Retail Revolution: Supercharge Your Store with E-Commerce and ERP Integration
The customer is king, right? That’s why customer experience is so important. Many retailers are integrating their e-commerce platform with a modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to provide more streamlined workflows and a great customer experience.
It’s a revolution driven by changes in consumer behavior that retailers are adapting to and explains the surge toward e-commerce and ERP integration.
Retail enterprises have consistently balanced various responsibilities, including inventory management, financial management, supply chain management, manufacturing, sales, marketing, and customer relationship management.
Before modern, cloud-based ERP systems, individual data divisions stored core information on a self-serve basis.
If your sales director required production data from the factory floor, they would typically have to wait for it, contingent upon availability.
Cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Has Disrupted These Inefficiencies
ERP systems are ideal for multi-department e-commerce enterprises because they curate company-wide data in a single shared database accessible to all relevant stakeholders.
ERP eCommerce integration connects an organization's interface eCommerce site and its backend ERP system. It facilitates synchronizing data regarding consumers, orders, products, and other relevant information between the two platforms.
Automatic data synchronization results in revenue maximization and productivity enhancement.
Your business can accomplish this by integrating an ERP system.
Integrating ERP with E-commerce
Integrating and synchronizing your e-commerce platform with an enterprise resource planning system is known as “enterprise resource planning (ERP) e-commerce integration.”
Through e-commerce ERP integration, all data your team accumulates during the operation of your online business is made accessible to all stakeholders.
That encompasses various items, such as market research, customer data, sales reports, branding guidelines, supplier information, and product designs. So, ERP systems consolidate all your data in a single view.
ERP system integration empowers team members across disciplines, enabling them to strategize and collaborate effectively. How? A modern ERP provides extensive access to valuable data. This sense of empowerment can significantly boost morale and productivity.
Why Integrate ERP with E-commerce?
ERP e-commerce integration efficiently consolidates data from all e-commerce business processes into a comprehensive, readily sortable database. Those can include product design, sales, marketing, inventory, customer relationship management (CRM), and more.
This efficiency ensures that your business operations run smoothly and effectively.
ERP e-commerce integrations have substantially relieved businesses from the challenges and risks of manual data entry associated with business operations.
Users no longer need to photocopy sales ledgers or disseminate them to various departments.
ERP integration ensures that your organization's information is consistently current. It autonomously synchronizes data from all operations, providing relief from repetitive tasks.
Ensuring Security
Nevertheless, this does not imply that all company data is accessible to every individual or department within your organization.
Everyone can establish a personalized ERP portal that provides access to the data pertinent to their work and security clearance.
That prevents, for example, an unvetted contractor from obtaining access to trade secrets while enabling a product engineer with elevated access permissions to review previous designs.
7 Advantages of a Modern ERP Integration
Integrating your ERP system with your e-commerce platform allows you to optimize your business operations by delivering precise and timely data to the appropriate stakeholders.
Here are seven advantages that could benefit your organization:
| Advantage | Benefit |
| Counts of inventory in real-time in both front-end and back-end systems | By consistently delivering the most current inventory counts across your warehouses and stores, an ERP system can enhance ecommerce inventory management. This real-time data can prevent stockouts, reduce excess inventory, and improve order fulfillment, enhancing customer satisfaction. It applies to user-facing front-end and back-end systems, such as servers and databases. |
| Automated transaction placement procedures | An ERP system can automatically initiate the subsequent stages in the fulfillment process, such as the generation of shipping labels and the sending of confirmation emails, when customers place orders on your ecommerce store. Automation saves time and mitigates the risk of errors, ensuring a smooth and efficient order-processing experience for both the business and the customer. |
| Tracking of orders | E-commerce businesses must monitor all orders, including inbound orders from suppliers and outbound orders to consumers. An ERP system can deliver precise shipment data in real-time, allowing companies to track orders from when they are placed to when they are delivered. It improves customer service, provides insights into order processing efficiency, and helps identify potential supply chain issues. |
| Vendor management | An ERP system facilitates the organization of the numerous suppliers and vendors you employ. It allows you to store and promptly retrieve data, including contact information and order fulfillment performance. |
| Customer-specific pricing options that are dynamic | If you implement a dynamic pricing model that adjusts prices in response to real-time market factors, your listed prices will fluctuate. An ERP system can assist in the automatic adjustment of prices without the need for human intervention. Your e-commerce store will automatically display new rates due to the integration of datasets. |
| Automated financial assessments | ERP systems enable businesses of all sizes to synchronize financial data across departments, locations, and even company subsidiaries. They can also be programmed to communicate this data automatically, making them valuable assets. |
| Automation of manual procedures | ERP systems can replace manual data syncing that your personnel would otherwise be required to perform. That allows team members to concentrate on the more innovative aspects of their responsibilities and mitigates the likelihood of human error affecting your data sets. |
8 Strategies for Choosing the “Right” ERP
When selecting an ERP solution for your e-commerce business, prioritize the following features.
