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Secrets and rules of Shopify integration with your ERP or CRM

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.


As you know, an online store or eCommerce site, always becomes an additional source of revenue for a company, and sometimes even it might become the main source of sales and revenues.

Great design, information blocks and a clear structure are just some of the many good advantages if you decide to create an online store using an e-commerce platform based on Shopify.

Understand what Shopify integration is
Shopify integration

First, your Shopify store needs an inventory management strategy. Keeping track of your inventory should be a top priority. This means that you need real-time automation for all your stock, as manual stock inventory can be an overwhelming task.

Thus, the integration of the online store with the company’s internal business system allows you to synchronize the inventory in your Shopify store with the inventory status of your ERP database system, based on pre-defined schedule.

Automatic updates of Shopify variants, inventory quantities and prices will be useful for online stores that have a considerable range of products, especially when inventory status of those products/items is constantly fluctuating…

With Shopify integration, there is no need to monitor and adjust, manually the stock of your products on the eCommerce site or store; you sell only what is available, and all new products are automatically fed to the site.

Thus, your visitors have the most complete and reliable information on a product or service. At the same time, you can significantly reduce the cost of processing the price lists and catalogs of your products.

Why do you need to exchange data?

Automatic integration between a Shopify store and the business management system (ERP, CRM, accounting, etc.) helps to solve several issues:
– Get rid of problems related to human factor.
– Reduce the number of possible errors during data exchange.
– Reduce the workload of employees and focus their activity on sales and customer service.
– Ensure the relevance of the information for both: store visitors and company sellers. Especially relevant for large turnover.

Useful reading: Challenges of selling on Shopify

The main stages of data exchange

The process of implementing data exchange between Shopify and a company’s business software system, consists of three main phases:
1. Project analysis and initiation.
2. Configuration of the data Upload from ERP/CRM to the eCommerce site.
3. Configuration of the data Download from the eCommerce site to ERP/CRM.

The first phase is a step that happens only once during the lifecycle of the integration project. During this phase, our team at EDI2XML will work with the client and identify the business rules, the entities to synchronize between the ERP/CRM and their Shopify Stores, the frequency and other aspects.

This initiation phase is crucial to initiating a continuous automatic process that will have one single mission: run indefinitely and do what it is configured to do.

The automation process will be executing the upload of data from ERP/CRM to Shopify and the download of data from Shopify to the ERP/CRM system, when needed, without any human intervention.

Which information is usually sent from ERP to the online store?

The following is a list of information and data objects that can be extracted from a company’s management system, and uploaded / synchronized to the Shopify store:
  • Update Variant Inventory/Price
  • Customer Information, Bill To, Ship To
  • Update Shopify Customer (Customer Information, Bill To, Ship To)
  • Update Shopify Orders (Complete, Cancel)
  • Create Shopify Order Fulfillment
  • Update/Cancel Shopify Order Fulfillment
  • Create Shopify Product(s)
  • Update Shopify Product(s)
  • Delete Shopify Product(s)
  • Create Shopify Product Image
  • Modify Shopify Product Image
  • Delete Shopify Product Image
  • Create Shopify Variant(s)
  • Update Shopify Variant(s)
  • Delete Shopify Variant(s)

Which information is sent the online store to ERP?

The following is a list of information and data objects that can be extracted from a Shopify store and downloaded / synchronized to the company’s management system:
B2B Integration
  • Shopify Orders (Ship To, Bill to and Order details) Update
  • Shopify Customers (Customer Information, Bill To, Ship To)
  • Shopify Orders Fulfillment
  • Abandoned Checkouts
  • Inventory Level by Location


Integrate Shopify with Leading ERP Systems

As mentioned above, Shopify integration with your internal system makes it easy to manage your sales, inventory, and reports. We at EDI2XML eliminate the need for manual data entry using the Magic xpi Integration Platform, we automate the most important business processes, ensuring data exchange between Shopify and leading ERP and accounting systems.
Shopify integration

Following is a list of the most commonly used ERP systems to integrate to Shopify:

What to consider when organizing the integration of Shopify.

