Automate order, marketplace, and commerce management with the VTEX integrations connector

VTEX is a cloud-based e-commerce solution that provides digital commerce vendors with a centralized platform that allows them to build and manage online stores. The platform addresses both B2B and B2C sectors and stands out by combining the commerce, digital marketplace, and order management functionalities and helps vendors track their customers’ full purchasing process at every touchpoint. With VTEX, digital commerce vendors can improve agility and operating efficiency as well as uncover new revenue streams.

VTEX is unique in the way that is built to fit a variety of business models. Due to its multi-tenant design, its platform integrates features that can be easily adapted to  various projects, from very small to very large. Some of the most notable companies using VTEX are L’oréal, C&A, Carrefour, Sony and Motorola.

About VTEX integration connector

This is a proprietary connector that enables the seamless exchange of commerce, marketplace, customer and product data between the powerful digital commerce platform and any other business software applications you may have in place – CRM, accounting, marketing automation, and so on. You can easily automate product updates, inventory changes, order fulfilment, and more, using this connector. It was created specifically for use in the elastic.io platform’s automation flows and is included by default.

Our VTEX integration connector is still in its early stages of development, and we’ll continue adding new functions to it. Currently, it supports one trigger that syncs customers and a few actions, one of which allows you to call any REST API endpoint. You can connect VTEX to your enterprise resource planning system, for example, and synchronize order or digital marketplace data between the two. More information regarding the available functions  can be found on the connector’s documentation page, which can be accessed via the link above.

You can’t update or add more functions to the VTEX integrations connection yourself because it’s under a proprietary license. Please contact our pre-sales team at ps[@]elastic.io to discuss the details if you require any specific actions or triggers for your integrations.

PLEASE NOTE: You must first register an account on the elastic.io iPaaS platform before using the VTEX connector in your projects. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial of elastic.io here if you’re new to the platform.

How to add VTEX integrations on elastic.io

As a trigger:

Step 1

Select VTEX from the list of available triggers on the elastic.io platform by going to the Dashboard or Flows and clicking “Add new Flow.” All connectors are alphabetically organized, so either scroll to the bottom or use the search bar to locate the connector.

Step 2

The available trigger function “Get New and Updated Objects” will be selected by default after you’ve picked the connector, and you’ll be required to add new credentials to authenticate yourself. For that, you’ll need to know your API key and API token (make sure you have the appropriate user rights to find them) as well as the base URL of your VTEX installation (e.g. https://mystore.myvtex.com.br/)

Step 3

Once you’ve been authenticated, you can choose the object type you want to work with (currently Customers available and we are working on adding more soon) and whether you want to get Created or Updated datasets.

Step 4

After that you can request a sample of the records so you can double-check your connector configuration or add a sample manually, and you’ll be done.

OUR TIP: The simplest approach to test this connector as a trigger in a flow is to sync it with our Email connector — for example, to send yourself an overview of a certain customer details. In a real project, you’ll most likely choose a system that is more closely related to the business operations you want to automate, such as Hubspot for synchronizing customer data with your CRM or Zendesk for delivering to your customer support team all the details that might need.

As an action:

Step 1

When this connector is used as an action, it is combined with another business app or services in a workflow. Aside from that, the approach will be similar: select VTEX from the list of available applications, choose a function, and authenticate your digital commerce store on our platform using the existing credentials or create new ones.

You have several options when it comes to functions. You may use the Lookup Plural function to retrieve multiple objects by some unique criteria, Upsert an object, or use the Make Raw Request function to call any VTEX REST API endpoint with any of the GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE methods.

Step 2
After you’ve chosen the function you need, you can proceed with the flow configuration.

If you’re testing the Raw Request function, in the VTEX API documentation, you can find the necessary endpoints, appropriate methods and URLs.

OUR TIP: To quickly examine VTEX settings as an action connector, start your test flow with our Simple Trigger connector. Please note, though, that Simple Trigger is not suited for testing how you can map data from other business applications into the VTEX connector because it lacks any commerce-related datasets to sync, such as order or product data.

Popular VTEX automation scenarios

Like some other commerce platforms, VTEX offers an app marketplace to help you connect its platform with other applications and services, e.g. Google Customer Reviews or Amazon MCF. It also provides developers with REST API to integrate VTEX with another business app, when more automation customization is required. Alternatively, you can go for a middleware such as iPaaS where the pre-built and extensible connectors already connect you with the respective application’s API.

In fact, the VTEX Integrations Guides, for example this one for ERP, suggest just that:

“There are many different ways to do this and your store’s technical team must decide what processes suit your needs. Solutions can be divided into two main groups. Integrations platforms: third-party Platform as a Service companies whose product allows you to create VTEX integrations with minimal development effort. In-house developing: when choosing this path, keep in mind that that you must not only build the software, but maintain the ongoing integration”.

Here are some of the most notable VTEX integrations we’ve already seen our iPaaS users build:

VTEX with NetSuite

To ensure automatic and time sync of order updates, order cancellations and tracking information between the ERP system and the online store built on VTEX

VTEX with Hubspot

To automate the synchronization of client data updates between Hubspot CRM and the VTEX digital commerce platform, such as invoice address or delivery address

VTEX with Quickbooks

To easily create payments related to the respective order and automatically sync payment cancellations between an accounting software and the digital commerce store

… and there are many more apps to connect to.

Take a look at all of the applications and systems you can use to sync commerce data with and automate order fulfilment, product updates and upgrades, inventory management, and more for your digital commerce business. Get your free 14-day demo now, no strings attached.