Time is money.
People say it all the time, but when it comes to the day-to-day, many B2B ecommerce owners are still wasting tons of time manually syncing data between systems.
And the last thing you want is to waste time on tasks that could be automated or streamlined.
That's where enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and ERP integrations come in.
This article will cover the 5 benefits of integrating your ERP system with the rest of your B2B ecommerce tech stack (and I'll even give you a few ERP integration solutions to check out as well).
But first, let's quickly cover ERP systems and their place in B2B commerce.
What is ERP Software for B2B Ecommerce?
ERP software is a system that helps businesses manage their resources and administrative tasks, including but not limited to finances, customers, products, and operations.
The term “ERP software” originated in the 90s, but the roots of the functionality started to rise to prominence in the 1960s.
And depending on the tool you use, these systems can manage a ton of different administrative tasks, including inventory management, price estimation, order processing, sales tracking, accounting, risk management, and financing.
ERP software can be used for businesses of all sizes but is often most beneficial for larger companies with complex needs.
For instance, if you just take a quick spin through a list of the "best ERP software," you'll see it's covered with big enterprise software names like SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft.
However, many of these systems scale with you as you grow, and you can use them (or at least some features) even as a smaller ecommerce business.
As for B2B ecommerce owners, ERP systems can be leveraged to manage inventory across different sales channels and platforms, process and fulfill orders, and centralize and sync customer and product data across systems.
ERP software is especially beneficial for companies with multiple warehouses/locations, as it can track shipments and manage stock levels between locations.
Now if you're using an ERP software like NetSuite, Cin7, or Katana, it can natively integrate your ERP with a limited amount of other software, sales channels, and EDI compliance platforms you're using to sell with 3rd party retailers.
5 Benefits of B2B Ecommerce ERP Integration
Here are 5 benefits of ERP integration for B2B ecommerce:
1. Automated order processing
One of the biggest benefits of ERP integration is automated order processing.
When an order is placed on your ecommerce site, it will automatically be sent to your ERP system for tracking and fulfillment. This means that you don't have to waste time manually entering orders into your ERP system.
Think beyond one-way integrations, though.
Imagine you sell toddler books and your main ecommerce system is Shopify. Perhaps you're using NetSuite and their ecommerce integration.
But now imagine that you also want to grow your sales channels by adding Target, Faire, and Amazon.
Order processing at this scale becomes impossible to manage because these many channels you’re selling through (including retailers requiring EDI compliance) can’t talk to all of your internal systems. ERP ecommerce integration tools solve this.
2. Accurate inventory management
Another benefit of ERP integration is accurate inventory management.
With an integrated system, you'll always know what inventory you have on hand and where it's located. This can help you avoid oversold situations and stock-outs.
Again, this is especially important when you're not just selling through your own ecommerce platform, but also successful enough to sell through other retailers (online and offline).
Accurately syncing up inventory data across several systems allows you to display all of your SKUs and units, update pricing across platforms, get real time notifications for low stock items, and generally keep the customer experience seamless no matter where they're buying from you.
3. Improved customer service
ERP integration can also improve your customer service.
With an integrated system, your customer service and sales reps will have access to real-time data from your ERP system. This means they'll be able to provide accurate information to customers about their orders, pricing, inventory levels, etc.
Resources like this keep things from getting too complex as you scale your business. Instead of reps wading through the complexity of ten different systems, they can access key data in one place (via self-service, right away).
The customer experience, of course, is a huge point of leverage for a successful company today.
4. Reduced costs and Increased efficiency
ERP integration can also help reduce your costs across the board.
With an automated system in place, you'll be able to eliminate many manual processes that are currently being done by employees (such as data entry). This can lead to significant cost savings over time.
And it's not just time you save; you reduce errors that will inevitably occur from trying to process data manually.
Again, the complexity really adds up as you scale.
With all of your systems working together seamlessly, you'll be able to get more work done in less time—leaving you with more time to focus on other aspects of your business.
Plus, ERP integration tools tend to have a centralized dashboard that makes managing all of your integrated systems easier. This can effectively act as an order operations hub, allowing you to get a bird's eye view of your business as a whole.
5. Harmonized Product and Customer Data
When selling in multiple channels, you have unsynced customer data and product data in different systems. That requires significant data entry or you risk data silos that can add incredible complexity and cripple customer communications.
