Retail turnover in Spain could increase its volume by up to 40,000 million dollars if it were to switch to unified commerce, a system that integrates both payments in physical commerce and those that occur online, from anywhere in the world and in multiple payment methods. pay. This is the main conclusion of the latest Adyen Report on Retail, which reveals, among other aspects, that Spanish companies that opted for unified commerce grew 7 percentage points in 2022 compared to previous years.
To understand these figures, one must look at the current macroeconomic context, with marked inflation that has led 86% of Spanish consumers to measure their purchases more and to bet on those businesses that offer discounts or offers. Unified commerce allows you to better understand customers through their payment behavior. These data are processed safely and 100% anonymously (what in computer jargon is called ‘hashed’) and allow the design of personalized strategies to offer each client better value for money, loyalty programs, promotions, advantages, prices dynamics and subscriptions.
The pandemic definitely propelled electronic commerce. With the de-escalation we went back to buy in physical stores, many times, simultaneously with the online. Even, in a hybrid way, buying online and picking up or returning in store. At the same time, we use less and less cash. Each of our purchases leaves a trace through the means of payment. “Unified commerce identifies and associates all these acts with the same user, even if they do not register as a user and complete their purchase as a guest,” says Juan José Llorente, Adyen’s Country Manager in Spain and Portugal. “This information makes it possible to implement more efficient marketing and loyalty strategies,” he points out.
This flexibility in the way you buy and return is undoubtedly the visible advantage that buyers appreciate the most. In fact, more than 6 in 10 consumers (63%) say they would be more loyal to retailers that allow them to buy online and return in store, while 4 in 10 suggest they would have better shopping experiences if a company allowed them buy in the store and finish the purchase online, or vice versa.
We like to buy online, because it is convenient, and return to the store to save shipping costs and speed up the refund of the money. It is the famous omnichannel, going out to meet the customer in all channels where possible. If payments are not integrated into a single platform, the physical store and all digital channels function as two separate companies. There are no practical issues until a return arises.
“Omnichannel involves cumbersome manual processes. When you do not have a single payment system and the customer returns something that he has bought online to the store, the employee has to search for the ticket by hand to go to the cashier system, even typing it. The process does not end there. At the end of the day, you have to send a return note to the ecommerce system and register it as an entry in the physical store. It is not difficult, it usually takes 5-7 minutes of mechanical work. That’s just for one item. If there are 10, it means that someone is going to stay for another hour entering data after closing,” says Llorente. In Christmas or Black Friday campaigns, with a skyrocketing sales volume and returns, it becomes a nightmare that requires having an employee do administrative tasks.
Or, simply, it is not feasible. However, denying the customer the possibility of a return in these times can mean losing a customer. “Retailers must focus their efforts on selling more, on developing marketing strategies to expand the customer ticket… It is one of the great transformations that we have been experiencing in the last two years. Retail finally understands that it is not about being able to do it, but about doing it in an efficient, scalable way, without making mistakes and without generating manual work for their teams”, declares Llorente.
One of the advantages of buying online is the possibility of accessing the entire catalog of a brand, with all sizes, colors or finishes. In the store, on the other hand, you can touch it, check if the quality is what it seems and, above all, try it. The problem is that it is not always possible to have all the stock available in the store. “The solution lies in what we call the ‘infinite aisle’: offering the possibility of buying any item that is in stock in the stores, even if it is not in the back room of the physical store. Instead of working with a terminal on premise, you work in the cloud. It’s like making a purchase online, but inside the store”, points out Llorente.
The advantage for the buyer is clear: if you want green pants in size M and the store only has them in blue, you can try them on in that color, buy the green model and have it delivered to your home. Many establishments offer this service without shipping costs, as if they had bought it in the store. “Another possibility, when it comes to recurring purchases, is to subscribe and authorize, for example, that the business send us three boxes of coffee capsules each month, charging them to the card”, declares the Country Manager of Adyen. The client makes sure that he will never be left without breakfast due to an oversight. Commerce simply secures a customer.
Until not so long ago you could pay in cash, by card or cash on delivery. The methods of payment today are countless, as are more and more means of payment. “You can develop your own solution for each situation, but you run the risk that either they are not fully integrated, or it is not easy to manage, or it does not have the necessary mechanisms to prevent fraud,” adds Llorente. A compact, scalable and reliable payment platform like Adyen avoids these headaches and allows merchants to focus their efforts on their business. And, at the same time, offer multiple forms of purchase and payment.
It’s not just the click anymore
Something similar happens with the means of payment. Digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Play, Bizum and even instant bank transfers are now added to the veteran credit cards, a system that is widespread in countries like the Netherlands. “In Spain, on the other hand, Buy now, pay later, which are payment methods to pay in installments, is more widespread,” says the Adyen spokesman. The applications where we put our credit card to automate the payment each time we use a service, such as Uber or eBay, have also increased. “The card data is tokenized, that is, it is converted into a unique and secure numeric code that associates that card with that business. This reduces the possibilities of fraud and complies with the provisions of the latest Payment Services Directive, PSD2 in terms of security”.
