The role of eCommerce connectivity in the changing API economy - Part I

It is clear to anyone paying attention that the eCommerce landscape is changing rapidly. According to a Global eCommerce Report from the International Post Corporation, in 2017 alone, eCommerce grew to an estimated $2.3tn, and by 2020, it is expected that the eCommerce market will reach $4 trillion. eCommerce is now the fastest growing global channel.  

This represents a specific challenge for solution and service providers because it is more than simply setting up a website and creating pre-built connectors to the top commerce platforms; it requires organizations to think about their overall connectivity and market reach strategy as well as processes that span various systems––from Order Management Systems and Point of Sale Systems to CRMs.  

IT must now use various technologies and integrate their underlying data to improve internal eCommerce processes and bridge the gap between the digital and the physical. For many IT teams, there are three principal challenges that they must overcome when it comes to eCommerce:  

1. Inability to deliver eCommerce projects at the speed demanded by the business. Connecting your application to multiple commerce platforms, marketplaces and systems requires a lengthy development process that restricts internal IT processes, doesn’t meet business needs and frustrates the customer experience.  
2. Being sidetracked form the organization’s core focus. Due to the first challenge above, IT and other departments shift development resources away from innovation and into integration to make sure that the product works without requiring customers to stitch applications/systems together manually influencing the whole organization.  
3. The IT landscape is not built for a connected customer experience. Product and customer data reside everywhere. To be able to create a connected customer experience by leveraging this data, IT departments must integrate various systems––from Order Management Systems (OMS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to Point of Sale (POS) systems.  

Overcoming the above challenges is necessary to remain competitive in the eCommerce space. Organizations must make integration their product’s secret weapon, and drive value out of products faster by tapping into more merchants that operate more and more in multiple commerce platforms and marketplaces. Now more than ever integration is no longer a nice-to-have feature but a crucial strategy to success. For software providers, it’s a prerequisite for creating the best customer experiences and growing their market opportunity. 

Our mission at Itembase is to connect and unify the fragmented eCommerce connectivity market so that application and solution providers can help merchants grow. Increasingly, we hear a lot of our customers talk about the importance of planning their connectivity strategy as they use a mix of applications and commerce platforms to enable unprecedented collaboration with customers, prospects, partners and supply chains. It is clear to us and our customers that organizations need to proactively plan, build, manage and scale their commerce connectivity. What is your connectivity strategy to reach your merchant customers through global commerce systems? 

 I'll write about the impacts on other departments and industries in a series of Articles

DM me or leave a comment and we’ll schedule a showcase session of the Itembase Connectivity Platform and talk valuable business cases