Flexible e-commerce platform integration to manage, and scale your online store, driving sales and customer engagement.

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Dynamics 365 E-commerce Integration: Boost Sales & Efficiency

Many businesses leverage Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC) for their back-office operations. However, connecting data between Dynamics 365 Business Central and popular e-commerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, or Amazon can be a challenge.

When your data is locked away in different places, it’s hard to be efficient, keep customers happy, and make the most of every sale.

EDI2XML: Your Integration Experts

At EDI2XML, we’re not just integration providers, we’re your strategic partners. We have over 24 years of experience crafting seamless connections between disparate systems.

In fact, we integrated business systems before most e-commerce platforms even existed!

Especially, we specialize in connections between Dynamics 365 Business Central and your chosen e-commerce platform.

Our deep well of knowledge allows us to approach your project with a unique blend of proven methods and cutting-edge technology.

Streamlining the Order-to-Fulfillment Cycle

Based on our years of experience, integrating Dynamics 365 with e-commerce platforms most often automates processes to optimize the order fulfillment cycle.

This can include:

  • Automatic order creation in Dynamics 365 Business Central upon receiving a new order in your online store.
  • Dynamic inventory updates across both systems, ensuring real-time availability for customers.
  • Customer information gets synced, eliminating manual data entry and guaranteeing accurate customer records.

This automation not only saves you time and reduces errors, but also provides a smoother experience for your customers.

Benefits of Integrated E-commerce with Dynamics 365 Business Central

Accurate Information, Happy Customers: Eliminate data errors and inconsistencies. Customers see real-time inventory levels and product details, leading to a more trustworthy and satisfying shopping experience.

Streamlined Operations, Boosted Efficiency: Automate order processing, fulfillment, and customer communication can save time and resources.

Data-Driven Decisions, Informed Strategy: Gain a holistic view of your sales data across all channels. Make data-driven decisions to optimize pricing, promotions, and inventory management.

E-commerce Integration and Dynamics 365 Commerce

Dynamics 365 Commerce is a Microsoft product designed specifically for e-commerce needs. It’s part of the broader Dynamics 365 suite that offers various business applications. Here’s a breakdown of what Dynamics 365 Commerce offers:

Omnichannel Commerce: It provides a unified platform to manage your online store, in-store operations, and call center interactions. This allows for a consistent customer experience across all channels.

Inventory Management: Dynamics 365 Commerce offers real-time inventory visibility across all locations (physical stores and online store). This helps ensure accurate product availability and prevent overselling.

Integration price

Order Management: The platform streamlines order processing, fulfillment, and returns. It automates tasks like order creation, picking, packing, and shipping, leading to increased efficiency.

Marketing and Customer Engagement: Dynamics 365 Commerce integrates with marketing automation tools, allowing you to create targeted campaigns and personalize the customer experience.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM): It can connect with your CRM system, providing a 360-degree view of your customers and their purchase history.

Dynamics 365 Commerce vs Dynamics 365 Business Central

While both are Dynamics 365 products, they cater to different needs:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

This is a strong back-office ERP system that manages core business functions like accounting, inventory control (to an extent), and purchasing. It can integrate with an e-commerce platform to provide product and customer data.

Dynamics 365 Commerce

This is a dedicated e-commerce platform that offers functionalities specifically designed for online stores, including order management, marketing tools, and content management. It can also integrate with Dynamics 365 Business Central for functionalities like advanced inventory management or financial reporting.

In the context of integration: You can integrate Dynamics 365 Commerce with your D365 BC system for a more comprehensive solution, leveraging the strengths of both platforms.

Understanding the Integration Landscape: Choosing Your Path

Connecting your online store to Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC) unlocks a world of efficiency and improved operations. But before diving in, it’s crucial to understand the integration landscape and choose the approach that best suits your business needs. Here’s a breakdown of the two main options:

1. Pre-built Connectors and Integration Solutions

These are pre-developed applications that act as a bridge between your e-commerce platform (Shopify, Bigcommerce, etc.) and D365 BC. They offer a faster and often more cost-effective solution, especially for small businesses with standard integration needs.

2. Custom Integration

For businesses with unique workflows or extensive integration requirements, custom development offers a tailored solution. This could be necessary even if you choose Dynamics 365 Commerce, for example, to integrate it with your existing D365 BC system or other business applications.

