What Is a CRM System? Meaning, Types and Use in E-commerce

22. 9. 2026
Co je CRM systém? Význam, typy a využití v e-shopu

A CRM system is software for managing customer relationships. It brings together contacts, communication history, sales deals, orders and tasks in one place, so the whole company knows who it's dealing with, what it promised and what to do next. The abbreviation CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It refers not only to software but also to an approach to customers in which decisions are based on data, not on the memory of individual salespeople.

In this article, we explain what CRM means, what the system does in practice, what types of CRM exist, who needs one and how to choose the right one. We also look at a topic that general articles leave out: how CRM works for an online store, what Shopify already does on its own and when it pays to connect a CRM or build a custom one.

Key points

  • CRM = Customer Relationship Management. It is both a strategy and software.
  • A CRM system combines contacts, communication, deals and tasks in one shared database.
  • We distinguish operational, analytical and collaborative CRM, and by deployment, cloud and on-premise.
  • A Shopify store has basic CRM features built in. A separate CRM makes sense mainly for B2B sales, a sales team and more complex customer care.

Contents

What CRM stands for

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. The term has two meanings that overlap in practice:

  • CRM as an approach: the company builds sales and services on a long-term relationship with the customer. It knows the customer's history, needs and value and acts accordingly.
  • CRM as a system: software that makes this approach possible. It stores customer data and helps manage sales, marketing and customer care based on it.

When people say "we have a CRM" today, they usually mean the software. But software doesn't work without the approach. A CRM nobody records anything in is just an expensive address book. For a more detailed encyclopedic explanation of the term, see the Wikipedia entry Customer relationship management.

"CRM system", "CRM software" and simply "CRM" all mean the same thing.

What a CRM system does in practice

A CRM system answers the question "what do we know about this customer and what should we do with them next". Specific features vary by product, but the core is the same in most:

  • Contacts and companies: a customer database with contact details, contact persons and the relationships between them.
  • Communication history: emails, calls, meetings and notes for a specific customer. Anyone on the team can see what was discussed last.
  • Deals (pipeline): open enquiries and quotes divided into stages, from first contact to signature or order.
  • Tasks and reminders: call back, send a quote, follow up after delivery. Nothing stays only in a salesperson's head.
  • Marketing: customer segmentation, campaigns, tracking where a customer came from.
  • Customer support: requests, complaints and their status.
  • Reports: how many deals are open, what the quote success rate is, which customers bring in the most.

A practical example: a wholesale customer calls to say part of a shipment didn't arrive. Without a CRM, the salesperson searches through emails to find out who placed the order and what was agreed. With a CRM, they open the company record and see the order, previous complaints, agreed prices and the fact that a colleague promised a discount on the next order last week.

Types of CRM systems

CRM systems are traditionally divided into three types by purpose. Most of today's products combine all three and differ only in emphasis.

CRM type What it's for Typical features
Operational Day-to-day work with customers Contacts, deals, tasks, sales and support automation
Analytical Evaluating customer data Reports, segmentation, customer value, churn prediction
Collaborative Sharing information across the company and channels Shared communication history for sales, marketing and support

By deployment, CRM is divided into:

  • Cloud (SaaS): runs at the provider, you pay monthly per user. Quick to set up, no servers. The most common choice today.
  • On-premise: installed on your own servers. Full control over data, but higher operating and maintenance costs.
  • Custom: a system built exactly around the company's processes, in the cloud or on its own server.

Who needs a CRM system

Any company where customer information is no longer manageable in someone's head, in Excel or in personal mailboxes needs a CRM. Company size isn't the deciding factor. Typical signs that it's time for a CRM:

  • you keep customers in a spreadsheet that only one person keeps up to date,
  • when a salesperson leaves, you don't know what they had in progress,
  • enquiries get lost or are answered late,
  • two colleagues approach the same customer without knowing about each other,
  • you don't know which customers stopped buying and why,
  • nobody can quickly answer the question "how many deals do we have in progress".

CRM helps most in companies with a longer sales cycle: B2B sales, services, made-to-order production, wholesale. A purely consumer online store with quick purchases can often manage with what the e-commerce platform and an email marketing tool offer. More on that in the section on CRM in an online store.

