Native ecommerce integration vs. iPaaS: Benefits, challenges, and considerations

3 key takeaways

   –> Native ecommerce integration is a point-to-point integration created by the app.
   –> This solution is great for simple use cases with limited endpoints.
   –> For complex, scalable integrations, an iPaaS is the best choice.

The number of applications required to run a thriving ecommerce business has surged, with the average business relying on 371 SaaS apps in 2023. You’re making a big investment into your tech stack and every tool you add should help you deliver better customer experiences, capture more data, and get better visibility into your products.

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. If your systems aren’t integrated, it’s easy for data to become siloed–requiring manual tasks to move processes forward.

Some ecommerce apps now provide ready-made, built in integrations with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Resource Management) systems. The problem is these integrations can be limiting. To determine if a native ecommerce integration will meet your specific needs, let’s dive into what they are, the benefits and challenges, and how to select the right option.

Native ecommerce integration basics

A native ecommerce integration is a point-to-point integration that’s designed and maintained by the application vendor. Once implemented, data can flow from one app to another. 

This solution has a variety of benefits, but it also has limitations that you should consider before implementing it.

Benefits

• Out-of-the-box: This solution is usually quick and easy to configure and implement even for non-technical users.
• Inexpensive: The cost of native integrations is usually relatively low and sometimes free.

Challenges

• Limited functionality and extensibility: This solution typically addresses only a few popular use cases and isn’t extensible to support additional use cases.
• No customization: Native connectors typically provide no ability for customization.
• Decentralized: You can leverage your business team to source and implement these integrations, but this solution limits your ability to address more complex processes that span multiple systems.
• No visibility or control over errors: Visibility and error handling is limited, often with no ability to identify the cause of an error, to troubleshoot, or to recover data without manually rekeying it.
• Lacks robustness to scale: In ecommerce, data can dramatically increase during peak sales seasons. Native integrations typically have poor scalability with growing volumes of data, such as sales orders.
• Security risks: As the number of point-to-point integrations grows, the risk of non-compliance with data security and privacy standards becomes significant.

Native integrations vs. iPaaS

While native integrations can be a good first step, they are not an effective long-term solution. As you drive digital transformation at your organization, you’ll need to automate more and more business processes. This can span every department and encompass hundreds of applications.

As your ecommerce tech stack grows in complexity, you’ll need a solution that can scale with you. That’s where an iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) comes in. An advanced iPaaS, like Celigo, allows you to integrate your entire tech stack with a user-friendly interface, so your business teams can create, modify, and manage their own integrations. The platform also has the capability to empower your IT team to build complex flows and deliver on larger automation initiatives.

With all of your integrations managed in a single platform, you can easily add new applications, scale your processes, and extend your integrations into new use cases. You will also gain full visibility into errors, so you can troubleshoot them. Celigo’s iPaaS has prebuilt connectors and templates for hundreds of ecommerce use cases for easy implementation.

Discover how Celigo customer Designs for Health was able to add a new storefront in just five minutes.

Investing in an iPaaS can come with some sticker shock, but the ROI you can see should calm your nerves. By driving more efficient operations, an iPaaS can reduce both IT and business team costs. Celigo customers can expect to save $820,000 over three years.

Choosing the right solution

Picking a solution that can handle your current needs and grow with you in the future is key to successfully managing your integrations and driving efficiency. Celigo’s iPaaS enables plug-and-play like integration for hundreds of ecommerce point solutions and can help you customize them for even your most complex use cases.

To dive deeper into automating your ecommerce processes check out our eBook, “Scaling business process automation: Comparing integration technologies” or for personalized information for your team, contact us today.