Five things to know about data integration for B2B ecommerce:
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B2B ecommerce companies usually integrate data for business intelligence activities like data analysis. However, many data integration solutions only cater to ecommerce companies in the B2B space.
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Data integration for B2B ecommerce typically involves moving data from disparate sources to a centralized target system like a data warehouse. B2B e-commerce companies can then run that data through BI tools like Looker and Tableau.
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There are various data integration techniques for B2B ecommerce, including ETL, ELT, ReverseETL, and Change Data Capture.
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Some of the challenges associated with data integration for B2B ecommerce include data quality, data loss, and data governance legislation like GDPR and CCPA.
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Integrate.io is a low-code/no-code data warehouse integration platform that B2B companies in the ecommerce sector can use to move data between sources.
Business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce companies share many of the same data integration obstacles as their business-to-consumer (B2C) counterparts—managing multiple data types, abiding by data governance guidelines, merging data with partners, etc. Still, many data integration solutions cater specifically to ecommerce enterprises in the B2C space, so integrating data remains a challenge for the B2B sector. A data warehouse integration platform built for e-commerce that targets B2B companies could be the answer. In this blog post, learn more about data integration for B2B ecommerce, the challenges B2B companies face when integrating data, and the best solution for these issues.
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Integrate.io is a new data warehouse integration platform that serves B2B companies in the ecommerce industry. It moves customer, sales, marketing, checkout, self-service, and product data from siloed systems to a warehouse for business intelligence without lots of code or data engineering, providing a seamless data integration user experience. Email hello@integrate.io to learn more about how Integrate.io drives data analysis in your organization and improves customer relationships.
What is Data Integration for B2B Ecommerce?
Much exists online about data integration in the B2C space, but there are few details about the benefits of integrating data for B2B companies, especially those in the ecommerce space. While data integration methods and technologies for B2B ecommerce companies are largely the same as those for business-to-consumer enterprises, their reasons for integrating data are different. B2B companies in ecommerce generally use data integration to generate insights into how they sell products and services to other businesses.
The advantages of data integration for B2B ecommerce are numerous. By integrating data into a centralized location, these companies have a single source of truth (SSOT) for all their data activities, making it easier to run data through business intelligence (BI) tools. Data integration can also remove the problem of data 'silos' in B2B ecommerce (more on that later).
You can integrate data between various sources such as customer management relationship (CRM) systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, ecommerce platforms, SaaS tools, apps, email marketing automation tools, relational databases, transactional databases, and social media platforms.
What BI Insights Can B2B Companies Generate After Ecommerce Integration?
Data integration for analytics initiatives can uncover many insights about a B2B ecommerce company's data-to-day operations:
Sales
Data visualizations, graphs, and charts that BI tools generate can uncover insights about a B2B enterprise's ecommerce sales processes such as lead generation, lead nurturing, and moving B2B customers through sales funnels. With this newfound information, companies can improve sales activities, better tailor product information, optimize business processes, generate more revenue, enhance sales functionality, and further enhance data integration for B2B ecommerce.
Marketing
BI tools tell B2B enterprises about current and future marketing campaigns that target business customers. Companies can learn which marketing techniques resonate with customers and which campaigns provide the greatest investment returns.
Customer Service
BI tools also tell B2B business enterprises about all of the customer service processes, channels, and technologies they use in their company. Companies can discover how to improve service for business clients and enhance the overall customer experience or buying experience.
Predicting Future Outcomes
BI tools make it easier to forecast future outcomes for a B2B ecommerce business, such as a potential data breach or another emergency. By identifying trends and patterns in data, companies can also identify future cost-cutting and business growth opportunities or discover supply chain or inventory management issues.
What are the Challenges of Data Integration for B2B Ecommerce?
B2B ecommerce companies often collect, process, and store large data sets across multiple systems but struggle to run this data through BI tools like Tableau and Looker. That's because data exists in silos—data repositories that are not fully accessible by everyone in the same organization. Silos happen because different departments with a B2B ecommerce operation use different systems with different data formats, creating barriers to data integration.