1. Systems that operate on the cloud
Most e-commerce businesses have implemented cloud computing, necessitating a cloud-based ERP system that integrates with an IPaaS model.
Alternatively, you may implement an enterprise service bus (ESB) integration or a point-to-point integration; however, these approaches are incompatible with cloud-based digital commerce.
2. Financial automation
Search for an ERP system that automatically synchronizes financial data from your departments and bank accounts. Since financial data is subject to minute-by-minute fluctuations, selecting a real-time update system is imperative.
3. Inventory management
Some of the most effective ERP solutions include inventory management capabilities that enable you to monitor pending orders from suppliers, warehouse stock, and incoming orders.
4. Fulfillment of orders
You can utilize your ERP software to manage all customer order-related duties, such as billing, sending confirmation emails, generating shipping labels, and conducting follow-up surveys to solicit customer feedback.
5. Customer relationship management
CRM integration is one of your ERP's capabilities. It enables you to furnish your sales team and pertinent stakeholders with customer information and personal purchase histories.
6. Marketing data
Your ERP allows you to archive marketing data, such as marketing scripts, promotions, and campaign performance data.
7. Business intelligence
The most effective ERP platforms do not merely accumulate data; they also offer analytical business intelligence to assist in interpreting the data and applying it for strategic purposes.
Each ERP vendor, including Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics, has its proprietary tools.
8. Pricing
ERP software is costly; it frequently exceeds six figures, and enterprise-grade ERP systems can cost millions of dollars.
The cost depends on the number of users, the integration of systems, and the availability of customization options. When contemplating ERP capabilities, prioritize your organization's requirements and financial constraints.
Conclusion
In summary, the most effective e-commerce ERP software is an indispensable asset for organizations that seek to optimize operations and maximize profits.
By selecting the appropriate solution, executing it correctly, managing your system efficiently, and routinely optimizing its performance, you can guarantee that your e-commerce store functions efficiently and profitably and encounters few complications.
Join the Revolution: Integrate Your E-commerce Platform with a Modern ERP Solution
Implementing an e-commerce integration with an ERP is a significant undertaking. Whether you’re using an existing ERP or upgrading to a modern solution, the Liberty Grove team of ERP consultants can guide you through each step to smoothly integrate your e-commerce platform using the most recent version of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP software.
Its team of experts will provide you with a calculated roadmap to facilitate your integration and streamline your way to success. Liberty Grove's decades of experience and proven technology result in increased flexibility and reduced costs for your business.
Contact Liberty Grove for a complimentary consultation on how its team of experts can guide your manufacturing operation through a successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) e-commerce integration.
Related reading
Increase Employee Productivity with A Modern ERP Solution
Payment Automation in Business Central: A Strategic Advantage for Businesses
About the author
Liberty Grove Software is an established Microsoft Partner that focuses on providing customers with sales, service, and support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV solutions and training and upgrades.
Liberty Grove Software helps manufacturing firms compete by automating tedious operations with Microsoft technologies. Our extensive manufacturing knowledge has established us as the preferred Microsoft partner for assisting mid-sized manufacturers in increasing production.
Over more than 25 years, Liberty Grove has assisted hundreds of customers with businesses ranging from small to mid-sized to Microsoft Partners in implementing, training, customization, and upgrading Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.
The organization is one of only a few companies worldwide that Microsoft recognizes as qualified to provide Business Central/NAV Upgrade Service Centers.
