Building an ROI Model for a Unified Platform - How to Evaluate Your Omnichannel Investment

Sep 13, 2026

Thought Leadership Brief outlines how retailers can evaluate omnichannel technology investments by building an ROI model for a unified platform. It connects the omnichannel imperative to measurable business outcomes, detailing cost savings from built-in integrations, reduced TCO, simpler architecture, and lower customer support costs. It also explains revenue opportunities such as market-share growth via data sharing, higher order value through improved customer satisfaction, speed-to-market, best-practice adoption, and talent attraction.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Facing the Omnichannel Imperative

Cost Saving Opportunities Through a Unified Platform Approach

Reducing the risk and cost of integrations

Lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Simplifying your architecture

Revenue Gain Opportunities Using Unified Platform Approach

Key Attributes of the Modern Unified Platform

Making the Decision

Thought Leadership Brief Building an ROI Model fora Unified Platform How to evaluate your omnichannel investment Building an ROI Model for a Unified Platform | 1. Facing the Omnichannel Imperative | | | --- | --- | | 2. | Cost Saving Opportunities Through a Platform Approach:
a. Reducing the risk and cost of integrations
b. Lowering the TCO
c. Simplifying the architecture
d. Reducing customer support costs | | 3. | Revenue Gain Opportunities Using Unified Platform Approach
a. Growing market share through data sharing
b. Increasing average order value through customer satisfaction
c. Capitalizing on Speed-to-Market
d. Adopting best-in-class practices
e. Attracting top talent | | 4. Key Attributes of the Modern Unified Platform | | 5. Making the Decision 1. Facing the Omnichannel Imperative Retail industry is under tremendous pressure to offer a modern shopping experience driven by giants such as Amazon and Walmart. The stakes are high as this is a question of life and death for many brands. Some are looking at upgrading their old technology stacks in favor of a unified platform while others are augmenting their capabilities through point solutions. Every brand that is considering a technology investment must do a complete analysis of pros and cons of such investment to make sure that the budget, time and effort support the growth of the business in the long run. It is true for retail startups that are just opening their first store after tremendous growth online, and for retail veterans that have been around for decades and are looking to unify customer experience online and offline. Often a qualitative rationale for a unified platform falls on deaf ears, and the best way to convince certain stakeholders of the value of the investment in the platform approach is by building an ROI model. A typical ROI model illustrates investment needed, cost savings and incremental revenue increases. They will vary greatly from business to business. However, the core evaluation criteria will be applicable to brands ofall sizesand make up the rest of this brief. 2. Cost Saving Opportunities Through a Unified Platform Approach A platform approach presents a unique opportunity for cost savings and benefits. This section summarizes cost savings we have seen through the unified platform approach. a. Reducing the risk and cost of integrations b. Lowering the TCO c. Simplifying the architecture d. Reducing customer support costs a) Reducing the Risk and Cost of Integrations By investing in a unified omnichannel platform from day one, a retailer can take advantage of the investments made by the technology partner. Built-in integrations: In order to go to market in the shortest amount of time, built-in integrationsin the unified platform will result insignificantly faster implementation and lower project cost. Single tech stack means seamless flow of data across systems and fewer resources to build and maintain it. Onetime investment in integrations A platform provider will maintain all components and innovate without disrupting the omnichannel workflow. With point application providers, thereis a risk of a specific vendor updating their solution without realizing that a brand’s entire ecosystem is being disrupted by the change. Access to top expertise By collaborating with a technology partner, a brand instantly gets access to deep expertise, knowledge and resources. For example, this can include experimentation with emerging touchpoints like AR, VR, AI, IoT, expansion into other geographies or building a promotions engine to support product kits. b) Lowering Total Cost of Ownership While it sometimes requires more investment upfront, a unified platform approach is likely to lead to a smaller IT team and lower total cost of ownership in the long run. It supports a brand’s maintenance, compliance and innovation costs. Satisfaction from the product increases drastically wit

FAQs

Why do retailers need to build an ROI model for a unified platform investment?

An ROI model translates the platform rationale into budget, cost savings, and incremental revenue outcomes that help persuade stakeholders. It provides evaluation criteria that apply across retail businesses of different sizes.

How does a unified platform approach reduce integration risk and implementation cost?

Built-in integrations enable faster implementation and lower project costs through a single technology stack. The approach also reduces disruption because the platform provider maintains components and innovates without breaking the omnichannel workflow.

What framework is used to assess total cost of ownership (TCO) and connect it to ROI?

The document proposes investigating platform costs such as subscription, implementation, and upgrades, then determining savings and business efficiencies. Finally, it maps TCO against business benefits and evaluates the three-year ROI across growth levels.

Sep 13, 2026

Upload by Alex Sinclair