Unified Commerce Platforms: The Power of Platform Modernization for Retail Agility and Growth

In today’s retail landscape, agility and innovation are not just competitive advantages—they are imperatives for survival and growth. The convergence of digital and physical channels, the explosion of customer data, and the demand for real-time, personalized experiences have fundamentally reshaped what it means to be a modern retailer. At the heart of this transformation is the unified commerce platform: a modern, integrated technology foundation that enables retailers to deliver seamless, profitable, and future-ready experiences across every touchpoint.

The Business Case for Platform Modernization

Retailers face mounting pressure to deliver growth while managing profitability. The pandemic accelerated digital adoption, but it also exposed the limitations of legacy systems—fragmented e-commerce platforms, siloed data, and inflexible operations that hinder innovation and slow response to market shifts. As seen in the journeys of industry leaders like Pandora, the path to sustainable growth lies in modernizing commerce platforms to unify digital and physical channels, break down organizational silos, and unlock the power of data for real-time decision-making.

Key drivers for platform modernization include:

Omnichannel Agility: Customers expect to move fluidly between online and offline, often starting their journey in one channel and completing it in another. Over 80% of Pandora’s transactions now start online, but 80% are completed in-store—a reality that demands unified systems and data.
Personalization at Scale: Modern consumers expect tailored experiences, offers, and communications. Achieving this requires integrated data platforms and advanced analytics that can deliver real-time, context-driven personalization.
Operational Efficiency: Unified commerce platforms enable retailers to optimize inventory, streamline fulfillment, and reduce costs by providing a single view of stock and customer activity across all channels.
Innovation and Speed: Agile, modular architectures empower retailers to rapidly test, learn, and scale new features—whether it’s curbside pickup, virtual try-on, or new loyalty programs—without being constrained by legacy technology.

Lessons from Transformation Leaders: The Pandora Example

Pandora’s transformation is a blueprint for how platform modernization can drive agility and growth. Facing stagnating growth and a fragmented digital presence, Pandora partnered with Publicis Sapient to overhaul its technology and operations. The result was a unified commerce platform that:

Consolidated regional e-commerce sites onto a single, global platform (Salesforce Commerce Cloud), enabling consistent experiences and rapid feature deployment.
Integrated order management and customer service systems, providing real-time visibility into inventory and customer interactions.
Adopted agile development and test-and-learn cycles, empowering cross-functional teams to pilot and scale innovations quickly.
Broke down silos between marketing, technology, and operations, aligning KPIs and incentives around customer-centric outcomes.

This foundation allowed Pandora to pivot rapidly during the pandemic, launching new digital features like virtual queuing, click-and-collect, and remote shopping assistants in record time. The business impact was clear: improved customer satisfaction, increased marketing effectiveness, and a return to growth—even in the face of unprecedented disruption.

Key Technology Choices for Unified Commerce

Modernizing to a unified commerce platform is not a one-size-fits-all journey, but several technology principles and choices consistently underpin successful transformations:

1. Headless Commerce and Composable Architectures

Headless commerce decouples the front-end customer experience from the back-end commerce engine, enabling retailers to deliver consistent, personalized experiences across web, mobile, social, and in-store touchpoints. Composable architectures allow for modular, best-of-breed solutions that can be rapidly assembled, replaced, or scaled as business needs evolve.

2. Cloud-Native Platforms

Cloud infrastructure provides the scalability, resilience, and flexibility required to support peak demand, rapid innovation, and global expansion. Cloud-based platforms also enable faster deployment of new features and integrations, reducing time-to-market.

3. APIs and Integration Layers

APIs are the connective tissue of unified commerce, enabling seamless integration between e-commerce, order management, CRM, supply chain, and third-party services. A robust API strategy ensures that data flows freely and securely across the enterprise, supporting real-time decision-making and innovation.

4. Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and Advanced Analytics

A unified customer data platform aggregates and activates data from every touchpoint, enabling real-time personalization, predictive analytics, and a 360-degree view of the customer. AI and machine learning further enhance the ability to anticipate needs, optimize offers, and drive loyalty.

5. Order Management and Fulfillment Optimization

Modern order management systems provide a single view of inventory and enable flexible fulfillment options—such as buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), ship-from-store, and curbside pickup—improving both customer experience and operational efficiency.

Organizational Change: The Human Side of Modernization

Technology is only part of the equation. Realizing the value of unified commerce platforms requires a parallel transformation in ways of working, culture, and leadership:

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Breaking down silos between IT, marketing, operations, and supply chain is essential. Pandora’s success was rooted in aligning teams around shared goals and customer outcomes.
Agile and Test-and-Learn Mindset: Rapid experimentation, data-driven decision-making, and a willingness to fail fast and iterate are hallmarks of high-performing retail organizations.
Talent and Change Management: Investing in digital skills, empowering teams, and fostering a culture of continuous learning are critical to sustaining transformation.
Customer-Centric KPIs: Aligning incentives and measurement around customer experience, satisfaction, and lifetime value ensures that technology investments drive real business impact.

Frameworks for Success: SPEED and Beyond

Publicis Sapient’s SPEED framework—Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering, Data—provides a holistic approach to digital business transformation. By integrating these capabilities, retailers can:

Develop clear strategies for where to play and how to win in a digital-first world.
Build products and experiences that evolve at pace with customer expectations.
Engineer scalable, resilient platforms that deliver on the brand promise.
Leverage data to validate hypotheses, uncover insights, and drive constant iteration.

Technology Partner Insights

Choosing the right technology and consulting partners is critical. Retailers should seek partners who:

Bring deep industry and technology expertise.
Are willing to challenge assumptions and co-create solutions.
Offer flexible, outcome-based engagement models.
Demonstrate a track record of delivering at speed and scale.

The Path Forward: Future-Proofing Retail

Unified commerce platforms are not just a technology upgrade—they are the foundation for profitable growth, innovation, and resilience in a rapidly changing world. By modernizing platforms, integrating channels and data, and embracing new ways of working, retailers can:

Deliver seamless, personalized experiences that drive loyalty and growth.
Respond with agility to market shifts and customer needs.
Unlock new revenue streams through data monetization, retail media, and platform business models.
Build a future-ready organization that thrives on change.

At Publicis Sapient, we partner with retailers to architect and deliver unified commerce platforms that unlock new sources of value. The future of retail belongs to those who can integrate digital and physical, harness data for personalization, and move with the speed and agility that today’s consumers demand.

Ready to lead the next era of retail? Let’s build your unified commerce platform for agility and growth.