Top 3 Integrations for Enterprise-Grade E-Commerce Platforms

E-commerce is purchasing and selling goods and services via the Internet. In March 2021, e-commerce sales grew across most retail sectors by 74%, compared to March 2020. How to integrate the e-Commerce platform successfully? 

The e-commerce website must act as an enabler for improving sales and overall profits, representing an emulation of the physical shopping experience.

That’s why the best e-Commerce websites operate as a tightly-intercoupled ecosystem of additional applications.

Customer service can be accomplished under the following criteria:

  • The e-commerce platform;
  • Payment gateways;
  • Cloud computing services and infrastructure;
  • ERP and CRM systems;
  • Shipping and delivery systems;
  • Supporting marketing, customer service, and engagement integrations.

These items allow seamless data availability, high accuracy, and valuable customer after-service. Let’sLet’s get to know all the vital points in the following article!

CRM vs. ERP Integration

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) are the leading software solutions for automating basic business procedures. CRM enables companies to handle how customers interact with their businesses, whereas ERP helps companies run thriving operations by combining their financial and operational systems into a single database. 

Securing your digital storefront feeds data to the CRM platform is critical for delivering a customer experience and customized marketing offers. CRM data is also a goldmine for advanced predictive analytics solutions such as:

  • Product recommendation engines;
  • Cross-sales/up-sells offers;
  • Customized email marketing campaigns;
  • Demand forecasting;
  • Customer Lifetime Value management.

ERP systems are the key to providing streamlined customer-centered supply chain management, augmented by real-time market data. Since most retailers now serve in the omnichannel environment, providing real-time connectivity between the e-commerce operations and the ERP system.

Cloud Services

Cloud technologies’ advantages are well-known now – instant scalability, rapid elasticity, broad network access, and resource pooling. For more comprehensive e-commerce platforms, being in the cloud is the same as having undisrupted processes.

Correctly configured cloud architecture is essential to confirm all the microservices architecture elements, powering integrations with payment processors, completion centers, and so on. 

Chatbots and Configuring Services

AI adoption in retail is strong despite the unstable business environment, especially regarding customer-facing solutions like chatbots. Such a solution is precious for such points as:

  • Conversational Commerce –AI-powered chatbots improve customer experience through personalized deals, product reviews, and cross-sells that further ramp up the average customer lifetime value.
  • Customer Service – intelligent assistants resolve customer questions quicker and manage up to 68.9% of chats. Chatbots’ increased speed and resolution efficiency are evaluated to enhance up to 30% of operational business savings.

The most common expected uses for chatbots that consumers said contained:

  • Getting quick answers to questions in an emergency 
  • Resolving a complaint or problem 
  • Getting detailed answers or explanations 

It’s also worth mentioning that up to 34% of consumers predicted that they’d use chatbots as a means of having a human conversation & human interaction.

Best Integrations for an e-Commerce Company

As e-Commerce companies look to scale and grow their businesses, they often turn to some of the best e-Commerce data integrations to help them automate critical processes and improve efficiency. Many different applications and software are available that can be integrated with a customer data warehouse integration platform designed for e-Commerce.

Website Builder

Website builders are one of the best e-Commerce data integrations for your e-Commerce company. You can easily create a professional-looking website using a website builder without programming or design experience. Moreover, most website builders come with a wide range of features and applications to help you run your business online.

Some of the best website builders for e-Commerce companies include Shopify, BigCommerce, and Volusion. These platforms offer everything you need to launch and manage an online store, including built-in shopping carts, payment processing, inventory management, shipping tools, and more. They’re all straightforward to use, even if you’ve never created a website.

Website builders are a great option if you’re looking for an e-Commerce platform that offers everything you need to get started. You can create a professional-looking website and start selling your products online with a few clicks. So, if you’re ready to take your business to the next level, consider using one of these platforms.

There are various shipping and fulfillment software programs on the market, so choosing one that will work well for your business is essential. Here are some things to look for in a reasonable shipping and fulfillment software program:

  • Scalability
  • Integration
  • Customer support
  • Price

When you’re looking for shipping and fulfillment software, it’s important also to find a user-friendly program. You don’t want to spend much time training your employees on using the software. 

