The future of digital commerce is intertwined with the ability to analyze and predict data at scale. With commercetools Composable Commerce using MongoDB Atlas under the hood, businesses are best positioned to leverage data in real-time for personalized and omnichannel experiences. In this article, learn how to get started with this combined solution for modern, data-powered commerce.
If you could guess what is one of the most challenging aspects of digital commerce, what would you say? Undoubtedly, how to utilize data across the customer journey is a top-of-mind issue that captures the attention of many executives today. This is hardly surprising, given the growing need to harness customer data throughout the buyer journey to increase engagement, boost sales conversions and foster loyalty.
Considering that 80% of consumers are willing to share personal data in exchange for loyalty program benefits, the question arises: How can businesses make the most of this data to differentiate and grow?
To address this need, commercetools Composable Commerce and MongoDB Atlas, the leading NoSQL database provider, empower businesses to eliminate data silos and leverage flexible data models. This fuels personalized offerings and cross-channel interactions, effectively enabling seamless experiences no matter the touchpoint.
So, how can you take advantage of this combined solution from the get-go? Here are 3 steps to support you in this journey.
Step #1 — Assess and clean up your data
Before migrating your data to commercetools (and by extension, MongoDB), it’s vital to invest time to assess the current state of your current data and clean up whatever’s necessary.
Performing data hygiene prior to kickstarting your migration process to commercetools and MongoDB is essential to leverage your data appropriately. As a first step, discard data that doesn’t add value or is misaligned with your goals now and in the future.
During this phase, it’s imperative to identify the GDPR-compliant data you intend to migrate, which primarily includes data types such as product order and customer data. It may also encompass category taxonomy and multimedia assets, as well as marketing content that enriches the overall customer experience.
An important aspect of MongoDB Atlas worth noting is its full support of unstructured data that originates from diverse sources, functions and touchpoints. In an omnichannel world, unstructured data becomes invaluable to gain reliable insights into customer behavior and preferences by analyzing information from social media, mobile data and media formats like digital photos and video files.
With commercetools and MongoDB, you have the confidence that your structured AND unstructured data can be effectively harnessed to enhance your customer experiences.
Step #2 — Migrate your data and enrich the data model
It’s time to initiate the migration of your data to the commercetools platform. You can seamlessly export data from your existing system and import it into commercetools using various options, including Import API, CLI tools and ImpEX, a user-friendly interface application for several IMPort and EXport tools. This means you can import and export data pertaining to products, category and more, transferring information from one project to another.
Once the data is ingested, our commercetools APIs will come into play as they are open to any channel or business model. This accessibility extends all the data on MongoDB Atlas, making it readily available via these APIs. You’ll have the ability to perform virtually any database operation leveraging these APIs, ensuring smooth data usage with ultra-low latency processing — even during volume spikes like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Furthermore, with the flexibility of the data model championed by this combined solution, you can adapt the data structure to suit your specific requirements. This can be achieved not only via APIs but also on the Merchant Center, commercetools’ business tooling, which enables non-technical users to manage core aspects of daily commerce operations.
With MongoDB working behind the scenes, commercetools empowers you to handle, edit and orchestrate multiple data scenarios, attributes, locations and relationships as the foundation for omnichannel and personalized experiences.
Step #3 — Leverage data with analytics and recommendations
MongoDB Atlas is a high-performance system, capable of handling a huge number of transactions and events instantly, making it an optimal environment for tapping into real-time analytics. The commercetools platform leverages this capability to capture over 10,000 events per second, encompassing clicks, hovers and other actions, to understand customer behavior.
The ability to sync what your customers see across multiple channels into a unified customer profile enables you to:
Identify the most appealing products to consumers and understand how they engage with touchpoints.
Gain a better understanding of customer preferences and behaviors, as well as purchase history across locations.
Provide relevant product recommendations and inspiring content.
Map the customer journey and identify pain points to refine the customer experience.
Optimize inventory management, ensuring products are in the right place at the right time.
Thanks to this flexible and scalable infrastructure, companies can manage vast amounts of data ranging from customer preferences and latest purchases to searched items, instantly. That way, you can capitalize on interactions with the immediacy customers require.
In addition, with the myriad possibilities of generative AI, you can further elevate data analytics, search capabilities, personalization, user recommendations and more, taking your data-driven strategies to the next level!
The advantages of data-centric commerce for your business
commercetools Composable Commerce and MongoDB Atlas provide substantial benefits to companies seeking to enhance their eCommerce with flexible data management capabilities. Together, they offer a wide range of advantages:
From enhancing velocity and performance to enabling data-driven decision-making through analytics, this powerful commercetools and MongoDB combo solution empowers businesses to benefit from composable architecture without the complexity of legacy systems. That way, your business can start boosting customer experiences now and in the future.
Are you ready to capitalize on data-powered commerce with commercetools and MongoDB? Read more from our joint whitepaper: The Data-Centric Commerce Guide.
Ovidiu Cobzaru is a Product Marketing Manager focusing on the infrastructure of commercetools. Previously, Ovi held various marketing and enablement roles at multiple Forbes Top 20 technology companies. Today, he enjoys implementing a mix of technology and marketing initiatives to support a composable commerce future.
Genevieve Broadhead is the Principal for the Retail Industry for MongoDB EMEA, bridging the gap between new technology trends and how to apply them in a retail context. Having spent years designing data architectures and data practices across industries, she now liaises between product development and some of the largest retailers in EMEA. She sits on the MACH Alliance Tech Council, which approves new software vendors for MACH.