Announcing Dynamics 365 Commerce preview
Dynamics 365 Commerce, now in preview, delivers a complete omnichannel solution that unifies back-office, in-store, and digital experiences built on Dynamics 365 Retail capabilities.
Retail is one of those industries that everyone can relate to. Shopping is ingrained in our daily lives, with today’s consumer demanding engaging and integrated shopping experiences across storefronts–physical stores, online and mobile. As traditional commerce channels are disrupted and new ones emerge, shoppers have ever-greater control of their experience, from researching product price and quality to maximize the value of every dollar spent, to purchasing from the brand that offers the most personalized, convenient service.
With this power shift comes a great opportunity for retailers. Those that use modern tools and insights at their disposal have the opportunity to close the gap between the smart online consumer and the offline retailer, and thereby stand out in an ever-competitive marketplace. Traditional retailers are also tasked to bring together historically isolated and disconnected shopping channels to deliver seamless shopping experiences to their customers.
To meet the growing demands, retailers need a modern, flexible cloud commerce solution that will help them be nimble, compete better, and build lasting relationships with their consumers. An intelligent solution that creates rich, customer-first experiences at all touchpoints and that is seamlessly tied with backend operations is critical. Unifying data across all the siloes and leveraging a data driven approach, retailers can attract customers through personalized experiences, deliver merchandise that they desire on their terms, while providing employees with tools and information for ultra-responsive customer service.
Delivering a true connected commerce experience
Today we’re proud to announce the preview of Dynamics 365 Commerce. Built on the proven Dynamics 365 Retail capabilities, Dynamics 365 Commerce delivers a comprehensive omnichannel solution across web, physical stores, and call center channels.
It provides seamless merchandising, inventory, order management, warehousing and financials that is differentiated through integrated clienteling, AI driven personalization, fraud protection, and search. In addition, Commerce supports the market leading capabilities of Power Platform to deliver analytics, business workflow orchestration as well as easy ways to extend the solution to make it your own.
Dynamics 365 Commerce introduces e-commerce functionality to the Dynamics 365 family which includes the creation of digital experiences using built-in web authoring and development tools to produce engaging and intelligent digital storefronts. An integrated content management along with headless commerce engine further enables the seamless management of content, assets, promotions, inventory, and pricing across all channels.
The e-commerce technology behind Dynamics 365 Commerce has been driving Microsoft’s own digital storefronts for many years to deliver great experiences to customers across the globe. We are bringing this proven technology to our Dynamics 365 Commerce customers to deliver a world class, scalable, compliant and secure solution for their omnichannel needs.
Digital transformation at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates leverages Dynamics 365 Commerce
Ste. Michelle Wine Estates has a long history in the Pacific Northwest and is counted as one of Washington State’s founding wineries. They have a reputation of delivering exceptional wines, supported through scores of awards, pared with amazing customer experiences. By partnering with Microsoft, they are building a comprehensive commerce platform that knits together 14 distinct brands, multiple sales channels including wholesale, online and retail. As an early preview customer, Ste Michelle Wine Estates is starting by transforming one of their premium brands, ‘Col Solare,’ and will then expand this functionality across other brands. By implementing Dynamics 365 Commerce Ste. Michelle Wine Estates will:
- Provide their customers with elevated digital experiences
- Transform the way they do business with an end-to-end omnichannel solution across physical and digital channels
- Develop deep insights and leverage advanced decision-making capabilities the company needs to continue to modernize
Our approach to unified commerce
Dynamics 365 Commerce enhances retail and customer experiences by delivering across five key priorities:
- Everything to build and run digital commerce and modern store operations
- Build loyalty and exceed customer expectations
- Enable flexible and intelligent omnichannel experiences
- Streamline operations using cloud intelligence
- Deliver a scalable, reliable, secure and compliant solution
These priorities, supported through a connected data platform, can create seamless and personalized shopping experiences, increase employee productivity, optimize operations, and deliver better business outcomes.
Everything to build and run digital commerce and modern store operations
According to a recent study by BRP, 51 percent of consumers feel it is important to get a personalized experience across all digital channels within a brand.
