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Dotdigital integration for ecommerce marketing

Build accurate customer segments powered by unified commerce and CRM data. iWeb connects your ecommerce platform, ERP and customer data sources to Dotdigital so contact profiles, behavioural events and consent are accurate and up to date. Segments qualify correctly, campaigns fire on time and unsubscribed contacts are suppressed across all channels. Works with Adobe Commerce, Magento Open Source, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce and other storefronts.

Also searched as: marketing connector, CRM plugin, app, customer data integration.

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Works with - Adobe Commerce · Magento Open Source · Shopify Plus · BigCommerce · Other storefronts
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01 · What you get

What a Dotdigital integration gives you.

Accurate, real-time customer segments

Marketing teams can build and activate segments with confidence that contact data, purchase history and consent flags are accurate and up to date. No manual reconciliation or fear of unsubscribed contacts being mailed.

Compliance with consent and suppression

Unsubscribed, bounced and opted-out contacts are automatically suppressed across all channels. Changes to customer preferences in commerce or Dotdigital are reflected in both systems, reducing GDPR and regulatory risk.

Triggered transactional and behavioural campaigns

Order confirmations, shipping updates, abandoned cart reminders and behaviour-triggered offers execute automatically based on real-time commerce and ERP events. Campaign timing is reliable and reduces manual effort.

Unified customer view across channels

Ecommerce, mobile app, call centre and offline purchase data are consolidated in a single customer profile, enabling consistent messaging and avoiding duplicate sends or conflicting campaign logic.

Observable data quality and segment health

Marketing and analytics teams have visibility into contact sync latency, event ingestion lag, segment qualification rates and suppression coverage. Data quality issues are surfaced and fixed quickly.

02 · When it's worth it

Where a Dotdigital integration earns its place.

If two or more of these are true, the integration usually pays for itself quickly.

Send transactional order confirmations, shipping and delivery notifications triggered by commerce events
Build email and SMS segments based on purchase history, product category affinity and behaviour
Suppress unsubscribed, bounced and complaint contacts automatically across all channels
Ingest customer account creation and profile updates from commerce to keep contact records current
Sync customer purchase and browsing events to Dotdigital for behaviour-triggered campaigns
03 · The limits

Where off-the-shelf connectors fall short.

Vendor connectors are fine for simple cases. Here's where the real ones need more.

Standard connectors lack consent governance

Pre-built Dotdigital connectors often assume a single source of truth for opt-in status. If your consent lives in a consent management platform or is split between commerce and a CRM, the connector does not automatically reconcile which source takes precedence or how disputes are resolved.

Behavioural event schema misalignment

Dotdigital expects events in a specific format (contact identifier, event name, timestamp, properties). Your commerce platform or custom tracking may emit different field names, nested structures or optional values that the standard integration does not transform or validate before ingestion.

No built-in exception or retry logic

If a contact record fails to sync or an event is dropped due to a validation error, standard connectors do not automatically queue failures, alert you or provide a retry mechanism. Failed syncs can go unnoticed until segment membership drifts.

Duplicate contact resolution unclear

If a customer registers with two email addresses or updates their email, the standard integration does not define a rule for merging profiles or managing duplicate contacts. This can lead to split segments and duplicate campaign sends.

Limited segmentation rule visibility

Marketing teams may not have a clear view of which segments are fed by which commerce data sources, when data was last refreshed or why a contact did or did not qualify. This makes governance and troubleshooting difficult.

04 · The real work

Most consent and suppression failures happen because the ecommerce platform, ERP and marketing system disagree about who is opted in, and no one owns watching for drift until a complaint arrives.

05 · Where it sits

Where this integration sits in your estate.

Dotdigital holds the commercial record. The iWeb integration layer manages the rules, mappings, monitoring and exceptions. The commerce platform presents the customer-facing experience. The estate map helps agree ownership before anything is built.

Built for your platform, not a specific one. Dotdigital integrates with any ecommerce core through the same contract.

