omnichannel retail Archives

Unified Commerce Benchmark: How Manhattan Associates and Google Transform Retail Excellence at Shop Talk

May 5, 2025 Brent W. Peterson

Welcome to this episode of Talk Commerce Live from Shop Talk, featuring an insightful conversation with Kapil Dabi, Americas Market Leader for Retail and CPG at Google, and Ann Ruckstuhl, Chief Marketing Officer at Manhattan Associates. The discussion centers on unified commerce and the groundbreaking partnership between these industry leaders.

Key Takeaways

The Unified Commerce Benchmark (UCB) evaluates 300+ attributes across eight shopping trips
Top-performing retailers see 3x faster revenue growth and 31% lower fulfillment costs
Companies using generative AI witness 14% increase in average order value
Customer lifetime value improves by 11% through AI implementation
Store associate empowerment leads to 1.25x higher customer lifetime value

About the Guests

Ann Ruckstuhl

As Chief Marketing Officer at Manhattan Associates, Ann leads the company’s marketing initiatives for their supply chain and omnichannel commerce software solutions, including order management and point of sale systems. Manhattan Associates specializes in cloud-native solutions built on the Google Cloud platform.

Kapil Dabi

Serving as Americas Market Leader for Retail and CPG at Google, Kapil oversees Global Retail Strategy, Industry Solutions, and Partnerships. His expertise focuses on helping retailers leverage technology for digital transformation and enhanced customer experiences.

Detailed Episode Summary

The conversation begins with an introduction to the Unified Commerce Benchmark (UCB), a collaborative initiative launched two and a half years ago. The UCB evaluates 220 brands across North America, examining various aspects of retail performance:

Benchmark Categories

Leaders (top performers like Sephora and Apple)
Advanced
Developing
Basic

The discussion highlights how modern retail requires managing customer experiences across multiple channels:

Traditional stores
Online presence
Social commerce (TikTok shop, Instagram)
Mobile platforms

The speakers emphasize that customers typically interact with brands through ten touchpoints before making a purchase decision. This multi-channel approach necessitates seamless inventory visibility and consistent customer experience across all platforms.

Personal Commentary and Analysis

The partnership between Manhattan Associates and Google represents a significant advancement in retail technology integration. Their focus on measurable outcomes—such as the 30% reduction in customer service call volume through agent AI implementation—demonstrates the practical value of their solutions.

Memorable Quotes

“Most retailers have stores, have online presence and lately shop fill in the blank, TikTok shop, Instagram. It’s all becoming part of your go to market and your store presence.” – Ann Ruckstuhl

“The consumer is almost doing 10 steps or 10 touch points… they’re actually interacting with the brand almost 10 times before they’re actually purchasing it.” – Kapil Dabi

Engaging the Audience

Access the Unified Commerce Benchmark report at Manhattan Associates’ website to evaluate your retail organization’s performance against industry leaders. The comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights for digital transformation initiatives.

Final Thoughts

The future of retail success lies in unified commerce implementation supported by AI technology. As consumer behaviors continue evolving, retailers must embrace these innovations to maintain competitive advantage and deliver superior customer experiences.

Listen to more conversations about customer experience here

Behind the Curtain of AI in eCommerce – Why Good Data is the Key to Staying Competitive

February 25, 2025 Brent W. Peterson

In a recent episode of Talk Commerce, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rochelle Thielen, CEO of Traject Data, to explore the transformative impact of retail data automation on the industry. While conversations about AI dominate headlines, our discussion revealed that the true revolution lies in how automated data collection and analysis are powering these solutions.

The Scale of Retail Data Automation Today

During our conversation, Rochelle revealed some staggering numbers about data collection in modern retail. “When we’re talking about quantity, we’re looking at 100 million data points per day for some enterprise users,” she explained. This massive scale of data collection is what’s enabling the sophisticated AI solutions we’re seeing in retail today.

As someone who’s been in the e-commerce space for years, I was particularly impressed by how this data is being put to practical use. The sheer volume of information being processed is mind-boggling, but it’s the application that really matters.

