Dynamics 365 Commerce: Everything you need to know

Online shopping and eCommerce has grown exponentially since COVID-19, causing businesses to adapt and offer new experiences to keep customers engaged. Microsoft have recently released 2021 Wave 1 of the Dynamics 365 Commerce platform and today we want to cover everything you need to know about the platform itself.

In this article we will explain what 365 Commerce is, some key elements of the platform and benefits it provides for businesses. 

What is Dynamics 365 Commerce?

First released in September 2019, 365 Commerce is an omnichannel eCommerce solution that allows you to build websites, connect physical and digital stores and manage everything from customer experiences, manage sales across channels, manage operations and resource management and access smart data and analytics.

It is an upgrade to Dynamics 365 Retail and offers and end-to-end solution for businesses selling across multiple channels.

365 Commerce integrates everything a business might need to run a successful store including customer experience and customer service management, loyalty programmes, online stores, point of sale, operations and inventory management, spart insights and data powered by AI to assist sales teams, finance and operations. This is all done using the large array of modules provided in the system.

What are the key benefits of Dynamics 365 Commerce?

Let’s break down the key features and benefits of the platform:

#1 Allows you to build, manage and customise your own eCommerce site

Using this platform you can develop your own eCommerce site and customise all the key areas with modules including:

• Product page module: here you can edit product names, specifications, toggle quick view settings, add-to-cart, and manage ratings or reviews
• Marketing module: integrated marketing module allows you to managem promotions and all other features you need to display your content
• Search module: Edit and customise the search functionality on your site to make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for
• Account Management module: manage how customers sign in, sign up, manage their accounts, view order history, etc.
• Header and Footer module: You have the ability to edit the header and footer on each page of your site
• Buy online, pick up in store module: Allow customers to buy online and pick up from one of your physical stores, using a connection with Bing to locate the nearest store.

#2 Ability to connect other Microsoft apps for comprehensive insights powered by AI

The power of this platform lies in its ability to connect with your other Microsoft products to bring all your data into one place. Thanks to Microsoft AI, all the data is comprehensive and smart so you can view things like customer information, store assets, inventory, finances and pricing, marketing campaign data, fraud protection and much more.

#3: Enhance the customer experience by linking Dynamics 365 CRM

Link your Dynamics 365 CRM to get access to information including customer behaviour, customer acquisition, relationship management, customer retention, and loyalty programs.

With these smart insights, you will be able to provide the right customer support, optimise your marketing and sales processes, and know how to solve issues like cart abandonment effectively.

#4: Access your data quickly, from one source

Dynamics 365 Commerce is a cloud-based and centralised system. This means that you can access all the data you need from one login, which makes it quick and easy for you and your team.

#5: Easily scale up

Due to being cloud-based, you don’t have to worry about specific hardware requirements or physical space for your system. Microsoft also takes care of all the data security and upgrades the software regularly with new features.

2021 Release Wave 1 – What’s New?

Speaking of new features, let’s touch on some of the new features announced from the latest wave this year. Microsoft have added new capabilities and features focussed around intelligence

• New e-commerce capabilities: There is now the ability to digitise b2b transactions with personalised, user friendly and self-serve, inspired by B2C e-commerce experiences. These include partner onboarding, order templates, quick order entry, account statement and invoicing management.
• Native integration with Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
• B2B functions such as contracts pricing, quotes pricing lists, e-procurement, product configuration and customisation, guided selling, bulk order entry and account, contract and budget management are also able to be added onto the e-commerce platform to enhance the B2B buying experience.
• Enhanced search engine results: With this, you can now improve your SEO rankings for products with native support for schema.org/product. Products pages can also utilise existing Dynamics 365 Commerce headquarters product data to simplify merchandising workflows.
• Shop similar looks: With the power of AI and machine learning, your Microsoft 365 Commerce platform can now suggest “similar looks” so shoppers and find more of the things they like or want, in an easy-to-use visual experience.
• Shop by similar description: This allows customers to find products they need that are relevant to what they are searching and also find what they originally intend. For business, this helps provide more conversion opportunities and overall results in more sales revenue and customer satisfaction.
• System monitoring and diagnostics for in-store and e-commerce: Helps IT administrators to have more visibility of system data and enable them to improve time to detection, mitigation, and resolution of live-site incidents. It provides key insights to help identify factors of incidents too.
• Integration with Microsoft Teams: You can now create teams for stores, add members from store worker’s book, and sync changes in the future. You can set up mobile notifications for frontline workers and use Teams and 365 Commerce for task management.

For more information about how you can integrate Dynamics 365 Commerce into your business, contact the team at 365 Mechanix.