System of record
Source / owner
Dotdigital
Customer engagement hub and marketing automation platform
  • Contact profiles and identity resolution
  • Segment rules and membership evaluation
  • Email, SMS and push campaign execution
  • Suppression and preference enforcement
  • Behavioural event ingestion and enrichment
iWeb integration layer
Customer-facing commerce
Commerce platform
Adobe CommerceMagento Open SourceShopify PlusBigCommerceOther storefronts
  • Customer sign-up and registration
  • Browsing, search and cart events
  • Transactional message templates
  • Preference centre UI and consent capture
  • Local suppression before sends
Connected neighbours
Integration layer
ERP
Provides order history and customer account data for purchase-based segmentation and triggered order confirmations
Integration layer
PIM
Supplies product category and attribute data to enrich behavioural segments with product affinity rules
Integration layer
Consent management platform
Acts as source of truth for opt-in status across regions; Dotdigital respects and reflects consent decisions
Integration layer
Loyalty or rewards
Feeds customer tier, earned rewards and lifetime value to enable VIP segmentation and targeted offers
Integration layer
Transactional email or SMS service
Dotdigital may orchestrate or delegate transactional sends; delivery and bounce events feed back to engagement logic
Two-way sync where relevant
06 · Surrounding systems

Systems this integration usually sits next to.

Examples, not a closed list. iWeb is platform-agnostic on both sides: we wire this integration into whatever ecommerce platform and surrounding systems your estate already runs.

Ecommerce platforms (examples)
  • Adobe Commerce
  • Magento Open Source
  • Shopify Plus
  • BigCommerce
  • Other storefronts
Surrounding systems (examples)
  • SAP, NetSuite, or Sage ERP
  • PIM system for product enrichment
  • Loyalty or rewards platform
  • Consent management platform
  • Google Analytics or custom event tracking
  • SMS or email service provider
  • Search and merchandising platform
Not sure?

Not sure if this works with your stack?

Tell us what you’re using and what needs to connect. We’ll give you a straight view on what’s possible, what might be awkward, and the safest way to approach it.

07 · Data flows

The data flows we wire.

Each flow has a direction and an owner. We agree both before a line of code is written.

←From COMMERCE & ERP & OTHER SYSTEMS
↔BOTH WAYS
Customer profile and consent ingestion: Contact names, email addresses, phone numbers and communication preferences flow from your ecommerce platform to Dotdigital as customers register, update profiles or manage subscription preferences
iWeb maps your commerce contact schema to Dotdigital's contact fields and ensures consent flags reflect GDPR and regional requirements.
Behavioural event capture: Browse, search, cart abandonment, purchase and post-purchase events are sent from your commerce platform to Dotdigital, enriching customer profiles with interaction history
This data drives behaviour-triggered campaigns and segment qualification.
Order and transaction history: Historical and ongoing order data, including line items, dates and amounts, flows from your ERP or commerce order system to Dotdigital to enable purchase-based segmentation and triggered messaging.
Suppression and unsubscribe synchronisation: Contacts marked as unsubscribed, bounced or complained in Dotdigital are sent back to your commerce platform and ERP to prevent marketing outreach
Changes to preference centres in commerce are reflected in Dotdigital's suppression lists.
Third-party audience and transactional data: Review platforms, customer service systems or loyalty providers can send customer interactions and feedback to Dotdigital via iWeb's orchestration to inform segmentation and personalisation rules.
08 · How we build it

How iWeb configures the integration around your business.

Same method on every integration. The decisions come before the code.

  1. 01
    Design consent and suppression governance

    iWeb maps your consent sources (commerce preference centres, CMP, ERP customer records) and defines which source is authoritative for each customer segment and channel. Suppression rules are explicit and monitored.

  2. 02
    Build contact and event schemas

    iWeb documents and validates the customer contact fields and behavioural events that will flow into Dotdigital, including required fields, field types and validation rules. Mapping is tested before launch.

  3. 03
    Implement exception handling and retry

    iWeb configures monitoring and alerting for failed contact syncs, dropped events and duplicate detections. Failed records are queued and retried automatically; critical failures trigger escalation.

  4. 04
    Integrate ERP, PIM and loyalty sources

    iWeb connects Dotdigital to your ERP for order history, to PIM for product affinity enrichment, and to loyalty systems for customer tier and earned rewards. Data flows are orchestrated and dependencies are clear.

  5. 05
    Test segment accuracy and campaign triggers

    iWeb validates that segments qualify correctly, suppression lists are respected, and triggered campaigns fire on time with accurate customer data. Test scenarios cover happy-path, edge cases and fallback behaviour.

  6. 06
    Provide post-launch observability

    iWeb configures dashboards and alerts for contact sync volume, event latency, segment growth, unsubscribe rate and campaign send performance. Marketing and ops teams can spot and escalate issues quickly.

09 · Ownership

Who owns what.

The single most important table in any integration. One system owns each field; everything else reads it.

