What you’ll learn:
If there’s one thing retailers agree on unanimously, it’s this: Unified commerce is essential for businesses to navigate the increasingly interconnected online, mobile and in-store channels. The question of how to unify commerce, however, is far from reaching a unanimous opinion.
For many retailers, the answer seems like a no-brainer: Leverage their current POS (point-of-sale) technology, connect with their eCommerce system, and done. What many of them come to realize later is that the reality is more complicated than that: The more they try to stitch systems together, the more disjointed everything becomes.
Retailers using legacy POS systems know that their current solutions aren’t up to the task of unifying commerce. For instance, 65% of retailers admit their current technology stack doesn’t enable the customer experience they want and need to deliver. Plus, 30% of merchants cite outdated POS technology as their biggest challenge in maximizing cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Retail leaders know that legacy POS technology isn’t the right fit for a unified commerce future — and that’s great news. The not-so-good news: The technology many are considering to replace their legacy systems is still POS-centric. The new generation of POS systems, which are API-based and support mobile responsiveness out of the box, seems like the simplest solution.
But is it?
Anchoring unified commerce with POS — legacy, modern or otherwise — defeats the purpose of unifying all data in one place. Modern POS solutions, though undeniably better than their legacy counterparts, still force separate workflows for online vs. in-store, reinforcing system fragmentation, siloed data and disconnected teams.
Moreover, modern POS systems remain channel-specific. This means retailers still have to manage promotions, orders and data for in-store with a POS system, and for online, mobile and social interactions with an eCommerce platform.
Can these interactions be synced through APIs? Sure. But how can retailers reconcile data if they’re different in these two systems? That’s a challenge that even the most modern POS systems can’t solve.
5 reasons why POS systems and unified commerce don’t mix
On the surface, modern POS systems look sleek and promise omnichannel compatibility. But dig deeper, and you’ll find they’re still rooted in store-first thinking — reinforcing the silos unified commerce aims to eliminate. Here’s why relying on POS (modern or legacy) can hold your business back:
Modern POS systems are still built primarily for the store environment, not for the full omnichannel ecosystem.
They treat stores as isolated channels, separate from online, mobile or social commerce.
Orders placed in-store often aren’t visible in eCommerce systems (and vice versa) in real time.
Customer interactions across channels don’t update a shared profile or order history.
Impact: A siloed setup creates gaps that customers experience. This creates inconsistent customer experiences and operational inefficiencies. For example, a customer might return an item purchased online, but the in-store associate can’t process the return or even find the transaction because the transaction was online.
Despite a modern UI, most POS platforms still rely on rigid monolithic backends or middleware-heavy integrations.
Promotions, pricing, inventory and order data live in separate systems.
Synchronizing this data in real time is difficult or impossible, leading to delays and discrepancies.
Middleware or custom integrations are fragile, costly to maintain and make scalability a nightmare.
Impact: Every system update becomes a risk. IT teams are slowed down, innovation stalls as retailers spend more time maintaining systems than improving them, and data conflicts are common. If a promotion runs online but isn’t updated in the POS, customers get confused — and may shop elsewhere.
Most modern POS solutions are built to be functional, not flexible.
Adding new capabilities like endless aisle, mobile checkout or cross-store fulfillment often requires custom development or vendor-dependent feature releases.
Retailers can’t experiment with new services quickly because they’re locked into rigid vendor roadmaps.
Impact: Innovation takes too long. Teams miss market opportunities or struggle to keep up with evolving consumer expectations. Iit may take months (and a massive budget) to roll out a new feature like BOPIS or clienteling across stores.
POS systems often have limited or siloed access to customer profiles, loyalty programs and past purchase data.
In many cases, the store associate can’t access a unified customer profile that includes both in-store and online purchases.
Loyalty systems may not be synced across channels, creating friction for frequent shoppers.
Impact: Your store associates can’t deliver personalized service without the full picture. A VIP customer walks in, but to the associate, they look like a first-time shopper. Loyalty perks don’t apply in-store. Offers aren’t tailored. You miss the opportunity to build a real relationship.
Most modern POS platforms still involve heavy IT overhead to deploy across multiple stores, regions or brands.
Global or multi-brand retailers struggle with localized pricing, tax rules and catalog structures.
Each new rollout feels like a mini-implementation, rather than a scalable extension.
Impact: Retailers can’t scale fast enough to support business growth or regional expansions. Launching a new concept store or pop-up requires weeks of planning and integration work, instead of days.
That’s the core problem: If your systems are still split by channel, your commerce isn’t unified, no matter how well you’ve stitched things together. Real unified commerce means one platform for everything: Products, pricing, inventory, customer profiles, orders and loyalty — all in one place, all updated in real time.
Why does that matter? Because it’s the only way to deliver fast, consistent, connected experiences. Across every channel. For every customer. Every time.
What unified commerce means in real life
So, what does unified commerce actually look like in practice?
A shopper tries on a jacket in-store, saves it to their app wishlist and completes the purchase at home without duplicate carts or re-entry.
The same shopper returns the product later at another store, no receipt needed. The associate pulls up their order instantly, no matter where or how it was placed.
The same associate sees they’re a loyalty member and offers curated recommendations based on past purchases with the right discount already applied.
Such use cases require seamlessness: Instant data flowing across every touchpoint, real-time analytics for real-time decision-making. That’s possible when all your systems speak the same language in real time.
More than customer convenience and delight, the impact of unified commerce drives measurable gains across every part of retail operations. According to Incisiv, unified commerce leaders grow 3x faster than their peers, and they can $13M–$55M more per $1B USD in revenue. What’s more, they turn inventory 1.5x faster thanks to real-time visibility and dynamic allocation.
The ripple effects are just as powerful:
31% lower last-mile costs by using stores as fulfillment centers.
27% lower fulfillment costs.
22% lower customer acquisition costs.
14% higher average order value.
Unified commerce is a lot more than a CX strategy — it’s a smarter, leaner and more profitable way to run your business.
That’s where commercetools InStore comes in.
commercetools InStore isn’t a POS system. It isn’t a POS upgrade either. In fact, this solution makes the POS system redundant.
In a nutshell, commercetools InStore is the physical extension of a unified commerce platform that enables retailers to consolidate all product information, customer data and sales transactions onto a single platform. This enables retailers to manage updates in real time and provide accessibility across all customer-facing channels.
Built on the same API-first foundation as commercetools Composable Commerce, our InStore solution is channel-agnostic, hardware-agnostic, fast to roll out and endlessly adaptable. Retailers like Jaycar used it to launch Endless Aisle in just six weeks and saw a 15% lift in in-store sales by extending a true unified experience into the store instead of leveraging a POS system.
Long story short: Retailers don’t need a shinier POS. They need a new foundation, one that’s built to flex, move fast and unify everything in one place.
Ready to see how unified commerce can transform your stores?
Ankita is a product marketing professional at commercetools and is passionate about developing value-based product messaging to communicate the vision and value of their products to the market. She has lived and worked in five different countries and navigated roles in the consulting and financial services industry before transiting into eCommerce post MBA.
Manuela Marques Tchoe is a Content Writer at commercetools. She was a Content and Product Marketing Director at conversational commerce provider tyntec. She has written content in partnership with Facebook, Rakuten Viber and other social media platforms.