Online shops are nothing without good marketing. In this article, discover how we changed the ecommerce game with our Configio ecommerce API integration support team.
Configio is good for ecommerce transactions, specifically for event registration and course material. Where Configio shines is in giving organizations a webspace where they can do all their basic operations with the room to expand; instead of managing multiple platforms for email, managing events/ecommerce, and delivering educational content, this LMS allows you to do it all.
Kartra, on the other hand, is for marketing those events and keeping existing clients engaged and perhaps becoming repeat customers.
However, Configio and Kartra do not communicate very well. Even with Configio support, you have to manually transfer data from Configio – for example, where students register for courses and where the organization processes all their registrations – into the “learning center”.
The challenge then becomes how to sync the data over to a CRM specializing in the sales funnel and the overall marketing experience. Without any Configio ecommerce API integration support, this is a cumbersome process to say the least.
Zack Morris… Freeze! Need a quick refresher on what consultation and API integration services can do for you?
- Integrate and Connect Applications with a Software Developer – Network Antics – Some basic examples of really useful API integrations
- Zoho Books API Integration: Our Review, Plus How We Improved Our Invoices in 6 Steps – Network Antics – Fun example of how to connect a Business Management Platform to an invoice system through a non-native API
- Software Development & API Integrations – Network Antics – Introduces you to our standard development cycle for a custom API integration services
- Why You Need API Integration for Your Business – Network Antics – A nuts-and-bolts article for learning about API
- Business Operations Consultant Who Knows IT – Network Antics – Another fun post for optimizing your operations for producing some cost savings!
- Migrating to a New Platform? Organize CRM Contacts in 4 Easy Steps – Network Antics – Basic CRM migration content
- How to Quickly Label Contacts in PipeDrive – Network Antics – Contact Labeling is a great lead into the use case below for utilizing labels from one platform to the other to proceed with CRM marketing sequences.
- How to Engage Prospects & Existing Clientele – Network Antics – Do you understand sales sequences? It is the key to your sales and marketing existence.
Use Case & Example Site Without API Integration
Even though ecommerce offers infinite sales opportunities, the challenge really comes with marketing the products or services being sold. Even with Configio’s strengths as an ecommerce platform, any savvy business owner will know that marketing is the missing piece of the puzzle.
In this ecommerce API example (we are using the fake domain ‘acme.com’ to protect our client’s privacy), we’re using Configio as a portal to allow easy sign up for classes and events at our company.
Acme.com – WordPress
learn.acme.com – Event Registration (Configio) platform but no marketing functions
“The Learning Center” is Kartra CRM housing the elearning (online content) courses that Configio (ecommerce platform) sells. The organization must pull a daily report in order to get the customer in an email lead (marketing funnel) sequence with Kartra and then manually add that data into Kartra.
Use Case #1: Acme Institute – NetworkAntics client
acme.com/courses
This location is built on WordPress, but the link sends you to registration and then transitions you to Configio.
– You can see that it is an eCommerce site focused on event or course management as you navigate through the Configio web interface.
– Where is course material housed? Configio or Kartra CRM? Some of the course material is housed in Kartra. However, most of the courses are in person in this use case.
– Configio performs the credit card transaction and manages the account.
– Because Configio lacks sufficient features for student follow-up, all data related to the student’s journey must ideally be migrated to Kartra and constantly updated from the Configio Management platform to the Kartra Sales and Marketing CRM platform.
– What are the three triggers? See the box below along with the doc pasted from the Acme Institute for the problem they are trying to solve.
What is a typical Configio ecommerce problem that we can solve through an API integration?
Configio ecommerce doesn’t have marketing integrations, nor does it have robust marketing tools. This forces us to capture lead gen data within Kartra (which means it’s not captured in Configio) or manually transfer Configio customer data into Kartra (which is not sustainable in the short term, or scalable in the long term). In short, we have two systems that don’t talk to each other.
Solution: To establish a “restful API” which transfers real-time data from one platform to another.
Objective: Transfer data outbound from Configio to Kartra for operational consistency and to build smart marketing automations with real-time customer data. Ideally, API integration services will create a sync that will assist the organization in processing students into the appropriate marketing funnel.
Overview: First, we need to scope the project by documenting the specific data we need to flow to Kartra. Because this will likely be a significant investment involving a 3rd party developer, we should be intentional about both long- and short-term needs and goals. Once the API is set up, it shouldn’t require any additional maintenance unless we want to add new endpoints.
Next, we’ll follow up with Bill from Configio who will check on pricing and availability and compare with other developers. Kartra’s dev team may be able to help as well.
Ecommerce API Example Documentation:
Configio: https://api.configio.com/
Kartra: https://documentation.kartra.com/api-integration/
You can see what capabilities we have by looking at inbound/outbound “endpoints”, AKA data sets.
Considerations:
- What are our active Kartra campaigns and what are the data pain points/roadblocks?
- What campaigns will be building out for the 2024 course schedule?
- What are our long-term marketing and ops goals for 2024 and beyond?
Data transfer from Configio to Kartra
Configio Ecommerce API Integration Support: How We Combined the Benefits of ECommerce and Marketing Into 1 Powerful Integration Summary
Configio is a great ecommerce platform with good ease-of-use and value for their product. However, this platform alone is not enough to meet the challenge of selling a product and getting it to the right audience. Combining the tools of Configio and Kartra gives online shops a huge advantage in the vast world of ecommerce.
This ecommerce API example demonstrates the incredible improvements that can be made on managing sales, outreach, and workflow efficiency with API integration.
Interested in how API integration services can help your business? Contact our expert development team at NetworkAntics to see how we can assist you.