In today's fast-paced business environment, data integration has become crucial for companies to better manage operations. Wayfair, an e-commerce giant, and NetSuite, a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, are two popular platforms that many businesses rely on daily to function. However, data stored in different systems can become tedious and time-consuming to ensure both systems are up-to-date and in sync. To address this challenge, businesses can use iPaaS tools (Integration Platform as a Service tools), like Celigo, to seamlessly integrate different systems.

An overview of Celigo

Celigo is a powerful platform that allows for rapid development of integrations through apps and templates available on its Integration Marketplace. It also provides an avenue for custom integration flow development with licensing to access over 100,000 applications across the globe. Its intuitive user interface and structured design provides all the tools necessary for any integration need. When used as an iPaaS tool to integrate Wayfair and NetSuite, Celigo can deliver numerous benefits to businesses.

Using Celigo as an iPaaS tool to integrate Wayfair and NetSuite data

Celigo uses the NetSuite, GraphQL, and HTTP connectors available from the Celigo Marketplace. These three connections enable the integration flow processes to perform GET, POST, and PATCH operations in NetSuite and Wayfair. Additionally, they obtain and transfer PDF data blobs from Wayfair to a NetSuite file cabinet.

The platform has three integration flow groups:

1. Dropship order integration

   
   Figure 1. Wayfair to NetSuite dropship integration flow chart
   
   Dropship orders are placed on Wayfair, but are ultimately packaged and fulfilled by the supplier. The dropship order integration, as represented in Figure 1, serves as the process master for combining the Wayfair purchase order and the NetSuite sales order lifecycles. Within Celigo, this integration process breaks down into four integration flows:
   • Import dropship purchase orders from Wayfair to NetSuite
   • Export order acknowledgments from NetSuite to Wayfair
   • Wayfair shipping document request and retrieval
   • Export shipment notice from NetSuite to Wayfair
   
   Within each integration flow, the Celigo operations export, lookup, transform, and import all data required to push each Wayfair purchase order into NetSuite and communicate back as needed. The first three integration flows are complete almost in real time. This allows suppliers to print packing slips, bills of lading, and shipping labels directly from the sales order during review and fulfillment. Once the sales order is fulfilled, an item fulfillment record is created and used in the fourth flow to post all required information to Wayfair.
   This integration flow with this iPaaS tool supports standard field mapping as well as custom fields. One example is that as error messages and responses are captured, they are routed through each integration flow and fill a custom NetSuite field with all failure and error details. The addition of this error handling allows NetSuite users to identify issues more rapidly and respond in minutes versus hours.

2. CastleGate Order Integration

   
   Figure 2. Wayfair to NetSuite CastleGate sales order flow chart
   
   Wayfair CastleGate orders are placed on Wayfair, who will pack and fulfill the order on behalf of the supplier. The CastleGate order integration consists of one long custom flow. Within 45-seconds of process execution time, one CastleGate Advanced Ship Notice (ASN) exports from Wayfair. Then, Wayfair and NetSuite queries obtain the remaining order information, such as NetSuite item and customer internal ID’s. Finally, once the sales order imports into NetSuite, an acknowledgement posts to Wayfair. Once the flow process completes, NetSuite end users can create invoices and account for revenue sent from Wayfair.

3. Inventory Management Integration

   
   Figure 3. Wayfair to NetSuite inventory integration flow chart
   
   Two integration flows make up the inventory integration between Wayfair and NetSuite when using this iPaaS tool. The true-up feed runs every 15 minutes, while the full feed runs once daily. The base requirement for these processes is that NetSuite serves as the inventory master for your business. If that is the case, this useful integration will keep Wayfair product availability in sync with the NetSuite inventory on-hand.

Benefits of GraphQL-based API integration

Wayfair supports both Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Application Programming Interface (API)-based integration solutions. EDI is a well-documented solution and follows a set standard – in the case of Wayfair, the ANSI X12 standard. The benefit to using API-based instead is that Wayfair has built their API using GraphQL. This versatile API query language allows for particular specificity and control over what data transfers from Wayfair as well as what data posts in return. The GraphQL-based API provides the structure and support needed to successfully build and test an API-based integration, the details of which can be found in the Wayfair API documentation. Aside from precise control over integration scheduling, volume, and customization, API-based integration can also reduce processing time, improve inventory accuracy, meaning less backorder and better monitoring capabilities.

The value iPaaS tools create in NetSuite and Wayfair data integration

For product manufacturers, sales managers, or NetSuite administrators that use Wayfair as an eCommerce platform, the benefits of adopting a Wayfair to NetSuite integration solution are vast.

On the dropship order side, you can experience:

• Relatively immediate importing of purchase orders to NetSuite;
• The ability to automatically acknowledge purchase orders in Wayfair;
• The automatic download and grouping of all Wayfair generated shipping documentation conveniently linked on the NetSuite sales order record; and
• Seamless notification of order shipment from NetSuite to Wayfair.

The efficient CastleGate Order integration:

• Streamlines the order creation process
• Enables more accurate inventory allocation and link ability between Wayfair CastleGate revenue for internal accounting departments

With respect to inventory, the constant updates running from NetSuite to Wayfair drastically reduce any possibility of selling an out-of-stock item. Once suppliers restock items in NetSuite, they can become available to Wayfair customers within minutes.

One of the greatest metrics leaders can use to quantify this efficiency and value is time. Using the table below, you can compare average Celigo execution times with the time required to manually complete the processes.

Table 1. Average integration execution time per record

Multiplied by your average daily transaction count, it doesn’t take long to realize that this integration saves valuable time. Sales managers, accountants, and administrators can now spend more time growing your business. Efficiency prompts expansion, so the more time saved by integration, the more opportunity and capital there is to drive growth.

The professionals in Citrin Cooperman's Digital Services Practice are skilled at building integrations with iPaaS tools like Celigo and can adapt them to meet your business' needs. If you are interested in using Celigo to integrate Wayfair and NetSuite, or if you would like to learn more about other integration opportunities, reach out to your Citrin Cooperman advisor or Joseph Heirendt at jheirendt@citrincooperman.com.