Our 5 top eCommerce store integrations

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – running an eCommerce business is hard work.

To say nothing of the challenges of people management, working with suppliers and bringing in steady sales, shipping and fulfilment alone can be a huge time sink.

That’s why the advice for retailers is often to focus on eliminating repeatable tasks through automation. In doing so, businesses can get time back – freeing up staff to focus on more pressing tasks.

Things get even better when you can automate entire areas of your business, like shipping and fulfilment. When you implement the right platforms – and get them talking to each other – shipping can become a hands-off operation that essentially runs itself.

Take Starshipit as an example. This is a platform that speaks directly to your eCommerce platform, so whenever a customer purchases a product, the order is immediately imported into Starshipit. From here, you can print shipping labels, any required documentation and fix invalid addresses with a single click.

A study from the Robotics Business Review noted that growth in eCommerce is driving higher levels of automation, specifically in the warehouse and information systems to fulfil orders efficiently.

In this article, we’re going to explore 5 of our most popular eCommerce integrations, but we also wanted to take the time to look at the idea of the ‘integration stack’ and why it’s so important.

What does your integration stack look like?

As we touched on earlier, you can seriously streamline your business operations when you not only introduce an automated platform but get different platforms talking to each other.

We’re talking about shipping and fulfilment in this article, but the principle can apply to many other parts of your business.

This is where the idea of an ‘integration stack’ comes into play. This is basically just the set of platforms that you’re using that work together by exchanging data through various means.

In shipping, you might have a central shipping platform (like Starshipit) that integrates with your eCommerce platform or inventory management system to manage orders and speaks to your various shipping companies/courier providers.

When you have a shipping platform in place, you gain a ‘single source of truth’ – a single dashboard where you can access everything related to your shipping and fulfilment operations. This means a place to access orders, print packing slips, manage returns and more.

Beyond convenience for you and your staff, the ability of an integrated shipping stack also helps you to reduce the likelihood of human error, as you can replace repeatable manual tasks with easy to set up, automatic workflows.

Automation is only set to become even more important too. Another study from the Robotics Business Review found that 45 percent of online shoppers are unlikely to return to a store after an item is delivered late.

Build a stack that works for you

When it comes to integrations, what works for you now might not work for you in 5 years, and that’s where interoperability becomes so important. When it comes to selecting a shipping platform, for example, prioritise one that makes it easy to switch out your courier providers, eCommerce store or ecommerce stock management software.

1. Shopify

Shopify is one of the world’s most popular cloud-based, multi-channel eCommerce platforms, used by more than 1 million small and medium businesses worldwide. Shopify also makes it easy to set up a store without any technical knowledge, given the simple drag and drop interface. There’s also a POS option if you have a physical store. Note that there are transaction feeds if you don’t opt for Shopify Payments.

Starshipit is one of the highest rated Shopify shipping apps on the Shopify app store, rated 5/5 by Shopify users.

2. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open source, completely customisable eCommerce platform. This platform works with WordPress to transform any website into an eCommerce store. It’s also quite flexible, with different extensions available for payment gateways and email marketing. However, it can be harder to set up.

Starshipit is one of the highest rated WooCommerce shipping extensions.

3. Magento

Magento (now Adobe Commerce) is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in the world. This platform also features easy site creation tools, as well as integrations with other Adobe products like Analytics, Experience Manager and Creative Cloud and Target.

4. Amazon

Amazon Marketplace is an eCommerce platform that enables third-party sellers to gain access to Amazon's customer base and sell products on the fixed-price online marketplace.

Amazon offers several sign-up incentives, including percentages back on branded sales, credit for CPC ads and other benefits.

5. BigCommerce

BigCommerce supports over 60,000 merchants across the globe. This platform has a robust product search engine and includes several useful tools to help different businesses get their eCommerce operations up and running. Pre-set templates also mean that knowing how to code isn’t a requirement for getting set up.

Starshipit is one of the highest rated apps on the BigCommerce app marketplace, rated 5 stars by BigCommerce users.

Wrap up + Next steps

Starshipit talks directly to your eCommerce platform of choice so every time a customer buys something from your online store, the order is automatically imported into Starshipit. From here, you can bulk-print shipping labels, complete shipping documentation, and auto-correct invalid addresses.

If you’re interested in learning how Starshipit could save you time and money, give Starshipit a try for free, for 30 days. Or, if you’ve got any questions, get in touch with our friendly team.