Ecommerce tech stacks are expanding rapidly, and although adopting new and innovative tools should enhance customer experiences, it often leads to inefficiencies and frustrations.

Unfortunately, without proper integration, each new system—whether it’s a digital storefront, payment processor, or product information management system—ends up siloed. This lack of integration leads to manual processes and repetitive data entry tasks. And as more tools are added, complexity grows, and these manual processes begin to break down.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. With the right integration strategy, you can unlock the full potential of each tool in your ecommerce tech stack, driving efficiency and delivering the smooth experience your customers expect. 

Developing an effective ecommerce integration strategy begins with choosing the right integration solution for your business. To make the best decision, it’s essential to conduct a thorough assessment of your unique needs.

Here’s what to consider when implementing an integration solution, along with the options available to you.

Key capabilities to look for

To fully optimize your ecommerce operations—from order-to-cash to returns management—you need to connect your entire tech stack with an effective integration solution. The right solution will break down silos, maximize efficiency, and help you improve customer experiences. The wrong choice, however, can lead to endless integration backlogs and high operational costs.

To identify the ideal solution for your business, assess each option based on these five capabilities:

• Scalability: Choose an integration solution that can grow with your business, supporting new channels and marketplaces without needing constant reconfiguration.
• Usability: Look for solutions that are easy to implement and manage to minimize the burden on your IT team and allow non-technical users to build integrations.
• Error management: Opt for a platform that provides visibility into integration errors, enabling your teams to quickly address and resolve issues.
• Customization: Different businesses have different requirements, so a flexible integration solution that can be tailored to your specific workflows is crucial for maximizing efficiency.
• Security and compliance: Make sure the integration solution you choose meets your security and compliance requirements, especially if you’re dealing with sensitive customer data or payment information.

By keeping these key aspects in mind, you can ensure your integration strategy not only streamlines operations but also supports long-term growth and customer satisfaction.

Evaluating your options

There are several approaches you can take to integrate your ecommerce tech stack, each offering unique advantages and potential drawbacks. Understanding these options can help you determine which solution aligns best with your business requirements, operational goals, and technical capabilities.

Vendor-provided (native) integrations 

Many ecommerce platforms provide point-to-point integrations that address common use cases for popular applications like enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems or ecommerce marketplaces. These vendor-provided integrations are ideal for straightforward scenarios and data exchanges between two applications. 

• Benefits: This solution is easy to implement and can be managed by business system administrators. It’s also relatively inexpensive, though access to APIs and integration services may require higher-tier subscriptions.
• Challenges: Vendor-provided integrations are typically limited to common use cases and often lack scalability and customization options. This approach provides minimal visibility into error handling and can introduce risks of non-compliance with data security and privacy standards.

Coded point-to-point integrations

Skilled developers can write custom code to integrate your ecommerce tech stack for you. Coded point-to-point integrations are a good choice for businesses with large development teams who have the bandwidth to implement, manage, and maintain integrations.

• Benefits: This integration solution is fully customizable, allowing your unique requirements to be met. 
• Challenges: Coded point-to-point integrations are typically expensive and require technical resources to build, manage, and maintain. With this approach, your technical team is responsible for continuous endpoint management, and your business team has no visibility into integrations. 

Workflow automation platforms

Workflow automation platforms are designed to streamline and automate specific tasks and processes within an organization. This can be an effective solution for task-based use cases, but it’s frequently used incorrectly for data integration.

• Benefits: Workflow automation platforms are designed for business users, making them fast and easy to implement. This solution also accelerates task-based process automation. 
• Challenges: With limited data integration functionality, poor visibility and error handling, and the inability to support complex use cases, this solution offers limited scalability. 

Traditional iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service)

Traditional iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) solutions enable organizations to accelerate and centralize business process automation by equipping developers with a range of cloud services. While these platforms enhance productivity, they typically still rely on dedicated developer resources.

• Benefits: Traditional iPaaS solutions enhance developer productivity, lower integration costs, speed up time-to-value, and ensure compliance with security and privacy standards.
• Challenges: This solution requires dedicated technical resources, which can lead to bottlenecks.

Advanced iPaaS

Advanced iPaaS platforms go beyond traditional iPaaS by enabling business users to build, deploy, and monitor their own integrations. With prebuilt integrations that accelerate time-to-value and AI-powered features that bridge skill gaps, business users can create robust integrations without needing developer assistance. This ensures that IT is no longer a bottleneck, and everyone in your organization can contribute to integration and automation efforts. 

• Benefits: Advanced iPaaS solutions offer faster time-to-value and a low total cost of ownership. This solution also optimizes efficiency, offers greater scalability, and boosts innovation.
• Challenges: This solution does require training for business users.

The perfect fit for your ecommerce business

For businesses aiming to boost efficiency and enhance customer experiences, an advanced iPaaS is the ideal solution. This robust integration platform enables full automation across your ecommerce operations, providing a seamless customer experience while greatly improving operational efficiency.

With an advanced iPaaS solution, every member of your team can contribute to your automation efforts, speeding up innovation and allowing you to adopt new technologies with ease. The days of relying solely on IT to manage integrations are over—your business users can take charge, boosting agility and modernization for your entire organization.

Don’t let your tech stack hold you back. Empower your business with a solution that maximizes innovation and efficiency. Curious to learn more about how an advanced iPaaS can transform your business? Dive deeper with our ebook, “The integration blueprint.”