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By Matt Pillar, Editor In Chief

I took a lot away from last week's Aberdeen Retail Summit, but a specific thread that ran through many of the sessions I attended particularly struck me. Progressive cross-channel retailers are working hard to establish a culture where nobody cares which channel gets credit for the sale. Kenneth Cole VP of retail Colleen Lewis said it, and her colleague Tom Davis, VP of e-commerce and multichannel agreed. Wet Seal CIO John Kubo said it. Crocs VP of global retail Chris Ladd said it. Sherwin Socaransky, VP of IT for New York & Company said it too.

Cross-channel retailing and the "save the sale" juggernaut leave little room for old ways of thinking, which has challenged commission-based brick-and-mortar sales models and affiliate marketing programs to adapt. Solutions that enable cross-channel sales and fulfillment are ahead of the curve, which creates a situation in which business practice and culture need to catch up to the technology that's enabling the customer's desire.

The only time a customer cares about who gets credit for a sale is when he or she has had an outstanding experience that enabled it. Fortunately, associates and affiliates are constantly presented with opportunities to delight customers in all channels. Unfortunately, traditional rewards and recognition programs are channel-specific, resulting in tunnel vision. Focus on this truth as the impetus for culture change, which I think begins with a shift in the way sales are recognized and rewarded. How you choose to reward associates and affiliates who delight customers and enable sales must become channel agnostic if you're a true cross-channel retailer. And by all means, you should recognize and reward that behavior. So reward and recognize the associate, not the store. Reward and recognize the action, not the district.

Your shoppers are cross-channel, and your associates should be cross-channel too. Shift them from a myopic view of the enterprise, one in which they can't see beyond their current environment (the store, the call center, the Web site), by outfitting them with cross-channel enabling technology. Access to real-time, cross-channel inventory lookup via mobile devices and kiosks in the store and desktops in the call center are great places to start. You'll find that, for your best associates, half the reward to enabling a sale (regardless of channel) is in the satisfaction (shared by the associate and the customer) of a job well done.