A Complete Guide: Microsoft Dynamics 365 in E-commerce Industry

What Is Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a combination of modular SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications and services based on the cloud platform. The software is designed to transform and support the core operations of customers, employees and business operations. Dynamics 365 combines components of CRM and ERP systems, along with productivity applications and Artificial Intelligence technology that integrates your data, processes, and business logic.

Thus, to facilitate all these operations in a single software, Microsoft Dynamics 365 put together sales and marketing functions, supports automation, integration and analytics-driven sales and marketing opportunity, which helps to efficiently prioritize, connect, and convert leads into customers.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and was introduced in the market in 2016. Eventually, Microsoft became the first major vendor to infuse the qualities of ERP and CRM individually. This leads to presenting a reliable and trustable platform and a great range of services. Along with that, the integration of the Microsoft 365 app provides a dedicated method to manage visitors and services.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 in E-commerce Industry

Microsoft Dynamics E-commerce is the latest edition of Dynamics 365. It offers an omnichannel E-commerce solution that supports building a website, tracking customers’ requirements and behavior, provides a personalized user experience, connects brick-and-mortar stores to a digital store, engages seamlessly with customers across channels, boosts operations, facilitates efficient resource management and attracts detailed analytics to upscale your business.

It is an upgraded version of Dynamics 365 Retail. The Dynamics 365 E-commerce platform supports businesses to keep an eye on and improve staff productivity to a great extent and establish the business as a loyal brand in the market. The infusion of such advancements in business operations and supply chain management enables businesses to run smoothly and generate good profits and ROI.

Benefits of Microsoft Dynamics 365

1. Easy to Use and Deploy- Microsoft Dynamics 365 is available in the cloud and hybrid cloud environment, which makes it easy and flexible to use and deploy in whatever manner you like to support your infrastructure and budget.
2. Fully Integrates with Microsoft Products- Dynamic 365 software can fully integrate with various Microsoft products and Office 365 suite. It makes easier for employees to work with, switch between apps and minimize data transferring time between apps.
3. Facilitates Easy Search- By using Dynamics 365, you and your team can search and find apps easily, which will help you in simplifying your business operations, in case the business requirements evolve after a while.
4. Enhances Customer Service Experiences- Dynamics 365 can collect a variety and huge amount of data on each customer, which helps to analyze the customer’s activities and helps to understand their buying pattern, sentiments and brand loyalty, which ultimately enhances customer service experience.
5. Enhances Productivity- Microsoft Dynamics 365 provides easy and quick access to data, tools and valuable insights that enables employees to make better and informed decisions, enhance their work efficiency, productivity and minimize the time in searching for accurate data and information.
6. Provides Real-Time Insights- The availability of built-in Predictive Analytics in Dynamics 365 provides access to real-time insights. Additionally, the integration of advanced technologies, like BI, ML and Cortana provides the access to predictive insights, prescriptive advice and suggests the next actionable step.
7. Strict Security & Control- Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based solution that offers its users strict security and data access control apps and data that are built in cloud services along with users and administration access.

Top Reasons to Consider Microsoft Dynamics 365 for your E-Commerce Business

1. Easily Build and Customize E-Commerce Site Dynamics 365 commerce integration offers easy customization of your E-commerce site with built-in web-authoring and development tools that are placed in the Store Starter Kit (SSK). Regardless, of the size of the website, you can easily customize the website and can also scale up as your business requires.The much advanced and customized website following the market trends can help you to attract more revenue to your autogenerated web storefront. All this becomes more convenient, as D365 commerce integration offers the following modules in SSK.
   • Container
   • Product detail page
   • Search product
   • Purchase or place order and track order status
   • Marketing and advertisement
   • Content management
   • User account management
   • Product recommendation algorithm (Upsell and Cross-Sell)
   • Buy online and get the order from the nearest pick-up store
   • Product Ratings & Reviews

2. Enhance Customer/User Experience Dynamics CRM E-commerce allows you to track your employee’s and customers’ interaction and user experience with the platform. This keeps you (business owner) ahead in understanding customer behavior, customer services, customer acquisitions, customer retention and loyalty.Such a detailed and varied study about the customers can help to formulate the right strategies and provide much-needed customer assistance, promote user engagement, design marketing methods and strategies, generate leads and raise end-buyers figures. The successful implementation of all these initiatives and processes also helps to deal with frequent issues, like cart abandonment and one-time buyers.

3. Connect Multiple Apps for Comprehensive Insights Dynamics 365 E-commerce suite is equipped with a number of applications, tools, services, and AI-enabled solutions that helps to fetch detailed information over ongoing activities on the website to keep you updated with business performance. Such details help to analyze individual customers’ requirements and predict their needs by suggesting the right option under the recommended product section. The detailed access of all the customer-related data and information can be accessed in real-time and help to implement comparative analysis, which provides a detailed picture of your customers in terms of website surfing, placing orders, order frequency, reviews & feedback, customer services and many more.

