How Unified Communications can give retailers an edge in an uncertain economy

It's a weird time for retailers. Within a space of days, we have competing headlines like “Economic Warning Signs Mount As Consumer Confidence Plummets” and “Consumer confidence bounces upward in June” from the same outlet. And circumstances remain in flux, as uncertainty over economic policy continues to bewilder U.S. businesses. One thing is for certain — it’s a brand-new retail environment. 

As forecasting and supply chain impacts remain in best-guess mode for the near future, it seems like the right time for retailers to invest in measures that they can control. Specifically, efforts that can give them better control over operations, improve the customer experience, reduce costs and deliver the analytics needed to deliver sharper insights. 

Many retailers are directing those efforts toward unified communications projects. More specifically, American retailers are adopting Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). The UCaaS at Retail market size is projected to increase to $17.8 billion in 2025, with the North American region leading the way.

Why retailers need unified communications solutions

Customers and retail staffers communicate across a broad range of systems, devices and applications. A retailer's ability to connect people through these technologies has become critical to customer satisfaction, employee performance and operational success. Using separate apps for calls, video conferencing and messaging is no longer enough to meet user expectations. Older voice infrastructures often lack the adaptability and scalability to keep pace with an organizations’ needs. 

Organizations need a powerful Unified Communications (UC) solution to support the various ways people conduct business. Retailers require a seamless UC solution that simplifies IT management while delivering the security and performance needed for employees to work from any location, on any device.

The enhanced communication and collaboration capabilities enabled UC solutions to break down barriers between physical locations wherever workers are located. Employees can use any type of internet connectivity, from cellular networks to public WiFi. 

Six benefits of unified communications for retail

Enhanced customer service: UC answers the need for seamless communication between employees, departments and even across different store locations. This translates to faster response times, improved customer inquiries handling and better overall service.

Efficient inventory management: UC enables anytime-anywhere collaboration between inventory managers, suppliers and sales teams. This collaboration can hasten inventory tracking, restocking and order fulfillment processes.

Cost savings: Retailers can drastically reduce communications costs by consolidating tools like voice calls, video conferencing and instant messaging into one comprehensive solution, provided by a single technology partner.

Improved employee productivity: When staffers can communicate effortlessly, whether they’re in-store, working remotely or on the go, it can lead to an increase in both productivity and efficiency.

Unified customer experience: When customers receive consistent communication across all touchpoints, ranging from mobile to online and in-store, it fosters a cohesive experience, driving brand loyalty and affinity simultaneously.

Analytics and insights: The best UCaaS platforms provide analytics on call volumes, customer interactions and employee performance. Better analytics and cleaner data help to drive informed decisions that optimize operations.

How Spectrum Business can help

Communication services adopted by different business units across organizations are often poorly integrated, which can be costly and difficult to manage. Spectrum Business UC solutions are designed to meet the needs of your entire company, regardless of role and location. Our UC solutions simplify communications by bringing together various contact channels in a single-user interface.

We partner with retailers to provide a fully managed UCaaS platform that includes telephony, collaboration, conferencing, customer portals, hardware, and consistent innovation through frequent feature releases. Combining our fiber network with a broad set of capabilities, including WAN, managed services and our expanded Unified Communications and collaboration offers we stand apart from technology providers by partnering with retailers to tailor solutions to meet the unique needs of every business.