Benefits of CRM for a company

The main benefit of CRM is that the company stops losing deals and customers due to missing information. In practice, this means:

  • No forgotten enquiries. Every deal has a responsible person and a next step.
  • Continuity. The customer's history stays with the company even when a salesperson leaves.
  • Better care for existing customers. You know when they last bought and can get in touch at the right moment.
  • Targeted marketing. Campaigns based on actual customer behaviour, not guesswork.
  • More accurate planning. An overview of open deals shows what will come in next month or quarter.
  • Less manual work. Automatic tasks, email templates and connections to other systems.

The benefits only come, however, when the team actually uses the CRM. That's the most common reason CRM implementations fail, and we cover it in the implementation section.

CRM in an online store: what Shopify does on its own

A Shopify store has basic CRM features built in. For a smaller consumer store, this is often enough without another system. Shopify records every customer with their order history, total spend, addresses and marketing consent. It also supports dynamic customer segments, i.e. lists that update automatically based on rules, such as "customers who bought more than twice and nothing in the last six months". Segments can be used directly for email campaigns and discounts.

Need Shopify out of the box Separate CRM
Customer order history Yes Yes, once connected
Segmentation by purchasing behaviour Yes, dynamic segments Yes
Email campaigns and automation Yes, Shopify Messaging Yes, or via an email marketing tool
Companies, locations and contact persons (B2B) Yes, B2B features Yes, in more detail
Deals and quotes before an order No Yes
History of salespeople's calls, meetings and emails No Yes
Sales team tasks and planning No Yes
Customers from channels other than the store Limited Yes

The table leads to a simple rule: as long as sales happen mainly in the online store, Shopify and good email marketing are enough. Once you have salespeople, quotes, phone orders or wholesale customers, a separate CRM makes sense.

CRM, ERP and email marketing: what's the difference

CRM handles customer relationships, ERP handles how the company runs, and an email marketing tool handles communication at scale. The systems partly overlap, which is why they are often confused.

System Main question Typical content Examples
CRM Who is the customer and what are we doing with them? Contacts, communication, deals, tasks HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Raynet
ERP How does the company run? Inventory, purchasing, production, accounting, invoicing POHODA, Money, ABRA, SAP
Email marketing What to send to whom and when? Contact lists, campaigns, automation Ecomail, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
Online store How does the customer buy? Products, cart, orders, payments Shopify, Shoptet, WooCommerce

In a well-set-up company, the systems pass data to each other: an order from the online store goes to the ERP for invoicing and to the CRM for the customer's history, and a segment from the CRM goes to email marketing. Connecting an online store to accounting is described in the article Accounting on Shopify.

Top 10 CRM systems: what is used in the Czech Republic and worldwide

Worldwide, CRMs for large corporations lead; in the Czech Republic, systems for small and medium-sized businesses dominate. It's good to know the difference, because international "best CRM" rankings often target completely different companies than yours.

Worldwide: corporate systems dominate

According to analyst firm IDC, the global number one is Salesforce, with a market share of 20.7% for 2024. Its CRM revenue exceeds that of the next four largest vendors combined: Microsoft (Dynamics 365), Oracle, Adobe and SAP. The ranking is based on revenue, so systems for large companies with expensive licences and extensive implementations lead it. In the Czech Republic, Oracle, Adobe and SAP appear mainly at multinational corporations.

In the Czech Republic: CRM for small and medium-sized businesses

There is no public market share ranking for the Czech Republic. The closest is a 2020 survey by Future Sales among 408 Czech companies: most of them used Pipedrive (18.6%) and Salesforce (17.1%), followed by Raynet and Microsoft Dynamics 365 (7.9% each). The survey is older, but it matches what you still see in Czech companies today: alongside global brands, Czech products with local support hold a strong position.

