This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Natalia API2Cart
In the eCommerce industry, customer experience is the critical driver for business growth and development. For customer satisfaction, it’s the responsibility of online merchants to provide their clients with an exceptional shopping experience. An ERP system does a great job of providing merchants with the data they need to offer such experiences to their customers.
However, as the customer demands keep evolving, an ERP system should also look into other data sources to generate personalized data sets for businesses. That said, ERP integration with eCommerce platforms is a stepping stone to the successful evolution of ERP systems.
Read along to find out how you can establish ERP integration efficiently.
What is an ERP System?
An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, as the name suggests, is software that manages and automates the various functions of an enterprise. It helps to automate operations in different departments - accounting, sales, marketing, supply chain, etc. - and collects data from them to form a single source of information for the management.
Some standard functions of an ERP are as follows:
To automate repetitive business tasks that can impact the overall productivity of its workforce.
To collect data from various sources and analyze to generate actionable insights for businesses.
To generate reports by compiling operational data of the business, allowing the management to make well-informed decisions.
To overlook financial data of a business, enabling faster handling of monthly financial statements.
To manage the manufacturing processes and supply chain of a business.
To plan, organize, and determine the best strategize to utilize business funds.
To integrate data from various departments of the organization for providing a centralized view of a business’s operations and finances.
What is ERP Integration?
ERP integration is the process of connecting an ERP software with various other applications, in and out of the organization, to get real-time data from them in a single place. It gives a unified view of all the connected applications regardless of their presence in the organization.
ERP integration combines data from various sources of information and departments, including accounts, HR, finance, commerce, back-office, manufacturing, supply chain, etc. It uses this data to effectively manage the workflows and processes of a business and improve the way how different departments of an organization collaborate.
What is ERP integration with eCommerce Platforms?
ERP integration with eCommerce platforms is the process of establishing integration between an ERP software and eCommerce platforms like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. Such integration facilitates a seamless transfer of data from the eCommerce platform to the ERP software.
The question, however, is - why does an ERP software need to integrate with eCommerce platforms?
The answer is simple - ERP software looks after all the crucial processes in an eCommerce business. These processes include:
- monitoring inventory,
- processing orders,
- optimizing shipping process,
- generating custom reports, and
- tracking multiple application workflows in real-time.
All these processes need data related to customers, orders, products, and categories. Such data is stored in the merchants' online stores, which are built on the above-mentioned eCommerce platforms. Therefore, ERP integration with eCommerce platforms is necessary if the ERP software needs access to this data.
When an ERP integrates with the eCommerce platform, it can retrieve and manage an online store's data through the platforms’ APIs.
Moreover, there are several benefits associated with ERP integration with multiple eCommerce platforms:
ERP eCommerce integration opens new business opportunities. The eCommerce platforms you connect with have multiple online stores built on them, apart from your clients’. These online store owners can be your future clients when they get to know the functionalities of your ERP software.
When the store owners turn into your clients, it brings a healthy revenue stream for your business.
eCommerce platforms operate in multiple countries across the globe. When you integrate with these platforms, you get international exposure.
How to Develop an eCommerce ERP Integration?
There are two ways to develop an eCommerce ERP integration - in-house integration development and using third-party integration development services.
While in-house integration development can cost you a significant amount of time, money, and resources, employing a third-party service to develop integrations is your most feasible option.
With third-party service providers like API2Cart, you can easily develop ERP integration with multiple eCommerce platforms.
API2Cart is a unified API that allows SaaS solutions like ERP to integrate with more than 40 eCommerce platforms at once. As a result, it saves the vendors a lot of time and money they would otherwise have invested in establishing individual, manual integrations.
API2Cart provides you with more than 100 API methods to retrieve and manage data from the eCommerce platforms. These methods allow you to seamlessly edit, delete, modify, and update data in the online stores.
Moreover, API2Cart also looks after the maintenance and upgrades required by integrations once they are developed. If you look into in-house development, you would also have to bear the cost of maintenance and updates equivalent to developing new integrations.
eCommerce platforms keep rolling out new versions of their API, and you will need to update your integrations every time there’s a new release. If you choose manual integrations, these updates and maintenance might cost you a fortune, considering the salary you will pay to the developers and the infrastructure you will deploy.
API2Cart can save you from all these pain points with its unified API. You need to connect your ERP software with API2Cart, and it will automatically connect your software with all the eCommerce platforms of your choice.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Natalia API2Cart
Natalia API2Cart | Sciencx (2021-11-19T14:23:27+00:00) Guide to ERP Integration with eCommerce Platforms. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2021/11/19/guide-to-erp-integration-with-ecommerce-platforms/
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