Reducing the cost of ownership of a large online store

Against the background of a rapidly growing e-commerce market, more and more companies are thinking about reducing transaction costs due to the formation of a qualitatively new IT infrastructure. The task of building a foundation for a serious on-line business is becoming very relevant, especially for large companies with off-line business, and, accordingly, more or less well-established business processes.

We have seven years of e-commerce experience. During this time, we have tried many ways and it seems to us that we have found the best solution for building a serious base for a large online store. We do not claim to be pioneering, but we have to admit that the path of automation proposed in the article was rarely met in other companies.
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One of the main problems of the IT infrastructure of an online store is the duality of the database. Few people think that creating a site based on CMS and keeping a record in 1C, the company has 2 separate databases, and later, each of them has its own logical interconnection of internal elements ...




Consider the main problems for such an IT infrastructure that affect the cost of its ownership and the complexity of the subsequent modernization. It is hardly possible to describe all the problems associated with this approach, we list only the main ones. The rest of the problems everyone thinks of to the best of experience and ability.

1. Creating a nomenclature in two places.

Hundreds of products have to be loaded dozens of times in 2 places on the site and in 1C.
You can automate much while doing this, but are these not crutches?

2. Accounting orders.

Many keep records of orders on the site, then transferred to 1C.
Sorry, but this is complete nonsense.

3. CRM functions.

They are often trying to implement on the side of the site, which leads to the complete absence of the possibility of collecting normal analytics. After all, really powerful analytics can be done cheaply (relatively of course) only in CRM or ERP.
For example, at the 1C level, it is often impossible to refine CRM for own needs, due to the lack of a huge amount of customer data in 1C that is in the site database. If all the data were at the 1C level, then with the statistics it would be much easier.

4. Analytics for making important decisions.

We consider the following important decisions:

• Warehouse turnover
• Sales funnel
• Cost report
• Flow of funds
• Balance
• Sales report

There are no sufficient tools for analytics on the site and there should not be. And because of 2 databases, in 1C there is not enough information to get analytics.

5. Changing business processes.

With the growth of business, business processes are constantly changing; they have to be constantly refined at the level of IT infrastructure. Having 2 databases, the logic has to be changed both at the site level and at the 1C level.
For example, when creating a new field in 1C, you need to add it to the site. Or when creating cumulative discounts on the site, it is necessary to implement the same thing in 1C, by analogy.

6. Base product content.

When a trading company has a lot of marketable content, all sorts of Excel files are often the repository. Some companies store content in a separate database, from which it is uploaded to the site and to 1C. With this approach, the 3rd database appears. Modernization of the content format leads to changes already in 3 bases. Just wonderful".

The method we offer eliminates the company from the problems listed above. It consists in the main thing: creating a single database with all the logical interconnections at the 1C level and full, two-way synchronization of this database with the site database, which does not have control, but was created only to work with the site.



The main advantages of such a system are, above all, in the absence of the above mentioned disadvantages of the previous approach. Of course, there are downsides, which we describe in more detail:

Cons of our approach

1. The need to set up some logical connections between data at the Web database level.

Despite the fact that we consider the central database to be 1C, some logic will still have to be formed on the website if the client needs to immediately display some information.
Example:
It is necessary to implement on the website the calculation of the cost of delivery to the client Data on the volume and weight of goods is stored in 1C, which means we can implement the calculation using api of a logistics company. We do not do this logic inside 1C, but do it on the site, but at the same time full synchronization is maintained at the database level, because after calculating on the site, an order with a delivery field and a price generated at the site level arrives. Also in 1C comes information on the date and delivery address.

2. Cost and quality code 1C.

The 1C market is overheated in a scary way; it is not easy to find a 1C specialist. In our case, the basic settings and basic programming tasks are at the 1C level.

3. Thoroughness of the approach.

This may be a plus, however, more often than not, businessmen do not want to spend time and money on the foundation, but try to build a fast-build, cheap and even less reliable structure.
For novice businessmen, this should be done, but this article is more addressed to those who have a fast-erected structure that has already been tilted enough or has been rebuilt a couple of times.

4. One-time cost.

Not every company can afford to invest 140-300 thousand rubles into the it-infrastructure of the online store. In our case, it is unlikely that we will manage to do with smaller investments.

Still, we will describe in more detail the advantages of the approach with one main database in 1C and replication of this database at the WEB level:

1. Low cost of ownership of IT-infrastructure.

It seems cheaper for start-up entrepreneurs to program at the site level, but this ultimately affects the cost of ownership of the IT infrastructure of a business so much that after one or two years, maintaining the site in working condition can cost 70-150 thousand rubles (this is the cost of one- two programmers)

Plus, you still have to work and refine 1C.

Thus, companies with a site on the CMS system, having a 1C accounting system, constantly spend money on work both on the site and in 1C, having constant problems solved by “crutches” in their synchronization.

Creating a bridgehead at the level of the database 1C , the site will spend 5-10 thousand per month.

2. Streamlining the company's business processes.

Many companies in vain neglect the standard logic of business processes that exist in 1C. They are certainly not universal, but often the business does not have such cardinal features that make it impossible to use the 1C functional with a minimum number of improvements.
Creating a main database for an online store in 1C, many business processes will initially be built correctly.

3. A significant reduction in the cost of creating a website, if in 1C there is already an activity, content is added with characteristics and there are business processes built.

In this case, the creation of an online store will be reduced to creating a copy of the database for the site (with a ready-made exchange tool, this is done in 3-5 hours.

Unfortunately, Russian realities do not allow the use of the most advanced tools for business automation, which are used throughout the world. Most companies use 1C as an ERP system. The task of creating a competent business architecture very often faces the traders too late, when the business is already developed. We hope that this article will help you make an intelligent decision when building a large, interesting project.