Imagine you have a high SKU count, all that product data (descriptions, images, prices, etc.) needs to be uploaded to every sales channel. And when something changes, it needs to be updated everywhere.
Integrations enable you to sync that product data from your ERP with your sales channels automatically.
4 B2B Ecommerce ERP Integration Solutions
Now that you're sold on the benefits of ecommerce and ERP integration, let's look at a few options on the market for a B2B ecommerce solution:
- Syncware
- Workato
- Make
- Manual Processes
1. Syncware
Syncware is a cloud-based middleware solution that can integrate all of your core systems and sales channels as a B2B ecommerce company.
This solution was built for B2B ecommerce owners by B2B ecommerce owners - making it the obvious solution for many companies.
And it's a great option for businesses looking for an ERP integration solution.
With Syncware, you can easily connect your ecommerce platform with your ERP system, allowing you to automate order processing, inventory management, and all kinds of other core business processes.
Take, for instance, the popular NetSuite integration. Syncware connects NetSuite with your current business systems with advanced configurations including:
- Sync order cancellations and partial fulfillment in both directions
- Automate sales records to efficiently ship orders
- Send shipping cost carrier code, service code, and shipment tracking code to an item fulfillment record in NetSuite
The pricing of this ERP integration is straightforward and affordable too. Essentially, it's just $150 per month for NetSuite per system + $50-100 per month depending on the integration you pair with it. So it's a model that scales with you as you grow.
Real-time bidirectional data syncing between all your B2B ecommerce systems means you'll save time, money and never make another manual data error again.
One single piece of software to help run your successful, growing business.
2. Workato
Workato is a cloud-based automation and integration platform that allows businesses to easily integrate their ERP systems.
With Workato, you can connect your ecommerce platform with your ERP system, allowing you to automate order processing and inventory management.
While Workato is a great option for businesses looking to integrate their ERP system, it does have a few downsides.
First, it is not specifically built for ecommerce platforms and can be difficult to use for businesses that are not familiar with it.
Additionally, it is quite expensive when compared to other options on the market.
Finally, even though they do have ready-made recipes set up, complex workflows can sometimes require technical skills or coding to make sure they’re streamlined and accurate.
3. Make
If you're not ready for Workato's enterprise pricing, you can also hook up your ERP systems to your ecommerce platform and other tools using a lower priced automation platform like Make (formerly, Integromat).
I'd also put Zapier in this bucket.
Make is an all purpose automation and integration platform that has ready-made workflows to help with ERP integration to your ecommerce solution.
For example, they have a dozen SAP S/4HANA recipes on their website, including recipes that allow you to:
- Add a purchase order
- Create a credit memo request
- Cancel a supplier invoice
And more…
They have many DTC ecommerce software options (like Square, Magento, or WooCommerce) but not many integrations that enable B2B ecommerce.
And integrating this stuff yourself is a little tricky. Setting up integrations in Zapier and Make is very complex the first time you give it a go.
Often, you'll find you need to hire additional resources to figure out the technology so you're setting up your integrations correctly.
But if you've got the patience, these can be good low-cost middleware solutions for broad applications.
4. Manual Processes
Finally, the solution many business owners are using to integrate their ecommerce data is the old school one: manual processing.
Instead of investing in a cloud-based middleware platform, business owners are taking sales data from their channel partners and entering it into their ERP system and vice versa.
The more complex your sales process and the more channels you operate within (online and offline), the harder this gets.
Often, the limitations created by manual processing is what prevents business owners from seeing future growth on new sales channels.
So while manual processes are common and often necessary when you're at the beginning of your growth as a company, it becomes less efficient and a process bottleneck as you scale.
Luckily, the middleware solutions listed above are designed to help you unlock sales growth.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many great reasons to integrate your ecommerce platform with an ERP system.
If you're not currently taking advantage of a middleware solution like Synwcare, perhaps you can get by with spreadsheets and duct tape for a while. But eventually, as you scale and your organization incurs complexity, you’re going to want a centralized and integrated system to make sure orders are processed, inventory is tracked, and you’re maintaining a successful and profitable business.
By doing so, you'll be able to save time, money, and improve your overall efficiency as a business.
Contact us today to learn more about our B2B ecommerce solutions and how we can help you take your business to the next level.
