Have you ever wondered what goes behind the scene of a successful Ecommerce business? It is not only a user-friendly experience of an eCommerce storefront, there is a complex network of processes such as payment processing, inventory management, management, accounting–the list goes on to keep a business running smoothly.

A successful eCommerce business understands that these processes are not individual events. They approach these processes as a unified system working together to establish relationships with customers.

Fortunately, modern e-commerce platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud enable you to consolidate all your business processes from payment integration, cart abandonment tracking, and tax calculation to many other processes under one unified system.

Regardless of the specific eCommerce platforms, you should establish the essential eCommerce integrations. By centralizing your tasks within a centralized platform, you not only simplify the management of business processes but also sets the stage for thriving online business.

Here in this blog, we will help you explore 5 essential e-commerce integrations for your storefront. So, let’s get started.

Boost Your Storefront with These 5 Essential E-commerce Integrations

Here are the most important eCommerce integrations you’ll need to run a successful storefront;

1. Payment Integrations

Imagine a scenario, a customer browsing through your eCommerce store, adding items to the cart. But when it comes to payment, there is a complex checkout process, payment errors, and limited payment methods, which can result in customers abandoning their cart.

A study conducted by Baymard Institute, states that 9% of shopping cart abandonments happen at checkout due to limited payment options.

Payment integration which supports multiple payment methods enables businesses to cater to different customer preferences and reduces barriers to purchase, ultimately, improving conversion rates.

Approximately, 18% of customers abandoned the cart as they didn’t trust the website with their credit card information. Therefore, you should consider a secure and trusted ecommerce payment integration to improve trust, and customer satisfaction, reducing the chance of fraud.

In summary, payment integration is one of the most essential eCommerce integrations a storefront that helps customers to make payments for your products conveniently using the payment method they are familiar with.

Some of the most popular payment integrations for eCommerce storefront includes:

PayPal

An American multinational financial technology company with more than 400 million active users worldwide.

According to a report from Business of Apps, more than 22.3 bn were completed on PayPal in 2022, accounting for $1.36 trillion transaction value.

The integration of PayPal with your eCommerce storefront will enable you to reach millions of customers globally with a faster, and more secure checkout experience.

PayPal offers support for multiple payment methods such as bank accounts, and credit & debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover). Customers can also make payments using the PayPal wallet. PayPal also offers support for recurring payments and subscriptions.

Stripe

Stripe is an online payment API that offers eCommerce businesses a way to accept payments both online and in-person from their customers globally.

According to a BuiltWith report, over 3,124,751 live websites use Stripe to accept payments including industry giants such as Shopify, Lyft, Slack, Amazon, Zoom, and so on.

Stripe offers support for 135+ currencies, enabling businesses to expand their reach globally. It offers support for 50+ payment methods including credit & debit cards, digital wallets, and local payments.

Stripe also offers flexible integration options for Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay, Afterpay, ACH Debit, SEPA Direct Debit, BECS Direct Debit–and the list goes on to cater to diverse business payment needs.

Stripe also has no-code options to use the Stripe payment feature for your business without writing any code. You can customize and deploy the payment interface Stripe dashboard speaking of your ecommerce storefront

2. Ratings and Reviews

Do you know 89% of customers prefer to read reviews before making a purchase online (source: TrustPilot)? This statistic underscores the power of reviews in influencing customer purchasing decisions.

By integrating the rating and reviews system with your E-Commerce Storefront, you enable your customers to share their experience, creating a valuable resource for your prospective customers.

There are several ways to integrate a review and rating system for your eCommerce storefront. One way, you can use a third-party review platform like Trustpilot, Kiyoh, or eKomi that can be integrated into your eCommerce storefront.

Customers can leave reviews and ratings for your product on these platforms that can be displayed on your website. For example, Salesforce Commerce Cloud can be integrated with the ratings & reviews systems PowerReviews. It enables enterprise brands, retailers, and merchants to cut down 75% of the backend development setup, ensuring seamless and quick setup.

The other way is to build a rating and review from scratch for your website. The easiest way to do so is to create customer forms, where they can leave reviews along with a system to display those reviews on your website. As part of custom development, you will also need to set up a review moderation system to ensure that the reviews are appropriate and relevant for your audience.

