Customer Data Integration: Your Path to Unified Commerce

Customers expect smooth shopping experiences across all shopping channels, whether online, in stores, or through wholesale accounts. To deliver this, companies must understand their customers and provide personalized, consistent service everywhere.

Many businesses connect customer information from different systems to achieve this. In fact, 78% of brands now consider their own customer data most valuable for personalization, up from just 37% in 2022.

This article explores how brands can effectively integrate customer data across channels, the challenges they might face, and strategies for creating a unified customer view without overwhelming your team or budget.

What is customer data integration (CDI)?

CDI is about gathering all customer data from different channels and bringing it together in one spot.

Customers create data when they buy things online, visit your store, send emails, or join rewards programs. CDI combines all this scattered information into one clear picture of each customer, or a “single source of truth.” This helps you better understand what customers like, how they behave, and what they need.

Shopify is the only commerce platform that natively integrates these data streams into a unified model. This allows brands to manage everything in one place without relying on disjointed apps or costly middleware, which is why Shopify’s total cost of ownership (TCO) is up to 36% better than its competitors.

Keeping all data in one central spot allows you to understand customers' shopping journeys and create more personalized online and in-store experiences.

Shopify’s unified approach to data management leads to a substantial decrease in the time and technical resources spent on maintenance, eliminating the need for middleware by up to 60%.

Benefits of a customer data integration strategy

When your customer data is split between different systems, like your POS and marketing software, it's hard to track customers shopping across different channels or find where problems like stockouts happen.

This leads to guessing, wasted effort, and lost sales. By bringing all this information together in one place, retailers can keep all departments on the same page, create more personal customer experiences, and save money. 

Data unification is becoming more than just an idea. Shopify's Ecommerce Growth Guide found that 43% of retailers wanted a unified platform when upgrading their technology.

Here are the main benefits of customer data integration:

Gives you a 360-degree view of your customers

A unified view shows you what customers have purchased, what interests them, and what they might want next. A 2024 POS Market report shows that retailers using unified commerce can achieve up to an 8.9% increase in sales, partly because they have clearer customer data.

Gets everyone working with the same information

When data is scattered, marketing might see different numbers than operations, creating conflicting plans. A central CDI system gives everyone the same facts and improves customer relationship management (CRM). 

About 85% of midsized retailers use shared data across channels to grow both online and in-store sales, making sure all teams work with the same information.

Removes data barriers and makes maintenance easier

Multiple systems often need expensive connection software. Shopify's unified data approach has been shown to eliminate the need for connection software by up to 60%, reducing complexity and costs. Less separated data means your staff can focus more on helping customers instead of fighting with complicated systems.

Improves data security and compliance

Combined data is easier to protect and monitor for compliance than juggling many separate tools. Centralizing data in one secure, well-monitored platform helps retailers meet privacy laws (like GDPR and CCPA) and reduces mistakes. Having one home for data rules also lowers the chance of contradictory or outdated customer records existing in multiple systems.

Makes data handling easier and increases productivity

CDI simplifies everyday tasks like reporting and analysis. Instead of switching between five different dashboards, teams use central dashboards that update instantly. In a 2023 survey, 61% of customers agreed they saved time on reporting and analytics after switching to Shopify POS*, showing that fewer data silos lead to better productivity.

The complexities of building customer data integrations

Retailers want customers to have a smooth shopping experience whether online, on social media, or in physical stores. But creating this seamless experience is harder than it sounds.

Many shopping platforms claim to offer "all-in-one" solutions, but most actually use add-on apps from other companies to fill in missing features. Customer data must travel between different systems, often through connecting software.

This pieced-together approach creates problems such as:

• Multiple copies of customer information
• Disconnected purchase records
• Rising technology costs

Our recent personalization report shows marketers typically use 7-10 different technologies to personalize customer experiences. If even one connection between these systems breaks or updates incorrectly, entire business processes can stop working. This forces tech teams to fix urgent problems instead of working on important long-term projects.

