Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs) are websites where buyers can go to compare prices, shipping information, and other details on specific items they want to purchase.

The information on CSEs is collected from participating retailers and can be a valuable resource for ecommerce sellers to increase sales and draw in new customers.

But CSEs are not free. Retailers typically pay per click-through or per action, and products you want to display must be submitted in a specific format. There are a number of CSE’s to consider, so it can get overwhelming if you’re not too familiar with the options.

If you’re considering experimenting with this type of resource, check out this blog from Shopify that outlines the top 10 Comparison Shopping Engines. The post provides a brief overview of each CSE and some other factors to consider such as cost considerations. It’s a good read for any ecommerce retailer.

When it comes to setting up an ecommerce platform, there are a lot of options in today’s market. If we look at the numbers, the most popular ecommerce platform on the web right now is WooCommerce, with the latest number reporting over 37 million downloads.

As you probably know, WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress designed for online businesses using the WordPress tool. It powers over 28% of all online stores.

It’s no wonder WooCommerce is so popular. It is customizable, allowing retailers to add only those plugins they want for their business. But if you want to optimize your WooCommerce platform, you need to connect WooCommerce to SAP Business One or another ERP system you are using.

While SAP Business One and WooCommerce integration is often challenging, the Alluvia platform delivers integrations that are fast, simple, and affordable, helping businesses quickly overcome what has typically been a struggle. To illustrate the differences between the old and new ways of integrating SAP Business One and WooCommerce, let’s take a closer look at the different approaches and why integration is important.

SAP Business One and WooCommerce integration

SAP Business One and WooCommerce integration is typically done via custom consulting. This translates into a long development timeline and a high price tag. Beyond setup, any future changes to either your system or to WooCommerce requires additional consulting work. And yes, this means even more time and money.

Even though SAP Business One and WooCommerce integration has traditionally been far too time-consuming and expensive, companies have paid the price because it is so essential. Integration makes it possible to:

• Eliminates manual data entry – Integration removes the need for manually entering data into the systems, which saves time and eliminates redundancies and errors
• Automates the fulfillment process – Automating fulfillment improves workflow efficiencies.
• Updates inventory in real-time – This is the only way to ensure you only sell what is available, even as orders are coming in from multiple channels
• Improves the customer experience – Fulfilling orders in a more timely manner and not over-selling creates happier customers. Satisfied customers are loyal and more likely to recommend your business.
• Increases efficiencies – The time saved on data entry and order fulfillment go directly into your pocket as fewer resources are required for maintaining your WooCommerce platform.

Alluvia platform integrations

The good news is that now you can reap the benefits of SAP Business One and WooCommerce integration without the hassle and hefty price tag of the past, thanks to Alluvia. Delivering real-time WooCommerce integration in minutes, Alluvia is a cloud-based platform with a mapping wizard and pre-built templates that allow you to match WooCommerce data elements to your internal system quickly.

Alluvia provides support throughout the entire WooCommerce sales cycle:

• Synchronizes customer and account information
• Automatically synchronizes items between WooCommerce and SAP Business One
• Updates inventory in real time
• Synchronizes online orders with SAP Business One
• Automatically update orders with delivery and tracking information

There are absolutely no plugins to install on WooCommerce and only a small utility to install on your SAP server – nothing else – saving time and resources, especially when it comes to maintenance. Another key advantage of Alluvia is that automatic updates are provided. This means that even as WooCommerce requirements change, your documents remain up to date, keeping your business running smoothly.

Perhaps the best news for WooCommerce retailers is that Alluvia’s platform integration is available through a flexible pricing structure and without a contractual obligation. In fact, WooCommerce integration is available at a fraction of the cost compared to the competition:

• Low one-time setup fee ($99)
• You’re covered for up to 1,000 transactions per month for less than $100
• Synchronize items and delivery for only $79 per month
• Synchronize accounts and contact information for just $39 per month
• Cancel at any time

Alluvia gives customers the option to buy only those pieces needed for your unique WooCommerce business, giving you flexibility and saving you from paying for unused features. As a further commitment to helping you succeed, transaction billing only increases with your sales, so you don’t ever have to worry about overpaying if sales are cyclical in nature.

This truly is an affordable WooCommerce integration solution that gets you up and running quickly and easily. Alluvia customers save both time and money, freeing up additional time and resources to spend on growing their business rather than focusing on the technical side of integration.

U.S. retail ecommerce sales for the third quarter of 2017 were reported at $115.3 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau News.

This represents a 3.6% increase from the previous quarter, with the data suggesting an upward trend in the percentage of e-commerce sales as a portion of total quarterly retail sales. These statistics point to the importance of ecommerce for revenue growth, making ecommerce management more important than ever. And the faster you can deploy ecommerce integration, the sooner you can reap its benefits.

While large enterprises often have more resources to devote to ecommerce integration, small and medium-sized businesses do not. Maybe that’s why over 70% of small business websites have no ecommerce at all. Small business ecommerce solutions need to deliver fast results with a quick ROI. In this article, we take a closer look at how you can speed up the integration process without sacrificing quality.