An overview of the ten CRMs you'll most often come across in Czech companies:

# CRM Origin Who it's for What it excels at
1 Pipedrive Estonia Sales teams in small and medium-sized businesses Clear deal pipeline, fast setup
2 Salesforce USA Medium and large companies Global number one, almost unlimited customization, large ecosystem
3 Raynet Czech Republic Small and medium-sized businesses without in-house IT Czech product, Czech support, B2B sales
4 Microsoft Dynamics 365 USA Medium and large companies in the Microsoft ecosystem Integration with Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft products
5 HubSpot CRM USA Small and medium-sized businesses focused on marketing Free basic version, marketing and sales in one
6 eWay-CRM Czech Republic Companies that live in Outlook CRM directly in Outlook, Czech support
7 Zoho CRM India Companies wanting lots of features at a lower price Free plan for small teams, wide range of related apps
8 Bitrix24 International Small companies wanting everything in one CRM, projects and team communication in one app
9 monday CRM Israel Teams already using monday.com Visual boards and easy changes without coding
10 Odoo CRM Belgium Companies wanting CRM and ERP in one system Open-source core, modules for inventory, accounting and e-commerce

The order of the first four is based on the Future Sales survey; the rest of the list reflects the systems Czech companies most often consider in comparisons and tenders. It's not a quality rating: the best CRM is the one that fits your processes and that your team will use.

How the Czech Republic differs from the rest of the world

  • Company size. The global market is driven by corporations with thousands of users; the Czech market consists mainly of small and medium-sized businesses with a handful to dozens of users.
  • Local support and localization. Raynet and eWay-CRM have a stronger position in the Czech Republic than their global size would suggest. Companies value the Czech language, Czech formats (company ID and VAT number) and support in the same time zone.
  • Price per user. Czech companies pay more attention to the monthly licence price. That's why systems with a free basic version or a lower price per user are popular.
  • Integration with Czech services. Connections to POHODA, Money, Czech banks or Shoptet are handled better by local products and custom solutions.

Prices range from free plans with limited features to hundreds or thousands of Czech crowns per user per month for advanced versions. When choosing, calculate the price for the whole team several years ahead, not just for one licence.

Off-the-shelf or custom CRM?

An off-the-shelf CRM is faster and cheaper to start with; a custom CRM pays off when your processes don't fit a ready-made product. Three questions decide:

  • How much do your processes differ from the standard? An off-the-shelf CRM covers classic sales with quotes and stages well. A specific process, such as order approvals, capacity booking or service call records, is hard to bend into it.
  • How much do you pay for features you don't use? For larger teams, monthly per-user licences add up to amounts for which you can build your own solution.
  • Where do you want your data? Your own system means full control over the data and its structure.

A custom CRM doesn't have to mean developing from scratch today. We build it on the Directus platform, which creates an admin interface over a database with tables, filters, permissions and approval workflows. This is how internal tools for managing clients, orders, jobs or bookings are created, connected to Shopify and other systems. You'll find more about internal system development on the app development page.

How to connect a CRM to Shopify

Connecting a CRM to Shopify ensures that a salesperson can see in the CRM what the customer bought in the online store, and that marketing can target customers based on actual purchases. Most large CRMs have a ready-made Shopify app. For Czech CRMs and custom systems, the connection is handled via API.

What to synchronize:

  • Customers: new registrations and purchases from the store to the CRM, without duplicates.
  • Orders: contents, value and status, so the salesperson can see the purchase history.
  • Companies and contact persons for B2B customers, including company ID and VAT number.
  • Marketing consents: so the CRM doesn't contact people who haven't given consent or have withdrawn it.
  • Segments and tags in both directions, such as "VIP" or "wholesale".

The most common mistake is a one-way connection without rules for duplicates. When the same customer buys in the store under a different email than the one the salesperson has in the CRM, two records are created. Set matching rules (email, company ID) right at the start. Choosing ready-made apps in general is described in the article Shopify App Store: the best apps for Czech e-shops.

How to choose a CRM system

Choose a CRM based on your processes, not a list of features. The system with the most features is often the one the team ends up not using. Selection process:

  1. Describe your sales process: where customers come from, what stages a deal goes through, who does what.
  2. List what the CRM must do and separate it from what would be nice to have.
  3. Find out what it must connect to: online store, email, calendar, accounting, telephony.
  4. Shortlist 2–3 candidates and try them on real data. Most CRMs offer a trial.
  5. Have them tested by the people who will work with them, not just management.
  6. Calculate the total cost: licences for the whole team, implementation, integrations and training over three years.
Criterion What to ask
Simplicity Can a salesperson log a meeting from their phone in a minute?
Integration Does it connect to our online store, email and accounting?
Language and localization Is the system and support available in your language? Does it handle local formats (company ID, VAT number)?
Data Where is the data stored, and how do we get it out if we want to leave?
Cost over time How much will we pay over three years with the planned team growth?

