Your E-Commerce Software Solution Is Ready, But Sales Aren’t Taking Off?

The first milestone is achieved: you’ve developed a great software solution for online retailers that the market definitely needs. Now, you’re facing Milestone Two: getting your solution to market. One question to consider is whether your solution operates as a “stand-alone” product or if it needs to integrate with retailers’ e-commerce systems. If integration is needed, how do you go about it?

Custom Integration Development or Standard Integration – That’s the Question!

1. One Retailer = One Custom Project

Advantage: The retailer receives exactly the connection they want, and you may gain an additional reference client.
Disadvantage: You face an undefined amount of planning, implementation, and follow-up effort, with uncertain quality and high risk.

1. One Standard Integration = Many Potential Retailer Clients Using a Specific E-Commerce Platform

Advantage: Integrate your software solution with an e-commerce platform, and all its users can immediately utilize it. This greatly reduces sales, onboarding, and maintenance efforts, and spreads your risk across many retailers.
Disadvantage: Standard integration doesn’t allow for individual customization by retailers.

By focusing on standard integrations and generating leads through the software platforms preferred by your target customers, you can more easily achieve a smart market entry with minimal effort, reach your first customers, and quickly establish proof of concept.

How Does Standard Integration with a Software Platform Work, for Example, Through an App?

Anyone who has needed apps, plug-ins, modules, or add-ons to deliver their services to online retailers has likely faced this question. It may be the same for your service for online retailers, whether it’s a payment solution, shipping tool, online marketing solution, or legal service. Only by integrating with a platform like a shop system or e-commerce ERP can your product be used. Without this, there are no new customers or revenue, or only at the cost of considerable individual effort.

What Can You Do?

If you integrate your software solution as an app on a platform used by your target audience, your solution becomes available to retailers using that platform.

1. Assess which platforms your target audience uses, and create a prioritized list for app development.
2. Research which type of integration would work best and how you can make your app easily discoverable for as many online retailers as possible.
3. Begin by developing the first integration for the most important platform, and use the experience to guide future integrations with other platforms.
4. Consider ways to form technology partnerships with platform providers, potentially generating additional visibility through co-marketing or co-selling initiatives.

What’s the Next Step?

If you want to distribute a software solution that works only in connection with shop systems or other applications, you should develop apps for the software platforms used by your target customers. This way, you can gain a significant number of new customers from the outset.

We can support you in prioritizing these integrations based on their scalability potential and building the right partnerships with shop system providers.