E-commerce has changed the way people used to shop and sell. The ease and comfort that this trend has infused in shopping are commendable. This has made e-commerce rise like anything. In a short time, the global e-commerce market touched the mark of $16.6 trillion.
Businesses in the eCommerce domain must be laced up with the best technology and techniques to sense customers’ nerves and market trends to remain on top. One such wise move is to integrate ERP with an e-commerce website.
ERP and e-commerce integration is the easiest way to optimize key workflows the way customers demand. In this post, you’ll understand the worth of this integration and the benefits it will deliver.
ERP and Ecommerce Integration–What It Is And Why Matters
eCommerce businesses/websites mostly use an eCommerce platform like Shopify or WooCommerce to track the progress of the online business. The tool generally has capabilities to automate website performance, sales, operations, marketing, inventory, supply chain, and other key processes.
On the other hand, ERP is an advanced planning tool that allows businesses to keep everything crucial at their disposal. It brings operational departments like finance, accounting, CRM, marketing, supply chain, and many more together so that the team can have a smooth workflow.
For a successful eCommerce business to run, you need to integrate ERP with eCommerce websites so that online transactions and customer-business communication are happening without any errors and delays.
Even though many e-commerce businesses are running without integrating with ERP, they fail to achieve perfection and swiftness on multiple fronts. The lack of ERP and eCommerce platform integration forces eCommerce stores to:
Sell less as they don’t know what products appeal to customers the most. Online stores won’t be able to track past purchases, reviews, returns, and other metrics that are useful to resell and cross-sell more.
Do more manual work to get the relevant customer data, as direct import and export are not possible.
Have less visibility on key metrics as different departments won’t be linked or connected. For example, if one item is out of stock and the inventor is not linked with an e-commerce store, your customers won’t be able to find out whether or not the product is available for purchase. The same confusion will happen when real-time order tracking or updates are required.
Do manual hand-keying of sales orders, which is way too painful and daunting. In the absence of ERP and e-commerce integration, online store owners have to upload sales orders manually and this will cause tons of hassles as uploading product data in Excel manually comes with a lot of error possibilities as well.
Spend more time on fixing the errors. When ERP and e-commerce are not linked, shipping, tracking, customer information, and many other operational areas will have errors that will keep online store owners stuck for a long time.
There are too many failures and limited functionalities, and no online store can grow in such a scenario. This is why experts recommend using a feature-rich ERP like Odoo ERP and integrating it with its eCommerce platform. Even if it seems a little daunting, we recommend going for it because it will reap multiple benefits that we will explain next.
Looking for a trustworthy ERP and eCommerce integration to simplify your business processes? Connect with the experts at Silent Infotech and explore our previous work through a demo and how we can help y0ur eCommerce business
Top 10 Benefits Of ERP Solution
If you’re using the services of skilled Shopify eCommerce development that makes your shop fully integrated with Odoo ERP, things are way better. There are many case studies to prove the same. Here are 10 sure-shot benefits of making this move.
Less Errors and More Updated Data
As the Odoo integration leads to real-time data processing and automated data upload of shipping, tracking, and customer information, errors are not there to bother you. Inventory and purchase data will be directly uploaded or exported from the website and will keep the team updated. This way, data redundancies won’t be there to bother you.
Trim Down The Operational Expenses
When the key workflow is automated, you need less workforce to manage your online store. The automation of online order data also leads to fewer re-works and order backfires which is very important for controlling the operational expenses as each reships or return costs to the online store.
Save a Huge Deal Of Time
Time is real money when it comes to business, and Odoo ERP integration with e-commerce helps online store owners save time while handling key workflows. For instance, the team doesn’t have to upload sales orders manually, there is no manual order update sharing, and even customer request handling is fully automated. So, in less time, more actions are taken that pay off well in the future.
Better Internal Productivity
When two major fronts are well-connected, the backend team is more productive and will have a streamlined workflow.
The sales team doesn’t have to track the order manually. They will get sales order details as soon as an order is placed. The marketing team doesn’t have to spend hours to find out which product is in huge demand and which one needs more exposure as they will have a product-wise sales breakdown.
More Customer Satisfaction
When it comes to customer-business communication, customer care executives can track tickets, resolve them in real time, and keep the customer posted about the progress of their queries.
Detailed Reports
Don’t get tangled in a different department and its cluttered data. Get specific, and data-rich reports over a single click Odoo ERP will collect data from different departments and generate informative reports.
Better Service Customization
When you have data about which customer is buying what and of which value, it’s easy to customize the entire purchasing experience for the customers. Amazon has managed to achieve amazing service customization because of this integration only.
Keep Customers Updated
Modern-era online buyers want updates about every minor thing. With ERP and e-commerce website integration, you can make it happen, as the integration will send real-time updates and notifications.
Build Trust
When a customer is updated about everything and has deeper insights into their orders’ status, winning their trust is easy. Trust building is one aspect where online stores are behind brick-and-mortar stores. But this integration can help you deal with this.
Accessibility to Every Key Data
When this integration is in place, online store owners will have easy accessibility to every data and information that they need to expand or scale.
Go Ahead and Bring ERP Integration Into Action
Running an online business will become easier than ever only if you hire seasoned Odoo e-commerce development services and ask them to offer ERP integration. This way, you will be able to have better control over your business and make the right decisions at the right time.