Ecommerce CRM Software

Odds are that you've engaged in ecommerce, whether you realize it or not. Boiled down, ecommerce is any form of commercial transaction conducted online—from purchasing a dress on Amazon, to bidding for a rare collectible on eBay or even just ordering a pizza.

As you might imagine, ecommerce is a huge component of business today, accounting for almost 10% of all retail sales, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. This means that it's not just retail giants like Wal-Mart or Pizza Hut who need to engage in ecommerce, but also small to midsize businesses (SMBs).

Like all forms of selling and sales, ecommerce needs to focus on the needs and preferences of your customers, which is where ecommerce CRM (customer relationship management) software comes in.

Ecommerce CRM software will help your business reach out to more potential customers and clients, keep track of their preferences and determine how you're best suited to meet their needs.

This Buyer's Guide will take you through the process of determining what ecommerce features and systems might be right for your business, so that you can make an informed choice in selecting the best software for you.

Here's what we'll discuss:

What Is Ecommerce CRM Software?
Common Features of Ecommerce CRM Software
Ecommerce CRM Software vs. CRM Software Suites
Key Considerations

What Is Ecommerce CRM Software?

In general, CRM software supports the automation of the processes and best practices related to managing an organization's interactions with customers throughout the entire customer life cycle.

In practice, this means storing contact details, tracking interactions, predicting next steps and providing other tools that are useful to sales, marketing and customer support teams when they are dealing with customers.

Ecommerce CRM software, then, provides all of these functions plus features specific to the digital sales landscape, such as storing customer history, tracking shipping preferences and suggesting related purchases.

Essentially, the ecommerce CRM system will track your customers' journey through your digital store in order to provide you with a clear map of future marketing and sales opportunities, which it accomplishes through a variety of related features.

Common Features of Ecommerce CRM Software

Below is a table featuring some of the most common features of ecommerce CRM software. Some of these are common to all CRM software, while others are unique to the ecommerce CRM landscape. We will discuss the difference between catch-all CRM suites and dedicated ecommerce CRM systems in the next section.

As with all CRM software, the most important aspect of your ecommerce CRM will be how you track your customers' data as well as interactions you've had with them. Almost all systems will feature a customer contact profile that keeps track of this information for each contact, like the one below.

Ecommerce CRM Software vs. CRM Software Suites

Though there are some unique CRM platforms that are specifically dedicated to ecommerce CRM, the most common form of ecommerce CRM software is part of a larger CRM suite. Here are the key differences between these two options:

• Ecommerce CRM software: This software is specifically designed for ecommerce business. It may have extra functionality just for this purpose—such as real-time segmentation and analytics, and a marketing focus—but in exchange it may lack some of the broader features of CRM that you might find useful, like sales force automation or customer service and support.
 
• CRM software suite: A CRM suite can be as broad or as specific as you'd like it to be, ranging from SMB-focused CRM software vendors to large systems used by enterprise-level corporations. In exchange for access to the fullest extent of CRM features, you may lose some of the specific, ecommerce-based functions that could be provided by an independent ecommerce CRM system.

Key Considerations

Other factors to take into consideration when picking the best ecommerce CRM software for your business include:

• Integration with other systems. Given that it will be constantly exchanging data with your outward-facing, retail-based ecommerce platform, you must ensure that your ecommerce CRM system integrates well with that platform. Similarly, you'll want to check with your vendor to see if/how the system you plan on using will integrate with other important software you rely on, such as any independent sales or marketing software that you use.
 
• Business size. The type of ecommerce platform you choose will rely in no small part on the size of your business. If you have a small, online store where you fulfill most orders personally, but you still want to track your customers' data, then either an independent ecommerce system or else a very basic CRM suite should give you that functionality. For larger businesses, with hundreds or thousands of orders a day, you'll definitely want a more robust ecommerce CRM system, probably as part of a larger CRM suite that you're using for all aspects of your business.
 
• Cloud-based software vs on-premise software. Almost all independent ecommerce CRM system will be cloud-based, meaning that the vendor hosts the software and gives you access to it over the internet. Thus, your startup costs will be low and you won't need to pay for IT resources to help your company implement the software. This is in contrast to on-premise software solutions, which require a company to host the hardware on which the software runs. Though some software today still operates on this model, that is largely only done by enterprise-level organizations, and only something you should consider if you are a large company utilizing an all-encompassing CRM suite.