Sometimes we come across a blog that is so good that we just have to share it. We will highlight a few of our favorites each month here on the blog, but don't forget to see what else we are sharing on Twitter and Facebook. 

ERP/B2B Integration

A solid integration between your B2B eCommerce site and backend ERP system is crucial for your organizations success, but how can you ensure that your integration will be successful? This post on B2BIntegration gives five tips for a successful integration. Our favorite three are below, but be sure to check out the blog post for the other two tips.

Have the Correct Resources in Place

An integration is a huge undertaking, and it can be easy to underestimate the amount of resources required to both implement the integration and support the integrated platform. Make sure that you partner with an experienced team who will not only help you through the integration process, but train you to support and maximize your new system.

Decide Which Integration Options to Use

There are so many options available to you when integrating your B2B eCommerce and ERP systems, but remember that each additional functionality you add to the integration will take time and resources. Be sure to define the options that your business needs at the very beginning and stay within your organization’s parameters.

The Final Platform Must Be Highly Scalable

If you aren’t planning for future growth during an integration, then your project is doomed. Ensure that your platforms (both eCommerce and ERP) can scale and grow with your company’s business objectives for the future. We like to work with Magento and JD Edwards for exactly that reason. 

Why Marketers Should Care About Mobile Page Speed

We all know that shoppers expect and want a mobile retail shopping experience, but did you know that the average mobile retail site doesn’t live up to expectations? Things like a slow site load time can lead to lost customers and sales, so how can you prevent that? Luckily, Google has found ways for marketers to make some impactful changes that don’t require a developer’s help.

We’ve discussed how to improve your site’s speed before, and those principles hold true for mobile sites as well.

• Complex pages can hurt conversion rates, so set a performance budget for each page. Determine how quickly you want each of your pages to load, and then cut or modify elements that hinder that page from reaching its goal.
• While images are important for your site’s content, make sure that all images are compressed and formatted correctly. This will have some of the biggest impact on a page’s load time.
• Avoid unnecessary third-party elements that slow down your code and, therefore, load time.

For more ways to analyze and improve the speed of your mobile site, check out the full post on Think With Google.