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Editor’s note: We explain why e-retailers should manage their business as a coherent ecosystem rather than a disparate set of isolated systems. Read on to learn about the benefits of implementing ecommerce integrations and engage our ecommerce website developers to gain them for your business.
Having a mature ecommerce store, you may end up running numerous software solutions to manage your business and several channels to sell. But the more data sources and data management systems you have, the more complicated it becomes to bring all the data under control and gain valuable insights from it.
To avoid such a risk, you need a unified, cohesively functioning ecommerce ecosystem for automating data flows across systems and creating consistent customer experience in an omnichannel environment. Technically, this is achieved via ecommerce integration.
What is ecommerce integration?
In brief, ecommerce integration means linking an ecommerce website to various sales channels and data management systems – accounting, inventory management, CRM, etc. Software is usually connected by means of application programming interface (API integration), which results in the seamless sharing of data between integrated systems.
What problems can ecommerce store integration solve?
The root of all problems inherent to disconnected business systems is the lack of multidirectional data flow. This entails:
- Irrational use of time, personnel, and financial resources.
- Lower order fulfillment rates.
- Inability to cope with high sales loads during peak periods.
- Slow customer support with no visibility into comprehensive customer information.
- Ineffective interdepartmental collaboration.
- Human errors in customer data processing that ruin the whole experience.
- Delays in data updates: inventory levels, product information, pricing, etc.
- Missed opportunities to draw strategic insights from accumulated data.
- Delayed decision-making amidst the need for prompt strategy shifts.
- In the worst-case scenario, business stagnancy due to the lack of data-powered strategy planning.
Integration may solve these problems by enabling real-time or near real-time data exchange between your ecommerce website and other systems involved.
How does ecommerce integration bring business value?
Ecommerce website integration enables you to make data-driven decisions on customer experience and marketing. You get the opportunity to accumulate information about customers, their shopping preferences, the popularity of your products, and other important metrics in one place. With this knowledge, you can adapt to the patterns in customer behavior and guide their buying journeys accordingly.
For example, a marketing automation system integrated into your ecommerce business allows you to segment customers according to chosen criteria for better targeting, set up automated campaigns that start and unfold with no manual involvement, analyze the results, and get to know your customers’ needs better with each iteration. Also, it can draw products from your ecommerce catalog and make up tailored offerings for individuals. This way, you will only need to set rules or algorithms for marketing activities, and the system will connect to your ecommerce back end and CRM for customer and product data.
Don’t compromise on the integration quality
Though ecommerce website integration offers multiple advantages, it calls for sufficient experience to execute it skillfully. One needs to review the systems intended for integration, investigate current business processes, and decide how to streamline them with automation in the best possible way. If you are looking to integrate software components into a cohesive ecosystem, shortlist ScienceSoft as a potential vendor. We have vast ecommerce integration expertise and huge enthusiasm to bring transformative changes to your business fast. Send us a request and get a response shortly!
Our consultants will help to shape an optimal ecommerce solution for your business.