The importance of small business data integration

Before we dive into the ways you can integrate your ERP with ecommerce platforms, let’s discuss why this integration is important. Data integration delivers many benefits, including:

• No more data redundancies – Information on buyers and purchases is shared between systems, eliminating errors that can occur and preventing duplicate entries. Data integration also speeds up information retrieval and sharing since the data is available at all points along the supply chain.
• Inventory efficiencies – ERP and ecommerce integration optimize the inventory process from the warehouse to distribution all the way to the final point of sale. This means your inventory is updated in real-time, ensuring your ability to meet all deliveries.
• Deeper understanding of revenue growth – Small business data integration provides a clearer picture of daily sales, as well as quarterly annual revenues versus costs, allowing you to more accurately measure the performance of your business in real-time.

Faster ecommerce integration

Now that we know why ecommerce integration is important, let’s dig into just how fast it can be accomplished. The time required depends largely on the integration provider, making this an important decision.

Most vendors in the market today will tell you they need several weeks to get your ecommerce integration up and running. Let’s think about that. Given the number of businesses setting up these ecommerce integrations, why should it take so long? Are all these integrations really that different from one another? Do they truly require weeks of custom consulting work?

In reality, it should not take long to set up ecommerce integrations. All of these integrations are not that different from one another. And they do not require weeks of custom consulting work. So let’s take a look at how a truly fast ecommerce integration can be delivered.

• • Universal integrator – A flexible and robust system that is capable of integrating any company’s ERP with a given ecommerce platform translates directly into speed of setup. Integration work is not started from scratch with each customer. The system is built to meet the integration needs of any business using the same ecommerce platform.
  • Pre-built templates – All of the integration documents required for a given ecommerce platform are built into the system already, ready and waiting for your business.
  • Mapping wizard – A simple and intuitive drag-and-drop wizard helps you match up your data points quickly, so you can start processing orders immediately.
  • No custom programming – One of the most time-consuming elements in ecommerce integration is the custom consulting work typically required to setup the integration. With this requirement eliminated, setup times have been drastically reduced.
  • Automatic updates – As ecommerce platform requirements change over time, the system automatically updates the required documents.
  • Easier maintenance – A cloud-based system means no hardware maintenance. Fewer resources are required to keep the system running, creating efficiencies, fostering productivity, and saving time and money.
  • Empowered employees – Drag-and-drop abilities enable internal employees to make changes to the system as needed. This means your company’s own customer service reps can change user-defined fields when the need arises. You no longer have to wait for changes to be done for you.
  • Supports Expansion – As your ecommerce business grows, you will want to expand to other platforms. This needs to be done just as quickly and simply as your first ecommerce connection. An automated plug-and-play solution available for many ecommerce platforms means you can expand your business across multiple platforms in just a few days.

So the big question is, “Does such a system exist?” Obviously, yes. We at Alluvia believed it was possible to build a flexible architecture that could account for the nuances from one business and one platform to the next – making ecommerce integration possible in less than a day. This vision is now a reality, making ecommerce integration faster than ever before.

Let’s do the math

Each provider will give you varying timelines on ecommerce integration, but let’s be optimistic and assume a shorter-than-normal timeline of four weeks. If we compare this to the one-day setup that is now possible, Alluvia delivers ecommerce integration up to 20 times faster than the competition. This certainly changes the playing field when it comes to integration, opening up new opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses.

Smaller businesses simply cannot afford to pay high consulting fees when it comes to ecommerce integration. More importantly, these businesses need to be in the marketplace now, with data synchronization in place and a streamlined workflow. Fortunately, fast and affordable ecommerce integration has become a reality.

If you’re operating an ecommerce business, you have lots options to configure the ideal ordering and fulfillment process.

But with so many choices available, it’s difficult to sort through which tools you’ll need, and which will just bloat your operation or require additional spending. When it comes down to it, there are just three main ecommerce solutions that can make or break your online business, in terms of efficiency.

Here are the three pillars required to create a streamlined ecommerce business.

A quality shopping cart platform

There are lots of shopping carts available, many of which are designed specifically to support ecommerce businesses. But how can you tell which cart will help streamline your business versus options that add cumbersome, unnecessary features?

One of the main points to remember when selecting a shopping cart platform is to take into account not just your current cart requirements, but how and where you see your ecommerce business expanding in the future. By taking into account the ability to grow your business – both vertically and horizontally – in the future when selecting your shopping cart solution today, you create a smooth transition as your company’s sales increase.

Features to look for when selecting a shopping cart solution:

• Multi-store management capabilities
• The ability to add new URLs or themes
• A cart that is easy to customize without requiring lots of additional coding
• A cart with a vibrant network of partners and members
• Frequent updates that keep pace with current technology and consumer shopping habits
• An open API for easy future connections
• A cart with specific B2B features, if yours is a B2B company

A flexible ecommerce integration system

Your ability to fulfill orders in a streamlined manner is dependent on the flexibility and performance of your integrations. Not only should your ecommerce integration software mesh seamlessly with your shopping cart, but it must be able to integrate with other services, such as your company’s fulfillment network.