Dynamics 365 Commerce makes e-commerce authoring and enriching pages easy with a robust set of tools to support new and experienced developers. With a built in content management system and digital asset management capabilities, the solution streamlines digital commerce processes and improves operational excellence. A modern web rendering platform is designed to deliver simple, yet comprehensive capabilities including the option for complete extensibility to enhance and deliver content rich and immersive web experiences for customers. Digital insights are not isolated to online. Employees are empowered in a physical stores environment to utilize digital tools on mobile devices to better serve customers by bringing assisted selling, line busting, special ordering, and endless aisles to life, while integrated store inventory processes and task management make them efficient and productive.
Build loyalty and exceed customer expectations
According to Accenture, 91 percent of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognize, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations.
Personalization is no longer an optional component for retailers. Shoppers have come to expect web experiences that surface relevant information based on their preferences and purchase history. Dynamics 365 Commerce brings with it a range of clienteling tools that give retailers and sales associates the insights to respond to customer needs at every level of engagement.
AI driven recommendations, and customer insights as well as loyalty capabilities are all easily accessible and flow across physical and digital channels thereby enabling retailers to deliver consistent experiences that elevate their brand appeal.
Enable flexible and intelligent omnichannel experiences
According to PWC, consumers are willing to spend up to 16 percent more on products and services with companies that offer a better experience.
Retailers that are currently still operating with disconnected channels are not only creating frustration for customers, but are also driving inefficiencies in their business operations by isolating integral business data like inventory, pricing, and promotion information across channels. Dynamics 365 Commerce helps deliver frictionless engagement across physical and digital channels, allowing customers to purchase when, how, and where they want on any device including the following key capabilities:
- Out of the box cross channel experiences like buy online pick up in store, buy online return in store etc.
- Leverage physical store as a warehouse to deliver products faster to customers
- Consistent and immersive experiences across channels through intelligent search powered by Bing
- User generated product ratings and reviews available in all channels to drive conversion
- Customer can take advantage of wish lists, inventory visibility, gift cards, and loyalty programs to further enrich their shopping experience.
Streamline operations using cloud intelligence
According to a report by Econsultancy, 52 percent of companies face challenges connecting the dots between data stored across different parts of their organization.
Intelligence is the fuel that helps businesses transform. By infusing intelligent technology into their business operations retailers can gain insights that enable them to drive growth and maximize operational efficiencies. Insights can be derived by visualizing and analyzing comprehensive and consistent data across all aspects of their business.
Key capabilities include:
- AI driven product recommendations to upsell and cross sell while delivering personalized experiences for shoppers
- Comprehensive data across web and physical stores as well as back office operations in a consistent format that allows for omnichannel analytics and insights
- Integrated AI driven payment fraud protection capabilities to improve shopper experiences while minimizing fraud related costs and increasing revenues
- Intelligent order orchestrations delivered by distributed order management for reducing operational cost while improving speed of delivery to customers
- AI driven user content moderation to ensure accuracy and legitimacy
- AI driven validation of web content for accessibility issues
- Automated video streaming capabilities to provide rich customer experiences that elevates brand appeal
- Integrated merchandising, inventory, pricing, and promotions to innovate faster and stay ahead of competition
Deliver a scalable, reliable, secure, and compliant solution
Accoridng to a report by Zebra, 50 percent of companies are implementing planning and forecasting technologies, with an additional 32 percent increase in investments by these companies in the next year.
Undertaking a transformation that impacts the core of a retailer business is not done light heartedly. Retail companies are looking to technology partners to help them deliver solutions that are grounded in trust and understanding of their business needs. Dynamics 365 Commerce offers flexible deployment options supported by robust SLA’s, global compliance, and security standards, along with configurable and extensible developer options. Dynamics 365 Commerce also uses a unique solution to help retailers in areas where infrastructure is lacking. By using Scale Units, retailers can ensure they are not only able to transact at all times but also scale their operations globally to operate large multi-brand, multi-company, multi-national organizations.
Dynamics 365 Commerce will enable retailers to build brand loyalty through personalized customer engagements, increase revenue with improved employee productivity, optimize operations to reduce costs and drive supply chain efficiencies, ultimately delivering better business outcomes.
Learn more at the Business Applications Virtual Launch Event
Attend our Virtual Launch Event on Thursday, October 10th— streaming live at 8:00 am Pacific time, then on-demand–for a look at Dynamics 365 Commerce and all the other new innovations coming to market. Be sure to register for updates and reminders leading up to the event. Register now
The preview for Dynamics 365 Commerce is available now. Request a preview to evaluate for yourself or contact us to speak with a Microsoft expert or Microsoft partner near you.