Managing integrations drains technical bandwidth

Keeping multiple integrations running smoothly requires constant technical work. This includes:

• Regular updates and security fixes
• Major rebuilds whenever core systems change

When a brand uses separate POS and ecommerce platforms connected through middleware, customer data gets fragmented. A single customer might exist in multiple systems, each with different purchase histories or loyalty point balances. This fragmentation isn't just annoying to fix, it directly impacts marketing accuracy and customer service quality.

Each custom integration requires its own maintenance. Adding new revenue streams like a B2B portal or subscription service forces engineers to manage risks, address security vulnerabilities, and constantly update APIs. Over time, this maintenance grows into significant operational overhead.

Companies often find that "fully composable" solutions force developers to spend time on basic commerce functions instead of innovation. Developers end up maintaining data connections rather than working on projects that help the business grow.

Running both B2B and DTC sales

A company handling both DTC and large B2B wholesale orders often manages multiple systems that weren’t designed to work together. They typically use:

• One platform for online consumer sales
• A separate B2B portal for wholesale orders
• An ERP system for accounting and inventory
• Custom connectors trying to link everything together

This complicated setup causes several problems:

1. Two separate sets of data that must be merged through complex integrations
2. Multiple customer data silos creating partial or duplicated buyer profiles
3. Data inconsistencies where information doesn't match between systems

Not to mention the costs. Setting up business management software costs $10,000 to $150,000 for small to midsized businesses, according to Top10ERP, and that’s before ongoing integration expenses. 

Frequent system updates can also break connections between platforms (like when an ERP upgrade breaks the B2B portal link). Plus, technical debt piles up as engineers spend time patching code and building new connectors instead of improving products or marketing.

With all our sales unified in Shopify, from Facebook and Instagram to TikTok, Amazon, and even B2B, Lull is able to deliver exceptional sleep experiences to new audiences.

The hidden costs of “piecemeal integration”

• Slower time to market: Rolling out new sales channels or marketing campaigns is slower if you must spin up integrations from scratch.
• Higher maintenance overhead: Every integration point introduces new testing, version control, and potential security vulnerabilities.
• Risk of errors: A single misalignment in field mappings or data formats can result in inaccurate inventory levels, pricing errors, or incomplete purchase histories.

Why a natively unified platform eases the burden

Shopify’s approach differs by offering many core commerce functions in a single, extensible platform, rather than forcing merchants to piece together standalone systems. Benefits include:

• Fewer custom connectors: With checkout, inventory, and order management already under one roof, there’s less “plumbing” for your engineering team to build and maintain.
• Shared infrastructure: Shopify continuously updates its infrastructure for performance, security, and compliance, reducing the onus on in-house devs.
• Faster store launches: Brands can spin up multiple storefronts and integrate existing tools far more quickly than on platforms requiring large-scale custom builds.

👉 Case study: Daniel Wellington migrated from a heavily composable solution to Shopify, consolidating 59 storefronts into 12 in just five months. The brand built a process that cut down technical complexity and allowed their teams to focus on customer-facing innovations rather than patching integrations.

Shopify Plus, with its commercially driven development, turned out to be exactly what we've been looking for. It helps us to keep up with the high business expectations we have for our storefronts, make correct business decisions and avoid wrong ones.

Why integrated data is not unified

"Integrated commerce" may sound complete because it connects different systems like POS, ecommerce, and marketing tools to create an omnichannel experience. But in reality, businesses still handle multiple databases, inconsistent customer records, and disconnected workflows. 

When data moves between different systems—even connected ones—it doesn't automatically create one single source of truth. This creates data silos, duplicate customer profiles, and unnecessary complexity.

Unified commerce brings everything together in one platform. Brands get a single, consistent record of each customer and can see the entire business in one place. This reduces the friction of connecting information across separate apps and databases, leading to better data, smoother operations, and seamless shopping.

Unified customer data unlocks great customer experiences

When each retail channel (POS, ecommerce, mobile apps, etc.) runs on separate systems, teams end up duplicating effort, reconciling data, and spending time fixing integration issues that stifle progress. 

