We are hopefully going live with an interface to Shopify via eBridge before the end of the year. They originally tried to implement a proprietary DLL on our SQL server but we dug our heals in to make sure they used the REST interface. Our testing has been pretty positive so far.
The challenge for any interface is the broker in the middle. If you don’t have that then do you want your app server polling the partner directly? Most don’t. The broker is a model that has been used for years for EDI.
Jitterbit effectively is the broker as I understand it. (Mid way through our implementation we found out that jitterbit purchased eBridge so maybe they will merge these services.)
I like the idea of a “preferred” interface to these online selling sites but Epicor already has a number of partners doing this so there might be some opposition. Epicor has this issue with reporting and I was impressed to see at one of the recent user group meetings that there is now an internal group to understand the options. I prefer this to a cacophony of vendors each saying their product will do it all.
I suspect there is already a group doing service connect so maybe they should understand the other options. They could then provide both Epicor employees and Customers with targeted recommendations based on application.