61% of Retailers 2025 Unified Commerce Plans Prioritize New Point of Sale, According to RCP's Latest Industry Report

Key priorities include enhancing and personalizing the customer experience, new POS, self-service capabilities and AI solutions.

BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, January 10, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- According to RCP's 25th Annual Customer Engagement, Unified Commerce & POS Survey Report, 54% of retailers have ranked expanding and enhancing the customer experience as their top business priority for 2025. A brand appropriate, differentiating and leading customer experience continues to be the priority as consumer expectations are always increasing and shifting. In 2025, RCP is also hopeful for a more promising economic outlook, and expect some stronger retail headwinds to fuel a renewed focus by many retailers looking to address the no-small challenge of delivering seamless unified commerce execution across channels. As part of retailer’s unified commerce strategy, 2025 looks to also be the beginning of another POS refresh cycle, with 61% of retailers indicating they will be looking at a POS upgrade or replacement in 2025.

The last couple of years has seen a lot of enterprise order management (OMS) implementations, with 64% of retailers indicating they upgraded or replaced they OMS. No surprise, as a common enterprise OMS is often the core-critical component of a leading unified commerce solution architecture. However, as RCP Managing Partner Brian Brunk comments “there is still a long journey ahead to realize true unified commerce as only 10% of retailers are utilizing a common OMS for order orchestration and execution across all channels. This still represents an enormous opportunity for most retailers.”

Personalization remains top of mind for retailers, with 49% of retailer’s indicating that their top customer engagement priority is personalizing the customer experience. RCP Managing Partner Ryan Grogman adds, “personalization continues to be a critical priority as retailers seek to transform the physical shopping experience into one that has the benefits and convenience of the digital experience; however, less than 30% of retailers feel they are currently delivering on the promise of their personalization efforts.”

“Self-service continues to be a relief valve for the high cost of labor, when it can be found, and a challenge to retailers as it relates to shrink and customer satisfaction,” comments RCP Managing Partner Perry Kramer. According to RCP's report, 94% of retailers are planning to implement or expand self-service with but only 19% of retailers are satisfied with the functionality of their existing self-service offerings. “The importance of accurate and real-time inventory continues to complicate customer satisfaction with self-service tools,” adds Perry Kramer.

AI is revolutionizing the retail industry by enhancing the customer experiences, optimizing operations, and driving revenue. While we are still in the infancy of many AI solutions, we’re already seeing some areas of significant impact. RCP Managing Partner John Eagles remarks, “AI-powered chat bots and virtual assistants were on center stage this holiday season. These 24/7 tools are being given much of the credit for the 9% increase in eCommerce sales year over year.” While the benefits are piling up with some early adoption of many different customer engagement and AI commerce tools, many retailers are indicating there is room for improvement in what they’ve implemented.

This year's survey was sponsored by Aurus, Castles Technology, and Verifone. To download RCP's complete 25th Annual POS and Customer Engagement Report, visit: RetailConsultingPartners.com/2025-survey-download-form

About Retail Consulting Partners (RCP)
RCP is an innovative retail management consulting firm dedicated to providing superior service and enduring value to its clients. RCP offers the comprehensive capabilities and deep industry knowledge necessary to help organizations solve the complex issues facing the retail industry today. Through its proven methodologies and extensive ecosystem of solution providers, the firm effectively and efficiently identifies, selects, and implements the right retail technology solutions.

RCP's consulting services include:
Strategy | Business Process Optimization | Point of Sale (POS) | Mobile Technology | Payment Security | E-Commerce | Store Operations | CRM | Unified Commerce | Order Management | ERP | Merchandise Management | Supply Chain | Vendor/Marketplace Assessment | Due Diligence

For more information on RCP, visit RetailConsultingPartners.com.

Brian Brunk
Retail Consulting Partners (RCP)
+1 405-590-0542
bbrunk@retailconsultingpartners.com