Summary By Phio Andre Arfian

(Kelompok 4)
Video 02 15-35/Selesai
Ecommerce ERP

Enter eCommerce ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), the seamless integration of

your eCommerce system with a modern, cloud-based ERP solution. Together, they
extend your organization’s breadth and depth, connecting your processes and
procedures for a cohesive, future-proofed operation. 

Basics of an ERP and eCommerce Integration

To understand how an ERP and eCommerce integration works, you must first start
with eCommerce logistics, which includes taking and fulfilling orders, processing
payments, handling returns, managing inventory, ensuring security, calculating taxes,
tracking financials, and providing customer support. These become harder to juggle
when your small operation (perhaps you started in your garage) morphs into a full-
fledged operation with a warehouse—or two, or three—a shipping fleet, and multiple
employees. 

Relying on systems that have been cobbled together, making them function by sheer
determination and willpower, will no longer work. Everyone will suffer from a lack of
data, consistency, and control. Thankfully, you can integrate your eCommerce
software solutions with a modern ERP, automating your current procedures and
processes (a.k.a becoming more efficient), and successfully avoiding additional data
challenges in the future.
What ERP Features are Important for Ecommerce Businesses?

When your eCommerce business is ready to integrate your eCommerce platform

with an ERP solution, there are a few key features that must be included within your
ERP search criteria. 

Benefits

There’s a range of benefits that ecommerce businesses can realize with the successful
implementation of an ERP system. Because ecommerce businesses conduct
operations quickly and at a high volume, a dedicated solution equipped with
automation capabilities and tie-ins to financial information can have outsize benefits.
Here are some of the unique positives that ecommerce businesses should look out
for upon integrating their online platform with an ERP program.

Sales Consolidation

One of the main benefits of ERP integration for companies that conduct ecommerce
operations is the centralization of sales information from different areas.
Omnichannel functionality is a key aspect to consider when looking for a solution,
especially if your company conducts sales in multiple locations (brick and mortar
stores, online, catalogs, etc.)

It can be difficult to keep sales information organized, especially when it comes from
several disparate platforms. That’s why ERPs consolidate the information to make
insight development more efficient. After all, an automated system is made more
accurate with the inclusion of all relevant data points. For example, if the demand
from your brick and mortar stores isn’t accounted for when forecasting material
needs, you may end up with an inadequate amount of product that doesn’t meet
customer demand, therefore causing you to lose out on potential revenue.

Increased Productivity

ERP software is known for its ability to increase operational productivity by

connecting various workflows and automating the exchange of information. Some
ERP programs can also automate functions such as bank reconciliation and the
sending of shipping notifications. By boosting productivity, businesses can conduct
more operations in the same amount of time and increase output. You can also
optimize workflows through automation capabilities, which can lead to less time
wasted correcting human errors or spot-checking documents.

Improved Customer Relationships

Many ERP systems include CRM functionality either out of the box or as an add-on
module. With these capabilities, ecommerce companies can leverage a centralized
repository of customer information, which enables your reps to more effectively
tailor sales leads based on past sales, demographics, etc.

Some ERP programs also automate the process of tracking shipments and sending
notifications when a product has reached its intended destination. By streamlining
these processes, your company can create a more positive impression in a customer’s
mind, leading to a greater customer retention rate.

Process Visibility and Management

Process and project visualization are incredibly important when looking at different
ERP ecommerce options. Customizable dashboards that contain information related
to finances, project status and labor allocation are often available in these systems.
By making insights easier to see and putting them into an easy-to-understand
graphical format, users can quickly identify bottlenecks and make company decisions
to facilitate operations.

Important Features

ERP vendors offer a variety of different features. However, some functions are more
important for ecommerce businesses to have in their ERP solutions than others. Here
are some of the capabilities that are especially beneficial when it comes to ERP
ecommerce tools.

CRM

Customer relationship management is important to any business, but for ecommerce

companies, it can be the difference between customers choosing your store versus
one of the thousands of others that operate online. CRM software can help you
cultivate leads and keep users coming back to your site. Customer retention is
incredibly important. A Forrester study found that recruiting new customers costs five
times as much as retaining existing ones. An online help desk, tailored
advertisements and efficient shipping notifications are some of the factors that keep
customers coming back.