Prior to kicking off a Shopify integration project between your company’s business system and the eCommerce store, it is necessary to define the business flow. Think through all the stages of working with customers, this help determine what information you need to transfer and in which direction.

What points are important to consider for integration:

1. What data should be uploaded to each side;

2. How often will the exchange take place;

3. Prepare your data for Integration based on the appropriate data format (i.e. csv, xml, json ….).

4. For the integration to be efficient and smooth, it’s important that you sanitize and clean your data; Clean all duplicate fields and customers, correct incomplete or contravening data, Product/SKU IDs on your online store, must match the Product/SKU IDs used to represent items in your accounting/ERP system. ..

5. Anticipate possible issues: lack of the right product, the possibility of doubling data and other difficulties.

The technical complexities of your integration project depend on how to decide to integrate with your software business system (i.e. accounting software, ERP or CRM system); Connecting directly with certified connectors to branded systems such as SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, is possible, but will need additional time and effort to build, test and deploy. Still integration using messages of type XML, Json or CSV are the most standard and efficient to date, and do not require any additional fees or efforts.

Shopify Integration Experts

Need an efficient Shopify ERP integration solution that automates orders and inventory between your Shopify store and your ERP system? We can help you! The e-commerce integration with ERP, CRM and EDI is our specialty and one of the strongest offerings. We setup fast and efficient synchronization bridge that works very efficiently to add value to your business.

We specialize in integrating Shopify with ERP, CRM, and other third-party systems and applications. It doesn’t matter if you are a Shopify user or just want to open a new store, or switch to Shopify from another eCom platform, we have experts who can solve all your integration challenges.

Contact our Shopify integration experts today for a free consultation!
Shopify integration price list

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
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Oracle JD Edwards and B2B eCommerce Integration for efficient online sales

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information

The Synergy of JD Edwards and B2B E-commerce

Oracle’s JD Edwards software (also JD Edwards EnterpriseOne or World) is an excellent software solution for mid and large size enterprises. This ERP (or enterprise resource planning) system is a central tool to help companies run their business. Usually, most organizations using JDE ERP software, are somehow engaged in B2B activities, such as doing business with wholesalers, retailers, or distributors…

Wikipedia’s definition of B2B E-commerce is “B2B e-commerce (also written as e-Commerce, eCommerce or similar variants), short for business-to-business, electronic commerce, is selling products or services between businesses through the internet via an online sales portal”.

In other words, it is B2B transactions that are happening online, over a B2B portal. The difference from an online B2C store that it addresses a company, and not an individual consumer.

According to Statista.com, the global B2B eCommerce market valuing US$12.2 trillion in 2019 is over 6 times that of the B2C market.

JDE e-commerce integration

The data of e-commerce market is impressive, but B2B e-commerce isn’t just for big companies. Many small and mid-size businesses also thrive in B2B e-commerce sales. Despite the size of the company, there is one common thing between all successful B2B e-commerce organizations – the Systems Integration.

B2B eCommerce customer loyalty

B2B eCommerce market is becoming hypercompetitive. Online customers today have high expectations, similar to the B2C (business-to-consumer e-commerce) market.

Business customers are demanding increasing levels of service and convenience. They are pressuring to quickly find the right products and faster way to process orders to support their workloads.

The e-commerce site or B2B portal, is becoming an extension of the business; therefore, for a better customer interaction and user experience, the B2B portal should be integrated without failure into the ERP system. As it is well known already, companies today adopt different kinds ERP, inventory management and supply chain systems… This makes it hard to manage data flow between those heterogenous systems. It influences negatively the shopping experience of a B2B customer.

Based on the above, and in order to overcome such challenges, companies have no choice other than adopting the seamless and real-time Systems Integration.

Benefits of B2B eCommerce Integration with JDE

Following are some of the benefits integration may bring to the company:

  • Allows everyone in a company to have the consistent information and immediate access to data such order history for example, in a real-time mode
  • Helps e-commerce companies to better serve their customers and grow online sales.
  • Helps companies increase their profits
  • Reduces company’s cost per transaction.
  • Better performance in year-over-year growth for revenue and product sales as well as increased growth of new customers.

