Choosing an ecommerce platform is a big decision, and many brands go through it multiple times. It wouldn’t be unusual for a relatively new retailer to start with Shopify, and over time, move on to Magento. As business grows and retailers need more sophisticated solutions, there are SaaS players such as Demandware, and then the full-on enterprise solutions such as hybris.

To make these migrations easier, we’ve completed a series of integrations as a core piece of our partner program, Sailthru Compass, with four leading ecommerce platforms – Shopify, Magento, Demandware and Hybris.

Why Integrate with Ecommerce Platforms?

These integrations ensure that as your brand grows, Marigold Engage by Sailthru can grow right along with you. With no muss or fuss on your part.

We understand that for retailers, the ecommerce platform has to come first. Anyone selling online needs a front end and a back end, something that can handle both your storefront and your inventory. That has to be the first priority. But even if you’re totally happy with your choice of ecommerce platform (and we hope you are!) the odds are, that platform isn’t also going to support your holistic marketing efforts and analytics.

The fact is: No ecommerce platform, on its own, will help you build the single customer view that can really power email marketing, personalization, predictive decisioning, marketing automation and beyond. And that’s okay!

Our goal in unrolling these new integrations is to help marketers make their way up the personalization learning curve, moving from relatively simple email personalization techniques, through product recommendations to, eventually, the formation of a single customer view and full-on predictive analytics.

You can use the integrations to do this within a single chosen platform, or to maintain continuity as you move across them. (We’re also finding these integrations cut the time and cost to implement Sailthru by half. Pretty nifty.)

Say, like many online retailers, you first choose Shopify as your ecommerce platform. These recent integrations ensure that when you’re ready to fire up more functionality or move to a more heavy-duty platform, Marigold Engage by Sailthru will be there. In fact, we think you’ll be happy on Shopify for much longer if you have Sailthru to scale and manage your data. But we’ve also completed turn-key integrations with other platforms for larger players.

Thanks to these integrations, you won’t have to give up any of your historical data as you grow, nor will you have to sacrifice the gains you’ve made so far on the marketing side.

Simplifying the Mission to Building Single Customer Views

How, exactly, will these integrations make it easier to move more quickly into developing a single customer view? Well, some of our clients might choose Marigold Engage by Sailthru because they need an email service provider. But those marketers may not be using purchase data or interest data to inform those emails. They know that they should be using purchase data and interest data, of course. It’s just that the email is working fine, and delivering some nice lift on its own. Getting the purchase and interest data integrated, while not hard, sometimes doesn’t make it to the top of a busy marketer’s to-do list.

Now, the purchase and interest data don’t even have to make it onto the to-do list at all. With each of our four ecommerce platform integrations, that data will be available out of the box. Seriously. The minute anyone registers with your site – be it on Shopify, Magento, Demandware or hybris – that information will be immediately available to Sailthru.

The Best Part? Our Integrations are Totally Customizable

Exactly which functionality is included with each integration is up to each brand. You can choose more sophistication with Marigold Engage by Sailthru, or less sophistication, depending upon how data-centric your organization is.

The integrations make it easier to turn on Marigold Engage by Sailthru, and because the time and cost to do so has been reduced, we’re convinced that, for almost all of our clients, the answer will be more.

Want to learn more about Sailthru Compass and get involved with our new ecommerce integrations? Get in touch with your Customer Success Manager or contact us.
–Amy Reams, Director of Alliances & Integrations at Sailthru