Enterprise Ecommerce Platforms : Everything you need to know

Ecommerce has taken off exponentially in the past decade. As a result of the immense popularity, consumers expect a level of ease and comfort.

Regular online store setups may work well for smaller shops, but big companies, with vaster requirements, need something way more advanced and robust.

Here’s where Enterprise Ecommerce platforms shines. 

These platforms are designed for large organizations, helping them build and manage feature-rich online stores that can handle huge volumes of traffic, orders and customization needs. 

They go beyond the capabilities of standard platforms to provide enterprise-grade performance, scalability, analytics, omnichannel selling, personalization and global capabilities.

• Introduction to enterprise ecommerce systems
• Omnichannel sales, customization, global capabilities, CRM integration.
• Best enterprise ecommerce platforms
• Choosing the right platform.
• Enterprise solution benefits

Enterprise ecommerce platforms are designed to meet the complex needs of large organizations selling online.

They provide robust features and scalability to support high-volume sales globally.

Enterprise ecommerce are large organizations and brands selling online directly to consumers (B2C) or to other businesses (B2B).

These include big retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers with complex ecommerce needs.

Enterprise ecommerce platforms are built to handle complex business processes, huge catalogs, high traffic, and global sales. 

They go beyond the capabilities of standard ecommerce platforms used by small businesses.

How does enterprise ecommerce differ from regular ecommerce?

Enterprise ecommerce meets the sophisticated requirements of complex global businesses selling online.

An enterprise solution provides the flexibility, scalability and features needed for high-volume B2B and B2C ecommerce.

Enterprise ecommerce platforms have a robust set of features to support large and complex business operations.

Some of the key capabilities include:

Scalability - Enterprise platforms are built to scale seamlessly with business growth. They can handle large catalogs, traffic spikes, and order volumes without performance issues.

Auto-scaling and load balancing features ensure smooth operations during peak seasons.

Features like localized catalogs, currency conversion, international shipping rates, and customs documentation help expand to new geographies. 

Omnichannel - A leading enterprise ecommerce business provides omnichannel experiences via unified data, inventory, and order management across channels. 

This includes capabilities like buy online, pick up in-store, ship from store, endless aisle, clienteling apps, and more for a seamless customer experience.

Customization and personalization - Granular storefront customization and intelligent personalization engines allow delivering tailored experiences to each customer. 

Capabilities like A/B testing, recommendations, segmented and dynamic content help boost conversions.

CRM and order management integration - Tight integration with CRM and ERP systems like Salesforce, SAP, Oracle enhances customer data management and order processing.

Features like unified profiles, automated workflows, shipping integrations streamline operations enhance the ecommerce platform for your business.

Robust APIs - Enterprise platforms provide developer-friendly APIs to customize systems and integrate with other business applications. 

This enables building scalable solutions tailored for specific needs.

Rigorous testing and audits ensure complete protection.

Enterprise ecommerce platforms provide numerous benefits that enable businesses to sell globally and scale efficiently.

Some key benefits include:

Improved efficiency - Enterprise platforms are designed for complex B2B and B2C ecommerce models. 

They provide workflow automation, bulk order management and fulfillment integrations that improve operational efficiency. 

Businesses can manage multiple stores, locations and channels from one central hub.

Better customer experience - With robust CMS, personalization engines and optimization tools, businesses can deliver tailored shopping experiences across touchpoints. 

Features like saved carts, wish lists, discounts and loyalty programs enhance customer satisfaction. Real-time order tracking and fast fulfillment also lead to better CX.

Increased sales and revenue - Enterprise platforms empower businesses to expand their customer base and enter new markets globally. 

Built-in globalization and localization features help customize storefronts for international audiences. 

By selling across channels like web, mobile, social and brick-and-mortar, revenue potential also increases.

Deeper business insights - Granular analytics and reporting provide actionable insights into all ecommerce activities.

With a unified view of customers across touchpoints, enterprises can deliver hyper-personalized experiences.