Oracle JD Edwards Integration with Magic xpi

You’ve probably heard that integrating an eCommerce system with Oracle JD Edwards can be complicated, but it’s not the case if you use Magic xpi integration platform.

Organizations adopting Magic xpi for its Integration projects, can fully leverage the features provided in this API driven platform with certified connectors, to optimize the benefits from their eCommerce and JDE ERP software.

Magic xpi integration platform has more than 50 adapters, wizards, services, and methods enable companies to create continuous business processes based on JD Edwards business functions and helps enhance communication between e-commerce company and their online customers.

Driving innovation in your B2B eCommerce with Magic xpi

Magic xpi has an excellent JD Edwards connector, certified by Oracle themselves. It is able to discover JDE pre-built business functions or work directly with the Z-files of JDE.

It is API driven middleware that enables integration and orchestration of flows, business processes based on events and other multitude types of triggers. Adopting Magic xpi for integration projects, allows a company to benefit from the following advantages:

• Improve the quality of customer service. You can connect eCommerce, CRM, support, shipping, social media and more from the same integration platform, without any coding or programming requirements

• Speed processes and increase the productivity due to automatically synchronizing Work Orders, Bills of Materials, Return Merchandise authorizations and more across systems.

• Synchronize data, such as names, locations and product catalogs, between JD Edwards EnterpriseOne or JD Edwards World and other systems.

• Permit mobile workforce solutions for Order Entry, Proof-of-Delivery, Field Service apps, and more.

Oracle JD Edwards Connector Capabilities

  • Visual mapping between source and destination for business functions
  • Drag and drop: no coding required
  • Handles exceptions and errors, reliably and seamlessly
  • Integrates financial data in real time, near real time, and at optimal intervals
  • Integrates non-JDE applications with your JDE simply
  • Integrates with new and existing e-commerce websites
  • Integrates order tracking and logistics management over the Web
  • Integrates CRM and sales force management
  • Handles service calls and tracks orders over the Web
  • Runs natively on IBM I systems
  • Consolidates your charts of accounts with other systems and companies

 Oracle JD Edwards Connector Benefits

  • Creates services easily
  • Implements SOA with existing JD Edwards Enterprise One or JD Edwards World
  • Leverages investment in and knowledge of JD Edwards systems
  • Simplifies integration when upgrading or installing new versions
  • Overcomes integration barriers with existing systems
  • Modernizes the perception of JD Edwards applications
  • Integrates JD Edwards company-wide across all business processes, according to business process definitions
  • Empowers end users and technical staff
  • Increases efficiency through reliable and seamless handling of exceptions and errors
  • Allows access to information when you need it

Leave e-commerce integration to the experts

You don’t need to be an Integration expert in order to improve your business. By choosing EDI2XML and Magic xpi, you’ll have complete systems integration, enjoy ease of maintenance, and benefit from a high return on investment.

Free consultation ecommerce JDE integration

For more helpful information about JDE read our posts:

Oracle JD Edwards Integration: the key to Digital Transformation

The Definitive Checklist for Oracle JDE and EDI Integration Projects

EDI or E-commerce Integration with Oracle JD Edwards Enterprise

Download JD Edwards Integration brochure

Shopify and Microsoft Dynamics Nav Integration: Things You Should Know

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This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms that allows you to set up an online store to sell your products. With Shopify, you can easily organize your merchandise, customize your storefront, accept credit card payments, track and respond to orders. In addition, Shopify can cover not only online selling, but also your sales on social media, or in-store.

Shopify integration with ERP

Challenges of Selling on Shopify

Many businesses with online commerce on Shopify, use also Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Most of these companies are facing great challenges when it comes to managing their online Shopify store and synchronizing data between their in-house Microsoft Navision ERP on-premises and Shopify.

The major challenge is synchronizing data back and forth between both platforms, on a near real-time basis. Having the synchronization in place will help avoid major logistics and supply chain issues such as:

– Adding and removing SKUs to Shopify platform,
– Updating SKUs pricing
– Enabling and disabling SKUs to sell on Shopify,
– Updating the status of orders that came in through Shopify,
– Synchronizing orders between Navision and Shopify,
– Over ordering of discontinued or out-of-stock items,
– Synchronizing shipment information
– Synchronizing payment information
– And the list goes on…

All these challenges will only create a bottleneck for the enterprise, where inefficiencies will prevail and companies will have to hire more people to manage their online store on Shopify, in addition to the maintenance of their NAV ERP.

