Retail Pro International, VTEX Give Mobile Payments a Leg Up With New Platform

May 7, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

While mobile payments have done great things for our retail experiences—especially when they throw in things like rewards programs and the like all from the same interface—there’s always room for improvement. So when Retail Pro International and VTEX dropped word our way about their new development, an advancement in unified commerce that will offer customers a range of new options, especially for that growing crowd of customers who might start a purchase online, but rather finish in-store.

The new product, known as True Cloud Commerce, draws on key features of VTEX’s earlier offerings, which drove it to prominence as a platform for larger brands worldwide. Brands including Motorola, Sony, and Staples have all turned to VTEX in the past, so True Cloud Commerce is likely to prove a hit as well.

With True Cloud Commerce, VTEX’s lineup is augmented by Retail Pro’s retail management system, a tool geared mainly toward businesses that have physical presence. Yet for online-only businesses who are planning an expansion into the physical market, a tool like True Cloud Commerce can be a major step forward.

The new system allows users to start a cart online, but finish the cart in-store, a move that bodes well for users who want to check out certain products before making a purchase. It takes advantage, at least somewhat, of the principle known as showrooming, in which customers go to a physical store to look more thoroughly at the item in question, but go online to complete the sale.

A concept like this does well to intermingle the desires to shop online as well as the immediacy of physical buying. If used correctly, it turns nearly every store into a 24 / 7 operation that can be accessed, one way or another, at any time. That’s one of the best outcomes mobile payments can produce, and could well give stores a leg up.

Trying to buck the online shopping trend, with or without mobile payments, is a bad move. Incorporating it into the operation, as could be done with Retail Pro and VTEX’s offering, could be a great way to take advantage of this trend while giving physical retail another reason to stay open.