Future proof scalability - Enterprise platforms are designed to support immense scale and complexity in terms of traffic, product catalogs, integrations and customizations.

The following are the leading enterprise ecommerce platforms in 2024.

Shopify Plus - Shopify Plus is one of the most popular and widely-used enterprise ecommerce platforms. 

It offers robust features like scalability to support high traffic and sales volumes, a powerful API, and integrations with business systems.

Shopify Plus also provides flexible customization options and a centralized dashboard for managing global operations.

It is a SaaS-based, cloud-hosted solution suitable for high-growth brands and large retailers.

Adobe Commerce (previously Magento Commerce) - Adobe Commerce is a feature-rich open-source enterprise platform built on flexible architecture. 

It offers extensive customization and personalization capabilities, along with strong marketing and promotions tools.

It is self-hosted, highly scalable, and ideal for B2B and B2C implementations.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud - This robust SaaS platform from Salesforce combines ecommerce capabilities with CRM features.

Salesforce also enables omnichannel experiences and integration across sales, service, and marketing systems. It is a great choice for branded manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.

SAP Commerce Cloud - As an enterprise-grade SaaS platform, SAP Commerce Cloud offers extensive B2B and B2C features for global businesses.

Oracle Commerce - This feature-rich platform enables omnichannel experiences with capabilities like progressive web apps, headless commerce, and cloud infrastructure. 

Oracle Commerce also provides advanced personalization, promotions, flexible search and navigation, and order management system integration. 

It is ideal for branded manufacturers, distributors, and retailers targeting B2B and B2C customers.

BigCommerce - BigCommerce offers enterprise-grade SaaS functionality while being easy to use. 

It provides multi-storefront management, flexible APIs, and seamless integration with business systems. 

Robust built-in features for promotions, customer groups, and omnichannel selling make BigCommerce suitable for B2B and B2C brands selling online.

Elastic Path - This microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native SaaS platform enables brands to compose flexible ecommerce experiences.

Elastic Path Commerce is headless and decoupled, providing core commerce capabilities that can integrate with any front-end and back-end system.

It is ideal for large complex brands needing seamless omnichannel experiences.

Understanding requirements will help narrow down the platforms that can fulfill them.

Budget - Enterprise platforms have large upfront costs and ongoing fees. Consider license costs, implementation, hosting, maintenance, support, developer costs etc. 

Have a clear budget in mind before shortlisting platforms.

Implementation and maintenance - Enterprise ecommerce software requires extensive IT resources for implementation, testing, migration, maintenance and upgrades.

Factor in availability of in-house developers or costs of third-party agencies.

Scalability needs - Analyze current and future sales volumes, traffic, catalog size etc. and choose a platform that can scale accordingly.

Cloud based platforms are easier to scale.

Required features and integrations - List down all essential features like promotions, personalization, omnichannel etc.

Also consider any third party systems like ERP, CRM, accounting software etc. that need integration.

Vendor support - Choose a vendor that provides comprehensive support during and after implementation. Look for resources like documentation, training, developer community etc.

Customer experience - The platform should help deliver seamless personalized experiences across channels.

Review capabilities for promotions, recommendations, unified catalog etc.

The key is aligning business needs to platform capabilities while factoring in cost.

Leading enterprise platforms have similar core features but differ in areas like scalability, flexibility, integrations and ease of use.

Do in-depth research and demos before choosing the right platform.

To Conclude

A modern online enterprise requires a lot of efficient elements to function well. Enterprise ecommerce platforms enable ease and convenience that consumers look for.

These systems are designed to maintain complicated businesses, driving growth, scalability and enhanced consumer experience.

The enterprise ecommerce solutions available make adaptability easy while making sure the shopping experience is personalized.

Organizing and managing essential functions like handling customer information and orders and connection with other tools is done with effortlessness.

When selecting an enterprise ecommerce platform, consider factors like business requirements, budget, implementation and maintenance needs, scalability, required features and integrations.