As a result, companies won’t be able to improve their online business and run efficiently, if they still manually extracting information from Shopify, and transferring it into Microsoft Dynamics NAV, also manually by keying it in.

This process of manually keying information in both platforms (Shopify and Navision) is a time-consuming open door for human errors, and in a sense, it is an avoidable expense for an enterprise.

Do you want to know more about what Microsoft Dynamics is? Read this article “What is Microsoft Dynamics?”

Magic xpi: the API Driven Integration Platform

Magic xpi, is one of the leading integration and orchestration technologies in the IT market. In fact, it is one of the oldest in this space. Magic xpi helps companies in their digital transformation journey, and empowers them to integrate heterogeneous systems, databases, and business processes using certified connectors by the manufacturer. It is a reliable SOA, API-driven integration platform for all connectivity needs. I have described Magic xpi in a more detailed post: Systems integration platform to improve business performance
Magic xpi integration platform

Integrating Microsoft Dynamics NAV with Shopify will help overcome all the above challenges, by automating the flow of information between different business systems, and eliminating expensive “manual” order management and fulfillment processes.

Magic xpi Integration platform can do the integration job and save companies time and money, allowing human resources to focus on important business tasks. Magic xpi can automatically synchronize Shopify and Microsoft Dynamics NAV, in a non-stop mode, 365 days a year.

Shopify Automation Benefits

Here are the benefits of implementing and deploying an integration platform like Magic xpi to automate Shopify by integrating with Microsoft Dynamics NAV:

Saving of Time and Effort: Avoid repetitive manual data entry and associated errors and inefficiencies

Improvement of productivity: Use the company’s human resources in more important business tasks, rather than redundant data entry. Your company will reduce the risks of human errors.

Improve fulfillment time: Considerably cut down the order fulfillment delay; a Shopify order will be integrated seamlessly into NAV and processed on-time.

Click here to download our free White Paper on Magic xpi Integration Platform

Microsoft Dynamics NAV & Shopify Integration Endpoints

The following are a few basic endpoints, most commonly used to integrate Shopify and MS Dynamics Navision. Certainly, there are more end-points ready for integration, however, most businesses start their Shopify integration projects with the following endpoints:

Clients: Synchronize information about the online customer from Shopify to Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Contacts: Synchronize Contact information, billing & shipping address, etc. synchronized from Shopify to Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

SKUs:  Synchronize SKUs and items information (i.e. Stock level, pricing, active, discontinued…) from Microsoft Dynamics to Shopify. online store.

Orders: Synchronize Shopify sales orders placed by the online customer, to Microsoft Dynamics NAV Sales Orders.

Payments: Synchronize payment Information and Payment Method from Shopify to Microsoft Dynamics NAV in Sales.

Delivery: Synchronize Delivery information (i.e. tracking No, shipping company…) from Dynamics NAV to Shopify

EDI2XML & Magic xpi are Your Digital Transformation Partners

Magic xpi proved to be a leading, cost-effective solution to integrate easily and quickly Microsoft Dynamics with Shopify.
Shopify Integration

Magic xpi is a cost-effective, code-free, drag-and-drop with pre-built generic connector able to connect to Microsoft Dynamics. Integrating with Magic xpi, companies are capable of reducing their deployment lead time from months to a few days, which creates a great ROI.

We at EDI2XML have been a partner of a global enterprise software company Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. for over 20 years, and we are ready to take your integration challenges.

Looking for an Integration solution? Contact Us Today
Free Shopify Integration whitepaper

RELATED POSTS:

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

PRICING PACKAGES: Shopify Integration

How EDI integration can boost your eCommerce Store

,

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

With the evolution of eCommerce in the last few years, EDI integration is getting more and more widespread in the e-retail vertical. This trend is due to the heritage of the traditional retail businesses. Why is this happening and how EDI is helping e-commerce retail stores?