A true unified commerce model eliminates this fragmentation by placing all product, order, and customer data into a single architecture. This shift isn’t just about tidying up the back end—it creates real, measurable impacts on your business.

Efficiency

• Lower technical overhead: Relying on fewer external integrations means reduced maintenance costs, fewer security patch cycles, and less custom coding to hold disparate systems together. Shopify POS can cut total ownership costs by an average of 22% compared to patchwork solutions, thanks to minimal middleware reliance.
• Faster retail operations: With customer and product details in one place, teams spend less time manually matching records and tracking inventory across different databases. The result? Quicker updates, fewer errors, and more time to focus on strategic tasks—like developing new product lines or loyalty programs.
• No fragmentation tax: Many retailers pay a “fragmentation tax” in the form of extra labor and overhead just to keep multiple platforms talking to each other. A unified platform removes these hidden, ongoing expenses, so you can invest in growth rather than infrastructure fixes.

Growth

• Seamless omnichannel experiences: Unified data ensures every channel has access to the same up-to-date information, allowing you to roll out new markets and storefronts without spinning up fresh integrations. Some Shopify merchants report a quarterly omnichannel sales growth of more than 150%, aided by frictionless channel additions and consistent customer data.
• Lower customer acquisition costs: Consolidated insights empower you to run more precise targeting and retargeting campaigns. For instance, advertisers using Shopify Audiences, which relies on a unified data pool, have seen up to two times more orders for every marketing dollar spent.
• Accelerated expansion: Whether you’re launching B2B wholesale operations or exploring new geographies, a single source of truth makes it dramatically easier to replicate storefronts or adapt your offerings. 

Innovation

• Freed-up developer resources: When IT isn’t consumed by patching integrations or reconciling mismatched databases, they can focus on building next-level features that differentiate your brand, such as AI-powered product recommendations or personalized shopping journeys.
• Rapid feature rollouts: A single codebase and unified architecture enable “write once, deploy everywhere” capabilities. That means you can push updates (e.g., a new loyalty program or shipping feature) across all channels simultaneously and cut go-to-market times.
• Future-proof commerce: Unified commerce doesn’t just solve today’s pain points. It provides a scalable foundation for tomorrow’s opportunities, whether that’s pivoting to subscription models, introducing hyperpersonalized product bundles, or quickly responding to emerging social commerce trends. By choosing a platform like Shopify, which continually invests in its own infrastructure (shipping over 150 product updates in the Winter ’25 Edition alone), you stay agile no matter how fast retail evolves.

Shopify: The unified commerce solution

Shopify combines all selling tools in one system, making it simpler and cheaper than combining separate systems. Studies show Shopify’s total cost of ownership is 31% less than the competition on average, with 21% lower running costs.

Save money with one unified system

Since Shopify handles both online and in-store selling in one platform, you won't need expensive connecting software or multiple databases. This makes everything work more smoothly. For example, Skullcandy could launch new products in just 30 minutes after switching to Shopify, instead of waiting 1-2 days with BigCommerce.

Better checkout and customer data 

Shopify's Checkout is the best-converting checkout in the world, with a 15% higher conversion rate than the competition. It uses customer data effectively to help you create better marketing campaigns and loyalty programs. In stores, Shopify's point-of-sale system connects to your online data, letting staff see customer history instantly for better recommendations and higher GMV.

Faster innovation 

With everything in one system, you can quickly set up new online stores, test popup shops, and try new marketing ideas without complicated setups. Tools like Shopify Collective and Collabs help you reach new customers, while data from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Amazon stays connected for a smooth customer experience.

Built for business growth 

Having all sales channels connected is key for personalized customer service. Shopify's single-system approach cuts technical problems and costs, freeing your team to focus on new ideas. 

With lower expenses, fewer complexities, and better checkouts, businesses can grow faster and serve customers better, making Shopify the best choice for retailers wanting to streamline operations and increase sales.