Have you ever thought of ERP eCommerce Integration?
If you haven’t yet, then maybe you should continue reading this blog to find out why ERP and E-commerce are better together for your business.
Talking E-commerce, it has always been the best way to connect customers with your products/offerings digitally. It has changed the way to communicate with customers; be it getting food delivered to your door to availing medical services on the go, almost every industry has trailed their way towards the e-commerce platform.
However, we all know a vivacious cycle of problems comes on your way while maintaining an online storefront. It could become a huge and stressful task for retailers to manage the inventory and warehouse operations if it isn’t integrated with a proper ERP system.
Usually, many business owners tend to overlook the need for integrating their e-commerce storefront with a well-managed ERP system. And this happens because they fear encountering interruptions caused by having to modify their current setup.
The Efficiency of ERP eCommerce Integration:
Let’s understand the efficiency of ERP- E-commerce Integration.
Inventory Management Made Easy:
Many e-commerce stores are struggling to achieve real-time information about their products and data flow. Integrating with a well-organized ERP system will help your business fetch data on every transaction made at your online-offline warehouse.
In simple words, ERP-E-commerce integration is like creating coordination between storefront functionalities and back-end operations.
Not only the data flow becomes easier, but you could also easily keep track of product performance, business analysis, and customer likeability. When you run your business on such an integrated system, you no longer have to manage batch processes or single orders. Not only that, you could avail a real-time scenario of how much product quantity is present in each location/warehouse.
In a nutshell, ERP integration gives your business real-time visibility into various inventory levels.
Hassle-free Order Tracking:
Research conducted by ZenDesk shows that 66% of B2B and 52% of B2C customers have dropped the idea of buying from companies following bad service interaction due to the unavailability of an order tracking facility, out-of-stock information, time-consuming delivery, etc.
Integrating ERP and E-commerce means your commerce platform will get complete access to comprehensive ERP information. It is like a window to knowing what’s happening with orders, customers’ behavior, and sales.
E.g., If your customer tried to purchase an out-of-stock product, then you can send that customer a reminder as soon as your ERP system notifies you that it is back in stock.
Not only that, but you could also help your customers track their orders with shipping and delivery status information if your ERP is connected to the e-commerce platform. Possibly, you and your customers both will be able to avail information about shipments at each stage, and you could get rid of WISMO (Where is my order) calls.
Smooth Account Management:
Be it customers’ transaction history, invoices, payment terms, or purchasing trends, having such accountable information helps you understand your customers’ buying patterns and purchasing behavior. If your account representatives are given easy access to this information, they would be able to spend more time driving more sales rather than just collecting information manually in bits and pieces.
As B2B is dependent on the supply chain, you would be able to update special tax rates and special exemptions for particular customers with the help of an ERP system.
For e.g., When an order is placed on an e-commerce site, the data is scanned for a particular state, and a business rule is grabbed from the ERP tax engine, accordingly, an amount will be updated for that order, and this is how customers get the correct amount as per the state tax or other value-added taxes.
The Bottom Line:
It’s high time that we stop asking, “Why should I integrate my e-commerce store with an ERP system?” and start grabbing the benefits from ERP-E-commerce integration. Delaying it will make it harder and more expensive for your business in the future. Not forgetting the fact that it stills your growth.
We at Aktiv Software provide customized solutions for ERP as well as E-commerce. Contact us now for a free consultation and discover how will ERP system fulfill your business requirements.