According to Statista.com, in 2016, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 1.86 trillion US dollars and e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 4.48 trillion US dollars in 2021. Online shopping is one of the most popular online activities worldwide.

Therefore, today, e-commerce sales is one of the segments of the economy with a huge development potential.

e-commerce-sales-worldwide-from-2014-to-2021

 

What are the most popular e-commerce platforms in 2019?

Plenty of e-commerce platforms are available on the Internet, but the most popular and most effective in 2019 market are the following:

Shopify  Shopify
Bigcommerce bigcommerce
Magento  Magento
WooCommerce  Woocommerce
Volusion  volusion

If you look at the comparative table in Google trends, you will see that Shopify is the leader in terms of how many businesses use this platform for their own eCommerce, versus how many they show interest in the other e-commerce platforms.

google-trends-e-commerce-platforms

 

How many Stores are using Shopify?

Launched in 2004 Shopify is one of the leading Canadian e-commerce platforms, trusted by over 500,000 businesses worldwide. As new shops are signing up every day, the real exact number is higher. For more information abut shopify, you can visit their website.

Fully Managed Shopify Integration Service

We at EDI2XML eliminate the need for manual data entry using Magic xpi Integration Platform, we automate the most important business processes, ensuring data exchange between Shopify/Shopify Plus and leading ERP and accounting systems. LEARN MORE>

Boost your company’s productivity with EDI

Business owners, including e-commerce store owners, are all always looking for a better way to improve efficiency, and customer service in a very well connected digital world.

In that direction, the Drop-ship concept has emerged to become one of the top delivery model adopted with major ecommerce retailers. With this concept, consumers have access to a large inventory of goods, delivered directly from the manufacturer (most of the time). This is delivering a smooth shopping experience that is secure, convenient and comfortable.

In order for the ecommerce owners to compete in this new reality, their offerings of products and services, should be built in such an efficient way, where their items’ prices, stock and inventory availability, are all up-to-date right from their manufacturer’s system, in near real-time.

Their delivery schedules are also a factor: eCommerce stores should be equipped with real-time calculation of delivery cost and ETD, again right from the shipping or transport company.

EDI integration between an eCommerce platform and the manufacturers, in the drop-ship world, is one of the best options to accomplish the above objectives. EDI helps streamline the Supply-chain management and improve efficiency.

To know more about the reasons why you should integrate EDI with your Shopify eCommerce store, read our previous blog called “Top 3 Reasons for EDI integration with Shopify”

Benefits of EDI

It’s no secret to anyone that the traditional methods of document management are outdated, they are quite costly and can impede the interaction between trading partners. This becomes especially noticeable when the business grows.

 EDI interchange has existed for more than 30 years. Over the years, EDI has been tested and proven to work, in North America and Europe. EDI has repeatedly and most importantly demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing human errors and improving quality of information.

EDI is a major helper for online stores

EDI service translates into electronic format (or messages), the entire interaction between the eCommerce store, the supplier and the consumer – from the order to the signature of delivery documents.

The exchange of information takes place directly between the systems of trading partners, therefore, the influence of the human factor, and errors are at its minimum.

If you want to know more about EDI2XML translation, read this article on our website

EDI significantly simplifies and speeds up the logistics work: ordering, packaging, shipping and delivery.

Comparing eCommerce store to a traditional outlet store, the latter will have more constraints and limitations on stock availability and delivery methods: with an online store having EDI integration in place, this problem does not exist. All availabilities are up-to date right from the supplier’s system. An eCommerce store owner, with integration capabilities will not worry about having an “empty shelf”…he does not have to worry about hiring more employees to answer customer service calls.

EDI integration, empowers eCommerce online stores with the capability to reduce their costs, increase efficiency, improve stock availability and customer service.

If you are interested to learn more about this topic or any EDI integration related issue, don’t hesitate to Contact us for a free Consultation and we will be more than happy to answer your concerns and questions.

Free EDI consultation

Top 3 Reasons For EDI Integration With Shopify

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.
EDI integration with Shopify

In short, Shopify is one of the leading Canadian eCommerce platforms offered to businesses and individuals, based on a monthly subscription fee. Anyone can subscribe and then begin to showcase their products online, to sell directly to the public. For more information about Shopify, you can visit their website here.