Custom integrations can be built to scale and adapt as your business grows. Moreover with this option, you have full control over the integration logic and data flow.

Choosing the Right Path

The best approach depends on your specific needs and resources. Here are some factors to consider:

  • Complexity of Integration Needs: How standard are your integration requirements?
  • Budget and Timeline: How much time and money can you dedicate to the project?
  • Technical Expertise: Do you have the internal resources to manage a custom development project?

By carefully considering your requirements and the pros and cons of each approach, you can make an informed decision and choose the integration path that unlocks the full potential of your online store and D365 BC. If you need help to better understand this options, just book a call with our integration expert, for a free consultation.

Tailored Customization: Meeting Your Unique Needs

Every business is unique, and so are its integration requirements. EDI2XML specializes in providing customized integration solutions that align with your specific business processes and goals. Here’s what sets our tailored approach apart:

Custom Workflows:

We design integration workflows that mirror your internal processes, ensuring a seamless fit with your existing operations. Whether you need custom order routing, unique inventory management rules, or specific customer data handling procedures, we can develop a solution that meets your needs.

Scalability and Flexibility:

Our integrations are built to scale with your business. As you expand your e-commerce operations, our solutions can easily accommodate increased data volumes and additional sales channels without compromising performance.

Comprehensive Support:

We provide end-to-end support, from initial consultation and design to implementation and ongoing maintenance. Our team of experts is always available to assist with any issues, ensuring that your integration continues to operate smoothly.

Why EDI2XML Leverages Magic xpi

Magic xpi is a robust integration platform developed by Magic Software Enterprises. It’s designed to simplify the process of connecting various business applications, databases, and APIs, enabling seamless data exchange and automated workflows.

At EDI2XML, we leverage Magic xpi’s capabilities to provide several advantages to our clients:

  • Faster Implementation: Pre-built connectors and a user-friendly interface can expedite the integration process compared to custom coding from scratch.
  • Reduced Costs: The low-code/no-code approach and pre-built connectors can potentially lower development costs compared to full custom development.
  • Flexibility: Magic xpi offers the ability to combine pre-built connectors with custom development for a solution that is tailored to your specific needs.
  • Reliable Integrations: Magic xpi is a proven platform known for its stability and performance, ensuring reliable data exchange between your systems.

By using Magic xpi, EDI2XML can deliver efficient and scalable integration solutions for your Dynamics 365 environment (BC or Commerce) and your chosen e-commerce platform.

Dynamics 365 Business Central Successful integration

Don’t let disconnected systems hold your business back. Leverage EDI2XML’s proven track record of successful integrations across varying complexities.

Contact us by filling out a simple contact form or book a time convenient for you on our calendar for a free one-on-one consultation with one of our experts.

Discover how a custom integration can unlock the full potential of your Dynamics 365 Business Central and e-commerce platform.

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E-commerce integration: How to integrate Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, with ERP/CRM

What is eCommerce Integration?

E-commerce Integration is the action of synchronizing operations of an e-commerce website (online store) with an ERP / CRM or other business systems of a company.

Thus, the goal of e-commerce integration with Salesforce, JDE, SAP, or any other ERP / CRM is to create a unified information space, which is basically within the ERP/CRM in place at the company.

This means that both the ERP and the online store must contain consistent information (that is, the data of one system must not conflict with the data of another).

Therefore, the very first step in any integration project, is to define what data objects should be synchronized and what will remain outside the integration.

Best eCommerce Platforms to Build Your Store

It is not that difficult to start an online business. First, you need to select an e-commerce platform on which you will build an e-commerce website.

There are many e-commerce platforms to choose from, but whether you need an enterprise-level solution or a simple e-commerce website, here are the most popular e-commerce platforms that can meet all your needs:

If you want to learn more about eCommerce platform, read our popular article: E-commerce Integration with business systems – outperform the competition

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is software for complete and efficient enterprise management.

According to research, companies from the Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 such as Walmart, Exxon Mobil, McKesson, General Motors, Costco Wholesale use SAP S/4 HANA. It is an ERP solution for large enterprises.


SAP S/4HANA is an ERP system that combines the functionality of on-premises software with cloud computing. It is often integrated with e-commerce platforms such as Magento to help companies run their online business more efficiently and profitably.

