The Echidna Blog

Quoting is not the reason your products cannot be sold online. Unexamined quoting workflows are. Sort your order volume honestly, move the standard majority to self-service, give the negotiated remainder a visible digital workflow, and measure quote abandonment the way you measure cart abandonment.

B2B site search fails when it speaks catalog language instead of buyer language. The evidence is sitting in your search logs right now, and most of the fixes are content and configuration work, not a replatform.

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We rank nine real use cases by whether they are delivering ROI in production today, whether they are conditionally working depending on the substrate underneath, or whether they remain experimental for most enterprise teams. The framing matters. Investing in a use case in the wrong bucket is how AI budgets quietly disappear in year two.

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After working with enterprise B2B commerce teams for seventeen years, including most of the past three years deep in AI implementation work, a pattern is clear. The companies pulling ahead are not the ones investing the most in AI. They are the ones operating with the clearest framework for what AI is actually changing in commerce, and what it is not.

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AI commerce features rarely succeed or fail cleanly. They tend to deliver real value in narrow places and underperform in others, with the net result obscured by attribution challenges, attribution overlap with other initiatives, and metrics that were not set up at the start of the project to answer the question that finance is now asking.

The teams that hold up well in their year-two budget conversations are not the ones with the biggest results. They are the ones with the clearest measurement. Six metrics, in our experience working with enterprise B2B commerce organizations, cover the picture honestly. Together they tell finance whether the AI investment is paying back, where it is leaking, and what to fund next.

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A failed or underperforming integration does not just delay your go-live. It creates ongoing operational drag that undermines the business case for the entire commerce investment — for years. This guide gives enterprise teams a practical framework for evaluating integration partners: what to look for, what to ask, and what answers should give you pause.

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Enterprise eCommerce integration projects have a failure rate that the industry does not talk about enough. Failure as in the integration was built, went live, and then proceeded to quietly undermine the commerce experience it was supposed to power. These are not edge cases. They are the normal outcome of integrations that were designed without enough rigor, implemented without enough governance, or handed off to teams who lacked the context to maintain them.

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B2B eCommerce integration is not a technical afterthought. It is the connective tissue that determines whether your commerce platform works as a real business capability or as an expensive storefront with a broken backend.

The organizations that treat integration as a strategic investment — architecting it deliberately, governing it continuously, and partnering with specialists who understand the complexity — are the ones whose commerce channels actually deliver the ROI they were promised.

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Most B2B eCommerce projects launch. Few scale. The difference is strategy—defined before the platform is chosen and executed long after go-live.

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Most B2B eCommerce sites look fine and perform poorly. Here's what enterprise buyers need from a digital commerce experience—and where most designs fail.

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Boomi is how Echidna builds that foundation. Not as a simple data pipe — but as the central nervous system of the enterprise, transforming and cleaning data in transit, enabling parallel workstreams, and making it possible to modernize legacy systems without replacing them.

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Choosing the wrong platform costs millions and years. This guide walks through the evaluation criteria that actually matter for enterprise B2B organizations.

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Enterprise eCommerce integration projects have a failure rate that the industry does not talk about enough. Failure as in the integration was built, went live, and then proceeded to quietly undermine the commerce experience it was supposed to power. These are not edge cases. They are the normal outcome of integrations that were designed without enough rigor, implemented without enough governance, or handed off to teams who lacked the context to maintain them.

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Boomi is how Echidna builds that foundation. Not as a simple data pipe — but as the central nervous system of the enterprise, transforming and cleaning data in transit, enabling parallel workstreams, and making it possible to modernize legacy systems without replacing them.

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Let’s debunk a popular myth before we start: Continuous innovation is not a one-off event or just a buzzword. It’s not about having that one groundbreaking idea that skyrockets your business to success. True innovation is a continuous process. It’s about applying strategic, tactical, and operational strengths consistently to prepare for future shifts. In a world where technology evolves at breakneck speed, staying relevant requires more than a flash of brilliance. It demands a relentless, ongoing commitment to change.

In recent years, voice search technology has transformed the way people interact with their devices and access information. This innovation allows users to search the internet, control smart home devices, and perform various tasks simply by speaking commands. Voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant have become integral parts of our daily lives, making voice search an essential aspect of modern SEO strategies.

Throughout 2022 and early 2023, there was an explosion of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that captivated business leaders, investors, and society as a whole with its impressive ability to create new and seemingly human-made text and images.

You know that providing a seamless, personalized experience to your customers is the key to success. With online purchases on the rise and the growing popularity of omnichannel retail, chatbots have become the go-to tool for businesses looking to improve customer service and increase sales.