Who Uses Shopify?

Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform that can be used by individuals and businesses of all sizes to create and manage their online stores. Here are some of the types of people who use Shopify:
  1. Small business owners: Shopify is an excellent platform for small business owners who want to sell products online without having to deal with the technical aspects of building an e-commerce website.
  2. Entrepreneurs: Many entrepreneurs use Shopify to create and sell their own products online, whether it be clothing, beauty products, or digital downloads.
  3. Large businesses: Shopify’s scalability makes it a popular choice for larger businesses that need a platform that can handle high levels of traffic and sales.
  4. Dropshippers: Shopify’s integrations with popular dropshipping apps and tools make it an attractive option for dropshippers who want to sell products without having to hold inventory.
  5. Non-profits: Shopify offers special pricing and features for non-profits, making it an excellent platform for charities and other non-profit organizations to sell merchandise and raise funds online.

Overall, Shopify is a flexible platform that can be used by a wide range of people and businesses to create and manage their online stores.

A Word on Drop-Shipping

One important thing to emphasize here is that with the emergence of the online retail (or eCommerce) market, companies selling products through the Internet on platforms such as Shopify, are not necessarily carrying inventory of their products anymore.

More and more, once a company receives an online order from a customer (through the Shopify platform), these orders are then transferred to the manufacturing business partner(s) for shipping and delivery of the bought item(s), where they are told the “white label” the delivery package. This concept is called “Drop-Ship” (or Drop Shipping) in the retail and eCommerce world. Basically, the seller receives orders from their online retail store and is paid via the Internet (through PayPal or credit card) and then forwards the order to the manufacturer to then ship directly to the client. For many, there is now no need to hold inventory in a local warehouse.

What Does EDI Have To Do With eCommerce?

For those who aren’t very familiar with EDI (or Electronic Data Interchange), it is a set of standards and processes to exchange business documents electronically between Business (or Trading) Partners. Common business documents include Purchase Orders, Invoices, ASNs (Advance Ship Notice), Inventory Inquiry/Advice and more. This data exchange can happen in both directions – incoming and outgoing.

In the context of online sales over the Internet, on an eCommerce platform like Shopify as well as with the introduction of drop-shipping, EDI comes into play for several reasons;

1. Most major manufacturing and distribution companies will require a system-to-system integration through some sort of EDI. This speeds up processes and allows for greater efficiency in partner communication.

2. Shipping companies also require integration via EDI.

3. Today, consumers are very well educated and require to be informed on the status of their orders at every step of the way during the shipping process.

As you may notice, all of the above requires system-to-system integration between so many unrelated or diverse systems and platforms. At this point in time, most major companies and retailers are well equipped with EDI platforms and standards in which they have been investing in for many years now. Companies are now finding more ways to use their EDI to increase efficiency and are truly seeing returns on their investments.

Top 3 Reasons Why You Need EDI Integration With Shopify

The reasons may seem obvious to you at this point, but I will re-iterate the top 3 reasons for EDI integration with your Shopify store or any other eCommerce platform;

Cloud Services Provider If you are in the Drop-Ship business and you are selling online through Amazon, Wal-Mart, Cabela’s or Target, for example, chances are that these retailers will impose certain rules, and require that you go on EDI. If you are dealing with suppliers, they will also impose similar rules and require the use of EDI.

Cloud Services Provider If you are selling online through your own store via Shopify, and you have a high volume of clients that expect to the informed of their orders at any given moment, this is another big reason why you should have EDI integrated with your Shopify store.

Cloud Services Provider If you are dealing with shipping companies like FedEx, Purolator, UPS, etc., and you have a high volume of shipments on a daily basis, then you need to integrate your management systems AND Shopify with EDI.

The above are the main reasons for EDI integration but there are tons of other ways EDI can improve your processes and reasons to talk with an EDI consultant today.

How Can I Integrate My Shopify Store with EDI?

