostonretailpartners.com
Ken Morris, Principal
(617) 880-9355
kmorris@bostonretailpartners.com
Walter Deacon, Principal
(781) 337-2060
wdeacon@bostonretailpartners.com
Boston Retail Partners Headquarters
Independence Wharf, 470 Atlantic Ave., 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02210
www.bostonretailpartners.com
©2014 Boston Retail Partners. All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the expressed permission of
Boston Retail Partners. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice.

11. Achieve Unified Commerce with the Right Technology | Page 11
Sponsor Perspective:
Retail Agility Platform Powers Unified Commerce
The world of retail is going through a fundamental transition. Customers have forced a transformational
realignment of retail by demanding a seamless, consistent and continuous experience – unified across all
channels and systems of engagement. The challenge is that many traditional retail business systems and
processes are too rigid and disjointed to adapt to these demands. Meeting customer expectations today
and in the future requires a technology that extends beyond the siloed architectures prevalent today – it
requires a technology that enables retailers to unify strategic initiatives, processes and technology in single,
comprehensive commerce platform.
Delivering on today’s customer expectations is forcing retailers to focus on a holistic experience across all
customer touch points. Achieving this goal requires a unified commerce approach that leverages a single
platform to eliminate individual channel silos and integrate disparate technologies used across multiple
channels. The technology used by retailers to enable this transformation is critical and requires the right
architectural foundation, including robust middleware (SOA), Business Process Management, Master Data
Management, and an Agile application development framework.
Fujitsu Interstage Retail Agility is a comprehensive solution that enables the transformation to unified
commerce by offering retail-specific framework that includes data models, processes, business rules,
operation applications, e.g. single customer view or single view of inventory. Retail Agility takes full
advantage of Interstage Business Operations Platform (BOP) -- a comprehensive and unified platform that
delivers unprecedented agility, flexibility and speed to help retailers adopt an all-encompassing unified
commerce approach to meet their customer expectations.
Interstage BOP is a single, unified platform available on-premise or via the Cloud and provides core
technology components vital to the success of unified commerce initiatives:
• Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)-based system integration to unlock business data and logic
from existing retail systems with scalability, performance and efficiency.
• Complete Business Process Management (BPM) capabilities to automate, manage and improve
retail processes that span multiple systems, channels, and touch points.
• Business Rules - manage complex business rules to ensure a unified and cohesive customer
experience.
• Master Data Management to maintain a single version of truth for data across multiple sources of
information to provide a holistic view of data across any organization.
• A Composite Application Framework (CAF) for easy-to-use development environment to create rich,
interactive retail applications that combine a wide range of information sources and services.

12. Achieve Unified Commerce with the Right Technology | Page 12
Interstage Retail Agility solution is a completely unified platform that enables retailers to deliver on the
promise of unified commerce – a must to be successful in today’s incredibly customer-driven and
hypercompetitive world of retail. Retail Agility boosts the agility and flexibility of retailers and helps them
unlock the benefits of unified commerce by allowing them to deliver superior and seamless customer
experiences faster and at a lower total cost of ownership. With flexible deployment options, retailers can
leverage Fujitsu global resources to deliver superior service performance for a truly global deployment, on-
premise or in the Cloud, that addresses global initiatives while meeting regional requirements and business
practices. To learn more about Interstage Retail Agility and BOP, please visit www.fujitsu.com/interstage.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is the leading global information and communication technology (ICT) company and the world’s 3rd
largest IT services provider, offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Fujitsu is
delivering value for over 500 retailers in 52 countries and powering over 82,000 stores worldwide. With over
30 years’ experience in retail and a broad portfolio of retail solutions backed by enterprise ICT products and
services, we are in a unique position to deliver real business results worldwide. Over 170,000 Fujitsu people
support customers in more than 100 countries. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.