Commissions are one way to encourage store activity in unified commerce, but there are other models. One retail company compensates its STORES by allocating extra personnel time for each sale the store fulfills. Everyone is feeling their way on this, and we’ll undoubtedly find, over time, that there are multiple ways to achieve goals.

I very much agree with Cathy’s general assessment. I am of the opinion that in a unified commerce model, everyone should share in the benefit of the concept of commissions. Finding the right weighted formula for who (individuals, stores, e-commerce personnel) gets what is the challenge. Furthermore, there is the subject of performance bonuses for people in different functional areas of the company (store operations, merchandising, e-commerce, commerce). The formula will probably include some weight to both: individual departmental performance and overall company performance. I might add I would emphasize overall company performance so that team members realize the importance of inter-departmental collaboration.

Many will no doubt posit to do away with commissions. I think that’s a mistake. The brightest and best have chosen to make their living selling a brand’s wares and deserve to have their talent to build rapport, compare and contrast and make the sale rewarded. Leveling the pay field usually leaves the weaker players on the floor longer and dis-incents the best. Cathy’s right, everyone is feeling their way. Just don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The challenge of attributing the sale dates back nearly 20 years, to the first multi-channel retailer to accept an in-store return of an online purchase. Managers rightly balked at the notion that their store productivity could be negatively impacted when they issue a credit. Not to mention the staff time that would be soaked up by the service encounter and restocking. The perception at the time was that the online channel was effectively in competition with the stores. Pursuit of fairness led to some early policies to credit stores with a proportion of online sales. In the ensuing unified commerce world, new customer paths, notably BOPIS, add new wrinkles to the attribution question. Commission-based sales are certainly impacted by extension. There are several schemes worth considering to add fairness, without relying solely upon the “last-touch” model. One might be to pool commissions for net sales completed entirely online and allocate to personnel based on each store’s geographic footprint. This is like found money for the sales staff, so payout rates might be adjusted lower. Certainly… Read more »

There are some really insightful comments posted here so far, so it’s obvious that this is and has been a real challenge for years … even a couple decades at this point. I think a serious, intentional update of sales staff roles both online and offline is in order for the vast majority of retailers working with commission programs. I do feel commissions still have their place today as a key incentive for the staff. If retail management addresses this issue across channels and functional silos, there can be effective sales handoffs that capture sales contribution, and “sales assist” efforts from each potential salesperson.

As everyone has already commented, the short answer is yes. The questions are how and how much. To even begin to accurately answer we first have to be able to track all the ways consumers make purchases and which impact element in the transaction impacts the purchase decision.

Few retailers possess the information systems to capture that data to say nothing of the skills to analyze it. Those that figure that out will not only have happy customers, but happy employees — a winning combination.

Attribution and compensation are a big issue for omnichannel sales. If retailers fail to motivate and compensate sales associates for cross-channel sales and fulfillment, they risk lackluster adoption of processes at the floor level, and subpar customer experiences. Retailers must fundamentally reinvent their compensation plans to reward cross-channel success. Unfortunately, many retailers (55%) do not offer store employees incentives for fulfilling omnichannel orders, according to the 2016 Customer Experience/Unified Commerce Survey from BRP. Other rewards vary: Offering partial sales credit or commission for orders fulfilled from a store (27%); Having dedicated employees handle fulfillment (16%); Adjusting store labor costs/ credits to compensate for orders fulfilled from a store (16%); Providing incentives or bonuses to pull inventory and fulfill orders promptly (7%); and Rewarding associates with complete credit for a sale (2%). Some of the best practices we have seen include compensation models that take into account the following scenarios that associate online transactions to in-store interactions: Store associates are paid a commission on qualifying online sales when customer information for an online sale matches the… Read more »