This integration is very feasible however you will most definitely need a team of system integrators with a high knowledge and expertise in EDI. With the right team like the EDI2XML team, there is no going wrong.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic or any other issue related to EDI integration projects, please contact us today and receive your free consultation.
Shopify integration
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EDI, XML or Web Services; what’s Best for eCommerce Integration

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.



eCommerce platforms have been largely used by small and mid-sized enterprises, to sell their products and services to the booming consumer market (B2C) on the internet. Amazon and eBay for example, are among the most popular eCommerce platforms; for ease of operations and integration they offer different ways to exchange data between the trading partner and the platform. As an example, Amazon offers EDI integration capability, or Web service calls to exchange data or simple XML transactions. The most frequently asked question, by business owners, is: what is the best option to have a quick integration at a minimal cost with a maximum return on investment?

In this post I will explain the different integration mechanisms and share my opinion on how to decide which way to go. As a complementary article to this post, I invite you to read my previous post entitled Tips to Empower your eCommerce with great Supply Chain through EDI Integration to get more detailed advise about eCommerce and EDI integration to be able to build a strong SCM channel.

Let me start by quickly defining each of the above technical terms:

EDI

EDI is the oldest protocol used to exchange data between business partners. It has been standardized and heavily used for decades. It is very well ingrained in the manufacturing and retail verticals. Data in EDI format has a pre-defined format and structure. It is transmitted using different types of secured communication protocols (i.e. VAN, AS2, FTP, sFTP…).

Useful reading: What is EDI? 

 

XML

As defined by the W3Schools website , XML is a markup language much like HTML, meant to carry data, not to display data. It is designed to be self-descriptive, where users define their own XML tags to describe data. XML is a W3C recommendation. XML was created to structure, store, and transport information, in contrast to HTML that is meant only to display data in a web browser.

Since XML has been developed, it quickly became a popular means to transfer very well structured data between business partners. Thanks to its ease of use, and its descriptive aspect of the XML data format, it has been the preferred choice of many software vendors and applications used in integration projects.

Web services

Wikipedia defines a Web service as “a method of communication between two electronic devices over a network. It is a software function provided at a network address over the web with the service always on as in the concept of utility computing”.

Web services are designed to support machine-to-machine interaction over a network, using different protocols, by sending and receiving “messages” using HTTP and XML in addition to other web-related standards.

Now for the technical use and interpretation of Web Services, it is simply triggering the execution of a program or function remotely, using the internet, and returning the result to the caller. In addition, Web services use XML in different formats to send structured data back and forth. The advantage of Web services is that it uses the internet as a communication and transport protocol, in addition to the XML structured language to format the data transmitted back and forth.

If you want to know more about  different types of web services such as SOAP and REST and why EDI developers prefer use RESTful services, read our new article: Seamless EDI implementation through Web Services

Useful reading: What is EDI2XML web Service?

 

eCommerce integration

eCommerce integration means the process of sending data from the eCommerce platform to an external system or platform, and receiving data into the eCommerce platform using an automated process. Integrating your ERP system or a company’s CRM system with the eCommerce platform enables the necessary data to be sent in both directions so that both systems can interact in a seamless way, without the need for human intervention. This will improve efficiency and enterprise capabilities to serve clients faster.

Useful reading: Tips to Empower your eCommerce with great Supply Chain through EDI Integration

How to select an integration method and what is the best option

In my opinion, there is no single rule when selecting an integration method. Any business owner, executive or integration consultant should ask the following technical questions before selecting a technology and protocol to integrate their eCommerce platform with their own system:

  • What’s the expertise of my integration team?
  • Are they familiar with EDI format and protocols as well as its business flow?
  • Are they more familiar with XML and web services?
  • What are the additional technical advantages that the enterprise would gain by selecting one versus the other?
  • Are these advantages important issues for our business?
  • What are the add-on costs for both options?

Basically, the decision comes down to evaluating the level of expertise of the integration team and their zone of technical comfort. From a technical perspective, there isn’t a perfect option. Of course, the business aspect of the decision is a major factor and sometimes, business reasons might outweigh technical reasons.

If you need more information or would like to discuss your eCommerce integration needs, I will be more than happy to provide a free 1-hour consultation.

EDI Web Service for edi integration
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