To provide the best e-commerce experience, start with seamless data integration
Data integration is vital to successful ecommerce. Even though many shoppers and retailers are back to brick-and-mortar stores, there is no stopping the ever-expanding importance of online shopping. Significant growth in global ecommerce revenue continues year over year, with digital customers increasingly expecting exceptional shopping experiences from brands online.
So, what does all of this have to do with data?
When data isn’t flowing across systems, service suffers
Let’s start by looking at some of the most critical data for a company’s ecommerce activities. Backend data in the CRM, ERP and other information management applications. Backend ecommerce data typically includes:- Product information
- Customer information
- Data points on orders, fulfilment, shipping, and returns
- Inventory levels
- Tax regulations
Backend data is involved in basically all key ecommerce workflows. From processing and fulfilling orders to receiving payments and managing returns. From ensuring adequate inventory and calculating taxes, to tracking financials, and providing customer support.
If the relevant data isn’t properly synced and flowing between systems, companies will see the impact in a variety of painful ways. Bad data flow can lead to delays in delivering customer orders or, worse, inventory errors that result in selling out-of-stock items. Merchants could also lose time and money on inefficient and costly processes for returns and exchanges.
Without well-maintained appropriate data, businesses can often end up with disjointed service delivery across online and in-store channels. This runs the risk of lowering customer satisfaction and creates more work for the merchant.
The bottom line is simple: you need all of your systems to operate with a single source of truth. Unsynced data, and platforms that don’t have bidirectional data flows, will cut into your margins one way or another.
If the online experience is lacking, customers quickly go elsewhere
A lack of effective data integration can create a wide range of serious e-commerce issues, and they all lead to one thing: unhappy customers.
Today’s online shoppers expect a fast, efficient, and error-free experience. And the consequences of just one sub-par experience are significant: shoppers will simply go elsewhere.
Online sellers may know just how important the customer experience is. But that doesn’t mean they know exactly where or how to invest their time and money in improving it. They may add bells and whistles to their storefronts. But innovative features, don’t make up for a lack of speed, convenience, or error-free service.
To keep up with consumer expectations, merchants need to start with the foundation for delivering an exceptional ecommerce experience: seamless data integration across their backend systems.
But where to begin?
Elevate ecommerce experience with better data integration
Establishing smoothly integrated data flow across your key systems for ecommerce may sound like a complicated endeavour. But it doesn’t have to be.
What online retailers need is automated data flows that push and pull all the key data without needing a human hand to manage the process.
The key is finding the right tool for the job: an application that connects directly with BigCommerce. An application that syncs up all the important data to and from the merchant’s ERP, CRM, shipping platform, payment service, and so on. With automated data syncing, you can drive more profit with every sale by reducing errors, sending faster notifications, and creating more repeat customers.
How can Calashock help with data integration?
To help our clients improve the data flow between their backend BigCommerce integrations, we’ve partnered with the integration experts at Jitterbit. As a BigCommerce Technology Partner, tens of thousands of BigCommerce merchants now have access to Jitterbit’s award-winning integration platform. Designed for quick, easy connection and automation of processes and data transfers.
It’s time to use intelligent automation to minimize manual efforts for order and inventory processing, provide your business with a single source of truth across applications, and eliminate errors by ensuring consistency. To learn more about integrating and automating workflows between BigCommerce and your business-critical systems, get in touch with our expert team. To learn more about Jitterbit’s BigCommerce integrations, visit their website.