Consider the difference between using Amazon to purchase a scarf versus an

independent retailer that may have a scarf that you like better, but that doesn’t
provide accurate shipping information. In this circumstance, many customers would
go with the scarf on Amazon due to the dedicated delivery schedule and the brand’s
positive reputation. Additionally, easy access to customer service is a benefit for
many customers. Have to make a return? Clicking a button to get connected to a
representative immediately is far easier than going through a phone chain in search
of an actual employee to talk to. Think about your preferences as a consumer, and
work to meet those standards in your business to boost customer retention.

Finance

Without real-time, efficient financial data, your software solutions are operating
within a vacuum. This is why financial management and accounting tools are the core
component of ERPs. Financial data is key to centralizing processes and developing
efficient forecasting models so that you can plan for material reorders and anticipate
delivery lead times. You can also use financial information to select vendors to work
with and to follow up with customers who owe a balance.

Ultimately, financial management is a key component of ERP solutions for any

business, and the tighter your profit margins are, the more likely you are to benefit
from it. If you already use accounting software for your ecommerce company, you
should consider integrating it with a greater ERP ecommerce functionality so that
information is specialized and insights are reflected across departments more easily.

Inventory Management

One of the most essential features of ERP ecommerce platforms is inventory

management capabilities. Two aspects that separate the needs of ecommerce
businesses from those of brick and mortar retail locations are the volume of sales
and the number of products available through online companies. Therefore, it’s
easier to make mistakes due to the high volume at which ecommerce organizations
conduct operations.

David Dozer, the CTO of Blaze IT, said, “From a feature/function standpoint, order
management and inventory management are the most important area of ERP for
ecommerce companies. As soon as a customer places an order on your website, you
need to have the ability to fulfill that order in a timely fashion. This means that
inventory levels need to be accurate. In this sort of environment, speed and accuracy
are key, so having the real-time information that an ERP system offers is imperative
to a successful ecommerce business.”

Shipping/Distribution

Many ecommerce businesses participate in dropshipping, which is when a company

sells a product online and then orders it from a third-party vendor that ships the item
to the customer. This enables ecommerce businesses to offer a variety of items
without requiring a large inventory or a vast warehouse space.
Acquiring eCommerce Functionality

There are a few different ways to align ecommerce needs with ERP systems. Data
migration is essential when considering the method that works best for your
business, along with any existing functionality or software programs that your
company already uses. Here are some of the ways you can gain both ERP and
ecommerce capabilities for your business.

Out-of-the-Box Functionality

The easiest way to gain ERP ecommerce capabilities is through a solution that offers
these features out-of-the-box. This means that little to no integration is needed to
get the functionality and connectivity up and running. This is a simple way to gain all
of the ecommerce functionality you need if you’re not planning on integrating new
capabilities into an existing system.

If you already have an ERP in place that doesn’t have ecommerce capabilities
included, you may need to opt for an add-on to gain the features that you need.
However, if you want to start over with a new ERP solution or are looking at
implementing this software for the first time, you might wish to consider vendors
that have ecommerce abilities as a prebuilt part of the solution.

eCommerce Add-On

When looking for ecommerce capabilities for an ERP platform, prebuilt functionality
is nice, but it shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all of your software search. Many vendors
provide easy integration with ecommerce functionality through add-ons or modules.
It takes more legwork to customize your solution to enable these features, but it
could be worth it if you find an ERP system that meets most of your requirements
aside from prebuilt ecommerce functionality.

When considering add-ons, you’ll want to ensure that the ecommerce functionality is
specific to the platform that your company uses to make sales, whether it be Shopify,
eBay or Amazon. ECommerce integration availability varies amongst software
vendors, so it’s essential to look for compatibility in this area before making a
selection.

Compatible eCommerce Platforms

ECommerce businesses use a variety of platforms to conduct business. Here are
some of the ecommerce websites that are most popular and, in turn, are typically the
targets of ERP ecommerce integration.

Question Essay
what is the relationship between erp and e-commerce?

Answer: E-Commerce is a trading activity that utilizes electronic systems, such as the
internet network. In e-commerce there is an electrical transaction process for data
transfer, data exchange, processing and inventory systems, the whole process is
carried out by computer networks.From this understanding of e-commerce, it can be
seen that there is a need for an ERP that is useful for managing all e-commerce
activities, such as order management, managing information, inventory
management, reporting management, managing accounting, and so on. With the
integration of e-commerce ERP, the ERP implementation can be further improved.

Multiple Choice

What ERP Features are Important for Ecommerce Businesses?

a.Finance

b.CRM

c.Inventory Management

d.Shipping

E.All Right