CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions are arguably one of the oldest and most used software solutions by enterprises. In today’s world of e-commerce, some of the top CRM systems are cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Solution) that are designed to integrate and combine features with other e-commerce applications to improve customer experiences and operational efficiency. However, in order to effectively integrate these top CRM tools with online stores and other e-commerce SaaS, businesses are now implementing an “integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS).” To understand this better, let’s dive into our current pick of the top 10 CRM platforms that are great for e-commerce. At the same time, let’s explore the most effective way for modern businesses to integrate and enable real-time data exchange between CRM systems and e-commerce solutions.
Top CRM software to integrate for e-commerce excellence
Modern e-commerce businesses stand to gain significantly from implementing any of the top CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems as part of their e-commerce integration strategy. They help consolidate information such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and communication preferences; CRM systems can help e-commerce businesses gain deep insights into customer preferences. The top CRM tools help businesses act on this data by providing features to tailor marketing campaigns, personalize communication, and offer targeted promotions. Moreover, CRM systems facilitate efficient customer support by enabling businesses to track and resolve inquiries promptly.
By leveraging any one of the top CRM tools, e-commerce businesses can optimize operations, foster stronger customer relationships, and drive revenue growth. CRM solutions complement other marketing, operations, and sales software, such as e-commerce platforms, ERP systems, payment gateways, ticketing systems, marketing automation systems, and other SaaS solutions. Yet, before we delve into how businesses can integrate CRM systems, let’s explore some of the top CRM systems for e-commerce.
Our pick of the top 10 CRM systems of 2024
1. HubSpot
Easily one of the top CRM tools in the e-commerce landscape, HubSpost stands out as a versatile solution that excels in inbound marketing. Apart from offering critical automation capabilities, HubSpot provides a holistic, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to manage sales, marketing, and customer service activities from one platform.
Apart from benefiting E-commerce businesses with its automation tools for social media, emails, and SEO optimization, HubSpot also offers seamless integration with online stores. This helps track customer interactions across channels, personalize communications, and drive conversions. Its holistic analytics tool provides invaluable customer insights, enabling businesses to tailor data-driven strategies.
2. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Another name that commonly shows up in the lists of the most popular CRM platforms is Salesforce. This leading top CRM solution caters to over 150,000 big and small companies and helps them create 360-degree customer views. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools designed to streamline sales, marketing, and customer service processes, and its robust analytics and AI-driven insights empower data-driven decisions and strategies to build meaningful customer relationships.
For e-commerce, the Salesforce CRM provides Salesforce Commerce Cloud as part of its ecosystem, which is designed to help develop B2C, B2B, and D2C e-commerce. Apart from helping set up fully headless digital storefronts, personalizing buying experiences with AI capabilities, and automating order management, Salesforce is one of the top CRM tools that provide businesses with a whole suite of features to develop their e-commerce experience along with their CRM. Overall, it helps unify customer data, purchase history, and interactions across multiple touchpoints, providing a comprehensive view of each customer's journey.
3. Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM offers a range of unique benefits that set it apart from the other top CRM systems in the e-commerce landscape. Helping over 250,000 global businesses manage sales, marketing, and support from one platform, Zoho CRM helps automate workflows, processes, campaigns, customer journeys, and more. The platform’s customization options allow businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs, ensuring a personalized experience that aligns with their workflows. Additionally, its affordability compared to other CRM solutions makes it an attractive option for businesses of all sizes, especially startups and smaller businesses looking to maximize their ROI.
Zoho CRM greatly benefits e-commerce by offering seamless integration with over 800 online stores and marketing platforms. Its lead management tools help businesses capture and nurture leads effectively, while its analytics capabilities provide valuable insights into customer behavior and trends. With Zoho CRM, e-commerce businesses can streamline their operations, enhance customer relationships, and drive sales growth in the competitive online marketplace.
4. SugarCRM
SugarCRM offers flexibility and customizability as key features that make it a standout choice among other top CRM tools, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs and workflows. Besides great adaptability, Sugar CRM also provides an affordable and scalable solution that’s designed to accommodate the unique requirements of diverse industries and business models. It incorporates generative AI automation capabilities to boost sales productivity, improve marketing efficiency, and enhance customer service.
SugarCRM provides several e-commerce benefits, such as streamlining data collection with automation, and provides a historically accurate and complete view of customer interactions and preferences. Apart from facilitating personalized marketing campaigns and targeted sales efforts, it supports over 33 languages and multiple concurrent currencies. Its robust reporting and analytics capabilities enable e-commerce businesses to track performance metrics, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their online sales strategies. With SugarCRM, e-commerce businesses can enhance customer engagement, drive sales growth, and stay ahead in the competitive online marketplace.
5. Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM offers a range of unique benefits, making it one of the top CRM systems for businesses seeking comprehensive customer relationship management solutions. Its seamless integration with other Microsoft products, such as Office 365 and Outlook, as well as Microsoft’s popular ERP systems, like Microsoft Dynamics Finance and Operations, helps businesses automate complex workflows and enhances operational efficiency. The Dynamics 365 CRM also provides advanced AI capabilities to help personalize customer interactions, predict customer needs, and optimize sales processes. Moreover, its modular approach allows businesses to tailor the platform to their specific requirements.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM also provides e-commerce businesses with a unified platform to manage customer data, streamline sales processes, and deliver personalized experiences across multiple channels. Its robust analytics and reporting tools enable businesses to gain insights into customer behavior and identify opportunities for growth. With Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, e-commerce businesses can maximize customer engagement, improve operational efficiency, and achieve sustainable growth in the competitive online marketplace.
