Shopping Cart Integration: Make Your B2B SaaS Success
Tags: programming, api, tooling, webdev
Published: 2022-10-20 11:18:08

Companies that want to succeed must constantly look for new customer engagement channels. For you as a SaaS application provider who runs order and inventory management, warehouse, PIM, or any other solution, shopping cart integration means you can [grow your business in numbers.](https://digitalintheround.com/how-many-online-stores-are-there/)

Staying competitive in the B2B software niche means keeping up with time and even more. It is important to introduce new technologies and improve existing features. In most cases, you need at least a little more to attract potential clients' attention.

To meet the needs of a more significant number of customers, B2B eCommerce solution providers need to develop different integration with shopping carts. In addition, of course, there are eCommerce platforms that retailers choose more often, but trends, like the advantages of the local market, are changing.

The more eCommerce integrations your software has, the more chances you have to meet your customers' needs.

However, integrating shopping carts is probably one of the most difficult tasks for each SaaS provider.

Below we will tell you more about the difficulties that often arise during the integration with the shopping carts and about the decision to make integration with different eCommerce platforms much more effortless.

## For which industries is shopping cart integration best for?
So, SaaS software providers must have a smooth connection between their systems and the shopping carts to work with data from a huge number of online stores. [It is necessary](https://api2cart.com/ecommerce/how-to-increase-b2b-software-sales/?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shoppingcartintegrationv.k) because software vendors cannot provide their customers with key features of their solutions without such connection and control of all required data from e-retail stores.

The list of eCommerce software solutions that require integration with shopping platforms is very long. However, below you will find examples of some of them:

- The marketing automation software depends on shopping cart integration, because it needs access to product and order information, customer contacts, coupons, etc., to perform essential functions. And this is all stored in the online stores' databases.
- The integration with the shopping platforms allows the inventory, order and warehouse services to receive information about products, categories, clients, orders, tracking numbers, etc., to perform their operations.
- Shopping cart integration allows shipping software to create shipping labels, process orders, automate tracking and much more.
- For chatbots solution, it is important to have access to product catalogs, stock levels and tracking numbers in their customers' online stores to provide basic functionality.
- The price optimization software requires such integration to obtain price and product information from online stores and automatically update it.
- Shopping cart integration allows cart abandonment solutions to receive data for sending emails about abandonment baskets, special offers, to create exact segments of clients, and to generate intellectual statistics of abandonment baskets.
- Dropshipping automation software depends on eCommerce cart integration because it allows them to access and synchronize information about the order, the customer and the product they receive from the online stores that retailers use.

## Challenges of shopping cart integration 
Integration with only one eCommerce platform solution is a [complex process](https://api2cart.com/business/shopping-cart-integration-pitfalls-avoid/?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shoppingcartintegrationv.k). That's why many B2B software vendors can only work with a few shopping cart solutions. Thus, they lose business opportunities and limit their market share. Here are the common pitfalls of integration with software vendors often face:

- Such integration is a technically difficult task. Each shopping platform has its own specific architecture and logic, which study requires time and knowledge. In addition, configuring connection to each endpoint is a unique extension process because each integration creates new tasks.
- Developing an ideal integration module requires a qualified specialist or IT team. It is vital to carefully develop the integration module if you want it to work correctly. In the case of B2B eCommerce software, many users depend on integration. A poorly functioning connection can cause problems and losses for customers and, as a result, for software vendors. But to write an integration code that works perfectly, you need great technical experience.
- Integration takes a lot of time. Setting up only one connection takes at least one month. As we noted above, each integration is unique, so you can multiply that time by the number of platforms you want to integrate with.
- Integration is expensive. Again, developing a properly functioning integration module involves a qualified specialist, and a lot of work and time. Thus, usually, every integration costs at least several thousand dollars.
- Further maintenance and updating of integration. After the integration is complete, it is not the end of the story. It requires updates and maintenance as platforms update their API regularly. It again requires time and resources because IT personnel need to support integration.

## How to implement shopping cart integration easily?
As you can see, the development of shopping cart integration is a long and complicated process that can cost you a whole state. In the numbers, one integration with the eCommerce platform can take between 4 and 12 weeks and cost 60 US dollars or 50 pounds per hour.

If you would like to focus on improving your core product instead of focusing on complex shopping cart API connections, the best choice is to use an integration solution. 

With the third-party solution, you can overcome all the problems associated with connection your SaaS software with eCommerce platforms and marketplaces. With hundreds of integrations, a unified API has been developed that integrate your software with your customers' stores based on any shopping cart.

The unified API provides simultaneous connectivity to [over 40 eCommerce platforms and marketplaces](https://api2cart.com/supported-platforms/?utm_source=dev.to&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shoppingcartintegrationv.k). It can help you save time for your developers and thousands of dollars for your business.

Detailed documentation makes API usage more effortless and intuitive, and 24-hour customer support is always ready to help.

If you would like to learn more about how third-party integration can help you implement the shopping cart integration, please do not hesitate to [contact us.](https://api2cart.com/contact-us/)