Real-Time Decision Making in Retail

One of the most fascinating insights Rochelle shared was about the importance of real-time data. “If you’re more than 24 hours old on data, you’re pretty far behind,” she noted. This is particularly crucial for:

Dynamic pricing strategies
Inventory management
Customer experience personalization
Competitive analysis

The Human Element in AI Implementation

Something I strongly agree with, and Rochelle emphasized, is the continued importance of human oversight in AI systems. She stressed that “humans are still controlling what the AI is doing,” with teams regularly verifying data samples to ensure accuracy. This human-in-the-loop approach is crucial for maintaining quality and preventing potential pricing or decision-making errors.

Transparency in AI Customer Service

We had an interesting discussion about chatbots and AI-powered customer service. Rochelle made a compelling point about transparency: “You need to be transparent. People don’t negatively look at interfacing with a bot as long as the bot is equal to or better than the human.” This approach to honest AI implementation is something I’ve always advocated for in e-commerce.

Looking Ahead: 2025 and Beyond

Looking to the future, Rochelle shared some exciting predictions. The focus is shifting toward true omnichannel experiences, with particular emphasis on:

Integration of social media data (including TikTok)
Enhanced visual and video data processing
Democratized access to AI tools for smaller retailers
Sophisticated fraud prevention systems

Real-World Applications

One of the most impressive examples Rochelle shared was how their data helps prevent fraud and unauthorized reselling. For small businesses, their systems can detect when purchased items are immediately listed for resale on platforms like eBay, helping protect inventory and brand value.

Final Thoughts

As we wrapped up our conversation, it became clear that we’re at an exciting intersection of big data, AI, and retail. What impressed me most about Traject Data’s approach is their focus on scalability and accessibility – making these powerful tools available to businesses of all sizes.

If you’d like to hear more insights from Rochelle and learn about the future of retail technology, I encourage you to listen to the full podcast episode. The rapid evolution of retail technology means there’s always more to learn and discuss.

Remember, whether you’re a major enterprise or a small retailer, understanding and leveraging data is no longer optional – it’s essential for staying competitive in today’s retail landscape.

Find more episodes about what’s on the forefront in retail innovation here

O2 Commerce Pioneers Next-Gen Retail Solutions at NRF 2025

January 13, 2025January 2, 2025 susanmakolea

O2 Commerce showcases groundbreaking retail solutions at NRF 2025, emphasizing omnichannel innovation, hyper-personalization, and sustainable commerce practices through their enhanced capabilities following the ZaneRay merger.

eTail Boston 2024: Revolutionizing Retail with AI, Future Tech, and “Storyselling”

July 29, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

eTail Boston 2024, set for August 12-15, promises to revolutionize retail with a focus on AI, future tech, and “storyselling.” Featuring 100+ industry leaders and innovative pop-up experiences, this conference is a must-attend for eCommerce professionals.

The Future of Omnichannel Commerce: Insights from Fabric CEO Mike Micucci

March 29, 2024March 19, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

I recently had the pleasure of hosting Mike Micucci, CEO of Fabric Commerce, on the Talk Commerce podcast. With his deep experience in ecommerce, including leadership roles at Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Mike shared fascinating insights into how composable commerce and AI are revolutionizing the omnichannel retail experience. In this post, I’ll highlight some of the key takeaways from our conversation.

The Power of Composable Commerce

Mike explained that composable commerce provides retailers the flexibility to build the experiences they want while still benefiting from a unified backend platform. Fabric’s composable platform allows retailers to seamlessly manage the full commerce lifecycle, from merchandising to order fulfillment.

As Mike put it, “Commerce doesn’t stop at checkout. It’s just getting started.” I couldn’t agree more. Composable commerce empowers brands to craft unique customer journeys that extend beyond the buy button.

