By Maureen Ryan
Global Solutions Director
Stores

Price will always be the chief driver of purchasing decisions. But in the age of cross-channel shopping, demonstrating consistency in price and promotions has become a crucial consideration as well. One recent study found that 90% of consumers expect consistent interactions across channels. So when it comes to customer satisfaction, aligning promotions across all engagements is critical.

If a loyal customer of a footwear retailer, for example, consistently sees discounts online that are not available in stores—or, conversely, encounters special offers that only work in the mobile app—you’re going to have a frustrated and potentially not-so-loyal customer. The same goes for loyalty rewards that aren’t readily available across all channels.

The good news? Retailers can control the consistency of offers and rewards by managing their promotions inside one centralized promotion engine that serves the same data to every store and every channel in their network. This will ensure loyalty benefits are applied seamlessly whether shopping online, in-store, or through the mobile app. Streamlined, unified data doesn’t just benefit customers, but empowers stakeholders all along the retail chain.

• Corporate teams can tap real-time, cross-channel promotion management to rapidly surface actionable insights and increase flexibility—all from a single application.
• In-store and online teams can break out of silos and can stay on top of any unintended promotion stacking loopholes.
• Store associates are freed from fielding complaints when rewards programs don’t behave as expected. This also leads to faster checkout experiences and higher customer satisfaction as loyalty members see their points and rewards applied instantly across any channel they choose to shop.
• Across all teams, members can directly benefit from time by eliminating tedious manual tasks, such as updating prices, applying discounts, and ensuring consistency across channels.

Based on our experience working with major retailers to implement unified promotion solutions, we’ve identified three main pillars for deploying a unified promotion engine that enables stronger, more effective, and consistent promotions.

1. A modern cloud architecture is table stakes for unified promotions

Too often, we’ve found that our retail customers’ existing systems lack the flexibility to support the robust business logic and cross-system integration needed to support efficient, unified promotion management.

Integrating disparate systems that manage pricing and promotions to create a single source of truth across retail POS systems and e-commerce platforms requires a robust cloud infrastructure. This is, for example, what allows a footwear client of ours with over 1,000 stores to seamlessly—and instantly—make Nike’s omnichannel promotion codes available in-store as well as online. Since they have the proper cloud infrastructure in place, they can deploy an API-based unified promotions solution to connect the POS and e-commerce platforms and ensure that customers can find the same promotion regardless of which channel they use to check out.

2. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach

Different retailers have different needs, so there’s one catch-all solution to manage pricing, promotions, and markdowns together. For instance, a grocery retailer may need a promotions solution to continuously manage offers to move its perpetual inventory, whereas a swimwear retailer may focus mostly on seasonal promotions.

Having worked with retailers across various sectors, we’ve seen that even those seeking unified promotions, pricing, and markdowns will still typically employ solutions dedicated to each of their specific use cases.

3. You’re missing an opportunity if you don’t incorporate analytics

Another major benefit of a unified promotions engine is the ability to integrate price and promotion analytics solutions (particularly those leveraging AI and ML technologies). Retailers can leverage the tools to automate and recommend the most effective promotional pricing for every product to maximize results.

In particular, predictive analytics empowers retailers to manage promotions and pricing across channels—from one single view. This opens new doors to innovation like:

• Running continuous tests to precisely understand what product offers and offer types (e.g., BOGO vs. discount) will have the greatest consumer engagement
• Predicting how promotions will perform based not on historical records, but on precise, forward-looking data
• Utilizing dynamic pricing and building highly personalized promotions or loyalty rewards

Consistent promotions build consumer loyalty

Consumers engage in retail transactions in a number of ways: BOPIS, in-store, via a mobile app, and more, and it can be a challenge to deliver consistent experiences and keep promotions aligned. Unified commerce platforms support every way a shopper shops, and that includes presenting consistent pricing and markdowns across channels.

To get your promotions unified in one centralized platform, Logic, Part of Accenture, can help you select and implement the right solution for your business. We’ll ensure all your systems are working together seamlessly from a single source of truth, enabling consistent promotions and real-time rewards across every customer touchpoint. Connect with us to learn how we can help you deliver the unified shopping experience your customers expect.

As the Global Solutions Director for Logic, Part of Accenture’s Stores consulting, Maureen works with clients to develop store and omnichannel systems strategies and then leads her teams to deliver on them. She has served as the executive sponsor for clients including Foot Locker, Hot Topic, and Kate Spade.