Dynamics CRM For E-commerce: Key Solutions, Core Features & A Practical Case Study

E-commerce businesses rely on customer connections and operation effectiveness but are often held back through data fragmentation, growth challenges, and data limitations. Dynamics CRM for e-commerce provides tools to integrate customer data, work efficiently and automate core processes to help e-commerce businesses grow and foster strong customer relationships.

This blog focuses on how Dynamics 365 CRM realigns e-commerce strategies and how this solution can assist companies in overcoming modern challenges.

Growth & Customer Experience Challenges In E-commerce

The e-commerce industry is highly saturated and competitive where growth and managing customer satisfaction are the key to success. However, there are critical problems that affect businesses in operations and attempts to serve customers:

• Fragmented customer journey: A disconnected customer journey emerges when customers interact with different channels - websites, social media, email, and stores, and they have different experiences. This disintegration poses a problem to the issue of trust and loyalty among customers. It usually arises from disparate systems and data silos, which can make it challenging to map and align customer interactions.
• Scalability bottleneck: As the business begins to grow, dealing with a greater number of customers, transactions and data becomes a problem. One of these barriers is scalability bottlenecks where growth in demand overwhelms current traditional systems or inadaptable software.
• Incomplete post-sales engagement: Follow-up communication is crucial for customer retention, but most companies often lose contact with customers after the sale. This issue arises due to the lack of adequate automation in post-sale customer needs like tracking of orders placed.
• Customer retention blind spot: Customer acquisition cost and retention is critical. However, few organisations can effectively recognise customers likely to churn or successfully manage their retention processes. This is usually due to the lack of sufficient analytics and segmentation tools that make businesses aware of churn threats.
• Inadequate personalisation: Customers today demand personalised attention, but most businesses cannot meet these expectations due to restrictive data analytics and tools. When the recommendations or offers are generic, they do not resonate with most customers. This leads to lower satisfaction levels and repeat purchases.
• Siloed inventory & order management: Separate systems for inventory and order management result in time lags, product overstocking, and out-of-stock products. This usually happens when CRM, ERP and e-commerce platforms are not well-integrated.

Introducing Dynamics 365 CRM For E-commerce

1. Key Dynamics 365 CRM Products For E-commerce

Dynamics 365 CRM introduces a set of powerful apps allowing e-commerce businesses to apply AI technology and advanced solutions to communicate with buyers. Its applications can work seamlessly and operate with other Microsoft products. Sales, marketing, finance, supply chain or service data are collected and analysed in a single location.

Learn more:

• An Introduction To Dynamics 365 CRM
• Understanding Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations

2. Why Dynamics 365 CRM Is Ideal For E-commerce?

Dynamics 365 CRM offers numerous tools that allow smooth engagement, automation, and even expand possibilities for going global, providing effectively tailored experiences for customers. Here’s how its features meet the key e-commerce requirements:

• Omnichannel customer engagement: Dynamics 365 consolidates customer data from websites, mailing, social networks, or purchases in a physical store. The Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Customer Insights help businesses manage customer engagement, analyse the flow of customer interactions across various channels in real-time, and respond proactively. This helps ensure the customer has an engaging, relevant, and timely experience.
• Hyper-personalisation & targeting: Dynamics Customer Insights allows organisations to categorise consumers using analytical data and create targeted promotional strategies. AI-powered customer journeys enable businesses to deliver highly relevant messages and offers to customers. This results in better conversions and improved satisfaction.
• Integrated inventory & order management: Dynamics 365 Sales can be integrated with Field Service for sales orders, inventory, and customer service management. This allows businesses to monitor stock levels, coordinate order processing, and synchronise inventory with other systems, facilitating order delivery and customer care.
• Unified sales pipeline automation: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales enables e-commerce firms to manage leads, opportunities, products, quotes, and invoices all from one centralised location. Advanced systems in pipeline analytics and forecasting give salesperson the ability to complete sales with ease.
• Intelligent customer data unification: For e-commerce, Dynamics 365 Customer Insights enables customer data collection across sales and marketing functions. This helps with customer segmentation and offers AI capabilities to guide marketing, selling, and communications.
• AI-driven post-sales field service: For after-service delivery such as installation, fixing or even replacing a product, Dynamics 365 Field Service is a a great option. It allows for scheduling technicians, creating work orders, and making recommendations based on AI for remote servicing.
• Global expansion & compliance: Both Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Insights are capable of supporting multiple currencies, languages, and regional localised compliance. This provides e-commerce businesses with the ability to easily venture into new locations. Dynamics 365 solutions also help handle localised and global data, which is perfect for global enterprises.