4. Instant and Convenient Access to Data Dynamics 365 commerce development facilitates easy access to data because it is a cloud-based and centralized software. As a result, you can access any type of business-related data in just a few taps once you logged in to your account. All these data are accessible in real-time and can also maintain the level of data security.The cloud-based software enables to illustrate administration control or specify access rules to maintain the sensitivity of the data. To make this possible you can use encryption keys to protect data from any kind of unauthorized access, view or export.

5. Easily Scalable Without Worrying about Hardware Microsoft Dynamics E-commerce is a cloud-based software that easily supports scaling up of business website stores; owing to its independency on hardware support. The successful scaling of the website also supports accommodating global traffic 24×7.You can even add new software you wish to scale your business processes and operations, hence website upgradation turns into quite a convenient experience for you, as a business owner.Apart from that, you don’t have to worry about the automatic and rapid increase in the size of data and its management complications, as you don’t have to constantly upgrade the size of the backend.

Step-by-Step Process of Implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365

Step 1- Business Process Planning

Initially, in this step, the management of resources is carried out. Such as human resource personnel and all the needed supplies for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce software integration.

Simultaneously, evaluate ongoing business practices to analyze which processes can be automated or improved by the proposed E-commerce system.

It is a very crucial phase to figure out which process in your business can be automated with Dynamic CRM E-commerce solution implementation. The study will also help to identify the accurate goals and scope of the implementation.

Step 2- Procedure Review

Collaboration and cooperation are important for the success of any business digitalization. Hence, ensure the team works effectively together and reviews the features and capabilities of Dynamics 365 E-commerce. The technical team must be aware of every aspect of the proposed E-commerce solution and identify skill gaps before moving ahead.

Identify the manual process which requires automation by the new system and propose necessary and valuable customization before rollout. Thus, it will ensure the smooth automation of the processes.

Step 3- Create a Data Migration Plan

It’s needless to remind, however, accurate planning is required to streamline organizational chaos. Likewise, to implement Dynamics 365, it is important to define existing data that needs to be converted to the new system. The ERP system solely relies on the data hence, data migration should be performed accurately, so that the new ERP system also provides the right details and information.

Once, the data has been sorted, checked and approved for migration; collect and segment data into logical tables in the spreadsheet to streamline the E-commerce conversion to Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Step 4- Test Extensively

Test that the database is full with correct and required data to validate the system output, test accuracy and make sure the system integration and interfaces work properly in sync before wider training starts.

Some organizations implement in-person training, whereas others go with e-Learning, or may follow a combination of both to provide quality training.

Whatever training approach you follow, you can streamline the process operations by ensuring the following specifics.

• Train tech-skilled team members as E-commerce software superusers, so that they can manage low-level issues and give a free hand to the IT experts to deal with critical issues.
• Make the training process interesting and engaging to promote engagement and build a healthy competitive environment among colleagues.
• Offer an incentive or small perk to complete training quickly. It will motivate employees to learn quickly under a healthy and fun process.

Step 5- Rollout and Evaluation

Prepare a go-live checklist for days and weeks to ensure all the proposed functions are ready for deployment;

• Go live then implement system testing
• Evaluate schedule and budget for temporary and full-time staff
• Confirm data backup processes
• Identify a communication protocol for system downtime
• Check network speed and system reliability

Be ready to deal with some glitches and have the tech team on standby to implement updates or changes. After rollout, evaluate your Dynamics 365 commerce development against defined goals and objectives that are defined in the planning stage.

How much does a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Implementation Cost in 2023?

The average cost of D365 commerce software integration varies under multiple influential factors, such as organization size, premium or essential license, and implementation complexity. Based on the organization’s size i.e. Small, Medium and Large; the D365 implementation cost will look something like this.

1. Small Projects The small projects are usually focused on implementing the financial modules, such as fixed assets, and bank reconciliations only. Under this scenario, your business can implement Microsoft Dynamics 365, which cost somewhat around $30,000 to $50,000, and additionally charges a monthly subscription too.

2. Medium Projects A medium-sized project includes financial modules along with inventory control, sales and purchasing modules. To implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 for a medium-scale project, cost about $60,000 to $100,000 and charges an additional monthly subscription.

3. Large Projects Large or complex projects usually include more modules, such as finance, sales, inventory control, purchase, and manufacturing. Being a complex project, it requires more manpower, time and effort to implement things correctly and accurately. Thus, implementing Microsoft Dynamics 365 in your E-commerce business will cost about $120,000 to $350,000.

Hire Codiant to Save Money and Time!

The implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 is not at a cakewalk; thus, it requires careful planning and strategies, along with expert solution providers that can help you to avoid common issues.

Additionally, depending on the organization’s size and the data, the transfer of legacy data will be complicated, as it requires precise hands and expertise to migrate data successfully.

Overall, Codiant being your service provider can manage all the various operations involved in D365 E-commerce implementation. We specialize in the E-commerce industry and our experts can easily manage the purchase, deployment and initial configuration of ERP solutions.

If you need assistance with Dynamics 365 commerce software integration, our team of certified experts can help you in a convenient way. Contact us, with your requirements and we are here to help you in the best possible manner to scale your business in the competitive world.