How to Successfully Implement E-Commerce in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

1. That's why you need e-commerce in medium-sized businesses
2. How to meet challenges in mid-sized e-commerce
3. . With the concept
4. . This gives you pre-configured functions that you can start with right away.

Not only are the big ones always thinking digitally, small and medium-sized businesses can no longer avoid online trading. The development of new markets and target groups as well as quick and direct approaches are just a fraction of the advantages that e-commerce offers for medium-sized businesses.

However, it must also be taken into account that the implementation of an online shop can be very costly. Above all, the effort becomes even greater if there is no development team in-house that has technical effort and updates in view.

If you too are wondering whether and how you should implement your online shop for your customers, then this article is the right one for you. We show you on the one hand, why e-commerce is a must in medium-sized companies and how you meet the challenges on the other hand. Suitable software solutions also offer support, which we will introduce to you in more detail.

That's why you need e-commerce in medium-sized businesses

Recently, it has become very clear during the Corona crisis that online shop operators are the long-term winners. A e-commerce strategy also offers medium-sized companies many opportunities that would not be thinkable in stationary retail. The following advantages are included:

• offer and accept orders around the clock
• check delivery status in real time and digitally
• chat with service staff
• win new target groups

These advantages can be seen in almost all industries, both in the B2C and B2B sectors. In addition, many local businesses can expand their catchment area by using an online store and sell throughout Germany without giving up their primary business. A successful example of an online store for medium-sized businesses is the Music House Thomann, which also manages to inspire its customers for music products from a distance.

Not only the mentioned advantages and examples show you why e-commerce in medium-sized businesses has become so important. The advancing digitalization and the increasing demands of your customers are also important prerequisites for the implementation of an online store. Similarly, the amount of your data is increasing, so it is becoming increasingly important to synchronize them and make them centrally available for use.

We will show you exactly how to deal with these challenges in the next step.

How to meet challenges in mid-sized e-commerce

A look at the e-commerce platforms of large companies and corporations shows that they already offer a lot of potential for successful online shops. For medium-sized entrepreneurs, integrations of functions such as search, recommendation or personalization are often very lengthy and cumbersome processes that need to be taken into account. You should also keep an eye on customer experience, especially on mobile devices.

For the implementation of an online store, you have a large number of e-commerce software available. When choosing the right e-commerce platform, you should consider some points. An overview of real user experiences and important features can also be found on our software rating platform OMR Reviews, where you can find more than 40 shop systems.Among them are: These tools support your company in e-commerce

We will show you exactly how to implement an online store for you in medium-sized businesses using the example of the e-commerce platform

• Shopify
• Shopware
• WooCommerce
• Spryker
• Squarespace

. With the concept

commercetools for Growth commercetools the e-commerce software offers a “starter kit” with which you can start an online store flexibly and without development teams. The new solution offers you a quick implementation, with which you can also provide the customer experiences across multiple channels. The basis for this is the MACH principle, which consists of the following components: Microservices: Frontastic With the help of a microservices architecture, you can organize business operations project-related. This means that your teams are divided into specific functions, such as shopping cart, checkout and customer loyalty. This promotes innovation within the team and increases productivity at the same time. You provide your customers with a fast shopping experience and less maintenance effort.

API Interfaces:

• APIs form the center of any operations in companies. With solutions like commercetools for Growth
• , which is implemented according to an API-first principle, you can easily connect individual functions for your online store in real time. Cloud native technology: Cloud-based infrastructures are not only in terms of performance and functionality, but especially in terms of security always up to date. So you can rely on certifications and important security audits that require a reliable functioning of your online store. Headless technology:
• In a headless architecture, backend processes and frontend UX are separated. This decoupling facilitates and accelerates the development of innovative shopping experiences. This way, you have the opportunity to publish new functions, price data or designs at any time without affecting the user experience in the front-end. Through the back-end solution of
• commercetools and the Composable Front-end solution from Frontastic you have more and more flexible possibilities for your online shop. You can implement the functions of the new Starter Kit easily without depending on a large IT unit. “The goal with commercetools for Growth is to finally put consumer-oriented brands in a position to implement innovative, creative ideas and offer customer experiences that consumers of today expect,” explains Thomas Gottheil, Senior Vice President of Commerce at commercetools. “Building and growing should be fun.”

These are the benefits of commercetoolsThe main focus of the new solution

commercetools for Growth is the technology around Headless Commerce. We have summarized what additional advantages come with the flexible implementation of an online store in medium-sized businesses:

many functions are already pre-configured in the Starter Kitquick start of an online store possibleseamless integration of the individual components

• high flexibility
• simple handling for e-commerce and marketing teams
• Conclusion
• The benefits, which have been clear since the outbreak of the pandemic, for e-commerce in medium-sized businesses are clear. Digitization plays a big role and gives you for new market segments and target groups myriad opportunities. However, the implementation is often complicated and associated with high costs, for which not always enough resources and IT teams are available.
• Appropriate e-commerce solutions offer you support, such as the flexible Starter Kit from the software

. This gives you pre-configured functions that you can start with right away.

Also, it is worthwhile to deal with the technology around Headless Commerce, which offers you more flexibility in the implementation of e-commerce. Here, the back-end is decoupled from the front-end, so that changes of individual functions can be implemented independently of the front-end.

Unterstützung bieten Euch passende E-Commerce-Lösungen, wie das flexible Starter-Kit von der Software commercetools. Damit stehen Euch bereits vorkonfigurierte Funktionen zur Verfügung, mit denen Ihr direkt loslegen könnt. 

Außerdem lohnt es sich, mit der Technologie um Headless Commerce zu beschäftigen, die Euch mehr Flexibilität in der Umsetzung von E-Commerce bietet. Hier wird das Back-end vom Front-end entkoppelt, sodass sich Änderungen von einzelnen Funktionen unabhängig vom Front-end umsetzen lassen.