What’s the Difference Between Traditional Integration and Revolutionary Integration?

The holiday season is a huge opportunity for online retailers to close out the year with a bang, and 2017 was no exception. In fact, holiday retail sales had the highest growth rate since 2011, fueled by an 18.1% increase in online sales. Ecommerce hit another milestone during Cyber Week of 2017, with Thanksgiving day delivering the highest year-over-year increase in gross merchandise volume (GMV). But you can’t take advantage of these sales without ecommerce integration, making now the time to craft an ecommerce integration plan so you can generate more revenue this year. Fortunately, there is a new data integration solution available to ensure you capitalize on not only the end-of-year holiday retail blitz, but also on other busy times for ecommerce throughout the year.

Ecommerce integration involves connecting your ERP system with any of a number of ecommerce or marketplace platforms. One ERP system that  is gaining popularity is SAP Business One, and traditionally, integration can have its share of challenges. Advances in integration technology have been made, however, revolutionizing the process. New data integration solutions now make it easier and more affordable to accomplish SAP Business One integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and any of the other ecommerce and marketplace platforms available today.

To fully understand the difference between the traditional approach to ecommerce integration and revolutionary integration, let’s take a closer look at the steps associated with each. As you become educated on the new data integration solutions available, you can develop a plan to optimize the ecommerce explosion – regardless of the season.

Traditional SAP Business One integration

Whether your goal is SAP Business One integration with WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, or another platform, the traditional approach to integration is basically the same. While there may be some slight variations in the timeline, cost, or terminology used, the scenario often goes like this:

1. The customer reaches out to one or more vendors for a quote.
2. Vendors submit proposals outlining the services to be provided.
3. Proposals are reviewed, and once selected, a traditional vendor will have you sign a contract with them for the data integration services to be provided.
4. Upon contract signing, a kick-off meeting is held to outline the full details of the SAP Business One integration and a start date is scheduled.
5. Custom consulting work, performed by a small team of 2-5 professionals, is performed to complete SAP Business One integration with your custom files. This typically spans anywhere from 4 – 8 weeks (and oftentimes longer than that), with consulting rates averaging $150 per hour.
6. Total costs typically include a large one-time fee that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Annual licensing renewal fees are also part of the traditional cost model.
7. Any additional consulting work required beyond install – updates required based on marketplace platform changes for example – are charged at the agreed-upon hourly consulting rate.

Revolutionary SAP Business One integration

A new data integration solution can achieve SAP Business One integration in a more timely and straightforward manner. With revolutionary integration, the scenario is as follows:

1. The customer hears about a new approach to data integration, and reaches out to Alluvia for more information.
2. No contract is required, and with the setup cost under $100, you decide to give it a try.
3. A small utility is installed on your local server, while core functionality and business logic are processed by a cloud-computing engine.
4. Using an intuitive mapping wizard in a drag-and-drop interface, you (not a consultant) match data elements in real-time, setting up ecommerce and marketplace integration in less than a day.

Benefits of this ground-breaking approach:

• Automatic updates to platform requirements, ensuring your system is always running smoothly
• All documents required – whether it be for SAP Business One integration with Magento, Shopify, or other platform – are included. Your integration is complete for the entire order and inventory process.
• Employees can make changes to user-defined fields without the intervention of an outside consultant, keeping your costs down and your business flexible.
• Minimal maintenance is required with a cloud system, freeing up time and resources for more business-oriented tasks.
• Expanding to additional platforms as your business grows is just as simple and cost-effective, widening the possibilities for growing your business.

Be prepared for this year

If you are looking to expand your online retail sales into new ecommerce and marketplace platforms, set your sights on the 2018 holiday season now. It is never too early to start planning for the holiday season (and other retail-rich events at other times of the year), and while most retailers get deep into planning sales promotions for the holidays in the fall, your integration needs to be up and running first, making this your highest priority.

You can expect your holiday sales to kick off strong over Thanksgiving weekend and on Cyber Monday. A small lull in early to mid-December is to be expected, with another strong surge right before the holiday itself. With ecommerce sales up an estimated 16% from November to December this year, this is a sales opportunity you cannot afford to miss next year. A new, revolutionary approach to data integration makes integration possible on not only one ecommerce platform, but now makes integration on multiple platforms a real possibility.