What Are Third-Party Integrations?

Powerful software is often developed in-house. However, there are times when a new feature needs to be added to the system and it's simpler and faster to use a tool already developed by another company (or "third party") rather than build that feature internally. This is an example of when you integrate instead of build from scratch.

Applications for Third-Party Integrations

Areas where integrations can be useful:

• Improving Customer Experience: third-party tools can be added to your site to help customers more easily find products and more quickly.
• Insight Into Customer Behavior: there are tools to help you better understand the click path your customers are taking through your site and how it can be optimized.
• Monitoring and Reporting: there are already-developed tools devoted solely to the task of gathering and presenting your data so managers can use it to make decisions.

Benefits & Advantages of Third-Party Integrations

Your business needs to respond to market demands quickly. Third party integrations allow you to quickly add features and tools to your business processes that might take many months to develop on your own. Even if you have the resources to develop tools in-house, those tools might need a great deal of time to refine. Tools developed by specialists have already been through this refinement phase.

Use Cases for Third-Party Integrations

• Search: your company offers customers many products and the potential for confusion is high. You need a powerful tool to help them filter and sort to find exactly what they want to buy. Such tools are available from third parties.
• Product Presentation: you want customers to interact with your products, to zoom or and view the products in 3D. You'll need sophisticated tools developed by specialists outside your company.
• Improved Follow-Up: customers put products in their cart but don’t purchase. You can add tools developed by third parties to track their behavior and send them an email to entice them to return to your site.