An e-commerce platform integration is a solution that interconnects the various business software systems online companies operate. These include their e-commerce storefronts, enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, customer relationship management (CRM), and other accounting software applications. This ensures smooth data transmission between the corporate enterprises’ back-office ERP platforms and their front-office e-commerce storefronts. This solution automates and effectively streamlines business workflow throughout their supply chain.
Need for an e-commerce platform integration solution
The rapid increase in Internet shopping is opening up immense growth opportunities for online companies. However, these corporate enterprises find it time-consuming and difficult to accurately process customer orders with standalone business systems. The volume of commercial data their employees need to record into the different systems is overwhelming. The information generally relates to online orders, customer details, inventory, product descriptions, shipment notices, payment acknowledgments, and taxes. As a result, the corporate enterprises notice a significant increase in the following clerical errors:
- Wrong customer details and shipping addresses when typing in their online orders,
- Incorrect recording of inventory details resulting in overselling products that do not exist, and
- Incomplete or incorrect recording of product details in online orders.
The above mistakes seriously affect the customers’ buying experience and hamper their engagement. This can result in a significant decline in sales for online companies. Fortunately, these corporate enterprises can overcome these issues by operating an e-commerce platform integration solution.
How does the platform integration solution boost customer engagement?
Operating the latest e-commerce platform integration solution enables corporate enterprises to boost customer engagement in the following ways:
- Provides online buyers with in-depth, insightful, and accurate product information throughout their supply chains,
- Exhibit up-to-data inventory information on the products online buyers want to acquire,
- Resolve issues relating to sale returns, exchange, replacement, and refunds quickly,
- Assure buyers that the products they acquire will reach their doorsteps within a short time,
- Provide customers with consistent and up-to-date notifications on the status of their orders, and
- Create a pleasurable shipping experience for present and potential customers that they keep re-visiting their e-commerce storefront.
The advantages of installing and operating an e-commerce platform integration solution for online companies are as follows:
- Minimizes the need for manual entry to save time and eradicate clerical errors,
- Simplifies the process of managing price, quality, and product description changes to the inventory,
- Streamline the procedure synchronizing the ERP platforms to e-commerce storefronts to provide accurate inventory information,
- Provide customers with automatic notifications regarding the status of their online orders,
- Manage the increase in online orders from customers without having to allocate additional resources, and
- The flexibility of inserting multiple online or offline sale channels without compromising on operational efficiency.
Operating a suitable e-commerce platform integration solution allowing companies to take their businesses to the next level. In the process, enterprises can capture a large segment of the market and gain a competitive edge better than their peers in the same business niche. However, the solution they choose should be cost-effective to operate and meet their custom business requirements. It should also be compatible and synchronize easily with existing business software systems efficiently.