Which NetSuite Ecommerce Solution Is Right For My Business?

For companies already operating under the NetSuite ecosystem, there’s no better choice than to combine your ERP with NetSuite’s ecommerce solution, SuiteCommerce - a cloud-based ecommerce solution that enables B2B and B2C merchants to deliver engaging and relevant online experiences. As mentioned in our NetSuite SuiteCommerce Services: The Ultimate Ecommerce Solution for Your Business blog, there are a plethora of benefits that ultimately help expand your business while additionally unifying your NetSuite order and inventory management, CRM, and ERP. 

Now that you’ve decided on SuiteCommerce as your ecommerce solution, it’s time to take a deep dive into which edition(s) are best for your business. Just like NetSuite ERP, no SuiteCommerce solution is the same. In this blog, we’ll break down the different editions to provide you with the necessary information to decide which SuiteCommerce solution will provide the most optimal experience for both you and your customers. 

Customer Center

NetSuite SuiteCommerce Customer Center provides the core functionality needed for your business to complete the B2C experience. To ensure success, your business should expand beyond having just an attractive website and hone in on engaging your customers, automating work processes, and maximizing buying efforts. SuiteCommerce Customer Center provides you with all the tools to take the next step in crafting a unique experience for your customers. The best part? SuiteCommerce Customer Center is free with the same look and feels that you know and love from your NetSuite applications. 

• Sign In, Sign Up, Forgot Password: Allow your customers to create accounts on your website for returning customer sign in and password resets
• Profile Management: Allow customers to manage their personal information such as credit card management, billing information, and shipping information. Additionally allows to set default addresses for faster checkouts
• Order History: Provide order history and order details for each order, including billing, shipping, and payment information along with order status and tracking links. Also allows customers to reorder items from their order history
• Returns: Customer Center makes returns easy with self-service return management, allowing shoppers to initiate return authorization
• Case Management: Keep your customers engaged and satisfied by enabling your customers to ask questions or submit inquiries, directly linked with your support desk
• Product/Wish Lists*: Enable customers to create lists of favorite or frequently purchased products 
• Billing*: Automate and expedite your billing process with the following tasks:
• Account Balance: Allow your customers to view their outstanding and available balances, deposits, credit memos, and the terms associated through their accounts
• Print Statement: Enable your customers to view, download, and print their account statements
• Invoices and Payments: Give customers the capability to make full or partial payment against either single or multiple invoices
• Transaction History: Customers can view the details of transactions and save as a permanent record 
• Quotes*: Buyers can submit Requests for Quotes and later be converted to an online order directly on your website after company/buyer approval

* Available with premium edition only.

Despite a lack of more robust features such as product catalogs, very limited customization options, and less control regarding the UI, SuiteCommerce Customer Center provides your business with the basic features needed to launch your ecommerce experience.

NetSuite MyAccount

NetSuite SuiteCommerce MyAccount provides your customers with 24/7, self-service account management capabilities, maximizing buying efforts and automating manual procedures. NetSuite MyAccount helps improve customer satisfaction, lowers operating costs, and eliminates unnecessary steps in the billing process to create an efficient, self-serivce account management portal that works for you, not against.

• Billing: Automate and expedite your billing processes by enabling your customers to view available balances, deposites, credit memos and account terms
• Invoices: Allow your customers to view and pay their invoices and automatically deduct from their outstanding balance(s)
• Payment Information: Customers can store, manage, and update their payment information directly online
• Order History: Give buyers full access to their online order history, including billing, shipping, payment and order status with tracking links. Additionally allows them to reorder from their item history or cancel pending orders
• Return Management: Self-service return management that helps shoppers initiate the return process and monitor the status of their request
• Quote Management: Simplify your quoting process by allowing buyers to view, check the status, and convert a quote to an online sales order
• Case Management: Customers can directly submit questions or inquiries regarding their ordering to your support desk
• Subscription Management: Through NetSuite SuiteBilling, users can view and manage their subscriptions, upgrade to new optional services, or cancel their existing subscriptions 
• Site Management: Easily customize the content on your MyAccount portal via drag-and-drop tools. Customize account pages with the same look and feel like your website to create seamless shopping experiences for your customers.

MyAccount takes the features you know and love from the Customer Center and adds a rich UI experience with customizations not included in the Customer Center. Customizations such as warranty information are achievable through custom extensions - allowing you to better craft a self-service account management model that works best for your business.

SuiteCommerce Standard

SuiteCommerce is the go-to when shopping is a necessity for your business. As a cloud-based, ecommerce solution that enables both B2C and B2B merchants, you can create rich, engaging online experiences for your customers. Whether that be through product catalogs, online shopping, or customized solutions tailored specifically for your business, SuiteCommerce is your best option. 

