{"id":5445,"date":"2018-08-15T01:52:16","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T01:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lavellenetworks.com\/?p=5445"},"modified":"2021-04-16T05:44:59","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T05:44:59","slug":"unified-commerce-in-retail-with-sd-wan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lavellenetworks.com\/blog\/unified-commerce-in-retail-with-sd-wan\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail Industry: Achieving Unified Commerce with SD-WAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Retail Industry is becoming omnichannel with both online and brick and mortar as important business channels. The advent of new-age technologies and digital capabilities have\u00a0increased customer expectations throughout their customer journey.\u00a0Every touch-point along the customer journey is now an opportunity for the brand to build customer relationships in turn driving sales and revenue. Unified commerce with SD-WAN helps in improving the customer experience not just across the digital channels but also at offline consumer touchpoints.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The path to Unified Commerce with SD-WAN<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The definition of unified commerce lies in leveraging the Brick and Mortar –Department Stores; Discount Stores; Supermarket; Warehouse Stores; Mom and Pop Store<\/em>;<\/em>\u00a0Specialty Stores; Malls –<\/em>\u00a0and eCommerce platforms together from one single platform.<\/p>\n

A unified commerce platform is not simply the future in-store or Web platform but combines in-store POS, mobile, Web, order management and call center into one integrated platform.\u00a0This allows a single view of the customer’s journey with the brand across all touch-points.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Role of Network in the Retail Mechanism \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In most cases delivering seamless personalized customer experience is the key differentiator for retail businesses<\/strong> and the crucial element that drives customer loyalty. Delivering great customer experience is not only about improving\u00a0the experience at a single touchpoint like the experience provided by the front-line employees at stores. It\u2019s about redefining the entire retail mechanism and providing a\u00a0<\/strong>seamless experience across all touch-points along the customer\u2019s journey<\/strong> with the brand. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hence retailers today are mapping customer journeys in a comprehensive way to identify key triggers at the moment of purchase or decision-making process.\u00a0Digital experience becomes crucial to delivering an overall great customer experience with the brand. Also, in-store experiences are impacted by the underlying infrastructure by the amount of time taken by enterprise applications like POS etc, and with the new technologies used by retailers, all requiring devices to be \u201conline\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With all factors in mind, retailers today are transforming their IT systems,\u00a0processes and network infrastructure\u00a0to provide a seamless digital experience.\u00a0<\/span>This involves making supply chain functions fast, secure, and reliable e.g. like those in merchandising area, warehouse management, logistics fulfilment, returns management, and distributed order management.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All functions that require real-time visibility. Moreover, order management solutions, payment options, real-time data and analytics solutions, cloud-based services make retail network infrastructure a crucial consideration. To successfully operate in an omnichannel, world retailers today require an agile, flexible secure and\u00a0a \u201cSmart Network\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Swiggy<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why Network is the enabler?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Today network is the key to unified commerce. While more cloud-based applications and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications are being consumed by retailers, the importance of a hybrid cloud environment is growing. This is where the underlying networking infrastructure starts to play a major role, especially where both private and public cloud is used in a Hybrid model.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MPLS is slowly becoming a legacy technology which will no longer be able to keep pace with the demands of the Cloud Era. The Network may just start becoming the bottleneck. SD-WAN or Software-Defined WAN is the new technology that is emerging as the best alternative to MPLS to ensure a faster and simpler network<\/strong>, which is scalable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SD-WAN is based on an architecture that is inherently built for the cloud. Using SD-WAN ensures enterprise networks are faster, increasing application performance and in turn operational efficiency resulting in smoother operations and a great end user experience<\/strong>. Unified Commerce with SD-WAN can be the game changer for the retail industry. IT infrastructure can no longer be ignored.<\/div>\n

This is the correct time for retailers to transform their business, process and infrastructure in order to innovate the customer journey.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

So why Unified Commerce with\u00a0SD-WAN<\/a> for Retail Network?<\/strong><\/h2>\n