Top takeaways from the 2025 Gartner® Market Guide for Unified Commerce Platforms Anchored by AI-Enabled POS

Put yourselves in the shoes of this shopper…

They’ve just walked into your store and they’ve already browsed online, checked availability, compared sizes, saved a few favorites, and as soon as they arrive they’re excited. They also expect the store associate standing in front of them to know what is happening - instantly.

The associate reaches for their device. Not to search through five systems. Not to call the stockroom. Not to guess. But to see the full picture of product availability, customer history, loyalty status, order options, and the best next step.

That is the kind of experience modern retail is moving toward. It’s connected, personal, and hassle-free. And it’s powered by the best retail tech.

And your POS is crucial to turning this experience into a reality.

The POS is no longer just the place where payment happens. It’s becoming an intelligent, mobile-first layer that helps store teams serve better, act faster, and keep every channel flowing together.

That is why we’re excited to share that, for the third year running, Sitoo has been named as a Representative Vendor in the latest Gartner® Market Guide for Unified Commerce Platforms Anchored by AI-Enabled POS for Tier 2 Retailers.

We believe the report highlights a clear shift in retail technology where unified commerce platforms anchored by AI-enabled POS are becoming the foundation for smarter stores, stronger teams, and more flowful customer experiences.

Here are our top takeaways:

1. AI-enabled POS is becoming a strategic store platform

“Position POS upgrades as a strategic opportunity to modernize store infrastructure with embedded AI capabilities that enhance agility, intelligence, and associate enablement.”- Gartner® Market Guide for Unified Commerce Platforms Anchored by AI-Enabled POS for Tier 2 Retailers

For years, the POS was where the sale ended.

Today, it’s so much more than that. It’s a place of endless possibilities.

A customer asks if an out-of-stock item is available nearby. An associate checks real-time inventory. A loyalty offer is applied automatically. A return turns into an exchange. A product recommendation helps complete the look. A fulfillment option saves the sale.

These are examples of customer journeys that a connected POS is integral to, and they depend on fast access to data, smart workflows, and technology that helps associates act with confidence.

With AI entering the picture, the POS can become a powerful layer for insight, automation, and smarter decision-making. For store teams, this means faster answers and better recommendations. For retail leaders, it means more ways to improve operations, provide a better service, and act on real-time data.

And this means upgrading POS is no longer just a technical project. It’s a chance to modernize your stores from the inside out.

2. Store associates need tools they can love

“Empower store associates with mobile-centric tools and consolidated user interfaces, sometimes referred to as “superapps,” that streamline tasks and provide a “single pane of glass” for real-time data and insights across channels, thereby enhancing productivity and the customer experience.”- Gartner® Market Guide for Unified Commerce Platforms Anchored by AI-Enabled POS for Tier 2 Retailers

Store technology either helps associates to shine and become brand champions or it slows them down and gets in their way.

A modern POS gives store teams mobile-first tools and unified interfaces that bring everything into one place - the ‘single pane of glass.’

Instead of switching between systems or searching for answers, associates can access product information, customer data, inventory visibility, fulfillment options, and checkout tools from the shop floor.

That matters because store teams are expected to do more than ever. They sell, serve, fulfill, return, advise, and represent the brand - often all in the same shift.

When technology makes life easy for associates, it makes shopping a dream for customers too.

3. Personalized shopping starts with unified data

“Invest in unified commerce (UC) solutions to provide a central orchestration that provides seamless connectivity across essential UC capabilities.”- Gartner® Market Guide for Unified Commerce Platforms Anchored by AI-Enabled POS for Tier 2 Retailers

Personalization isn’t magic. It’s built on a foundation of data.

If that data is weak, personalization falls down. If it’s strong, then it can be put to work.

It’s next to impossible to create best-in-class shopping experiences with disconnected systems. To personalize service, keep promises, and make every channel work together, you need accurate, consistent, real-time data. Products, inventory, sales, customers, and orders all need to flow from the same source of truth.

With one real-time data layer, store associates can see what is available, where it is available, who the customer is, and how best to serve them. Shoppers get fewer dead ends, fewer disappointments, and more times where everything just works.

4. Composable architecture is crucial to adapting fast

“An open and composable approach fosters a “best-of-breed” environment, granting retailers greater control over their rate of innovation by enabling customization of microservices and decoupling of front-end presentation layers.”- Gartner® Market Guide for Unified Commerce Platforms Anchored by AI-Enabled POS for Tier 2 Retailers

Every retailer has ideas they want to bring to life.

Think of everything from a better returns journey to a store concept that feels more modern, mobile, and personal.

The challenge is rarely the idea. The challenge is the technology behind it.

Legacy systems can slow innovation down. Rollouts take too long. Store teams wait for and IT teams spend their time managing complexity instead of building for what comes next.

The Market Guide points to the growing importance of modern, composable, cloud-native architectures that help retailers adapt faster.

For us, this is one of the most important shifts in the market. Retailers need technology that can scale up, down, or sideways as their business changes. They need the freedom to connect the right systems, launch new services, and move at the speed their customers expect.

When tech is fast to integrate and easy to use the whole business wins, not just the IT department.

Why this matters now

Retailers are under pressure to do more with less.

There’s pressure to grow sales while protecting margins. To improve loyalty, to support store teams, to reduce complexity, and to move faster. And to do all of this while staying ready for whatever comes next.

AI-enabled POS and unified commerce platforms can help make that possible - not by adding more complexity, but by making the complex simple.

At Sitoo, we believe the future belongs to retailers who can connect every channel, put the right tools in the palm of every associate’s hand, and create positive shopping experiences every time, everywhere.