Without a question, removing friction from a company's omnichannel strategy improves customer experiences in commerce.

In addition to raising customer satisfaction levels, a seamless experience throughout a merchant's many channels also raises retention and acquisition rates, which raises revenue.

Our conversation with Jeff Pomeroy, SVP and Head of Omnicommerce at Carat from Fiserv, reveals three ways that retailers may cut costs and still provide a flawless omnichannel experience.

reducing friction through innovative payment methods

Merchants should prioritize providing convenient payment experiences to their customers.

According to Pomeroy, "delivering payment experiences that are convenient for consumers and, most importantly, efficient for the business is critical to success as businesses enhance their commerce infrastructure."

He goes on, "A retailer using SoftPOS technology to enable mobile payment acceptance is a perfect example of how to streamline checkout and build in-store efficiency."

"Consider a music store that interacts with customers in person to offer services like guitar lessons in addition to selling merchandise."

"This retailer can streamline checkout by bringing the payment experience to the point of engagement by providing its employees with mobile payment options to reduce friction as they provide services and collect payments in-store."

Checkout processes can also be made simpler by using payment methods like Pay by Bank. According to Pomeroy, "this enables a customer to easily connect their bank account as a payment option within the checkout experience."

"As businesses reinvest savings from this lower-cost payment method to incentivize their customers, Pay by Bank is becoming a preferred payment option for more consumers."

The coming together of finance and trade
Second, while technology can assist merchants in providing innovative payment experiences, the way financial services are delivered is just as crucial to the offers of next-generation commerce.

Retailers have started implementing this strategy, according to Pomeroy, by increasing the functionality of their digital wallets. One such method involves using a single ledger to establish several stored value "purses" with the retailer's wallet.

"Rebate or reward points, gift cards, or even health and wellness benefits can be kept in these purses.

"Then, if a customer is purchasing something with rewards points and a gift card, the values within multiple purses can be drawn down within a single transaction, creating a simplified split-tender transaction for the customer."

In fact, some companies are entering this market even more by integrating financial features into retail wallets.

According to Pomeroy, "embodimentary finance examples include providing customers with credit or enabling them to open bank accounts within the retailer's digital environment."

Making the most of information and data

The ability to maximize data and information is essential for the successful use of these new developments in commerce.

"Data has become the oil that powers innovation," as Pomeroy puts it. Businesses have more opportunities than ever to capture value through insight, whether it's through real-time cloud sharing to speed up financial settlements, feeding risk models to make smarter decisions, or combining payment behavior with customer and loyalty data to supplement data.

"At Carat, we collaborate closely with our clients to develop strategies that streamline their processes for absorbing new information and improving decision-making."

Among these tactics are:

 • Facilitating enhanced data exchange between issuers and merchants

 • enabling consumers to instantly grasp insights and query data using conversational AI

 • gaining knowledge from sources other than payment data, such as share of wallet, benchmarks for payment performance, and consumer behavior outside of     stores