As a Microsoft Dynamics trusted partner, it is our core responsibility to be educated on our subject. Our clients expect us to provide guidance and assistance in making technology decisions that help them grow their business. eCommerce is one of the hot topics in the post COVID era of today. Ongoing pandemic has further fueled the growth of eCommerce. Almost all organizations, whether large, medium, or small, looking for ways to expand into the online world. Most companies turn to their technology partners to guide them in the right direction and help them choose the best available option for a fully integrated eCommerce solution. There are various solutions available in the market. Broadly, they can be classified into two categories. Unified and Enterprise eCommerce solution.
Unified eCommerce:
These solutions have been developed using an ERP solution as the backend. Since these solutions are based on the ERP data structure, they are highly integrated with the ERP system on which they are built.
This benefit of high-end to end integration with the ERP system is also the biggest disadvantage of Unified eCommerce solutions at the same time. This makes them limited to the functionality of the ERP they are based on, consequently, have a very small customer base, a much smaller development team, and having no independent developers limit the ability of these solutions to keep up with the fast-changing world of digital commerce.
Enterprise eCommerce:
Enterprise eCommerce, on the other hand, is a software system that caters to the needs of a large number of businesses and their multifaceted requirements. Also, self-hosted enterprise solutions are available. Moreover, these platforms can promptly respond to the growing needs of the business by quickly adapting advanced features and functionalities.
Advantages of Enterprise eCommerce over Unified eCommerce
Greater Market Reach & Penetration:
With the platform availability in different markets, it is easier for the business to open multiple stores and as a result able to sell products in different regions. It's hard to compete with these solutions as they are specialized and dominant in their respective areas.
Reduced On-boarding Time:
Enterprise eCommerce solutions are easy to implement. Also, there is a big community of implementors available to go live in a much shorter time.
Big ecosystem:
Most Enterprise eCommerce solutions are open-source that create a big community of developers of add-on solutions. Enterprise eCommerce companies employ thousands of employees and have a team of hundreds of thousands of independent developers.
Lower TCO:
Unlike Unified eCommerce, you are not dependent on one company that can dictate how much they want to charge for the add-ons. With a large number of independent extensions developers, the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of Enterprise eCommerce solution is less over the period.
Scalability & Flexibility:
Enterprise eCommerce solutions are more extensive, dynamic, and are compatible with the latest technologies. The whole team of employees and also the independent developers are all focused on improving the capabilities of the product. Enterprise eCommerce solutions are capable of quickly adapting to the ever-changing world of eCommerce.
Add-ons:
An extensive range of add-ons is available to the users usually on the marketplace. Language packs, google analytics, sales analytics, social media marketing, SEO capabilities, to name a few.
Vendor solutions:
A large number of vendors develop integrations on their own to integrate with Enterprise eCommerce. For example, Shipwire, ShipWorks, and many other companies develop their solutions to integrate with well-known Enterprise eCommerce solutions which include Magento, Shopify, and Woo Commerce.
Feel free to reach out to us. So, if you need any help to assist your customers in deciding on an eCommerce solution that works best for them. Please visit , email us at info@x2x-ecommerce.com, or call us at +18889293266
