Part 4: Order Completion

By: Mike Catalfamo

Completing the order using an integrated solution involves updating the order on your E-Commerce site with the relevant shipping details such as the tracking number, shipment date, quantities shipped for each product. This typically triggers a few events on your E-Commerce site such as an email to the customer and release of payment into your bank account. Since this is relatively straightforward, let’s look at shipping in general.

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Webstore Integration eCommerce, ecommerce integration, Knowledge, Mike C, Series

Part 3: Inventory Management

By: Mike Catalfamo

Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at some of the pitfalls you might encounter during an integration project and I have provided some ideas about how to approach them. If you haven’t read the earlier posts yet, you can start with the first post here.

My goal for this post is to highlight some things to consider about inventory as it pertains to integration. Selling ice cream is not the same as selling clothing which is not the same as selling books or services so I will try to keep this high-level. If you have any more specific questions or feedback, I would love to hear from you.

Updated: Since posting, I received some feedback that I didn’t provide some clear tips about how to handle unit/pricing conversions. Comments and feedback are encouraged!

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EDI Integration, Technology Corner, Webstore Integration, eCommerce eCommerce, ecommerce integration, Knowledge, Mike C, Series

Part 2: Creating Orders Automatically

By: Mike Catalfamo

The goal of the order posting process into the accounting system is to automatically create a document such as a Sales Order that would reflect the same order details in the eCommerce cart that also satisfies the accounting and business systems requirements.  Refer back to the steps in the previous post, Overview of Order Fulfillment Cycle as we consider the following:

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EDI Integration, Technology Corner, Webstore Integration, eCommerce eCommerce, ecommerce integration, Knowledge, Mike C, Series

Part 1: Introduction

By: Mike Catalfamo

Being a business owner can have many challenges, particularly for small and medium sized companies.  Those who attempt to leverage the vast and rapidly-changing sea of technology can realize substantial operational efficiencies, gain valuable market insights and increase their competitive advantage; all of which translate into increased profits.

Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some ideas about what you can do as a business owner to minimize work and potential errors when working with data in disparate formats or systems.  To help illustrate this, I’m going to use an example of integrating an eCommerce cart with an ERP/Accounting System.  Throughout the series of articles, I will illustrate how Sandy our fictitious eCommerce owner runs her business and overcomes the challenges of re-keying data.  Before we begin, here are two important things you can do prior to undertaking an integration or automation project:

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Integration, Technology Corner, Webstore Integration, eBRIDGE Blog, eCommerce eCommerce, ecommerce integration, Knoweldge, Mike C, Series