Automate e-commerce with your head

Implementing automation processes between your sales platform and your accounting and warehousing system saves you time and allows you to devote it to business development. In developing your e-commerce, however, you need to be careful not to.... not to overdo it and create something redundant. How to approach it professionally, advises Artur Halik, Head of Shoper Premium.

E-commerce platforms allow automating business processes in trade and marketing, among other things, to set up a customer's purchase path, create a product catalog and design customer communications. The development of the online market and the evolution of customer needs have led to the creation of additional systems to automatically issue an invoice and send it to the customer, synchronize the inventory with the warehouse based on orders from the e-commerce store, or a CRM that allows precise segmentation of customers.

Without dedicated integration, it is necessary to "manually" rewrite data from one place to another: the number of orders, invoicing to them, changing stock levels. If the store is small, and the monthly number of orders does not exceed a dozen then such a solution still makes sense. On the other hand, when there are dozens or hundreds of them, it's worth checking how integrations work to help automate these processes. This will allow you to focus on growing your business, not just keeping it running.

Where to start?

The introduction of integration should have a specific purpose. Often the most important in e-commerce is the automatic synchronization of inventory. It is especially useful for companies that distribute goods online and offline, and both points use different software to work. An example is the popular combination of the Shoper platform for an online store and the Subiekt GT warehouse and accounting system for a stationary store. The use of integration between the two adjusts the inventory in the store in real time based on the number of orders. Once an order is processed in the store, accounting documents can also be automatically issued.

How many businesses - so many needs

Case study - integration in a small store - ga-gatki.pl

In small stores, it is important to select a solution that is optimal for the store both technologically and cost-wise. For ga-gatki.pl, which is present on the Shoper platform, we were looking for an integration that would allow automatic invoicing after payment of an order. After a conversation and analysis of needs, we decided that the Shoper Invoice and Warehouse application was the most advantageous and met all the company's expectations. It allows automatic issuance of an invoice ready for retrieval from the customer's purchase history at any time. The data is transferred via API and there is no need to transcribe it from one system to another. The solution is available in the App Store of the Shoper platform (similar to the ready-made integrations WFMag, WF Integrator, Subiekt GT, and soon Subiekt Nexo Pro). The implementation process required creating an account in the app and connecting it to the store. We completed the work within 1 day. With a small outlay of time and resources, the ga-gatki.pl store received a package of needed functions - intergration with a simple warehouse and accounting system and access for the customer to purchase history (with downloadable invoices in PDF).

What is the purpose of integration?

Since e-business relies heavily on technology, it's easy to overestimate your needs and create an overly elaborate structure for a store that has only a few products and few orders. Or one that will have to be put up from scratch, because - although the modules themselves are cheap - their implementations are no longer necessarily so. It's good to have questions ready for a potential contractor, who can anticipate what problems might occur and what solutions to choose for e-commerce, warehouse, accounting and customer service. However, it is crucial not to lose sight of the purpose of these integrations and not to integrate for the sake of integrating.

How to combine?

How to combine a store platform and a warehouse and accounting system? It's best to enable a new store on the most versatile software, which also gives you the lowest maintenance costs and allows you to see if the business will "catch on." For an already operating store, the easiest way is to choose a warehouse and accounting system that has an integrator with our store.

How about ERP?

Given the number of possible combinations and modules you create within your e-commerce management system, you may be questioning - why not invest in ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) right away? These complex business ecosystems combine many of the functions needed from the perspective of the largest enterprises. Such a solution, for example, is SAP (Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing), which allows you to manage, among other things, finance, controlling, human resources, logistics, and offers additional modules related to the specifics of the industry. For a small and medium-sized online store, where most processes are controlled by the owner or a designated person, such a number of functions and their detail are not necessary.

Case study - integration in a large store - sklep.arkana.pl

A large store needs, above all, a stable system - regardless of whether it handles dozens or hundreds of orders per day. In the case of sklep.arkana.pl, the solution we were looking for additionally had to be integrated with Vendo's previously used and maintained ERP system. We used an existing integrator created by the ERP software manufacturer to integrate with the SaaS version of Shoper. In doing so, we retained the entire workflow built by the client. The implementation went according to plan - after checking the integration capabilities and available tools. The implementation was coordinated by one person from the Shoper Premium department, responsible for examining the existing operation of the store and successfully migrating the data. The coordinator kept the client informed about the ongoing implementation work. The result of the implementation was the full integration of the Shoper store system with the Vendo system, which allows for the exchange of data in terms of orders, customers, products, and B2C and B2B customers (and a variety of price offers for them). The client retained full automation of data transfer, including accounting data in the legacy system, its consistency and access to the stable and fast Shoper store platform.

Simple questions and difficult answers

The search for an effective e-commerce solution is best started by asking myself questions that will help: 1) Which sentences related to running the company do I want to focus on and which ones do I want to delegate and why?, 2) Which activities take up the most of my time?, 3) Which of the systems or applications used in the company work and why?, 4) Do the long-term savings from implementing integration outweigh the cost of implementing it, what will I gain and what will I lose? Answering these types of questions will allow you to verify your ideas and plan specific actions.