Although data silos also occur for B2C companies, many data integration ecommerce solutions—those that claim to remove the pain points associated with integrating ecommerce data—fail to cater to B2B enterprises. These tools might not integrate with systems typically used for business-to-business operations, such as B2B CRMs, or platforms that automate the selling of products and services to other companies.
Other challenges of data integration for B2B ecommerce are similar to those experienced by B2C ecommerce companies. B2B enterprises might it difficult to comply with—or be unaware of—data governance legislation, for example. Take GDPR, legislation that impacts all ecommerce companies that deal with customers in the European Union (and the United Kingdom), which lays down very specific regulations for data integration. Enterprises that don't comply with these rules could receive heavy fines and ruin their business reputation. Other data governance principles, such as CCPA (for companies that sell products and services to customers in the state of California) and HIPAA (for companies that sell healthcare products and manage sensitive patient information), are equally as important.
Then there are B2B ecommerce data integration challenges such as data quality and data loss. Many data integration methods and platforms can degrade the quality of data when moving it between sources and even cause the loss of valuable information for business needs.
Integrate.io is a new data warehouse integration tool for B2B ecommerce. It streamlines data integration by removing jargon and providing a low-code/no-code drag-and-drop interface. Its out-of-the-box connectors move data from a source to a warehouse, allowing you to generate powerful insights into your ecommerce activities without worrying about data loss, data quality, or data governance. Email hello@integrate.io to learn more.
Different Data Integration Techniques for B2B Ecommerce
There are various ways you can carry out data integration for B2B ecommerce.
ETL
Extract, Transform, Load (ELT) is a data integration technique that extracts big data from a source such as a B2B ecommerce platform, cleanses and transforms the data into a suitable format and structure for analytics, and loads the data to a warehouse—a type of data management system that supports BI operations. Popular data warehouses include Snowflake, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Redshift.
ELT
Extract, Load, Transform (ELT) is a technique that extracts data from a source, loads it to a warehouse, and then transforms the data for analytics. Ecommerce companies with lots of unstructured data or complex data sets might benefit from ELT more than ETL.
ReverseETL
ReverseETL moves data from a warehouse to an 'operational system of record' such as an ecommerce SaaS tool. That helps ecommerce teams continue to use their favorite software and systems.
Change Data Capture
Change Data Capture (CDC) monitors changes to a database, such as deleted datasets or updates to columns or rows. Ecommerce companies can view all of these changes in real-time.
How Integrate.io Helps With Data Integration for B2B Ecommerce
Data integration using one of the above methods usually involves advanced coding and data engineering, skills that many successful B2B ecommerce companies lack. Integrate.io simplifies the integration process by moving data to a centralized target system (or operational system of record) without lots of programming, making it suitable for companies across the B2B ecommerce industry.
Integrate.io has a drag-and-drop click-and-point interface and over 100 out-of-the-box connectors that move data from one location to another seamlessly, meaning data integration is easier than ever before. Unlike other data warehouse integration tools, it specifically targets ecommerce companies like yours. Other features include excellent customer service, simple pricing, and Salesforce-to-Salesforce integration. Integrate.io also reduces the likelihood of data loss, improves data quality, and helps you abide by data governance legislation such as GDPR.
Data Integration for B2B Ecommerce: Final Word
B2B companies in the ecommerce sector need to integrate data as much as those specializing in B2C. However, most data integration solutions only target the latter, making data integration for B2B e-commerce an ongoing challenge. Choosing a data warehouse integration platform that streamlines B2B ecommerce can solve this problem.
Integrate.io is a data warehouse integration tool for B2B ecommerce companies that want to warehouse data for analytics. With no jargon and no-code/low-code, you can optimize data warehousing in your enterprise and generate unparalleled insights into your business. Email hello@integrate.io or schedule a meeting for an intro call and improve data integration for B2B ecommerce.