Implementing CRM step by step

Implementing a CRM is mainly a change in how people work; the technology is the smaller part. A CRM most often fails not because of the software but because people don't use it. An approach that works:

  1. Appoint a project owner who has the authority to decide and the time to devote to it.
  2. Clean the data before importing. Duplicates, outdated contacts and inconsistent formats carried over from Excel devalue the system from day one.
  3. Start simple. Contacts, deals and tasks. Add advanced features gradually.
  4. Connect email and the online store, so as much data as possible is recorded automatically. Every manually entered field is a reason not to use the CRM.
  5. Train the team on real situations from their work.
  6. Manage by CRM data: hold sales meetings over CRM reports. If it's not in the CRM, it doesn't exist.
  7. After three months, evaluate what is used and what isn't, and adjust the system.

The most common mistakes: an overly complex setup at the start, mandatory completion of dozens of fields, no email integration and management that doesn't use the CRM itself.

CRM and GDPR

A CRM contains personal data, so the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to it. What to keep in mind:

  • Legal basis: for customers, it's usually performance of a contract or legitimate interest; for marketing communications, often consent. Record consents directly in the CRM.
  • A data processing agreement with the cloud CRM provider. Large providers include it as a standard part of their terms.
  • Retention period: set when inactive contacts are deleted or anonymized.
  • Data subject rights: on request, you must be able to find, hand over or delete a person's data. A good CRM does this in a few clicks.
  • Access rights: not everyone on the team needs to see everything.

The rules for sending marketing emails from a CRM are the same as for email marketing. When consent is required, we explain in our article on abandoned carts.

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Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What is a CRM system?

A CRM system is software for managing customer relationships. It brings together contacts, communication history, deals, orders and tasks in one place. Thanks to it, the whole company knows who it's dealing with, what was agreed and what the next step is. It helps sales, marketing and customer support.

What does CRM stand for?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It refers both to an approach in which a company builds on long-term customer relationships and to the software that makes this approach possible. In everyday use, CRM mainly refers to the software.

How much does a CRM system cost?

Cloud CRMs are paid monthly per user, from free plans with limited features to hundreds or thousands of Czech crowns per user for advanced versions. Add implementation, connections to other systems and training to the licences. A custom CRM is a one-off investment without per-user licences.

Does a small business need a CRM?

Yes, if customer records are no longer manageable, enquiries get lost or information stays in individual people's heads. Company size isn't the deciding factor. There are simple and inexpensive CRMs for small businesses, often with a free basic version, that can be set up within a few days.

What's the difference between CRM and ERP?

CRM handles customer relationships: contacts, communication, deals and marketing. ERP handles how the company runs: inventory, purchasing, production, accounting and invoicing. The systems complement each other and, in a well-set-up company, exchange data such as orders and customer information.

Does Shopify work as a CRM?

Partly. Shopify records customers with their order history and supports dynamic segments and email campaigns. That's often enough for a consumer online store. However, it doesn't have deals, salespeople's communication history or task planning. That's why a separate CRM is connected for B2B sales and sales teams.

Which CRM system is the most widely used?

Worldwide, the number one is Salesforce with a 20.7% share according to IDC for 2024, followed by Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe and SAP. In the Czech Republic, according to a Future Sales survey among 408 companies, Pipedrive and Salesforce led, followed by Raynet and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Czech companies more often choose systems for small and medium-sized businesses.

Need a CRM connected to your online store?

We'll connect your CRM to Shopify, or build a custom CRM for you on the Directus platform exactly according to your processes. Take a look at our app development services or book a free consultation.

Sources

Author: Miroslav Volovec, CEO of 3NODE Software s.r.o. – specialists in e-shop and app development on the Shopify platform.