A customer discovers a jacket online, checks whether it is available in a nearby store, orders it for pickup, and later returns it at another location. From the customer's perspective, this should be one simple shopping journey. Behind the scenes, however, that transaction can involve e-commerce, point of sale, inventory, customer information, pricing, fulfillment, payments, and returns.In this episode of Microsoft Knowledge Nuggets on M365 FM, Mirko Peters explains Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce in plain English and explores how it connects physical stores, e-commerce, point of sale, products, inventory, pricing, customers, orders, loyalty, fulfillment, and retail operations.Rather than treating stores, websites, and back-office systems as separate environments, Dynamics 365 Commerce provides a connected foundation for modern omnichannel retail.

WHAT IS DYNAMICS 365 COMMERCE?
Dynamics 365 Commerce is Microsoft's platform for connecting the processes behind selling products across physical stores, websites, and other commerce channels.Retailers need consistent answers to basic questions: What products do we sell? What does each product cost? Where is inventory available? Which orders require action? What has a customer purchased previously?When different systems provide different answers, problems quickly appear. A website might display one price while the store displays another. A product might appear available online even though the physical inventory is unavailable. Store employees may be unable to access an order created through the website.Dynamics 365 Commerce connects these activities around shared business information.It is therefore much more than an e-commerce website builder or point-of-sale application.

FROM DYNAMICS 365 RETAIL TO DYNAMICS 365 COMMERCE
Dynamics 365 Commerce evolved from Dynamics 365 Retail, which primarily focused on physical retail operations and point of sale.Modern shopping journeys no longer remain within a single channel.Customers might discover a product online, inspect it in a physical store, order it through their phone, collect it somewhere else, and later contact customer service.Commerce is designed around this reality.The individual channels become different entrances into the same connected retail operation rather than isolated businesses with separate information.

OMNICHANNEL RETAIL
Omnichannel commerce means customers can move between channels while the underlying business information remains connected.A customer might begin a purchase on a smartphone and complete it inside a store. Another customer might purchase online and collect the order from a local branch.Someone else might purchase online but return the item to a completely different physical store.The customer should not need to understand which internal system originally processed the transaction.Dynamics 365 Commerce connects customer-facing channels with products, prices, inventory, customer records, orders, and fulfillment information so retailers can create more consistent experiences across those channels.

REAL-TIME INVENTORY VISIBILITY
Inventory visibility is fundamental to omnichannel retail.If a website tells a customer that a product is available for collection, the business needs sufficient inventory information to support that promise.A product existing in the catalog does not necessarily mean it is physically available in the customer's preferred location.Dynamics 365 Commerce connects online shopping experiences with inventory information from stores and warehouses, allowing retailers to provide customers with more realistic availability information.This enables experiences such as checking local availability before visiting a store.

BUY ONLINE, PICK UP IN STORE
Buy Online, Pick Up In Store scenarios connect digital shopping with physical retail locations.A customer can find a product online, place the order, and select a nearby store as the collection point.Behind that simple customer choice, the retailer needs to know whether the selected location has appropriate inventory, whether the store can prepare the order, and when the product will realistically be ready.The store effectively becomes part of the e-commerce fulfillment network.This is one example of how Dynamics 365 Commerce turns physical retail locations into more than traditional sales floors.

SHIP FROM STORE
Stores can also become fulfillment locations.If a customer places an online order and a particular store has the required inventory, the retailer may choose to fulfill the order from that store rather than a central warehouse.This can potentially improve inventory utilization and give businesses additional options for fulfilling customer demand.The customer simply sees that the product can be delivered.Behind the scenes, Commerce helps connect the order with the location responsible for preparing it.

CROSS-CHANNEL RETURNS
Returns demonstrate why connected commerce information matters.Imagine a customer purchases a...