It should be noted that other SAP ERP solutions are no less popular, for example, SAP Business One designed for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The other popular ERP systems and leading vendors are:

  • Oracle (Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Oracle NetSuite ERP)
  • Microsoft (Dynamics NAV, Dynamics AX, Dynamics 365)
  • Sage Group (Sage X3, Sage 300)

Recognize warning signals: How urgent it is to integrate eCommerce with ERP?

The Best CRM Systems for Business

Customer relationship management (CRM) is software for managing interactions with customers and prospects.

As best practices show, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems are always among the key IT systems of companies.

The most popular CRM systems are:

As for the integration of e-commerce and business systems, today the most popular in terms of the number of requests is Salesforce Shopify integration. Of course, this is not surprising given the incredible popularity and availability of these two solutions for medium-sized businesses.

Integrating CRM with business software using Magic xpi

What Data Should Be Integrated With ERP/CRM?

To get the most out of e-commerce integration with ERP or CRM, you need to sync all important data.

Some of the information in your ERP/CRM and the online store is the same, however, they could be in different formats and structure in each system.

Typically, when integrating an e-commerce store with a business system, work is carried out with the following data:

– Product information (Item ID, description, dimensions (weight, length, height…))  
– Inventory and price information
– Customer Information and history Sales Order Information

Thus, typically, through e-commerce integration companies seek to solve the following issues:

Synchronization of Stock Status

Typically this is one-way synchronization from CRM system (i.e. Salesforce) to e-commerce.

Below is our typical synchronization flow for the “stock status”.

  • The Integration process starts runs every 6 hours.
  • The integration flow connects to the CRM/ERP instance to read “stock status”.
  • CRM/ERP should return the list of items, including their Stock available to sell.
  • Once the data is extracted from CRM/ERP, it must be filtered, and the flow will update the necessary items in e-commerce.

Synchronization of Sales Orders

This is one-way synchronization from e-commerce to the business system (ERP/CRM)

Here are the steps for the Sales Orders synchronization flow:

  • The integration process runs every 15 minutes.
  • The integration process connects to the e-commerce instance to read and retrieve the list of orders created since the last call and not yet migrated to CRM / ERP.
  • It brings those orders with their appropriate details
  • Our flow converts these orders into a format ready for transfer to the CRM / ERP system.
  • Orders will be submitted to the CRM/ERP system.
  • An email will be triggered for a mailing list to advise about a new order(s) sent to the CRM/ERP.

Synchronization of Order Fulfillment

One way synchronization from ERP/CRM systems to e-commerce

Here are the steps of this flow:

  • Upon fulfilling the order and shipping the order in CRM/ERP, the status of the order will change.
  • Our integration process runs every 15 minutes.
  • When it wakes up, it will do the following:

1. Extract the list of Orders that are originating from CRM/ERP that are not yet fulfilled

2. For each not fulfilled Order, it will check its status in CRM/ERP

3. If the order status in CRM/ERP is now fulfilled, it will extract the fulfillment necessary information and it will update the e-commerce instance.

4. It will also send an email to a mailing list, to advise about the fulfillment of the order in question.

Looking For the Best E-commerce Integration Solution?

If you need to integrate your online store, contact us, and get a free consultation with our integration expert.

Using advanced integration solutions and having more than 21 years of experience in the field of system integrations, we will quickly and reliably carry out an integration project of any complexity.

Synchronizing Accounts in Salesforce with Customers in NetSuite using Magic xpi

 

Free Consultation

The following is a list of additional helpful information:

Must-Have Integration between E-Commerce and Business Systems

9 Major E-Commerce Trends That Will Help Grow Your Online Business

The main reasons why you need Microsoft Dynamics Integration with your Business Systems

Shopify and Microsoft Dynamics Nav Integration: Things you should know

Free Shopify Integration Whitepaper

E-commerce Integration with business systems – outperform the competition

The purpose of this article is to highlight the major points of e-commerce integration with business software systems such as ERP or CRM and others.

Let us start with a high-level definition of important terminologies.

What is an e-commerce platform?

An e-commerce platform is software platform, that enables companies to launch, host, and manage their online eCommerce store, normally in a “self-service” model.

According to various sources, there are more than 300 different e-commerce platforms in the marketplace. They all offer different features and terms of use but allow merchants to create an online store to sell their products.