Data
Source / owner
Maintained by
Notes
DataContact profile and identity
Source / ownerDotdigital
Maintained byCommerce platform and CRM team
NotesCustomer names, emails, phone numbers and IDs originate in commerce and flow to Dotdigital; profile enrichment happens in Dotdigital but is reconciled back to commerce and ERP to avoid drift.
DataConsent and communication preferences
Source / ownerDotdigital
Maintained byCRM and compliance team
NotesOpt-in, opt-out and channel preferences are captured in Dotdigital but changes must propagate back to commerce and ERP to enforce suppression in transactional flows.
DataBehavioural events and interactions
Source / ownerDotdigital
Maintained byCommerce and analytics team
Notes
DataSegment rules and definitions
Source / ownerDotdigital
Maintained byMarketing team
NotesSegments are authored and maintained in Dotdigital; segment membership is continuously evaluated against contact data and events. Marketing team owns the business logic; ecommerce ensures underlying data quality.
DataSuppression and complaint handling
Source / ownerDotdigital
Maintained byMarketing and CRM team
NotesBounces, complaints and manual unsubscribes are recorded in Dotdigital and synced back to commerce and ERP to prevent outbound marketing and transactional sends.
DataCampaign triggers and sends
Source / ownerDotdigital
Maintained byMarketing team
NotesEmail, SMS and push campaigns are authored, scheduled and sent from Dotdigital. Delivery and engagement events feed back to commerce for customer experience personalisation.
DataIntegration transport and exception handling
Source / ownerIntegration layer
Maintained byIntegration and ops team
NotesFailed contact syncs, dropped events and retries are monitored and escalated by the integration layer; SLAs and fallback behaviour are defined and tested.
10 · Experienced integrator

Built this before

iWeb has integrated Dotdigital into commerce estates multiple times and understands how it sits between ecommerce platforms, ERPs and loyalty systems as a unified customer engagement hub. We know the patterns for consent governance, event schema mapping, suppression synchronisation and segment accuracy that survive launch and replatforms.

iWeb designs consent and suppression flows that keep Dotdigital, commerce and ERP in sync, with fallback rules that prevent opt-out leakage during integration lag.
iWeb implements exception handling and queue-and-retry logic for failed contact syncs and dropped events, with monitoring and alerts so data quality issues surface quickly.
iWeb maps your commerce contact and event schemas to Dotdigital's data model, including field validation, duplicate detection and enrichment from PIM, ERP or loyalty systems.
iWeb integrates Dotdigital with your ERP and loyalty platform so order history, customer tier and earned rewards are available for segmentation and personalisation.
iWeb provides pre-launch testing and post-launch observability, including segment accuracy validation, send-performance dashboards and compliance audits.
11 · Before launch

What we test before launch.

Every one of these is rehearsed before a customer ever sees the integration.

Validate that new contacts created in ecommerce appear in Dotdigital within the agreed SLA and have all required fields (email, name, ID).
Test that unsubscribed contacts in Dotdigital are synced back to commerce and blocked from transactional and marketing sends within one batch cycle.
Verify that behavioural events (browse, add-to-cart, purchase) from commerce flow to Dotdigital with correct timestamps and contact identity within five minutes.
Confirm that segment member counts and qualification logic are accurate by running test queries and spot-checking contacts against segment rules.
Test failure scenarios: commerce is down, Dotdigital API is unavailable, event queue is full; verify queue-and-retry logic and alert mechanisms fire correctly.
Validate that duplicate contacts are detected, flagged and either automatically merged or queued for manual review according to policy.
Run a historical contact and event load test to confirm import volume, deduplication and data quality before the integration goes live.
12 · Failure points

Common risks and where they bite.

We name these on day one. A risk written down is a risk you can plan around.

Suppression list drift between systems

If consent changes in Dotdigital do not propagate back to your commerce platform quickly, or if your ERP holds a different unsubscribe flag, marketing sends may reach suppressed contacts. This happens when the integration does not have a single source of truth for opt-out status.

Lost or delayed behavioural events

If your commerce platform is slow to emit browse or cart events, or if Dotdigital's event queue is full, behavioural segments may be outdated or incomplete. Abandoned cart campaigns may fire late or to the wrong audience.

Duplicate contacts from replatforms or data merges

If you migrate to a new ecommerce platform or merge two customer databases, email addresses may be duplicated in Dotdigital. The integration may not have a deduplication rule, leading to split segments and duplicate sends.