3. Custom Dynamics Products For Unique Workflows

Microsoft ecosystem enables different e-commerce companies to develop solutions that fit into their processes. These are solutions that extend the basic functionality of Dynamics 365 to solve particular business processes and customer engagement issues:

• Microsoft integrations: E-commerce businesses can benefit from other Microsoft solutions with effective integration of workflows along the production chain. Dynamics 365 Commerce provides omnichannel retail execution and links brick-and-mortar and digital channels. With Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management,  you can optimise the inventory for consequent orders to achieve efficient deliveries. Power BI changes the way reporting and analytics are done, giving the organisation insight into its sales and customer trends.
• Microsoft AppSource: Digital commerce organisations can look into Microsoft AppSource to discover vertical solutions that enrich Dynamics 365 functions. When it comes to integrating third-party payment gateways, warehouse management, marketing automation etc, AppSource has applications of all types related to e-commerce available in its marketplace. These tools assist the business in resolving deficiencies and finding new value-added opportunities because they rely on established solutions.
• Power Platform: Microsoft Power Platform - Power Automate, Power Apps, or Power Virtual Agents - can help e-commerce businesses with automating, developing no-code apps, and even improving customer engagement. Being an Official Australian Microsoft Partner, the Havi team is ready to help and provide you with the proper solutions to your operational problems.
• Azure for cloud-based scalability & AI builder: With Azure, e-commerce organisations are able to scale up their ability to accommodate high traffic volumes and sales moments. Through AI Builder, Azure improves business processes by providing demand prediction, recommendation of articles, and inventory management.

A Luxury Furniture Brand Uses Dynamics 365 To Accelerate Data-First Experience

Natuzzi is a world-famous producer and retailer of luxury furniture, on their journey toward implementing a data-driven approach during their transition to the online marketplace. Specialising in crafting elegant and well-balanced furniture experiences, Natuzzi encountered difficulties in sustaining its tradition of providing personalised service while responding to the expectations of a new digital customer generation.

Challenges in the e-commerce landscape

The growth in Natuzzi exposed several challenges. The business required an integrated solution across its worldwide branches, including over 1,200 retail outlets, online sales, and B2B sales. Fragmented engagement initiatives kept the company from gaining a complete view of its customers and providing a unified experience across both brick-and-mortar and digital fronts. Moreover, marketing and sales were traditional and lacked integrated data restraining Natuzzi’s approach to addressing clients' needs and maintaining the relationships.

Why Dynamics 365 was the solution

To overcome such difficulties, Natuzzi decided to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 products. The solution’s capability to integrate sales, service, and marketing processes within a central system aligned perfectly with the organisation’s purpose of creating a harmonious and customer-centric experience.

The results

Dynamics 365 radically changed e-commerce approaches at Natuzzi. The company was able to integrate its systems and use data to improve customer experiences and drive tangible outcomes. It allowed the brand to maintain its luxury positioning while expanding customer outreach and seamlessly targeting clients.

Build Your Microsoft Ecosystem With A Trusted Local Companion

Dynamics 365 CRM for e-commerce enables businesses to deal with barriers such as disjointed paths, scalability, and customer retention rates. This way, the solution assists in creating efficiency, enhancing the uniqueness of customer experience, and guaranteeing global adaptation, which in turn lays the foundation for growth and returning customers.

As an Official Partner of Microsoft in Australia, Havi Technology offers professional services to unlock the possibilities of Dynamics 365 for e-commerce enterprises. Contact us to revolutionise your e-commerce operations for long-term achievements.

Dynamics CRM E-commerce - FAQs

1. What is the role of CRM in e-commerce?

CRM - or Customer Relationship Management systems in e-commerce help businesses gather all the customer data to make correct decisions regarding marketing, sales, and support. These solutions help facilitate a smooth omnichannel shopping journey by consolidating data from different touchpoints and offering advanced insights for e-commerce strategies.

2. What is the difference between Dynamics 365 Commerce & Business Central?

Dynamics 365 Commerce mainly addresses managing the operations of omnichannel retail businesses, while Dynamics 365 Business Central is an ERP designed to manage financials, supplies, and overall business processes.

References:

• Microsoft. Natuzzi uses Dynamics 365 to redefine the luxury furniture experience with a data-first approach.