Enterprise resource planning (ERP), allows you to integrate a variety of business applications. ERP tools can integrate many administrative and operational business processes. They include finance, human resources, inventory levels, orders, and finance.
ERPs are basically a way for back-office functions and retailers to communicate with each other. ERPs also provides a central location for data and information that can be used to help them run their business.
Although many small businesses initially use siloed systems for back-end functionality as their primary solution, as your business grows, you may find that the complexity of your needs exceeds those solutions. These capabilities can be combined in a single solution to improve your business’s efficiency and cohesion. With their e-commerce platform connected and supported by multiple back-office systems, merchants can grow for many years. There comes a time when your data becomes out of control. For example, shipping addresses and customer information may not be accurate across all systems. Or you might find it difficult to manage multiple warehouses within your existing systems.
An Ecommerce ERP: The Basics
To help you understand the differences between an ecommerce ERP integration and eCommerce integration, let’s first describe some back-office workflows that ERPs might handle. It includes taking orders and fulfilling them, processing payments, handling returns, managing inventory, and calculating taxes.
Phew. Let’s stop and take a moment to breathe. Your ERP basically becomes a ledger containing all your company information. You can then use this data to analyze everything from seasonal trends to inventory production.
As your business expands, you will need to manage more tasks.
Your ERP solution is the answer. Here are some characteristics that make up an ERP.
• Integrates with other solutions within your tech stack in real-time, or very close to real-time
• It acts as a central database of information for all applications
• You have the option to deploy on premise or cloud, as well as SaaS.
You can either get an ERP to integrate with your online storefront platform as a prebuilt integration or by adding modules or add-ons. The two can easily be connected because they will share data points such as:
• Information about our products
• Customer information
• Orders, fulfillment, and shipping.
• Inventory levels and the associated lead time
• Different tax regulations
Key Features of an ERP
These are the key features you should look for in your ERP search criteria when you want to integrate your eCommerce solution with an ERP.
Finance
You can incorporate real-time information about Ecommerce Orders into your financial and accounting data, such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, etc. If an e-commerce purchase is made in your ERP software, it will immediately show up in your sales order. It will also populate your financial statements. Revenue is created as soon as the payment has been processed.
Customer relationship management (CRM)
Your customer relations function can be integrated into your ERP to centralize the management of leads, contacts, and opportunities across the buyer’s journey. No matter which channel a customer buys through, your central CRM will associate the order with that customer. It gives you a single view of your customers as well as how they interact with us across channels.
Inventory Management
Integrated inventory management ensures that all inventory is up-to-date across any number of warehouse locations. You will know exactly where all your inventory is, regardless of whether it’s at a warehouse or in transit.