6. Zendesk
Zendesk is yet another one of the most popular CRM platforms that sticks out for its focus on improving customer loyalty, providing a wide variety of features such as ticketing, agent workspace, workforce management, AI and automation features, and more. Its intuitive interface and user-friendly design make it easy for businesses to manage customer interactions across multiple channels, including email, chat, social media, and phone. Zendesk's comprehensive ticketing system helps promptly resolve customer inquiries. Additionally, Zendesk's robust analytics and reporting capabilities provide valuable insights into customer behavior, enabling businesses to identify areas for improvement and optimize their support processes.
Zendesk also provides some of the top CRM tools for e-commerce, allowing businesses to centralize customer interactions, track order inquiries, and provide personalized support throughout the buyer's journey. It provides a marketplace of integrations with e-commerce platforms, apps, and themes to improve customer experiences. Zendesk also enables seamless data synchronization, ensuring up-to-date customer information, and helps e-commerce businesses build stronger customer relationships.
7. Lime CRM
Lime CRM is a customizable solution that enables businesses to adapt the CRM system to their specific needs seamlessly. It provides top CRM tools such as history notes, to-dos, ticketing management, deals, and marketing activity automation. Lime CRM's robust contact management capabilities ensure businesses can efficiently organize and track customer interactions, improving customer engagement and satisfaction. Moreover, its advanced reporting and analytics tools provide valuable insights into sales performance and customer trends, empowering businesses to make informed decisions and drive growth.
Some essential advantages that Lime CRM offers e-commerce businesses include facilitating personalized marketing campaigns, targeted promotions, and seamless order management. Its integration with e-commerce applications allows businesses to centralize customer data, track purchase history, and deliver exceptional customer experiences throughout the buying journey. It's one of the top CRM software solutions for e-commerce businesses to optimize sales processes.
8. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is another top CRM software offering distinctive benefits that set it apart in customer relationship management. Its user-friendly interface is designed to simplify how businesses manage their sales pipelines and track leads. Pipedrive's focus on sales pipeline management ensures businesses can prioritize and follow up on opportunities efficiently, increasing conversions and revenue. Its robust automation features also streamline repetitive tasks, allowing sales teams to focus on building relationships and closing deals.
When it comes to e-commerce, Pipedrive serves as a valuable CRM solution by providing a centralized platform to track customer interactions, monitor sales performance, and identify opportunities for growth. Its integration with e-commerce platforms enables businesses to streamline order management processes, track customer interactions across channels, and deliver personalized experiences that drive repeat purchases. With Pipedrive, e-commerce businesses can optimize their sales processes, enhance customer relationships, and achieve sustainable growth in the competitive online marketplace.
8. Apptivo
Apptivo stands out among the other top CRM software solutions as an all-in-one platform that integrates CRM with project management, invoicing, and other business tools, providing businesses with a comprehensive solution to manage customer interactions and operations. Apptivo's user-friendly interface and customizable features make it easy for businesses to adapt the platform to their specific needs and workflows, enhancing efficiency and productivity. Additionally, its affordability compared to other CRM solutions makes it an attractive option for small and medium-sized businesses looking to maximize their ROI.
As an e-commerce CRM, Apptivo shines by providing e-commerce businesses with a centralized platform to manage customer data, track sales, and automate marketing campaigns. It provides over 65 integrated applications wherein its integration with e-commerce platforms enables businesses to streamline order processing, personalize customer communications, and drive repeat purchases. With Apptivo as their CRM solution, e-commerce businesses can enhance customer relationships, optimize sales processes, and achieve long-term success in the competitive online marketplace.
10. Nutshell
Among all the top CRM systems listed, Nutshell distinguishes itself as a CRM designed for e-commerce businesses. Its robust contact management features enable businesses to organize and track customer interactions seamlessly, providing valuable insights into customer relationships and sales pipelines. Its customizable workflows and automation features enable businesses to personalize marketing campaigns, optimize sales processes, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
Additionally, Nutshell's integration capabilities with e-commerce platforms and third-party applications allow businesses to centralize their data, streamline operations, and improve collaboration across teams. It provides businesses with expert-led tactics to boost e-commerce transactions and a rich library of digital marketing campaign templates to implement swiftly. Additionally, it provides robust customer segmentation features, personalized email automation and A/B testing, and great cross-selling opportunities. As a CRM for e-commerce, Nutshell empowers businesses to manage customer relationships effectively, track sales activities, and drive conversions.
Connecting top CRM tools with e-commerce using an iPaaS
When incoporating a CRM into an e-commerce integration strategy, it is challenging enough to choose the right solution from the most popular CRM platforms in the world. However, it is even more challenging to integrate these CRM solutions with e-commerce platforms in a scalable way. That’s where the iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) comes in!
The iPaaS is an API-driven, cloud-based integration platform that modern businesses use to connect multiple SaaS solutions, cloud apps, and on-premises systems. Apart from greatly simplifying integrations between CRM solutions, e-commerce platforms, ERP systems, PIM, WMS, marketing automation software, and more, iPaaS solutions help synchronize data between all these different solutions and facilitate real-time data exchange. As such, while the iPaaS helps facilitate seamless CRM and e-commerce integrations, it also allows businesses to flexibly integrate many more solutions to these two connected systems without losing data integrity. Additionally, the iPaaS helps businesses build workflows to synchronize and automate processes across the CRM, e-commerce platform, and other applications that a business may integrate.
Most importantly, by leveraging the iPaaS, businesses can seamlessly switch their integrated e-commerce solutions without the loss of data integrity. In other words, if businesses wish to change their existing integrated CRM system with any other top CRM tools such as the ones mentioned in this list, the iPaaS allows this effortless interchangeability without causing disruptions in their e-commerce integrations.
Read more about the need to use an integration platform for e-commerce integrations →
Other blogs you might be interested in!
Get a free demo of the Alumio platform
