NetSuite relaunches ecommerce in the cloud

NetSuite has launched a new cloud-based e-commerce platform built on its core enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management offering.

The new SuiteCommerce system enables B2B and B2C interactions across multiple touchpoints, including websites, smartphones, tablets, in-store and via social media.

It is an extension of NetSuite's ten-year-old ecommerce system and designed to provide seamless order, inventory and customer management capabilities in one place

According to NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson, the new solution "effectively enabled every company to deliver that Apple-like commerce experience".

Nelson said that the first iteration was "somewhat of an accident" of the company's architecture that had many limitations, including a three-page checkout system and a business-facing customisation model [SuiteCloud] that could not be exposed to the customer.

"Effectively we decoupled the front end display from the back end business system so that [our customers] can control every pixel on the screen and support any device, so you can build a UI for a phone for example," Nelson said told CRN.

"We've also opened up all the SuiteCloud APIs so now you can do rich business process customisation to the website or whichever device you're exposing your system to."

Although NetSuite's older ecommerce platform targeted small businesses, Nelson expected the new system to address the needs of much larger companies.

SuiteCommerce pre-launch customers included designer furniture company Coco Republic, beauty retailer SkincareStore and Australian agribusinesses Elders.

Nelson said SuiteCommerce had been in development for about 18 months, with its design driven by e-commerce user expectations.

Online shoppers tended to expect a company to remember who they were, regardless of the device they used, he explained.

"I describe this as the headless commerce engine," Nelson said.

"Which is to say, you can put any 'head' on top of NetSuite now: you can put a retail point of sale system on it, you can put a phone on it, you can put a tablet on it, and all of those UIs come back to the same data repositories, so you can recognise the customer regardless of channel."