In other words, thanks to e-commerce platforms, companies and individuals can create or expand their e-commerce business without coding and web design skills; most importantly, without the need of a large budget to implement such projects.

Online shopping is one of the most popular online activities

The incredible number of e-commerce platforms, as well as the huge number of online stores opening every day, are driven by the growing interest of consumers in online shopping.

Moreover, in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, the popularity of online shopping in the grocery segment and among local businesses has also grown.

According to Statista, online shopping is one of the most popular online activities worldwide, thus a global number of digital buyers is growing rapidly. Over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online, up from 1.66 billion global digital buyers in 2016.

Why is e-commerce important in 2021?

Just some 5-8 years ago, it was common for a small business to work offline only. The companies did not have their e-commerce sites and did not run online sales. It seemed to them that this was not necessary to invest time and effort in the e-commerce business.

Times have changed and companies began to develop more and more online businesses. However, the turning point came in early 2020, caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic and massive lockdowns. Due to restrictions, many sellers, especially those who did not expand their e-commerce business, were on the verge of collapse. Continue sales despite the closure of physical stores has become vital even for a local business.

Now the company may no longer have an offline store or even not have an office with employees. Everything goes online. Workers around the world had to switch to a “work from home model” (WFH)

Huge sales happen through online stores or marketplaces like Amazon.

However, creating your own online store does not guarantee success yet. The next challenge is customer satisfaction.

According to HubSpot 80% of respondents said they had stopped doing business with a company because of poor customer experience.

Thus, customer satisfaction depends on how you are going to handle online sales in the future. How quickly, efficiently, and accurately you can process orders. How fast and correctly you will manage inventory, etc. To do this you need to synchronize your e-commerce website with your internal business system (ERP/CRM or accounting)

In other words, the success of online sales largely depends on the level of your ecommerce integration with other business systems of the company.

Leading e-commerce platforms in 2020

Despite the fact that there are huge varieties of e-commerce platforms, there are certainly unchanging leaders among them.

In the top of e-commerce platforms are:

If you want to learn more about e-commerce platforms, check out this article: The Top 9 Absolute Best Ecommerce Platforms for 2021

Why you need e-commerce Integration?

If the online store operates independently, for example without connecting the company’s ERP system, employees have to manually upload product data; enter customer delivery addresses, tracking codes, etc. Each order placed through the online shop must be manually transferred to the business systems. The manual data entry always carries a high risk of human error. Moreover, it is ineffective and leads to delays in fulfilling. Besides, if the process is completely dependent on the staff, order processing cannot be processed on weekends.

Thus, achieving high efficiency and profitability of a company business, as well as customer satisfaction, is almost impossible.

To increase the efficiency of its online store, a company needs to integrate its back-end systems with its e-commerce platform. In this case, all key information such as customer data, delivery information, orders, and warehouse stock levels will be automatically synchronized and do not require human intervention.

Most common third-party eCommerce Integration

Systems listed below are commonly integrated with e-commerce platforms for product master data, customer records, financial transaction, and supplier management and so on:

  • ERP (Enterprise resource planning)
  • CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
  • PLM (Product Lifecycle Management)
  • SCM (Supply chain management)

Typical Integration Tasks

– Automate online orders, improve efficiency, and meet delivery times.

– Improved data accuracy

– Stop using employees to enter data and perform repetitive tasks

– Perform integration without internal IT specialists.

Integration platform

It is very important to choose an integration solution that connects your e-commerce online store with back-end systems, as well as for real-time integration and a robust scalable integration platform.

We provide a fully managed and cost-effective integration solution to integrate your e-commerce store seamlessly and quickly with all leading business systems such as:
e-commerce ERP integration

With Magic xpi integration platform, we integrate quickly and seamlessly using a no-code visual drag and drop approach as well as large numbers of certified connectors.

Integrate easily, quickly, and efficiently with the best experts and solutions

At any stage of the development of your online store, we can quickly and efficiently set up data exchange with your business system. Bi-directional data exchange such as
  • customer information
  • sales orders
  • order status
  • stock information and so on.

To find out more about synchronizing with an online store, contact us.

Call (450) 681-3009 or use the form below to contact our integration specialist!