As with your shopping cart, remember that your ecommerce integration software should be designed to expand with your business, without requiring additional custom coding or deep development. As your ecommerce business expands into multiple domains, your integration platform should be able to keep up by accommodating different scenarios and workflows without requiring a separate system for each.

Remember that to keep your ecommerce business operating without any hiccups, you should select an ecommerce integration software platform that features automatic updates to documents, so you are not required to hire a custom software developer.

A robust fulfillment network

Being able to fulfill orders fast and accurately is at the heart of any successful ecommerce business. If you’re fulfilling orders in-house, make sure your ERP system adapts to your process and doesn’t slow you down.

If you aren’t able to fulfill orders in-house – or you have outgrown this option – then be sure to partner with a proven network. There are many services with long track records of reliable and efficient order fulfillment. Amazon FBA, eFulfilliment Service, and Newgistics are a few – but there are plenty of other services available.

Before selecting the right fulfillment partner, do your homework. Not only look at pricing for actual order fulfillment (usually tied to the size and weight of the products you are shipping), but consider costs associated with storing your products in your partner’s warehouse, how well the partner manages returns and their level of customer service – both toward you and the people buying your products.

Finally, examine how easily their software can integrate with your own ERP, ecommerce or shopping cart systems. If you’re using an all-in-one integration platform that includes this fulfillment partner already, you’ll be able to avoid custom development that drains time and slows down your operation.

New ecommerce solutions are emerging daily to help online businesses sell more efficiently. Don’t get mired in aging systems just because it’s the way you’ve always done business. As you utilize these tools to streamline your ecommerce business, you free up time and space to innovate additional products and services that will better serve your customers.

For more information about how Alluvia’s all-in-one ecommerce integration software can help streamline your business, contact us today.

Today’s ecommerce ecosystem has opened up new revenue opportunities for online retailers.

When you have a reliable ecommerce system in place, you can attract customers from any demographic or location, without needing to present your products in person. With the elimination of language and location barriers, the entire world becomes your storefront.

Of course, with all these opportunities come real-world logistical challenges. ecommerce businesses are forced to operate in an extremely fast-paced environment, as customers’ tolerance for waiting shrinks daily. Major online retailers like Amazon have set a new standard in customer expectation that orders will be shipped and received in a matter of days, if not sooner. Whether you fulfill orders in-house or rely on a fulfillment partner, your business must be able to fulfill orders right away. And of course, in the small world that is online sales, your customers have the final say, as they publicly share their experiences with your company in the form of online reviews or forums.

All components of your supply chain must be working flawlessly in order to ensure that you can deliver not only your fantastic products but a superior customer service experience as well.

At the crossroads of all these moving parts is your ecommerce integration software, which can streamline your sales process – or slow you down dramatically. With the right integration software, all these challenges become opportunities – to sell more, expand your product line and serve your customers better.

The ideal ecommerce integration software helps you boosts sales by

Introducing new revenue opportunities

The right ecommerce integration software enables to you to approach large retail chains without worrying about being able to integrate with their software.

Enabling omni-channel integration

No matter where your customer buys your product – from mobile to desktop to a brick & mortar store – your ordering process appears seamless, easy to use and completely reliable.

Allowing smooth integration with external fulfillment networks

Your successful ecommerce business should not be limited to selling only on your own website. If you partner with other popular ecommerce channels (ex. eBay), your ecommerce integration software must be able to handle order requests coming from a multitude of different directions, each with varying requirements.

Showing only what is in stock and available

Your ecommerce integration software should be able to display only the items that you’re able to fulfill immediately and display dates when out-of-stock products will become available. This eliminates the customer backlash that accompanies surprise wait times that are revealed after payment has been made.

Facilitating seamless communication with your fulfillment partners

If you’re using a third-party order fulfillment network, the right integration software will streamline your back-and-forth. All-in-one platforms consolidate information into a single place, integrating your shopping cart, ERP, and your partner’s system into a single transaction that is updated in real-time, so it’s easy to track.

Keeping pace with integrated documents updates

Your integration software should provide you with updated documents, without requiring the need for custom coding connections as information requirements change. All-in-one platforms prioritize this since connection requirements change frequently.

Building trust with your customers

Customers won’t tolerate gaps in communication when ordering from an online retailer. Your integration software should provide reliable two-way communication during every step of the transaction, keeping your customers informed with an accurate picture of when they will receive their order.

Speeding your order fulfillment

By replacing manual processes with integration software, you eliminate time-consuming actions that drain man-hours from your operation. When you use an automated integration system, your product managers can focus on your organization’s bigger order sales picture, not individual transactions.

Enabling drop shipping opportunities

A robust integration platform means you can expand your product offerings via drop shipping. When your software integrates efficiently with outside vendors and presents a seamless experience for your customers, you can offer a greater variety of products to your customers under your brand umbrella.

Don’t let your integration software get in the way of growing your sales. Gone are the days of relying on cumbersome, custom-developed integration software. Emerging platforms prioritize speed, efficiency, and flexibility – all the things that today’s ecommerce business needs to be successful.

For information on how Alluvia’s all-in-one platform can streamline your ecommerce sales process, contact us today.