How to Choose a Shopify-ERP Solution

(This post was last published on May 10, 2017. It has been updated for accuracy and completeness.)

As an online merchant, your band must stand out as you face tough, fast-moving competition. To stay ahead, your business must use the right technology to power optimal customer experiences. This probably lead you to choose leading eCommerce platform Shopify/Shopify Plus in the first place. While your business is built around this platform, it’s not the only platform that can help you grow.

What about your back office operations? How do you ensure you remain efficient as possible as order volumes increase and your fulfillment processes mature? At this point, you should consider using a robust backend system like an ERP alongside your eCommerce platform. This guide walks you through what an ERP system is and how to choose the best Shopify-ERP solution for your business.

How to Integrate Shopify and Sage

Your Sage ERP is the lifeline of your business. The quality of data in it affects almost all departments – sales, marketing, finance, operations, and more. It’s crucial then that your team has control over how, when, and what data moves in and out of Sage especially when it comes to your online orders and customers from Shopify. One way to control that flow of data is through integration and automation.

Whether you’re an established online seller or launching your first online site with Shopify, it’s important to consider integrating these two systems sooner than later. It’s how you control your systems, people, and reporting to ensure you continue to progress your online business.

How to Integrate Your Sage ERP with an eCommerce Platform

Many sellers don’t realize that operating with disconnected systems can hold your online growth back. You invest in an ERP like Sage and in eCommerce platform like Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento, but are you getting the most out of your systems?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Are you operating as efficiently as you can?
• How much time do you waste manually moving data between your systems?
• Do you focus more on fixing your data mistakes or creating better customer experiences?

If you don’t’ have satisfactory answers to all those questions, then you’re ready to integrate your Sage ERP system and eCommerce platform. Learn why you need to integrate Sage and how to pick the best integration solution for your business.

What is a Cloud ERP System?

(This post was originally published on April 20, 2016. It has been updated for accuracy and completeness).

A growing retail business often needs to upgrade their technology to keep up with operations. One of the bigger technology investments you’ll make is in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. This technology often becomes the lifeline of your business. It’s where you handle your financials, order processing, product information, reporting, and more. It’s been a technology that retailers and wholesalers have turned to for many years to manage all different aspects of their business.

Just like other technology systems, ERPs are also making the move to cloud services allowing them to be more affordable and flexible. This article will define what an ERP is, the benefits of cloud-based ERP systems, and list out today’s top ERP systems. We hope this helps you decide whether you’re ready for an ERP and how to evaluate the best one for your business.

What is ERP Integration for Retail?

As merchants grow their business, so does their technology stack. Most merchants have multiple software systems to run their business to help with everyday tasks like inventory management, order processing, shipping, accounting, payment processing and customer management. The list keeps going.

One of the more important technology investments you make is in an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. Your ERP can quickly become the backbone of your business and where most your processes are taken care of like orders, inventory, financial, customer, and supplier information. The challenge then is how you share the information from your ERP into your other critical systems like your eCommerce, POS, and 3PL systems.

Many turn to system integration to automate data between their systems, but ERP integration projects can seem overwhelming. If you’re considering integrating your ERP, learn what the benefits and challenges are of integration projects.