Free Consultation

Streamlined Magento ERP Integration Solutions

The integration of e-commerce with third-party systems such as ERP, CRM, accounting systems, or EDI is a very hot topic and challenging for many companies. This is due to the urgent need to better manage online sales in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses find their online store is becoming the only source of revenue.

In our EDI2XML Blog, we have covered a lot of e-commerce integration topics like Shopify, BigCommerce, or Amazon integration. Thus, if you are interested in learning more about these integration topics, you can read the following articles:

– What Is Amazon Integration & How Does It Work?
– Must-Have BigCommerce Integrations
– Secrets and rules of Shopify integration with your ERP or CRM

Today, let us look at one of the most popular e-commerce platforms – Magento. We will explore the most important points of Magento integration, which have a significant impact on the performance and efficiency of your Magento store.

What is Magento?

Magento is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world.

One of the reasons of Magento’s popularity is its flexibility and extensibility. You can integrate almost any functionality into your online store – which is why so many companies choose Magento.

There are two distinct platforms of Magenta:

Magento Open Source

Magento Open Source (formerly under the name Community Edition) is an open-source e-commerce platform, that is, available to anyone for free. Magento Open Source provides basic e-commerce capabilities that enables to create an online store from scratch. However, for fully functionality, Magento Commerce is recommended.

It should be remembered that if you choose to use Magento Open Source, this does not mean that you can get your online store free of charge. You need to consider hosting costs, themes, domain name, SSL certificate, fees for processing payments, etc. Besides, to create and customize a full-fledged online store, you will need a developer with PHP experience because this task can be a little daunting for beginners without much programming knowledge.

Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce (platform as a service) includes cloud-optimized architecture and hosting, unlimited customization, third-party integrations, and AI-powered merchandising and analytics. Over 250,000 merchants worldwide use Magento Commerce.

Magento is a very reliable and powerful e-commerce platform used by many popular online stores with high traffic. This means that Magento fit for large companies. However, if you plan to expand your online store (increase the catalog product, etc.) we would recommend starting with Magento as it is a performance-proven platform for supporting large stores. Magento is worth installing in the first place instead of switching to Magento at a later stage. Even if there are data transfer tools, such as the Magento Mass Importer (MAGMI) for migration of Shopify to Magento this process will not be easy and demands time and effort.

Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that Magento is aimed at three levels of companies: small businesses, medium-sized and large businesses.

Magento History

The development of Magento started in 2007 by Varien Inc. and was officially launched on March 31, 2008.

In 2011, eBay, which already owns 49% of Magento, acquired the remaining 51%. In May 2018, Magento Inc. became the property of Adobe Inc. Now, Magento is a leading e-commerce platform with around 30% market share according to Wikipedia.

Magento is currently working on implementing a voice-based commerce feature. The Magento team is working with Amazon and Google to make the service available through Amazon Alexa.

Why you need Magento ERP Integration?

Companies that have linked their ERP system with their Magento online store, succeed by optimizing work processes, which positively affects the shopping experience, reduces order-processing time, and minimizes errors.

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. It is a business process management software that can be on-premises or cloud-based. ERP system helps to manage an enterprise in the following main areas:

– Financial Management
– Manufacturing Management (product data management)
– Distribution Management with three key areas of distribution management: sales order, inventory, and warehouse management.

Synchronizing data between Magento store and ERP system, eliminates the need for sales managers to enter sales order information manually into a business software system. This significantly increases the speed of order execution and eliminates possible errors, as well as improves the quality of customer service.

Due to Magento ERP integration, you can achieve efficient Inventory management that allows you to have complete control over your Magento online store. With automatic inventory management, you will always be aware of the goods received and sold, and most importantly, your customers will not place orders for goods that are out of stock. You do not have to bear the costs and waste time to contact the client to offer him a substituted item or to issue a refund.

Magic xpi the best Integration platform for Magento e-commerce

One of the most important decisions when integrating your Magento online store with your business systems is choosing a reliable and scalable integration platform.

Magento Commerce is API ready; the API capability, gives the flexibility to connect integration platforms such as Magic xpi and other systems.

Magic xpi integration platform is a leading solution for integration, enterprise-grade data synchronization, and complete automation of business processes.
Magento ERP integration

Magic xpi leverages code-free technologies to streamline business processes and manage communications between on-premises and/or cloud-based enterprise systems, automatically integrating data from multiple sources on a many-to-one basis.