• Architecture: Long gone are the days of migrating your commerce solutions. SuiteCommerce is a Software-as-a-Service multi-tenant cloud platform allowing you to take advantage of new features and updates made available without the worry of “version lock.” Single-page architecture and content delivery networks provide you with a fast site to increase your customer engagement and conversion
• Storefront: SuiteCommerce’s design capabilities enable you to create a storefront that represents your business down to at. Start with a theme that fits your vision best and quickly builds your store with an ecosystem of commerce extensions including faceted navigation, site search, and saved shopping carts and lists. 
• Site Management: Edit your pages and content with drag-and-drop tools. Work on multiple versions of your website while scheduling future deployments based on your specific business needs
• SEO: Ensure SEO success with customizable H1, title, meta tags, SEO-friendly URL links, and Schema.org to increase click-through rates
• Marketing: SuiteCommerce Standard includes flexible promotion and coupon management tools and presents intelligent product recommendations based on algorithms that match items to browsing behavior and best sellers. Additionally connects social networks to allow enthusiasts to share their content and provide product reviews
• Customer Account: Customers can easily view their order history or check their order status online. B2B buyers can generate quotes and quickly order from personalized catalogs, view balances, and pay invoices all online.
• Purchasing: Customers have more payment options than ever including credit cards, promo codes, gift cards, and invoicing. Secured with HTTPS support and integrated to common payment gateways, real-time credit card processing with PCI DSS compliance, and multi-level fraud protection, SuiteCommerce ensures the entire shopping experience is safe and secure
• Global: Expand your business like never before. SuiteCommerce supports multiple languages, currencies, taxes, and international shipping prices and customs documentation while also consolidating multi-subsidiary reporting
• Business Insight and Analytics: Create a custom dashboard that pushes the information your business needs to remain successful. Gain insights into aggregate website behavior (visits, searches, page views, quote requests) and individual shopping activity (date of the last visit, acquisition source, items browsed, cart additions) to understand your buyer’s experience from beginning to end. Additionally, integrations are provided to Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

SuiteCommerce Standard provides you with more robust features when Customer Center and MyAccount just don’t cut it. As a true SaaS full-featured solution, SuiteCommerce enables your business to provide engaging experiences on any device across the world while unifying your NetSuite order and inventory management, CRM, and ERP together. 

SuiteCommerce Advanced

Last but certainly not least we have SuiteCommerce Advanced, NetSuite’s premiere ecommerce solution. SuiteCommerce Advanced is jam-packed with all the same features as SuiteCommerce Standard but is fully customizable, allowing your developers to create advanced technical features. 

• Architecture: Long gone are the days of migrating your commerce solutions. SuiteCommerce is a Software-as-a-Service multi-tenant cloud platform allowing you to take advantage of new features and updates made available without the worry of “version lock.” Single-page architecture and content delivery networks provide you with a fast site to increase your customer engagement and conversion
• Storefront: SuiteCommerce’s design capabilities enable you to create a storefront that represents your business down to at. Start with a theme that fits your vision best and quickly builds your store with an ecosystem of commerce extensions including faceted navigation, site search, and saved shopping carts and lists. 
• Site Management: Edit your pages and content with drag-and-drop tools. Work on multiple versions of your website while scheduling future deployments based on your specific business needs
• SEO: Ensure SEO success with customizable H1, title, meta tags, SEO-friendly URL links, and Schema.org to increase click-through rates
• Marketing: SuiteCommerce Standard includes flexible promotion and coupon management tools and presents intelligent product recommendations based on algorithms that match items to browsing behavior and best sellers. Additionally connects social networks to allow enthusiasts to share their content and provide product reviews
• Customer Account: Customers can easily view their order history or check their order status online. B2B buyers can generate quotes and quickly order from personalized catalogs, view balances, and pay invoices all online.
• Purchasing: Customers have more payment options than ever including credit cards, promo codes, gift cards, and invoicing. Secured with HTTPS support and integrated to common payment gateways, real-time credit card processing with PCI DSS compliance, and multi-level fraud protection, SuiteCommerce ensures the entire shopping experience is safe and secure
• Global: Expand your business like never before. SuiteCommerce supports multiple languages, currencies, taxes, and international shipping prices and customs documentation while also consolidating multi-subsidiary reporting
• Business Insight and Analytics: Create a custom dashboard that pushes the information your business needs to remain successful. Gain insights into aggregate website behavior (visits, searches, page views, quote requests) and individual shopping activity (date of the last visit, acquisition source, items browsed, cart additions) to understand your buyer’s experience from beginning to end. Additionally, integrations are provided to Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

Although NetSuite’s most expensive option out of the four, SuiteCommerce Advanced provides your developers with complete access to the code making nearly any customization possible. With omnichannel integrations and features, and unlimited control over your site, SuiteCommerce Advanced is perfect for those trying to completely separate themselves from the competition with a shopping experience, unlike anything most customers interact with.

4 Key Takeaways From This Blog

1. Customer Center is a free, introduction into the ecommerce space and gives you basic features to create a shopping experience.
2. MyAccount builds upon the core features of Customer Center with higher quality UI and UX experiences.
3. SuiteCommerce Standard provides you with a full-featured, SaaS solution to enable growth among your ecommerce business. Equipped with more features and functionality than Customer Center and MyAccount, SuiteCommerce Standard is the go-to solution for businesses with a large online shopping customer base.
4. SuiteCommerce Advanced is the premium solution offered by NetSuite for those who need custom features beyond SuiteCommerce Standard with full access to the source code.