Integrating P21 With Magento – Key Takeaways, Slides, & Questions
Updated October 25, 2017
Presenting to the Prophet21 Worldwide User Group was a great experience and it turns out the possibilities an integration with Magento can provide for P21 users were a huge hit. With 63 companies registered to attend, we took the title for “highest registration for a webinar of this kind.” Here are some of the highlights (including the slidedeck & answers to FAQs from the audience):
Whatever you use as a platform should be able to accommodate your needs & grow with you. That’s why we focus on Magento – because it’s focused on flexibility without constraints. It’s your business, which means it’s your data. Everything is merchant-centric, not technology-centric, so you control it.
Magento really allows you to make your site your own. An integration with it is far more cost-effective than a re-platform and grants you access to a ton of benefits, like:
- The ability to scale & grow with your business
- No limits on design
- Segmentation for a more personalized shopping experience
- Promotions tailored as you want them
- Tools to help increase AOV (like automatically generated coupon codes to help regain abandoned carts)
- Multiple caching mechanisms & product indexing to increase site speed
- A highly customizable integration
- Live inventory
And far more than that with a seamless integration with your P21 system. With the P21 API we’ve created, we want to make sure we make your lives easier, so you can focus on what matters – the customer & your business.
We held a Q&A session afterwards (and a good thing too!). Here are a few of the FAQs:
Is the API ParadoxLabs’ or Epicor/P21’s?
The API to which we refer in the presentation is ours. We wrote our own – it was easier that way and because it’s our own, it’s also easier to customize.
How does the ParadoxLabs API differ from the Epicor API?
Since the Epicor/P21 API was just released, that’s not a question we can accurately answer. But, since we control the base code for ours, we can customize & change it for our customers accordingly.
Do we have to buy the Epicor API to use the ParadoxLabs solution?
No. If you buy the Epicor API, we can still build the site. It’s part of what we do & as far as we know, we’re the only Magento Solution Partner to do an integration.
If the P21 system is down, can Magento still present items & take orders?
Yes. Since the integration with Magento works by caching pricing & inventory, that information is still available locally. Even if P21 connectivity is interrupted, Magento has that information; new information won’t be updated for the orders it takes during this period, but once the connection to P21 is established again, information would refresh and be up-to-date for orders coming in after that.
How many SKUs can Magento support?
There isn’t really a limit. Magento says to call them if you have more than a million and there are sites currently running more than a million SKUs.
How does the process work?
It’s a service we perform for you. You get the custom API as a part of working with us. We don’t own Magento, the store we create for your business is yours.
Is Enterprise required or do you work with Community?
We do work with Community. We haven’t done a P21 integration with Community, only with Enterprise, but there shouldn’t be any problems. With Community, you would just be missing out on some of the premium features that come with Enterprise (like advanced caching & the payment bridge for PA-DSS compliance, among others).
Will a high image count slow it down & are images easy to upload?
Images & media content will create heavier pages, but the use of CDNs and/or increased bandwidth will speed it up. It’s pretty easy to add images through the admin or, if there are tons of products with multiple images for each, we can create scripts to tie images to products for quicker, easier uploads.
If we’re already using Magento, where’s the step ParadoxLabs can help us?
If you use Magento, we can help you. We’re a solution provider, just give us a call and we’ll talk about what you want; we only need to know where you want us to step in.
Can multiple stores be based off of the same inventory?
They should be able to, yes.
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