NetSuite SuiteCommerce 101: How E-Commerce Software Will Elevate Your Business
The e-commerce industry is too competitive for clunky, inefficient processes. The right software streamlines operations for faster output and greater customer satisfaction.
By now, most businesses have seen, read, and internalized the writing on the wall: E-commerce is now a staple of everyday life and will only grow more significant. In fact, global online shopping sales are expected to top $6 trillion this year, according to EMARKETER, and 20.1% of all retail purchases will be made digitally.
Consequently, if your business sells products, you’ve got to prioritize a smooth online retail experience that satisfies customers and operates efficiently on the back end. You can’t compete in the marketplace with disorganized processes that force your staff to jump through hoops as they fulfill and ship orders. That type of operation can’t keep up with faster, more efficient companies.
We understand how vital efficiency is in the retail industry. That’s why we recommend SuiteCommerce, NetSuite’s native e-commerce solution. It ties a slick, easy-to-navigate retail website with your core operations, creating a streamlined order fulfillment process. The platform connects seamlessly to NetSuite’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, allowing real-time visibility into your data.
SuiteDynamics works with NetSuite to customize and implement NetSuite ERP and SuiteCommerce systems. Our experts can help your company evaluate its operations and determine the best e-commerce software configuration to meet your needs.
Our brief guide below outlines the SuiteCommerce platform and explains why many companies choose it for their e-commerce operations. Schedule a free consultation with our team today to learn more about the platform and how our team can help your business dominate online retail sales.
Key Takeaways
- All-in-one e-commerce and ERP: SuiteCommerce integrates directly with NetSuite’s ERP, syncing online stores with back-office systems like inventory, order management, and accounting.
- Seamless integration: Many companies suffer inefficiencies when their e-commerce doesn't sync with core systems. SuiteCommerce eliminates these gaps, making tasks like adding products, processing orders, and managing returns much smoother.
- Flexibility and customization: SuiteCommerce allows extensive customization, especially with SuiteCommerce Advanced, so businesses can tailor everything from design to functionality.
- Cost-effective and efficient: The platform saves operational costs by unifying systems, reducing the need for multiple platforms, and boosting productivity through centralized order management and inventory syncing.
- Expert implementation: Setting up SuiteCommerce can be complex, requiring expert help for configuration and coding. A skilled implementation partner ensures a smoother setup and avoids costly mistakes.
What Is SuiteCommerce?
NetSuite SuiteCommerce software is essentially an e-commerce ERP module that integrates with the rest of your NetSuite ERP system. It also works as a fully functioning online shop that pulls data from your ERP. It allows B2B and B2C users to track and manage ordering, manufacturing, inventory, shipping, accounting, and more from a single platform.
NetSuite Product Marketing Director Austin Caldwell explains that SuiteCommerce’s integration component is critical because many e-commerce companies overlook how back-office systems—like financials, order management, and CRM—should coordinate with their online retail presence. Then, they suffer the consequences.
“Running a website that is disconnected from these core systems can create inefficiency in the rest of their operations,” he writes in an article for NetSuite. “The merchandiser adding new items to the site, the marketer creating promotional codes, the warehouse worker picking orders, and the customer service representative processing returns will all pay the price when they have to take extra steps to their daily routines to circumvent technology integration gaps.”
Now, we’re seeing that more and more businesses are tired of those extra steps. As of October 11, 2024, 3,791 stores run on the NetSuite SuiteCommerce platform, an increase of nearly 1,000 stores since Q4 2021. It’s a testament to the system’s ability to boost connectivity, visibility, and sales.
SuiteDynamics experts can help you discover more about SuiteCommerce and why it has grown in popularity. Schedule a consultation with our team to explore the product and learn how it can give your company an edge in the cutthroat e-commerce business.
Benefits of NetSuite SuiteCommerce
SuiteCommerce is trusted by businesses such as Primary Arms, Parts Express, and Red Digital Cinema because it offers extraordinary benefits, including the following.
- The software connects natively with NetSuite, so you don’t have to pay for costly integrations with third-party programs like Magento or Shopify.
- Any employee with permission to access company data can do so. A staff member can pull sales, products, inventory, or any other information and access dashboards, reports, and analytics.
- There’s no need for separate B2B and B2C e-commerce sites. Instead, you can manage them on one platform.
- Unifying your front- and back-end systems means you can leave tedious manual processes behind.
- Employees can access system data and analytics or generate content on any device—from anywhere. Your staff could even have the flexibility to work from home.