Magic xpi implements comprehensive ready-made certified and optimized connectors and adapters, to synchronize leading ERP, CRM, Finance, and other busyness systems with e-commerce platforms and marketplaces.

Thus, besides Magento ERP/CRM integration, you can expand your sales channels and synchronize your Magento store with marketplaces like Amazon or eBay.

Magento Inventory Management

Inventory management is one of the important points in e-commerce integration with ERP. Up-to-date information about product availability is a key issue in online sales. This is an especially pertinent issue for companies with a multi-channel approach, i.e. offline (physical store) and online sales, such as sales via Magento online store, Amazon, eBay, or social media like Facebook or Instagram.

With Magic xpi integration platform, you can update your inventory in near real-time, giving you a unique competitive edge.

The common Magento business process integration

As mentioned above, Magic xpi is a proven integration platform that seamlessly connects the front office and back office IT systems for two-way communication. The most common examples of business process integration between Magento and business systems are:
  • Integration of e-commerce catalog data with ERP
  • E-commerce data integration with (PLM) Product Lifecycle Management
  • Inventory data pushed to Magento online store
  • Bi-directional Pricing updates – ERP with e-commerce
  • Real time inventory checks
  • Order information from e-commerce to ERP
  • Real-time credit card processing
  • Bi-directional address book updates
  • Shipment confirmation
  • Package tracking
  • Delivery notifications
  • Inventory notification/alarm for e-commerce managers
  • Call center integration
  • CRM integration

Choose the right integration provider and technology

Aside from using cutting edge and well-established technology, the most important part of any integration project is having the right people to integrate quickly and efficiently without any disruption and within your budget.

Our team has implemented integration projects of different types and complexities. Many years of integration experience, as well as the use of new technologies, allow us to carry out projects quickly and efficiently allowing clients to see quickly the benefits of e-commerce integration with business systems.

Contact us for a free consultation with one of our integration experts.
Free Consultation

Fully Managed Shopify Integration with EDI2XML

Ecommerce (or online retail) has been a growing trend over the last few years. Due to this, online retailers are always on the lookout for efficient processes in order to better serve today’s well-connected, tech-savvy and wise online consumer. Successful brands are those that are able to find a balance between affordable prices, fast & low-cost shipping, and availability of products.

Download our Shopify Whitepaper to learn more about:
– Shopify & the e-commerce trend
– When you should integrate your Shopify store with EDI
– Integration between Shopify and an internal software management system (like ERP, CRM…)

Interested in fully managed Shopify Integration service?  Take the next step to request our Shopify Integration pricing plans

Related posts:

– Must-Have Integration between E-Commerce and Business Systems

– 9 Major E-Commerce Trends That Will Help Grow Your Online Business

– PRICING PACKAGES: Shopify Integration

– Shopify and Microsoft Dynamics Nav Integration: Things you should know

– Best Practices for Improving E-Commerce Supply Chain Management

9 Major E-Commerce Trends That Will Help Grow Your Online Business

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

According to forecasts of market research and business intelligence portal Statista by the year 2023, U.S. retail e-commerce sales amount will surpass 735 billion US dollars. In the current economic conditions, it is unlikely that any other industry can demonstrate such a rapid growth rate.

In the same token and according to Oberlo, the retail e-commerce sales worldwide are projected to grow to 6.388 trillion US dollars by 2024.

Let’s see what the key market players are betting on, and what trends will determine the development of the industry.

1. Efficient logistics and reduced delivery times

e-commerce reduced delivery times

The world leader at this point is American Amazon. Back in the company’s report for 2018, it is indicated that the fastest delivery of the year was done in 8 minutes in Berkeley CA, and 9 minutes in Kirkland WA, Los Angeles CA, Seattle WA, Charlotte NC.
Amazon the fastest delivery 2018

That sounds like something out of Science Fiction. But look: In the fight for customer loyalty, online stores of the leading e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Bigcommerce, Volusion and other reduce delivery times.

2. Mobile sales

online shopping top ecommerce trends

As predicted (based on many studies and mobile e-commerce statistics) mobile web is booming. An American market research company Forrester forecasts that US retail sales via smartphone will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% over the next five years. Thus, with the increase in purchases from a mobile device, it is very important to make sure that your online store is designed for mobile viewing.

