E-commerce integrated with ERP
E-commerce is not just a standalone webshop.
An effective e-commerce platform consists of several integrated, closely connected systems. Sweden is among the most connected countries, and an e-commerce platform offers endless opportunities for trade and integration with customers, suppliers and partners. That is why we at Systemstöd have developed integrations (APIs) for the ERP systems we deliver and support (Jeeves ERP, Sage X3, Visma.net and Hansaworld).
Benefits of e-commerce
E-commerce has many benefits, whether your platform sells to businesses (B2B) or individuals (B2C). Most exciting is that your store can be open around the clock worldwide, regardless of where the customer is.
Other benefits of e-commerce:
+ increased sales through an additional channel
+ customers get 24/7 access to orders, support and product displays
+ new customers find your company’s products through your e-commerce site
+ better customer service (opening hours, product information, customer questions)
+ enables effective digital marketing
+ easier to compete
+ strengthens your brand
E-commerce integrated with ERP
There are many e-commerce platforms and webshops on the Swedish market today, such as Litium, WooCommerce, Episerver, Magento and Shopify. Our APIs for different ERP systems let you integrate these and other e-commerce solutions with our ERP systems and manage information exchanges including:
Items: Retrieve and update items
Customers: Retrieve and create customers
Customer addresses: Retrieve and create
Contact persons (customer): Retrieve and create
Inventory balance: Retrieve
Direct price inquiry: Retrieve
Price lists, discount matrices, customer links: Retrieve
Orders: Retrieve and create
Order status: Retrieve
Invoices: Retrieve
Queue for changed objects: Can be configured to monitor changes to the above.
Our APIs can also be adapted if there is additional information you want to integrate between your e-commerce platform and ERP system.
Some customers with e-commerce integrated with ERP
Tips for e-commerce integrated with ERP
Our APIs for integrating different e-commerce platforms and ERP systems automatically integrate and update customer orders, inventory information and item information, among other data, delivering more efficient, seamless e-commerce. Integration saves considerable manual work and time while increasing both business value and security.
Item information
If the e-commerce solution is not integrated with the ERP system, all item maintenance must be performed manually in both the ERP system and the webshop. With an integrated solution, all item maintenance takes place in the ERP system. Everything in one place.
Before installing e-commerce integrated with your ERP system, you should review and “clean” your item register. It is not just about correct prices. All items must also have the correct name, belong to a specific item or product group and be categorized. Accurate, up-to-date master data in your ERP system is therefore essential. An updated item register helps you get a working e-commerce solution up and running faster.
Item images
In most industries, item images are vital for e-commerce success. Your customer may not know or remember a particular product or brand, but may remember only an image or logo. Managing and taking suitable new photos, or obtaining suitable images from suppliers for the products in your webshop, can take time.
Categorize items from an e-commerce perspective
Products need more than just an item name to be found in your e-commerce site. More is needed!
If you do not already do so in your ERP system, use product groups, item groups or custom item groupings to categorize your products. This makes it easier to create effective searches and search criteria for visitors and customers in your e-commerce site. Visitors can see all products in a certain item group from a particular supplier, or you can suggest other products in the same category or all products from the same supplier.
Different pricing models per customer
Integration between your ERP system and e-commerce platform carries over the pricing and discount model used in your ERP system without extra work. Before installing your e-commerce solution, it is therefore important to review pricing agreements with different customers and customer categories. You can then supplement these with extra discounts, special offers and so on for customers who place their orders through your e-commerce site.
Publish prices
Whether to display the customer’s price in your e-commerce site is often a strategic decision and varies between industries. It is also handled differently depending on whether your e-commerce targets individuals or businesses. The advantage of an integrated solution is that rules for prices, discounts, volume discounts and so on are controlled and managed in one place: your ERP system.