Construction Specialties has been at the forefront of providing specialty building products worldwide for more than seventy years. With a presence in twenty countries, they have obtained more than 40 registered product patents and produced ten distinct product lines. Their products can be found in or on some of the world's most famous buildings.

With eCommerce sales doubling in the past five years and markets expected to almost double again by 2026, companies are making sizable investments in their eCommerce capabilities.

In a time when every company is digital to some degree, your strategy is the differentiator. The stronger your strategy the easier it is to not only navigate rapid change and innovation, but as a result those companies also see higher conversion rates.

The automotive industry is at a crossroads. One way maintains the current status quo with little room for competitive edges and scalability, while the other path leads to reimagining its core operations and focusing on digital channels. While the latter path might seem intimidating at the moment, it is important to understand that the industry is moving towards digital selling as a business model for both B2B and B2C markets. Choosing to ignore buyer demands can hurt automotive brands in the long term.

We’re living in an accelerated world of eCommerce.

10 years growth in 3 months according to a recent study by Bank of America and Forrester Analytics. While it can be debated how this measured, we can all agree things have changed rapidly in digital.

We knew this year would require brands to work on the ongoing challenge of optimizing the customer experience. However, being able to embrace a customer-first approach through digital operations has turned instrumental for brands in 2020. As merchants work towards the post-coronavirus future, what does that look like?

Quoting is not the reason your products cannot be sold online. Unexamined quoting workflows are. Sort your order volume honestly, move the standard majority to self-service, give the negotiated remainder a visible digital workflow, and measure quote abandonment the way you measure cart abandonment.

B2B site search fails when it speaks catalog language instead of buyer language. The evidence is sitting in your search logs right now, and most of the fixes are content and configuration work, not a replatform.

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When a B2B buyer gets stuck on your site, they do not generally abandon the relationship. The site's conversion rate is technically unaffected, because the buyer never entered the funnel at all. Meanwhile a sales engineer spent part of their afternoon reading a spec sheet aloud. Your support volume is the usability report your analytics cannot produce. Here is how to read it.

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Most B2B eCommerce sites look fine and perform poorly. Here's what enterprise buyers need from a digital commerce experience—and where most designs fail.

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You don’t need another pep talk about “putting the customer first.” You need levers. The good news: modern UX testing tools are exactly that—levers that move revenue, reduce cost-to-serve, and de-risk big bets.

In today’s competitive online market, cutting the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of your eCommerce platform is critical for long-term profitability. Believe it or not, one of the most effective ways to do that isn’t about the technology—it's about user experience (UX). Here’s how enhancing UX can help you slash costs, boost conversions, and reduce hidden operational drag.

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, mobile users demand seamless, intuitive experiences. A mobile UX audit is the key to uncovering friction points, optimizing usability, and boosting engagement. Whether you’re launching a new mobile app or optimizing an existing one, following best practices ensures your mobile experience meets user expectations and drives conversions.

Seamless system integration has become foundational for success in B2C and B2B eCommerce. As companies shift to digital-first strategies to remain competitive and responsive to client demands, integrating systems like ERP, CRM, and inventory management is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity.

Once upon a time, the most advanced digital assistant many of us knew was Clippy—the quirky, ever-helpful paperclip in Microsoft Office. For all his flaws, Clippy was groundbreaking: the first mainstream, interactive UX assistant that tried to understand what users were doing and offered guidance (even if often unrequested). Though Clippy fell short in many ways, he introduced the idea of proactive assistance in a digital workspace—a concept that has since evolved dramatically.

The holiday shopping season is already in full swing—don’t panic! There’s still time to make quick, impactful adjustments to your eCommerce site that can help you handle the holiday rush like a pro. 🎁 With these last-minute tips, you can boost site speed, optimize your checkout process, and leverage social media to drive more traffic and sales. Let’s dive into the tweaks you can implement right away to get your site holiday-ready.

The industrial goods sector has seen a significant shift toward eCommerce in recent years, with businesses increasingly turning to online platforms to purchase tools, machinery, and raw materials. However, selling industrial goods online comes with unique challenges—ranging from large and complex product catalogs to diverse customer needs, such as procurement managers, engineers, and technicians seeking highly specific items. In this evolving landscape, AI personalization in industrial goods eCommerce is becoming a key driver for success, as buyers now expect tailored product recommendations, custom pricing, and seamless navigation through large inventories.

In the rapidly evolving world of automotive eCommerce, data-driven decision-making is no longer just an advantage—it's a necessity. With the rise of online vehicle shopping, managing customer expectations, inventory, and competitive pricing has become increasingly complex. Automotive eCommerce managers need more than just intuition to succeed in this environment; they require the power of data to make informed decisions that drive growth and enhance customer experiences.