3. Augmented Reality Technologies

e-commerce trends Augmented reality

Augmented Reality Technologies inevitably follow the mobile web sales boom. Today, with the help of special applications, online store buyers can see how furniture sets will fit into their living room or, for example, which watch will look better on their hands. In 2021 AR technologies will become more sophisticated, but perhaps they will start to lose the WOW effect.

4. Using Big Data
e-commerce trends Big Data

The accumulation and analysis of consumer data is a powerful tool to increasing sales. By tracking user behavior in the network, retailers are able to make accurate offers to their customers thereby increasing the chances of making a purchase.

Large online stores have already accumulated a large amount of data about their customers. Now the question is, who will learn how to use this information more effectively – it will give a noticeable competitive advantage.

5. Social commerce and user-generated content

e-connerce trends - 5. Social commerce and user-generated content

Online stores have long used content in social media to attract a loyal audience. In recent years, online sales are increasingly merging with social networks.

On the one hand, social media are introducing more and more new features for sales.

Facebook is already testing Live Video Mode for Sellers and the ability to process payments directly to Facebook Messenger.

Several e-commerce features have tested by Instagram over the past two years – including shopping tags, Promote Ads, built-in payments, and even a separate mobile app for shopping.

On the other hand, online retailers and marketplaces learn to use user-generated content.

Everything started with the reviews, but they were not limited. For example, users can write reviews, tips, articles about products and how to choose them.

6. Artificial intelligence and real-time interaction with the client

e-commerce trends Artificial intelligence and real-time interaction with the client

The times when the online store support service could not respond to the customer’s request for several days will irrevocably disappear. Now, online retailers are increasingly relying on chat-bots to help and advice customers. They work around the clock and instantly navigate in large volumes of information about goods and services.

7. Integration of ERP Software with e-commerce
e-commerce trends ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software

Internal processes of e-commerce retailers are also switching to total automation. Previously, entire departments of employees were required to interact with suppliers and track items in warehouses.

Now, more and more successful companies, adopted ERP (Enterprise resource planning) software for management of core business processes. The most popular ERP software for e-commerce:

• Oracle JD Edwards
• Microsoft Dynamics family of ERPs
• SAP
• and other more ERP software solutions

Helpful Information:

Fully integrated with B2C or B2B e-commerce web-stores, an ERP software can power your business and move your online store to the next level.

8. Integrating e-commerce and CRM application
e-commerce trends -CRM integration

CRM (Customer-relationship management) system allows to collect, manage and use customer relationship data to improve your online business. CRM can eliminate lost sales, and help you build a loyal customer base.

Key e-commerce companies who run successfully their business on leading platforms for global trade such Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Shopify, Magento etc.,  have already integrated their CRM with their online stores and enjoy the benefits.

Helpful Information: How to get more out of Salesforce with EDI Integration

9. Electronic data Interchange (EDI) and B2B e-commerce
e-commerce trends EDI Integration

Last but definitely not least: your e-commerce business should be supported by EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). In many cases, it’s almost impossible to trade without using EDI. In B2B e-commerce, EDI has become mandatory for trading with the majority of big retailers such as Target, Walmart, Home Depot or Costco, because they work exclusively with businesses that meet their EDI requirements and comply with their EDI specifications.

What are the benefits of EDI in e-commerce?

  • Reduced document processing time
  • Works all over the world, does not depend on time and provides a fast flow of information
  • No errors related to manual data input
  • Guaranteed delivery of messages (due to notify the sender about documents delivery);
  • Acceleration of logistics operations
  • Security and confidentiality of information
  • Reduction of costs associated with paper circulation

Helpful Information:

For the last 21+ years, EDI2XML has been helping companies of all sizes, in their EDI integration projects. We take care of all aspects of EDI “complexities” due to our Fully managed EDI service.

Total Automation 

Automation of everything that can be automated is the most important trend of our time. If you are looking to develop a high-volume e-commerce business, and you don’t yet have all the elements outlined, it’s time to start. We can help you with the most important part of e-commerce integration with ERP, CRM, and EDI.

Our “Fully managed cloud integration” service can solve all your integration challenges, and you’re your company achieve its business and technical goals in this highly competitive space.

Contact our team for a free consultation.

Free EDI consultation and demo