3. Tax Calculation

Tax calculation integration is essential for all eCommerce businesses be it B2B, or B2C. It enables eCommerce businesses to accurately calculate and collect taxes, thereby preparing tax returns efficiently.

Furthermore, the tax calculation integration is helpful to provide customers with a transparent checkout experience. Displaying accurate tax information before the final purchase stage, reducing cart abandonment rates.

The best practice is to use an automated accounting system that makes the tax calculation for your business with no or very minimal human intervention.

For instance, Salesforce Commerce Cloud can be easily integrated with Avalara AvaTax, a cloud-based sales and use tax calculation solution. It will automatically calculate the sales and use tax calculations for all transactions, invoices, and other activities.

4. Cart Abandonment Tracking

Cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges faced by eCommerce businesses. According to a study from Baymard Institute in 2020, the average cart abandonment rate was 68.8%. This means that 7 out of 10 customers leave the website without making a purchase.

Cart abandonment tracking integration with your eCommerce storefront helps you identify the reasons behind the cart abandonment rate. Therefore, you can implement the relevant strategies to re-engage potential customers who abandoned their carts.

There are several ways to integrate cart abandonment tracking with an eCommerce storefront. One way is to use Google Analytics, a free tool that can be used to track shopping cart abandonment rates for ecommerce businesses.

Apart from Google Analytics, there are some other third-party tools like API2Cart, which collects abandoned cart data from customers to make it easy for businesses to understand the specific reason behind the increased cart abandonment.

Some of the eCommerce platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud can help you create Abandoned Cart Solution Workflow. This workflow can help you understand customer behavior from abandoned carts to successful sales.

Let’s imagine a shopper that adds an item to the cart but doesn’t make a purchase. The shopper’s behavior is monitored by the Commerce Cloud and then shared with Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Marketing Cloud then listens to the shopper’s behavior and encourages them to purchase by engaging with personalized content on their preferred channel. The shopper receives the mail, and you can set up a click tracking for an email to make sure the shopper opens it and makes a purchase. If the customer does not make a purchase, Marketing Cloud will send a different email with more creativity to inspire them to make a purchase, once the purchase is made Marketing Cloud exits the customer from an abandoned cart journey.

This is how a cart abandonment tracking system can help you reduce abandonment rates and more purchases.

5. CMS Integrations

CMS integration is one of the most essential integrations for an eCommerce storefront. It enables eCommerce storefront owners to create, publish, and update content on the website without juggling complex coding needs, so a non-technical person can manage the storefront.

The most popular example of content management systems includes WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Salesforce CMS, and so on.

The process of CMS integration varies depending on the selection of the CMS and eCommerce platform you’re using. What remains unaffected by the selection of CMS and eCommerce platforms are the following best practices:

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of CMS and eCommerce platforms.
• Determine the integration method that is compatible with both your CMS and eCommerce platform.
• Install the necessary plugins or extensions to perform your CMS integration for your eCommerce storefront.
• Configure the CMS integrations according to your needs.
• Test the integration to make sure everything is working properly.

Final Take: Supercharge Your Storefront with these E-Commerce Integrations

Creating an eCommerce Storefront requires careful consideration of several integrations. Here we have talked about some of the most essential integrations to have on your eCommerce storefront. From payment integration, rating & reviews, tax calculation, and cart abandonment tracking to CMS integration, these integrations enable eCommerce storefronts to improve customer engagement, boost sales, and build a strong online presence.

Navigating the successful eCommerce storefront integration is a complex and time-consuming process. Therefore, it is essential to choose an eCommerce platform that offers easy integration capabilities. Salesforce Commerce Cloud is one such solution.

It is a complete eCommerce solution designed for growth-oriented eCommerce businesses be it B2B, B2C, or D2C. With Salesforce AppExchange it enables eCommerce storefront owners to integrate the eCommerce platform with third-party solutions to provide end-to-end unified commerce. It can also be integrated with other Salesforce Clouds such as Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud and to deliver personalized commerce experiences.

Want to build an eCommerce storefront on the Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Cyntexa with rich experience in the Salesforce ecosystem and Salesforce integration services and can help you utilize the full potential of this platform. Let’s connect with us to discover, how Cyntexa can help you build an eCommerce platform that helps you grow your business in today’s competitive age.

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