Echidna Inc. is pleased to announce it has entered into a partnership with VTEX, the world’s first and only fully integrated commerce platform ready for the next age of digital innovation.

There are many reasons manufacturers come to Echidna looking to add or update their eCommerce capability. From limiting technology, product complexities, improving customer experience, or freeing up internal resources - the list can go on. No matter what the reason your organization is looking to implement eCommerce technology, choosing a platform built for the complexity and challenges unique to manufacturers is imperative for the ability to scale and find new opportunities.

eCommerce sales skyrocketed in 2020. In fact, the pandemic accelerated the shift toward eCommerce close to five years, according to a recent study by IBM.

Both B2B and B2C companies shifted gears to cater to COVID-19. Many were forced to find new ways to reach and serve their customers. This meant being flexible and rethinking on how to use technology to help the business deliver.

It is complex and ever-moving, but if you put the pieces together correctly your brand can reap the rewards. By starting with the idea of supporting their customers and internal business units, Construction Specialties is doing just that - and doubling product revenue - with the help of Oracle Commerce Cloud for B2B and Echidna.

Google has officially switched to mobile-first indexing for all websites. This means Google is first looking at your mobile site and using that to based on how it will rank your desktop site according to the information given.

While online shopping is trending up, that also means (unfortunately) cybercriminal activity is too. The multiple criminal groups referred to as Magecart has evolved and grown and hackers are becoming more sophisticated.

It happened. Magento 1’s end of life came and went. No, those who are still utilizing M1 didn’t crash and burn, but they are missing on a lot of goodies, security, and more provided by its sibling, Magento 2. Neither here nor there, if you decided to stay on Magento 1 for whatever reason you might be wondering your options going forward into 2020, and if Magento 1 support end of life is feasible.

With COVID-19, eCommerce has gone from gradually increasing to a runaway train shooting upwards. Lifestyles and purchasing patterns are rapidly changing and merchants are looking to align with their buyers just as fast. We continue with our commitment to helping all merchants during this time by providing content that you can actually use to be more productive and power up your online business. With an increase of merchants sitting on Magento 1  looking for guidance on how to quickly migrate from Magento 1.9 to 2.3, we are offering insight on how to migrate Magento 1.9 to the Magento 2 platform part of the Adobe Commerce Cloud.

Throughout the past several years we’ve written a lot of content for those of you researching Magento 2 migration. With Magento 1.9 officially ending support in June a lot of folks have been reaching out to Echidna with questions. First off, yes your site will still be up and running come June even if you have not migrated to Magento 2. But also yes, we highly recommend making the move (whether that be internally or with a certified Magento 2 partner) because the growth of your eCommerce operations largely depends on it. I know that the last statement might not be what you want to hear and to some, it might be up for debate. That’s what prompted us to update our Magento 2 Migration Guide and lay it all out there in terms of future growth, Magento 2 costs, timeline, and what happens next. So here we go.

Magento 2 migration is on the minds of many current Magento 1 companies, with questions swirling around timelines, costs, and all the what to expect and what if’s one can imagine. At Echidna, we have been working with our Magento 1 clients to navigate the waters of their own Magento 2 migrations with ease. The first thing to understand is it is a migration- not a point and click upgrade. Migrating from Magento 1 to Magento 2 involves changing database structures, themes and working with a new API. You will want to have the migration expertly managed to avoid data loss and downtime.

There has been no slowing down since Adobe announced its acquisition of Magento Commerce back in 2018. With Magento Commerce joining the Adobe Experience Cloud, they are now bringing the Imagine Conference community to join forces with the Adobe Summit at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas from March 29 through April 2. This co-location will allow Magento Commerce experts and pioneers the ability to expand their learning and networking opportunities, along with giving access to all Adobe Summit keynotes, events, and well over 400 sessions and labs. So what’s in store for those attending Magento Imagine 2020 @ Adobe Summit, and where can you find Echidna? Read on to find out.

You know that search engine optimization (SEO) matters. If you’ve been reading our Roadmap to SEO Success Series, Part 1 and Part 2 lay a foundation for getting your brand where you want it in terms of ranking optimally for the correct keywords.

Organic traffic has never been easy but is especially difficult for eCommerce. However, if you have read our article, What to Expect With an Enterprise SEO Audit, and took advantage of our eCommerce SEO Audit service you already have better insight into what your site needs to do in order to improve search engine rankings. But how can you execute on those findings?

