How Integrated eCommerce Platforms Can Accelerate Growth

Over the last decade, eCommerce has become a vital aspect of most product-oriented businesses. In 2023, eCommerce saw an estimated 1.8% increase in sales from 2022, equating to nearly 6 trillion dollars in revenue [1].

Knowing this, many companies have turned to various eCommerce platforms to maintain and improve their sales. Yet adopting the wrong eCommerce platforms has presented many organizations with issues, especially concerning their systems and data connectivity.

 One of the biggest hurdles organizations face with eCommerce platforms is how to maintain their business data. For companies looking to scale, having fast, reliable, and accurate access to eCommerce data is imperative. It can help improve customer experience, elevate business decisions, and make profit and growth more achievable.

 So how can you ensure strong, reliable, and accessible eCommerce data?

 One of the best methods to do so is utilizing integrated eCommerce platforms.

An integrated eCommerce platform is one that connects the front-end of your business to your back-office systems. This means that it can exchange, organize, and utilize data between systems and applications like your ERP, CRM, transportation warehouse managing systems, etc.

By integrating with your back end, you can ensure timely and consistent data across your organization and customer-facing platform. It can help you keep up with inventory, pricing, and sales, providing a clear advantage over non-integrated platforms.

One of the most important aspects of an integrated eCommerce platform is the improvement of customer experience. According to Digital Commerce 360, surveyed companies found that customer-friendly eCommerce websites saw buyers spend 62% more on their products [2].

Clearly, providing customers with quality shopping experiences is vital toward boosting sales.

Integrated eCommerce platforms can enable these quality experiences by providing optimized, self-service capabilities to customers. These services are designed to enhance the performance and ease-of-use of the website, including features like real-time pricing, package tracking, easy checkout processes, and strong website security. For both B2B and B2C buyers, these aspects of an integrated eCommerce platform can give them a strong sense of control over their shopping process.

As well, integrated eCommerce services provide a major internal advantage to organizations. Some of these benefits can lead to:

• Reduced manual labor
• Increased visibility of customer data
• Improved data reporting
• Automated sales processes

 Overall, these platforms are designed to make it easy for your customers to do business with you.

As we’ve covered some of the advantages of using integrated eCommerce, here are five additional benefits these platforms can provide:

1. No More Manual Order Entry

A major struggle of any business is manually maintaining its order volume. While manual order entry can work, it can also become greatly inefficient and inaccurate. Integrated eCommerce services help reduce this inefficiency by automating the entry process, eliminating errors, and improving dataflow and speed.

2. Consolidated Inventory and Sales Data

A report from IHL estimated 1.77 trillion dollars of lost revenue worldwide caused by inventory distortion in 2023 [3]. However, with an integrated eCommerce platform that connects with your back end, you can ensure that the pricing and inventory data for your organization is accurate. This helps improve customer experience, allowing for real-time updates on pricing and inventory levels as customers shop online.

3. Greater Sales Management

With synchronized data flow and accurate customer data, you can optimize your sales management process. This data can help optimize your sales operations and strategies, while also allowing for superior reporting on sales, customer-behavior, product performance, etc.

4. Sustainable Future

Having stronger customer experience and less manual data entry means that your business can run more smoothly and efficiently. This will allow your company to grow, succeed, and flourish sustainably in the future. With all your data managed and connected, an integrated eCommerce platform could be the perfect choice to scale your company.

5. Enhanced Customer Experience

Gaining and retaining customers relies on a good product or service. Surveyed companies with integrated, customer-friendly eCommerce platforms saw a 70% customer retention rate, as opposed to the 49% who that not.

With so many benefits, why would anyone choose not to have an integrated platform?

For small businesses and businesses without back-office systems, it may not be necessary. It could be out of budget, especially if your inventory is small and your sales are relatively controlled. In cases like these, keeping your platform up-to-date manually isn’t a big issue, and a simple eCommerce platform that can provide a good look to your business will do.

However, the moment your company begins to expand, an integrated eCommerce platform will become crucial toward its growth. Because the organization, inventory, customer-base, and general outreach are much larger, data integration and governance are vital. Thus, for industries like manufacturing, distribution, and large-scale retail, using an integrated eCommerce platform is a key to success and growth.

Kore Commerce (formerly KommerceServer) is a fantastic B2B and B2C solution for any business looking to integrate their eCommerce platform. Providing a customizable and secure sales enablement platform, Kore Commerce is sure to help save your money and improve the sales of your eCommerce platform.

Kore Commerce is a great solution designed for Rocket UniVerse/UniData, Epicor Prophet 21, Oracle Fusion, Epicor Eclipse, Epicor Prelude, Epicor Dataflo, Infor ERP LN, and others.

Built on a Microsoft SQL Server database using Microsoft MVC.NET, Kore Commerce offers increased security, improved performance, higher scalability, and unmatched flexibility. With a robust eCommerce storefront, digitized return and repair administration, and excellent online payment and sales-management tools, you can feel confident in your integrated storefront. By integrating these functionalities, Kore Commerce makes both internal and customer-facing processes easier, while supporting sustainable practices.

Ultimately, for companies looking to save, grow, profit, and succeed, choosing an integrated eCommerce solution is a strong step forward. Kore Commerce can help you manage data and sales, providing you and your customers with the best possible shopping and selling experience.

Interested in giving your company’s eCommerce platform a foundational boost? Contact Kore Tech today to learn what the Kore team can do for you.