Email Marketing 

Email marketing is one of the best e-Commerce data integrations, as it is a powerful tool that can help boost your business. Integrating email marketing into your overall marketing strategy can create a more holistic and practical approach to reaching your target audience and driving sales. Many different email marketing solutions are available, so choosing one that will work best for your company is essential. 

SMS Marketing Solution

As your e-Commerce company grows, you will want to take advantage of new opportunities for marketing and growth with a few of the best e-Commerce data integrations. One way to do this is by integrating SMS marketing solutions into your existing ecosystem. SMS marketing can be a great way to reach your customers and promote your brand. It can also be used to drive sales and increase customer loyalty.

Social Media Management Tool

You’ve just realized that you need to start using social media to stay ahead of the competition. But with so many different platforms and strategies, it’s tough to know where to start.

That’s where social media management tools come in. Integrating these tools into your e-Commerce company saves time and effort while still getting the most out of your social media campaigns.

Website Builder

Website builders are one of the best e-Commerce data integrations for your e-Commerce company. You can easily create a professional-looking website using a website builder without programming or design experience. Moreover, most website builders come with a wide range of features and applications to help you run your business online.

Some of the best website builders for e-Commerce companies include Shopify, BigCommerce, and Volusion. These platforms offer everything you need to launch and manage an online store, including built-in shopping carts, payment processing, inventory management, shipping tools, and more. They’re all straightforward to use, even if you’ve never created a website.

Website builders are a great option if you’re looking for an e-Commerce platform that offers everything you need to get started. You can create a professional-looking website and start selling your products online with a few clicks. So, if you’re ready to take your business to the next level, consider using one of these platforms.

There are various shipping and fulfillment software programs on the market, so choosing one that will work well for your business is essential. Here are some things to look for in a reasonable shipping and fulfillment software program:

  • Scalability
  • Integration
  • Customer support
  • Price

When you’re looking for shipping and fulfillment software, it’s important also to find a user-friendly program. You don’t want to spend much time training your employees on using the software. 

Wrapping Up

When the E-commerce world challenges tense and moves on to the global level, the retailers should become more deliberate with their technological choices. We have years of experience supporting many businesses to uncover the right integrations and get set up fast and efficiently. 

Shopify As A Marketplace – Explained

eCommerce is among the most prevalent and fast-developing business niches in the world right now, with the global digital buyers pool surpassing a stunning 2.14B this year. 

Most of them represent upper-income users, which means there is money on the table and it’s not just window shopping. So, this is no wonder that more and more people are trying to enter the online commerce game and make money here, whether big or small. 

And the first question aspiring retailers face is how and where to market one’s products and what is the easiest way to do it if you don’t already have a platform to kick things off from. Luckily for the many in those shoes, various eCommerce solutions are at their service, providing the place (and sometimes, the audiences) to sell products online, in exchange for a moderate monthly subscription or a share of the profits. 

Among such services, one of the leaders on the market today is Shopify – a global eCommerce platform that allows to easily build and run custom shops on the web. 

Now, what exactly makes Shopify stand out from the competition? 

Let’s find out. 

Description

Essentially, Shopify is the WordPress for eCommerce businesses. It enables anyone without a master’s degree in commerce or coding to set up a fully functional shop and sell products both online and offline. 

To the shop owners, it offers a wide range of tools and functionalities to conduct daily eCommerce operations. Things like product showcasing, inventory tracking and management, order processing, payments, customer communication, financial reporting, and much more. 

Meanwhile, customers may enjoy reliable service with a smoothly working interface and pleasing visual themes for a positive shopping experience. 

From such a perspective, it does seem that everyone is a winner in the Shopify formula. Is it so indeed? Let’s take a closer look at the opportunities provided by the platform and its potential drawbacks. 

Key opportunities

First of all, Shopify is realistically a great eCommerce tool for a wide range of businesses. It is the market’s #1 platform choice for setting up online stores, and the reasons for it are rather convincing: 

Workflow

First of all, Shopify offers an extremely simple and straightforward workflow, with a drag and drop interface and theme-based design to easily customize the shop according to your vision and needs, while maintaining a pleasant user experience. 

The entire process of setting up and running a store with Shopify is rather intuitive. And although there may be some issues when taking your first steps with the platform (it’s not making popcorn, after all) everything becomes clear rather quickly as you get used to the tool.

Not making selling online look like rocket science is clearly an advantage in favor of Shopify. Simplicity and convenience of usage – check.  

