According to statistics, the global retail sales market amounts to approximately 25.04 trillion USD$ on average. It is believed that the worldwide eCommerce market totalled 4.89 trillion USD$ in 2021, with exponential growth predicted in the coming years.
The importance of eCommerce integration where you have complete control over your inventory and offer optimum customer experience is enormous, mainly since online stores are a crucial part of your company’s identity and sales channel. What is integrated eCommerce, and how can it benefit you as a retailer?
What is integrated eCommerce?
Integrated eCommerce combines two concepts: eCommerce and integration. Online commerce is known as the purchasing and selling goods and services over the Internet.
Integration is the process of combining scattered data and providing customers with a single unified view of that data. When combined, eCommerce coordinates your business’s website and backend systems like ERP (enterprise resource planning).
For instance, if your company uses ERP for inventory management, it eliminates the need to manually update the inventory count in the ERP system every time there is a transaction. It also ensures data accuracy through automated, real-time inventory updates.
What are its benefits?
- Reduction of potential errors
As innovative retail solution providers will tell you, the most apparent advantage of integrated commerce is reducing the frequency of human errors. Since data and information are automatically entered in one place, the chances of errors are significantly reduced since there is less human involvement.
2. Better customer experience
When you connect your eCommerce site to your retail ecosystem, you ensure that your customers have a personalised experience, resulting in higher sales.
For instance, while purchasing a particular item, they can check how many are in stock. Once they make the purchase, they can track its shipment and delivery history. If the customer finds out about the unavailability of a specific product after placing an order, it can be frustrating and annoying for them, something that unified commerce helps you avoid.
It also enables you to track and analyse their behaviour and history across sales channels.
3. It saves you a lot of money
As mentioned earlier, eCommerce integration ensures the automation of online sales, orders, and other back-office processes. You can avoid unnecessary costs related to inventory management, labour, and operations in the long run.
4. Get financial reports easily
An efficient eCommerce integration enables you to quickly generate financial reports for your business, including balance sheet, trial balance, cash flow, and P/L statement. It brings about greater transparency in the company’s production and sharing of financial information.
5. Increases all-round productivity
Without an integrated commerce system in place, your sales executive will spend a significant part of their time dealing with customers’ queries or any required information. However, since an integrated system provides them with the information at their fingertips, your sales team can utilise their time in other avenues that require immediate attention or greater focus.
These are a few ways integrating eCommerce can help your retail business. From enhanced purchasing experience for the customer to maximum accuracy in data management, it brings about a transformation in all the critical areas for your brand’s growth.