Accelerating Omnichannel with Fabric

For retailers looking to enhance their omnichannel capabilities, Mike outlined two key approaches with Fabric’s platform:

Incrementally add discrete services like real-time inventory or advanced promotions to their existing tech stack
Implement a comprehensive omnichannel solution by leveraging Fabric’s pre-built “primitives” – mini-apps that accelerate time-to-market and reduce complexity

Having seen many retailers struggle with siloed systems and inconsistent experiences, I’m excited by Fabric’s vision for a unified omnichannel platform. It’s a game-changer.

The Transformative Power of AI

Mike and I also discussed the transformative potential of AI in commerce. While many retailers have adopted basic machine learning for product recommendations, Mike envisions AI driving significant operational improvements.

By harnessing data across merchandising, fulfillment, and returns, AI can enable dynamic pricing, intelligent inventory allocation, and proactive decision-making. As Mike noted, this was previously only possible for retail giants like Amazon. But with platforms like Fabric democratizing access to advanced AI, every retailer can now unlock this potential.

The implications are vast – I believe we’ll see AI fundamentally reshaping how brands operate and engage customers in the coming years.

Unifying Digital and Physical Retail

Finally, Mike emphasized the importance of blending digital and physical experiences into one cohesive customer journey. Fabric’s platform empowers retailers to offer seamless omnichannel scenarios – browse online, purchase in-store; buy on mobile, pick up curbside; endless aisles in fitting rooms – all on a single platform.

This unified approach powered by robust APIs is key to meeting modern customer expectations. I’m thrilled to see composable commerce and platforms like Fabric making this level of integration achievable for retailers of all sizes.

Boosting Performance and Flexibility with Fabric’s Ethos

One aspect of Fabric’s approach that stood out to me was their ethos of “boost what’s there, make it better and faster.” Mike explained how this allows retailers to incrementally adopt Fabric’s services to enhance their existing infrastructure, rather than ripping and replacing everything at once.

This modular approach, enabled by composable architecture, gives brands the agility to tackle their most pressing needs first, then layer in additional capabilities over time. From my experience, this agile mindset is essential for success in today’s fast-moving retail environment.

The Symbiosis of Composable Commerce and Omnichannel

Throughout our discussion, it became clear that composable commerce and omnichannel retail are intricately linked. The modularity and flexibility of composable architectures perfectly align with the demands of omnichannel selling.

As customer journeys increasingly criss-cross between digital and physical touchpoints, retailers need the ability to rapidly compose and recompose experiences. Fabric’s platform, with its comprehensive suite of APIs and pre-built components, makes this level of agility possible.

Empowering Store Associates with Clienteling

One exciting use case Mike highlighted was clienteling – equipping store associates with tools to deliver personalized, high-touch service. Historically, clienteling has been challenging due to disconnected systems and data silos.

But with a unified platform like Fabric, associates can now access customer profiles, past purchase history, product information, and inventory data in real-time. This empowers them to deliver the kind of consultative, omnichannel experiences that drive loyalty and revenue.

As brick-and-mortar retail rebounds post-pandemic, I believe clienteling will be a key differentiator. Composable commerce makes it achievable at scale.

As I reflect on my conversation with Mike, I’m struck by the vast potential of composable commerce to reshape retail. By breaking down monolithic systems into modular, API-driven components, retailers can finally achieve the speed and flexibility needed to thrive in the omnichannel era.

Moreover, the convergence of composable architectures and AI opens up exciting new possibilities. From dynamic pricing to predictive merchandising, retailers can now harness data and intelligence in previously unimaginable ways.

Of course, technology is just one piece of the puzzle. Retailers must also foster a culture of agility, experimentation, and customer-centricity. But with platforms like Fabric providing the technological foundation, I believe we’ll see a new generation of retailers redefining what’s possible in omnichannel commerce.

If you’re as passionate about the future of retail as I am, I invite you to listen to my full Talk Commerce podcast episode with Mike Micucci. And if you’ll be at Shoptalk, swing by the Fabric booth to see their technology in action.

The retail renaissance is here – and it’s composable. Let’s embrace this exciting new era together.