When buying web tech, prepare for long-term integration, analyst says

As retailers look to buy new e-commerce systems or upgrade old ones, it’s crucial to ensure that new systems have the capability to integrate across multiple channels—including new channels like web TV, Paula Rosenblum, a managing partner of RSR Research LLC, says.

“You have to make sure technology can integrate across channels, because the multi-channel shopper isn’t going away any time soon,” Rosenblum says. “Make sure the hooks are there to integrate data among applications, because for sure, sooner or later you will have to do this.”

Guide to E-Commerce Technology

Current technology systems don’t generally integrate product data well across e-commerce, delivery and store systems, she adds. “The biggest issue is that retailers are dealing with a pile of spaghetti in their software code, so trying to link all the pieces together is hard,” Rosenblum says.

She cautioners tech buyers to conduct on-site vendor visits and learn about the vendor’s integration technology, and ask how it integrates within the vendor’s suite of applications as well as its ability to integrate with other companies’ technology. “Make sure the vendor has chosen an easy and inexpensive means to integrate among applications,” Rosenblum says. “Check their references.”

Regardless of how well technology systems integrate with existing applications, however, Rosenblum warns that technology integration will pose an ongoing challenge as new channel markets develop. With trends toward web-TV, for example, retailers should look for technology that can easily connect with new marketing and selling channels. “Every time you turn around, there’s another e-commerce medium like the cell phone,” she says. “So technology has to be extensible and be able to integrate with new types of applications.”