Contact record corruption on field mismatch

If your commerce platform sends a required Dotdigital field in an unexpected format or type, the contact record may fail to sync or be stored with corrupt data. Later campaigns targeting that contact will fail.

Campaign triggers not firing during outages

If Dotdigital's API is unavailable or your integration batch job fails overnight, event-triggered campaigns may not fire. There is no fallback, and the missed campaign window may not be obvious until the next day.

Unowned segment logic and data decay

If marketing and ecommerce teams do not agree on which segments feed from which data sources, segments can become stale or inaccurate. No one is responsible for monitoring segment member count or refresh frequency.

13 · Where it applies

Relevant services and sectors.

14 · Questions

Common questions about Dotdigital integrations.

How do we ensure unsubscribed contacts are not mailed across all channels?

iWeb designs a suppression synchronisation flow where Dotdigital's unsubscribe, bounce and complaint records are sent back to your commerce platform and ERP on a regular schedule. The integration layer monitors this sync and alerts if suppression data is stale. Marketing teams see a unified suppression list before campaign sends.

What happens if a customer opts out in our preference centre but Dotdigital has not yet updated?

iWeb implements a fallback where your commerce platform checks its own suppression flag before allowing a transactional message to be sent, even if Dotdigital sync is delayed. This prevents opt-out leakage during integration lag. The sync is monitored to ensure Dotdigital eventually catches up.

How do we handle customers who register with multiple email addresses?

iWeb configures a duplicate contact detection rule in the integration layer that identifies contacts by primary email, phone number or customer ID. Duplicates are flagged for manual review or automatically merged in Dotdigital according to your policy. Merge rules are tested and documented.

How often do behavioural events sync to Dotdigital?

iWeb configures event ingestion as real-time or batch depending on your commerce platform and Dotdigital plan. Real-time events enable immediate segment qualification and triggered campaigns. Batch events are synced hourly or daily; latency is monitored and SLAs are defined.

What order data flows to Dotdigital and why?

iWeb determines which order fields (date, amount, items, status, customer ID) are sent to Dotdigital for purchase-based segmentation and lifetime value calculation. This data typically comes from your ERP or order system. The schema is validated and enriched with product category or customer tier from PIM or CRM.

How do we know if a segment is accurate?

iWeb sets up monitoring dashboards that show segment member count, qualification rate and refresh frequency. Marketing teams can run test queries to see which contacts qualify for a segment and why. Segment logic is documented and reviewed before activation.

What happens if Dotdigital's API is down when a customer places an order?

iWeb implements a queue and retry mechanism so that contact and event data is buffered locally if Dotdigital is unavailable. Once Dotdigital is reachable, the queue is flushed. During the outage, transactional campaigns may be delayed but are not lost.

How do we migrate existing customer data from an old platform to Dotdigital?

iWeb runs a one-time historical contact and event import from your legacy system to Dotdigital before the integration goes live. The import is validated and deduplicated. After go-live, the integration pulls only new and changed records.

Who owns the segment business logic and can change it?

Marketing and ecommerce teams jointly own segment logic. Changes to segment rules are made in Dotdigital by marketing; changes to underlying commerce or ERP data quality are owned by ecommerce and ops. A governance process ensures both teams are consulted before changes.

How do we measure the quality of contact data flowing into Dotdigital?

iWeb configures data quality checks that validate required fields, email format, phone format and contact deduplication. Reports show completeness, validity and volume trends. Issues are escalated to the ecommerce team for remediation.

Can we personalise offers based on product browsing history?

Yes. iWeb ensures browse events from your ecommerce platform flow to Dotdigital with product category, SKU and timestamp. Marketing can build segments based on category affinity and trigger emails with personalised offers. PIM enrichment is optional for product names and images.

What happens if a campaign fails to send to a subset of contacts?

iWeb configures monitoring for campaign send failures, bounce rates and complaint rates. Failed sends are logged and retried. Marketing teams receive reports showing which contacts failed and why, enabling diagnosis and re-send if needed.

How do we ensure GDPR and regional compliance?

iWeb documents consent and suppression rules for each region and ensures Dotdigital respects them. Consent is recorded at sign-up; suppression is enforced before sends. Audit trails show when contacts opted in and out. Regular compliance checks verify suppression list accuracy.

Can we use Dotdigital for SMS and push, not just email?

Yes. iWeb ensures phone numbers and push tokens are captured and stored in Dotdigital alongside email addresses. Segments and campaigns can target email, SMS or push based on contact preferences and channel consent. Suppression rules apply across all channels.

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