SEO complexity is constantly evolving as brands dive deeper into digital commerce. Beyond the normal technical and content requirements, now many companies require access to deep analytical abilities in order to understand the issues that arise from dynamically built sites. It is more important than ever to be able to quickly identify upward trends in searches and gaps. Many SEO experts also find themselves in the position to educate across multiple business units in order to receive buy-in and show value. Having a consistent strategy, regular implementation and optimization are key to long-term success with SEO- but sometimes that can be easier said than done.

Staying connected during stay-at-home orders means more people than ever are logging into social media. They are looking for your brand to communicate, inspire, and educate them. Shifting through all the social media marketing trends and all the social data you compile can seem overwhelming, but with the right team, technology, and strategy in place, you can start winning at social media marketing.

It is recommended that you perform an SEO audit of your site every six months. This means auditing your rankings, backlink profile, existing content… anything that could be hindering your search performance. We understand SEO can be extremely daunting. This post will break down a basic, but powerful DIY SEO audit to find top issues with your site, and don't forget to use our free SEO audit tool online.

Customers are more savvy than ever, with the ability to find what they perceive they want, when they want it. If your marketing pillar can focus on aligning itself with your organizations other pillars to gain important customer insights and move towards a strategy that treats customers as profiles not simply personas, to create a truly individualized experience, you will suddenly be able to perceive what these customers want before they do. And that is where your edge on the competition and ticket to customer loyalty is.

Theresa Kuske, Digital Marketing Manager at Ergodyne, was kind enough to sit down with us to talk about why Ergodyne is such a cool brand, the constantly evolving digital marketing landscape, and how Echidna transformed Ergodyne’s commerce.

With Facebook becoming increasingly pay-to-play for brands, the significance of analyzing brand performance has only gained importance. Facebook Page Insights provides multiple metrics and pieces of analytics data to help drive strategic marketing decisions. If you have admin access to your business page, then you can access regular Facebook Insights by navigating to the “Insights” tab in the Page Manager (note that a minimum of 30 likes is required for you to get Facebook Insights for your page).

On January 1st, 2015, Facebook changed its algorithm, which affects what shows up in users’ news feeds. These changes have had a tremendous impact on brands that were using Facebook as a medium to promote their products and services.

In today’s economy, amidst tremendous growth of online shopping, merchants are evaluating different approaches to acquire highly valued customers, convert shopping carts to purchases, retain customers, drive repeat purchases and create stronger customer loyalty... and the solution is this: Personalized commerce. Brick-and-mortar retail stores have an advantage over online stores in that they can offer personalized service. In-store sales persons can interact with the customers to find out wants, needs, and preferences, and can then suggest additional items to complement the existing items.

A site redesign could ruin all your SEO efforts in an instant. Digital marketers put so much time and effort into SEO, it would be a shame to throw it away overnight. But if you’re not careful, then a site redesign poses some serious threats that could end up causing that to happen. Usually, a site redesign is taking place for a reason and will be beneficial in the long run, but how can you make sure you don’t kill your SEO in the process?

Shoppable images are both immersive and contextual in ways that digital has never seen before. Whether it’s shoes, apparel, and accessories on a model or the latest living room setup, people want to be able to visualize how a product will fit into their own style and environment. Shoppable images are turning that idea into a reality for customers of all kinds. From the company’s perspective, shoppable images present a great opportunity to share the story of your brand – they allow you to naturally tell a story as users are browsing through products in a way that hasn’t been possible through traditional commerce.

Echidna will be at Boomi World 2026 in Chicago. As a Boomi partner with 16+ years of integration experience, we work with B2B commerce organizations to design and implement the integrations that keep operations moving — from ERP and EDI to CRM, PIM, OMS, and modern commerce platforms.

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March 2025: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

February 2025: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

January 2025: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

The NRF 2025 Big Show is packed with innovation, inspiration, and strategies to shape the future of retail. With so many sessions to choose from, it can be tough to decide where to focus your attention. That’s why we’ve rounded up three of the most exciting, game-changing sessions you simply can’t miss. These discussions bring together retail leaders, digital visionaries, and industry disruptors who are reshaping the way we do business.

December 2024: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

November 2024: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

October 2024: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

September 2024: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

August 2024: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

July 2024: Your Monthly Digest of Top Digital Commerce Insights

The automotive industry is undergoing a major shift, driven by rapid advancements in digital technology. This transformation is reshaping how vehicles are manufactured, marketed, sold, and serviced. From AI-driven manufacturing processes to sophisticated online sales platforms, automotive eCommerce is becoming the backbone of modern automotive operations. This shift is not just a trend but a necessity for survival and growth in an increasingly competitive market.