Global Frictionless Commerce Growth Opportunities

Enhancing Customer Experience through the Convergence of Physical and Digital Retail

The retail industry is undergoing a transformational shift wherein physical and digital customer experiences are converging. Retailers want to leverage digital tools that will help them derive contextual, behavioral, and location-based information to create unique and engaging customer experiences. Digitalized eCommerce platforms will enable frictionless commerce and zero UI experiences that leverage deep customer analytics to offer hyper-personalized services.

Frictionless commerce entails that all the paths to commerce converge into an omnichannel environment where the consumer is at the center and the path to purchase is seamless across all channels. The road to zero friction across all physical and digital touchpoints requires the right solutions with minimal or no friction across different environments, depending on cost-benefit considerations as much as on customer needs.

The 3 Pillars of Frictionless Commerce that are Enhancing the Consumer Journey:

• Consistency: Consistency is vital when building a true omnichannel experience. Consumers expect a unified brand presence and a name that can be trusted.

• Relevance: The degree of personalization in a consumer's journey will continue to rise with behavioral data determining product choices based on buying patterns and preferences.

• Convenience: In the post-pandemic scenario, convenience will gain significance, and the emphasis will be on contactless and frictionless anywhere-anytime commerce.

Frictionless commerce is built on 4 main components, that is, omnichannel experiences, frictionless checkouts, frictionless fulfillment, and frictionless returns. To achieve a truly frictionless experience, brands must build capabilities to streamline in-store and online consumer touchpoints.

• Omnichannel Experiences: Omnichannel experiences involve the merging of digital interactions with in-store engagement to deliver seamless brand experiences.

• Frictionless Checkouts/Payments: Customers are becoming more loyal to retailers that offer frictionless checkouts. New checkout models in retail (smart carts, contactless checkouts, BOPIS, BNPL) will eliminate a singular point of sale (PoS).

• Frictionless Fulfillment Models: New shipping/delivery models such as drop shipping and WaaS and micro-warehousing are enabling significantly faster delivery times and allowing better integration of inventory-level data between online and offline channels.

• Frictionless Returns: Delivering against customer expectations is more costly than absorbing return costs. The rising pressure from giants such as Amazon will push businesses to reevaluate their return models.