Salient features of Dynamics 365 Commerce 2020 release wave 1
May 14, 2020 Anjan Barman
The latest updates of the Commerce module have been targeted at enriching the experience of all stakeholders – retailers, employees, and customers. The new features are tailored to boost brand affinity and revenue while creating a delightful experience for customers and employees. The updates include a multitude of value-adding features for both brick & mortar and e-commerce stores.
The retail capabilities of Dynamics 365 Commerce have been further fine-tuned to meet the fast-evolving market dynamics of the industry and provide users with a refined unified retail experience. Its highlight is the integration of different retail channels to deliver a holistically rich shopping experience to customers. The focus of the wave 1 updates has been on enhanced personalized customer engagements through omnichannel experience to promote brand loyalty, achieve higher CLV and bottom line, and optimize the value chain. It empowers the different commerce personas for effective outreach to consumers and improved service.
Here are the major 2020 release wave 1 features of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce
Efficient Retail Operations
- Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) support for more authenticated POS sign-in. Retailers also get options to enhance the current POS sign-in by adding new user interface (UI) elements and customization options.
- The ability to Change Mode of Delivery from the (POS) screen layout itself gives high flexibility to retailers.
- The option to identify requirements at different database points by configuring synchronization-related data.
- Improved data package generation in headquarters and when applying to a channel database.
- Management of POS peripherals with device health check option to ensure optimum device performance. Business owners/managers get special troubleshooting information to resolve issues themselves.
- Sales associates get clarity on ongoing promotional offers based on cart items, enabling them to cross-sell and upsell.
- Flexibility to customize the point of sale (POS) sign-in page by adding new UI elements including date, time, and custom logo; numeric keypad and people picker for touch-enabled devices.
- For maintaining optimum inventory levels, there’s the feature to define inventory buffers along with API access to inventory level indicators. Channel-side calculation logic for an estimated physical available on-hand value eliminates the need for real-time service (RTS) call back to Commerce Headquarters (HQ). POS users can register serial numbers while receiving of purchase or transfer orders for accurate tracking of inventory.
- Connectivity loss management by triggering MPOS offline when there are issues with the Commerce Server. There’s an improved design for offline availability and device status can be monitored by dashboards in headquarters.
- Better task management with the ability to create, assign, and track tasks within the POS. Criteria-based customer record creation for effective marketing and service.
- Easier cross-referencing and look-up of sales orders with enhanced customer service pages in HQ. This improves the POS order recall features.
- The functionality to set up a warranty item type and set item attributes to enable retailers to sell warranties through the point of sale (POS).
Streamlined Retail Finance
- Store managers can create and post-financial statements for MPOS/CPOS and make adjustment entries for cash. Retailers can use financial statements posted in MPOS/CPOS and post the same in Retail headquarters. They can set auto-charges to add fees based on the order channel.
- Easy sales returns management with payment refund features and additional controls. The new Returns Policy page enables retailers to set preferred payment methods.
- For the ease of POS payments, it offers a new UI pattern and the option to add a UI layer to the new payments view.
- Consistency in managing payments across all channels using the MCRCustPaym* tables
- The ability to reset receipt numbers at the beginning of a fiscal year. Cashiers can also send receipts from the journal over emails. Also, retailers can send auto emails to customers regarding shipment status.
Engaging Digital Storefront
- Intelligent shopping assistance allows retailers to delight customers with auto product recommendations in-line with preferences.
- Better handling of bulk URL redirects through the Site Builder. When the user’s domain switches to Commerce-hosted pages, the previous URLs can be easily used to serve the new hosted content, while preserving the previous SEO.
- A mini-cart module on the e-commerce page that displays a summary of the items added to the cart, the order value, and a checkout option.
- Integration of third-party external gift cards and payment connectors.
- No-code style editing workflows in the Site Builder reduces time, efforts, and costs in quickly styling web pages. A single base theme for all themes makes life easier for theme developers and reduces the time to market.
Let Dynamics 365 Commerce do wonders for your retail business
The latest wave 1 release of Dynamics 365 further empowers the different commerce personas by enabling them to connect with the customer better, offer value-adding services, and ramp up the efficiency to the value chain. For e-commerce players, it offers a platform for superior brand recognition with minimum-maintenance through automation of critical tasks. Retailers get enhanced inventory visibility and tools to keep their POS devices functioning optimally. They get insights about customer preferences to offer a personalized experience for customer delight.
Our experts at Nalashaa can help you integrate Dynamics 365 seamlessly with your retail ecosystem and enable you to realize the maximum returns. Our end-to-end Dynamics 365 services make us a one-stop-shop for our clients whom we empower with cutting-edge technologies such as AI, ML, RPA, Dynamics 365, and the like. Drop your details below for an insightful session on transforming your business with the best digital technologies.
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Anjan Barman
Anjan Barman is a technology enthusiast with primary interests in the applications and possibilities of Cloud, RPA, AI, CRM, and the like in modern businesses. He loves exploring how innovations help organizations improve their efficiency while reducing operating costs and presents the same in an atypical way.
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