The importance of data integrations

Behind every successful ecommerce company is a savvy integration provider. By connecting all of your business’ core processes, experienced providers like Patchworks enable you to run your operation smoothly and efficiently.

However, integration isn’t a simple task, and there’s lots of things which can go wrong. In that case, you might find that a poor, inexperienced integration provider is more of a hindrance than a help.

To emphasise the importance of diligent data connections, we’ve thought about some of the things which can negatively impact your business if your integrations aren’t up to scratch.

Slow website speeds

For an ecommerce company which does all or most of its business online, a slow website is an enormous problem. Most people will abandon a store if it takes more than three seconds to load, so it’s important to make sure it’s running as fast as possible without compromising too much on features.

A poor integration can actually affect those load speeds. Imagine all of your data is trying to fit through a tiny tunnel at once; it’s going to take a while for it all to make it through to the other side. A powerful, well integrated system lets that data flow properly so any systems you’ve connected with your website load properly and promptly.

Less efficient customer checkout

There’s a multi-step process for turning website visitors into conversions, and a big part of that involves their experience when checking out. Cart abandonment is a common issue for online retailers; whether it’s due to poor design, lack of delivery options or something as simple as your customer forgetting to go through with the order.

When you’re putting together your tech stack, it’s good to have plenty of delivery options with a direct path to your fulfilment and shipping system; your third-party logistics (3PL) company, for example. With a poor integration, those systems can struggle under the weight of your traffic and cause major issues for you. Someone’s order might not go through, in which case they’ll probably go to your competitor to find a similar product.

Reliable integrations are all about ensuring your data gets from one place to another without getting clogged or lost. With an integration provider, you can make sure customers run into less problems at checkout.

Duplicate data

Quality data integrations need to be able to recognise a single piece of data and avoid registering it multiple times. For some companies who do their own integrations or outsource to an inexperienced provider, this is a common issue which doesn’t always have a quick solution.

There’s a few ways it can negatively affect your day-to-day operation. One of the most significant is how it impacts the processes and applications you’ve integrated; say you’ve enlisted a company to send out automatic texts and emails to your customers. If you’re plagued with data duplication issues, you might end up sending multiple identical messages to your customers which can be damaging to your reputation.

It could even affect your fulfilment and shipping. A faulty integration with your 3PL or WMS could accidentally duplicate an order, wasting time and money.

Make sure you’re outsourcing to a trusted integration platform which can combat data duplication as and when it happens.

Increased bottom-line costs

As an ecommerce company, you might be looking at connecting dozens of processes to core business applications. With that many integrations, there’s going to be huge infrastructure costs if you’re handling everything internally.

With poor integrations comes problems which need patching, and it can be a waste of time and money to keep allocating your IT department’s resources to fixing issues which could be better solved by a dedicated provider.

By reducing the costs spent on outside consultation, resources and easing the pressure on your IT team, you’re saving money on your bottom-line. Partnering with an experienced and knowledgeable integration provider is the best way to lift the burden.

Next steps

If you’re looking for an experienced provider to handle your integrations and help you scale your business, Patchworks has a knowledgeable team of data experts to help you through any problem that comes your way. Get in touch through our website and speak to one of our consultants.