Budget 

Another important aspect of any business tool is of course the cost of using it. In this regard, Shopify offers a great bang for the buck. 

It comes with lots of price plans to satisfy virtually every need and pocket, from $9 a month for the Lite plan and all the way up to more pricy top-notch service. At that, Shopify offers a substantial list of free features. Things like visual themes and graphic materials, as well as versatile apps to improve the online commerce experience.   

So, budget is another pro in favor of Shopify when looking for a web store platform.

Administration

Making your eCommerce business successful requires continuously assessing statistical data and adjusting the strategy to keep up the shop’s efficiency and meet the consumer’s demand.

In this regard, Shopify’s profound admin panel provides all the tools and features to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your online store and maintain a high-level game in the back office, from inventory tracking and shop stats to financial reporting and much more. 

Management and administration – check.

Cloud Capabilities 

Reliability and performance are another two points in favor of choosing Shopify as the foundation for your web store. 

Running in the cloud, the platform can boast of refined stability and virtually unlimited computational power, unlike traditional localized servers. Therefore, you may sleep well knowing that no power outages or server overloading mess with your shop’s operation. 

The reliability of the tools you’re using grants the effectiveness of the work you do. And Shopify’s cloud-based nature is definitely a great advantage in that sense.   

User support

Last but not least, user support is another notable feat in the list of Shopify’s strengths. 

The company offers outstanding customer care, ready to help and troubleshoot any issues. And being a leader in the market of web store builders, Shopify has an extensive user community gladly sharing their knowledge and experience. 

Like that, whatever problem you may come across when setting up an online store with Shopify – you’ll most probably find a solution to it in no time. 

Given all the aforementioned, Shopify seems like the perfect solution for eCommerce businesses of any shape and form, doesn’t it? 

Not quite so. 

Alternatives

Shopify sounds like the magic wand for your eCommerce endeavors. So, why would anyone look elsewhere? 

Well, it turns out that nothing is perfect in the real world (except for Bruce Willis acting, perhaps). 

Whether you’re already using a CMS, want to have more control over your store’s SEO, or have a really large and complex product catalog – you may want to consider Shopify alternatives. If so, here are some of the most popular options available: 

Other web store builders

The closest to Shopify alternatives would be other similar eCommerce-focused website builders like Wix or BigCommerce. 

With some differences in the interface and workflow, as well as offered price plans and available features, these platforms offer generally similar opportunities to what Shopify does.

In some cases, the seemingly subtle differences may in fact be important enough to switch a platform. Plus, it never hurts to have the options, you know. 

If you’re looking for something like Shopify but not Shopify, pay attention to the following popular solutions: 

  • Wix
  • BigCommerce
  • WooCommerce
  • Magento

Conventional web marketplaces

Another Shopify alternative when selling goods online can be one of the good old marketplace giants like Amazon or eBay.

Offering unparalleled audiences, they don’t allow for as much branding and shop customization as web store builders do, yet are still great a  eCommerce solution for smaller vendors and retailers. 

If you’re just starting out in eCommerce or run a  small retail business without a massive brand behind it, the platforms below may be a great Shopify alternative for you:   

  • Amazon
  • eBay
  • Zappos
  • AliExpress
  • Rakuten
  • Overstock
  • Etsy 

Custom online shop

Finally, there is always an option to build your own, 100% unique web store. 

Advocates of this option claim that having a custom online shop is the best choice to make, and we can only add that developing it is our craft. 

As for the mere facts, it is true that the capabilities of any website builder or similar solution are rather constrained both technology- and feature-wise, as well as in terms of the UX/UI design. Whereas when building up a web store from scratch, only imagination limits how the end-product will look like, work, and feel on the inside and out.

If that’s what you’re looking for, our team will be glad to fulfill your vision in life when it comes to: 

  • Websites
  • Mobile apps
  • CRMs
  • Individual eCommerce functionalities
  • And much more

Final word

All things considered, Shopify is a god-given gift for the players in the eCommerce game. It offers a substantial range of functionality matched by cloud-based reliability and impressive performance – all at a flexible and moderately-set price.

Perfect for smaller and medium-sized shops, it has great alternatives if you don’t fit the description or look for something slightly different. To each his own, and if you’re looking for a reliable IT partner to help in your eCommerce endeavors – don’t hesitate to contact us, and let’s do business together!

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