- You’ll save on operational costs because you won’t need to manage multiple systems.
- Your inventory management will improve because your e-commerce website will sync with inventory and price data.
- Customer satisfaction will rise after NetSuite centralizes your order management. You’ll start filling orders more quickly and efficiently, making your company more productive.
- Users enjoy nearly unlimited flexibility. Many businesses choose SuiteCommerce because they can tailor it to unique business requirements, which not all platforms allow. The software provides several tools for extending source code so customers can add features like custom portals, checkout flows, display layouts, and integrations.
SuiteDynamics experts can explain more about the software’s synchronization and automation capabilities during your free consultation.
Two Types of NetSuite SuiteCommerce
NetSuite customers have two options for powering their e-commerce websites: SuiteCommerce or SuiteCommerce Advanced. The difference between the two mainly lies in how much control they give users.
NetSuite SuiteCommerce Standard
Released in 2018, SuiteCommerce Standard has become the leading choice for NetSuite e-commerce. It’s an easy-to-use, more affordable platform with drag-and-drop editing and pre-designed templates. It also includes SEO compatibility and integrations with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Plus, it facilitates easy upselling, social-sharing, cross-selling, customized pricing, and marketing.
Although SuiteCommerce Advanced is built for customization, the standard version also allows users to adjust the software to their needs. However, its customization capabilities are limited.
NetSuite SuiteCommerce Advanced
SuiteCommerce Advanced was released in 2012—before SuiteCommerce Standard. It includes all of SuiteCommerce Standard’s features and offers more control over the platform.
In fact, SuiteCommerce Advanced gives users unrestricted access to its source code so they can customize the platform from top to bottom. The software also allows companies to manage multiple channels under the same brand, and it includes manual updates instead of the automatic ones received with SuiteCommerce Standard. Essentially, you can use SuiteCommerce Advanced in any way you wish.
Why Do You Need SuiteCommerce Experts for Implementation?
As with ERPs, SuiteCommerce Standard and SuiteCommerce Advanced are complex systems. SuiteDynamics Technical Lead Eric Laylan has worked with SuiteCommerce for several years and says users and developers can easily mangle the system. He explains that you must configure areas relating to site setup, domain setup, item setup, and more while implementing it. You also have to customize the site’s text and configurational and functional settings.
It’s a big job that goes more smoothly if you’ve done it before.
“If you hire a SuiteCommerce expert, you're being much more efficient in your setup,” he says. “You have somebody who knows where the configuration options are because they're scattered across multiple places. You're also getting sound advice, as well, on your setup to make the site efficient and tailor it exactly the way you want it because it can be very expensive to mess up your integration. That can cause a lot of business issues down the road.”
Of course, SuiteCommerce does have some no-code tools that allow average, non-tech users to alter a site’s look and feel. However, Eric says any coding changes should be made by someone familiar with the SuiteCommerce script. It has too many dependencies, and any changes can have unexpected results.
Schedule a consultation with SuiteDynamics experts to learn more about SuiteCommerce software and how our team can tailor it to your needs. The system may be complex, but with the right implementation partner, it can revolutionize your company’s sales process.
Get E-Commerce Right
E-commerce may not be the dominant form of retail, but it will only grow. Statista projects that the global online retail market will increase from $5.8 trillion in 2023 to more than $8 trillion by 2027.
As it stands, too many companies have failed to invest enough in e-commerce and have closed their doors as a result. We don’t want your business to rank among them.
NetSuite’s SuiteCommerce solution integrates the entire order fulfillment process—from the website to inventory to financial records—streamlining operations and providing customers with better, more efficient shopping experiences. Basically, it’s the edge your company needs to compete in the e-commerce industry.
SuiteDynamics experts can help evaluate your processes and provide a SuiteCommerce Standard or Advanced solution that offers the most value. We’ll ensure your online retail presence is fast, easily navigable, and integrated with your back-end operations, giving your company the boost it needs to rise above the competition.
Schedule your free consultation today and start equipping your company for new levels of success.
We pull information from NetSuite material, SuiteDynamics experts, and other reliable sources to compose our blog posts and educational pieces. We ensure they are as accurate as possible at the time of writing. However, software evolves quickly, and although we work to maintain these posts, some details may fall out of date. Contact SuiteDynamics experts for the latest information on NetSuite ERP systems.
Part of this text was generated using GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. After generating the draft language, our team edited, revised, and fact-checked it to ensure readability and accuracy. SuiteDynamics is ultimately responsible for the content of this blog post.
