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Most retailers believe they’re delivering seamless shopping experiences across online and in-store channels, but customer complaints and lost sales tell a different story.
Unified retail is gaining traction fast, moving from ambition to implementation for much of the market. In fact, according to our latest industry research, 85% of retailers say their systems allow them to deliver a consistent experience across online and in-store touchpoints.
Taken at face value, that sounds like impressive progress; however, 4 in 10 retailers report customer complaints linked to inconsistent experiences.
That gap between operational confidence and what’s actually happening on the shop floor is one of the clearest findings in Selling in sync, our new report published in partnership with Shopify. Drawing on insight from 200 UK retail decision-makers - from independent retailers to brands with more than 2,000 stores - the report explores how the industry is measuring up to unified retail expectations.
Promisingly, it also reveals that 89% of merchants agree on the importance of joined-up retail, suggesting that the issue isn’t a lack of strategy buy-in but that connected systems don’t always translate into connected experiences.
More promise than proof
Across many of the areas retailers consider strongest, inconsistencies are still evident in everyday operations, and that’s costing customers. Inventory is a good example. While 83% of retailers believe inventory data is accurate and visible across channels, more than a third still report lost sales linked to inaccurate or unavailable stock information.
Additionally, most retailers believe maintaining consistency is straightforward, yet nearly a third admit they still struggle to keep everything aligned. Fewer than 6 in 10 retailers also say customer profiles and purchase history are connected across channels. That means a significant proportion of retailers still struggle to maintain a single, reliable customer view across eCommerce and physical stores, despite customer expectations increasingly assuming that recognition follows them everywhere.
Gift cards are another major weak spot. Less than half of retailers support gift cards consistently online and in-store, making them the least widely unified retail feature in the study. Meanwhile, only around 60% of retailers report offering unified returns, and fewer than half currently support endless aisle experiences.
It’s not uncommon for retailers to measure the success of unified retail by whether systems are connected at all, but customers measure it by whether the interaction in front of them works without friction. That means if stock levels are wrong when they try to click and collect, that’s the experience they get. If a store can’t access its online purchase history during a return, that’s the experience. If a gift card works online but not in-store, that’s the experience. These seemingly small friction points are easy to overlook, but they quickly expose whether a retail operation is truly connected.
The missing link
Collectively, these findings crystallise what’s happening across the retail industry right now. It’s moved past connecting online and offline systems and towards the more difficult feat of maintaining consistency across every touchpoint, store and customer interaction.
That’s especially important when looking at POS infrastructure. While POS is rightly regarded as the centre of unified retail, just over a third of retailers say their POS system is fully integrated into the wider business. In many cases, it still runs primarily as a transactional tool rather than as a shared operational system that connects inventory, customer data, and fulfilment in real time.
That alone is the crux of the issue for many brands, and it's why we're focused on helping retailers across the UK turn POS into a fully functioning operational hub. Through expert Shopify POS implementations and the growing suite of Shopify apps and in-store tech developed by VS Labs, we're helping merchants tackle many of the challenges highlighted throughout this report. That includes everything from inventory visibility and customer recognition through to fulfilment and endless aisle capabilities. Regardless of how confident a retailer is about their setup, what shoppers experience on the shop floor, online, and at checkout is what really matters.
See the full findings. Download Selling in sync to discover how 200 UK retailers are approaching unified retail, where common friction points remain, and the opportunities retailers are prioritising next.
