eCommerce integrations – what are they and what can you use them for?

eCommerce is a wondrous world that is constantly evolving. New technology means that you can either be dropped from the race or win with the help of clever and smart solutions for your activities.

In this blog post we will look at what eCommerce integrations can be, how they work and what you should be aware of when you look into integrations.

What is an eCommerce integration?

An eCommerce integration can in principle be many different things, but broadly speaking it falls into one category.

An integration connects 2 or more systems so that they work better and more efficiently together.

An eCommerce company in today’s market usually uses a sea of programs. There is a webshop solution, a CRM system, a CMS system and perhaps an ERP system. These systems are not automatically connected to each other. You therefore have to move data from one system into the next if you want the same data in all your systems. That is incredibly slow, inefficient and potentially full of errors.

An integration can help your company become far more efficient, right down to the very smallest details and seconds.

An example: An eCommerce business moves all its order and product data manually between its Shopify and its ERP system. When they make a change in one place, they do the same in the other system. That has led the whole team to spend an incredible amount of time copying and pasting data from one system to the other, which at times has created miscommunication in the team as well as poor efficiency.

The solution is to create an integration between the company’s Shopify and its ERP system. Everything created in one place is automatically created in the other. Everyone works with the same data set, and no one gets their fingers caught in the machinery. That way an entire team has been relieved of an incredible amount of manual work, which is best left to software anyway. Your employees can spend their time on what they are best at, while the integration does the hard work.

Benefits of eCommerce integrations

There are many benefits to integrating your eCommerce systems with each other, and the solutions can lead to your company becoming far more scalable and future-proof, which gives you freedom and peace of mind in your growth.

Let’s dive into the benefits.

Always up-to-date data:

Your data set contains gold, but this gold is useless if your data is not optimised and up to date. It is essential in order to use your systems properly – otherwise you are just pouring money into systems where it could have been better spent. When you integrate your systems and create an optimised data flow, you create a strong foundation for the use of your systems. You will be able to carry out analyses, optimise processes and get a better overview of what can become even better. Your data becomes a value in itself, instead of a useless number on a dashboard.

Better process from A to Z

In an eCommerce company, especially the larger ones, every second counts. All the time that is spent from an order coming in to the order being shipped drives up the cost of selling your products. There are salaries, warehouse, packaging, administration and so on.

That is why integrations are a must for many eCommerce companies. It can be vital that everyone is served the same data when a sale goes through, so that the employee in the warehouse has the same information as the people working in customer support. A seamless process across all departments does not come without intelligent digital solutions.

Better use of time and money

eCommerce integrations cost a little, just like all the systems you already use. But it is nothing compared to what you can achieve with these integrations. A company may perhaps feel that the price of setting up and maintaining integrations is high. But that is only until the price has been earned back, since the company becomes far more scalable, efficient and optimised for growth. The integration has no maximum on how much data can pass through it. It takes the heavy administrative load and gives your whole company room to lift whatever makes the most sense for the business.

It is like having 1,000 extra digital hands for far less than a single month’s salary.

Better user experience

Integrations can not only save you internally, but in many cases can make your customer’s experience even better. You have probably tried shopping online where your product took a long time to arrive, the return options were poor, and you did not really get the information you needed. Integrations can help improve that for your customers, so that they do not end up in an “I am never buying from there again” situation – bottom line raised.

Challenges with eCommerce integrations

As with everything else in life, there is both an upside and a downside. Here we take a look at the challenges of eCommerce integrations.

Let’s go!

Difficult data

For many people, optimising data can be a black art. Especially when you use many different systems that each collect data in their own way. The challenge can therefore be to make the data you have available make sense. Which data makes sense to look at, what should be given less attention, and how do you bring it together in a way that makes sense and leads to improvement? These are some of the really big questions you have to ask yourself when you are ready for an integration. Without a purpose it is wasted work.

Out-of-date data

It rather goes without saying, but data that is not up to date has no place in an eCommerce integration. A challenge can therefore show up when you have to get your data ready for an integration. Make sure your data is up to date and makes sense in relation to what you are doing. If your data set is messy, it can turn out to be a problem when an integration is created between your solutions.

Special requirements

A complete eCommerce tech stack can involve an incredible number of systems. All these systems work in their own particular way and have their own use cases and niches. The inexperienced can easily end up choosing systems that do not fit fantastically well together, seen from an integration perspective. Your systems work fine manually, but as soon as an integration is required, the whole operation falls apart, because the systems use the data in vastly different ways. It therefore takes a huge operation to select the right systems and to migrate all data from one system to the other correctly.

How do I integrate my eCommerce platforms?

There are several different ways to integrate your eCommerce solutions with each other. In fact there are 3 solutions.

Point to point connectors

This solution is one of the cheapest, and perhaps also the easiest solutions you can build – but it comes at a price. In all its simplicity, a point to point connection is when you get one system to point at another. That way data moves between these systems. Problems can easily arise, though, if there is a difference in how the data is handled in the two different systems. You will experience error messages, and these can be incredibly difficult to solve.

An easy solution, but definitely not the best.

Build the integration yourself

If something needs to be done properly, you have to do it yourself, right? You can always build your integrations yourself if you have skilled developers on your staff. Developers in this niche are, however, incredibly hard to find, which makes their knowledge valuable and ultimately expensive. So expect that your developers will have to spend time and effort getting to grips with the mechanics and principles behind eCommerce integrations before they get the toolbox out.

Use an iPaaS solution

“A what now?”

iPaaS stands for integration platform as a service. An iPaaS solution is when you get hold of a team of specialists who exclusively offer integrations as a service. You could say that you are really just outsourcing the integration work to some people who are far faster and much more specialised in that type of work than you and your internal developers are. That way you can both cut costs, make your company massively more efficient and have your hands free for everything other than the heavy development work.

The benefits of an iPaaS solution

There can be an endless number of reasons why you need an iPaaS solution. Here are some of the benefits of taking the leap.

Cut costs. It does not cost nearly as much to have a team of specialists create your integration for you as it does to have it developed internally. The external specialists have been doing it far longer than you have, and know which tools work and what makes sense to integrate for your company. So you do not have to spend expensive money on training, failed solutions and other unsuccessful initiatives.

Specialised to their fingertips. Specialists in iPaaS solutions know the field inside out. There is not a data set they have not seen before, and they know exactly how you can get the most out of what you have. That goes right down to the individual minutes you spend processing your orders. Specialists know what it takes.

Free up your hands. Paying for others to build the solution for you is not just a cost. It is an opportunity. It is work you outsource to others so that you can do something that makes more sense for you, so you can get a little rest or a weight off your shoulders. If you earn more money by doing something other than having your hands in the integration, then it makes sense for you to outsource the project.

A scalable solution. Most iPaaS companies offer solutions that are adapted to your needs. If your need is small, you take the small package. If you grow in the meantime and need more, you simply scale up. That way you avoid having to bring in new employees to look after the solution, or to solve the tasks the integration could not.

Use Connectify as your iPaaS solution

Connectify is a Danish iPaaS company that is constantly evolving.

We have worked with integrations for many years and have helped a sea of both large and small eCommerce companies become more efficient, right down to the individual seconds. Take for example a look at Shark Gaming, which became more than 80% more efficient with help from Connectify. Or Kaffekapslen, which with their more than 600 item numbers ships coffee out to more than 10 countries, with productive solutions from Connectify.

If you would like to hear more about our solutions, then hop in and take a look at our prices, or reach out to us.

The worst that can happen is that you lose the heavy administrative load you are already carrying.