Your successful business, whose main sales channel is your online store, is likely to grow exponentially. You’ve already made the winning choice to rely on one of the leading e-commerce platform technologies: Magento or Prestashop.
But the management features offered by your e-commerce site are now reaching their limits. To “industrialize” your activity and processes, implementing an integrated management solution is becoming essential. No more multiple re-entries, lost information, or unreliable, partial indicators: it’s time to think ERP software!
What are the main criteria to take into account when choosing the RIGHT ERP to support your growth? Here are our 5 essential criteria...
#1: Adaptability
Your business is booming. You’re even planning, in the short or medium term, to expand into multichannel sales that complement your e-commerce site... In short, even if your ambitions are high, you don’t yet know exactly where you’ll be in a few months... Your future ERP will therefore have to adapt to this reality!
You can set aside toolbox-style software packages that naturally attract very small businesses and SMEs because they’re ready to use. They’re not very scalable and won’t be able to keep up with your “massive” growth plans!
On the other hand, choosing an ERP designed for large enterprises (SAP R3, Sage X3, Microsoft Nav, etc.) would be costly, both financially and in terms of deployment time.
You should therefore opt for a mid-market solution. These were created specifically to give medium-sized companies the flexibility and power of “enterprise-level” solutions, but with more realistic deployment times and budgets.
#2: Scalability
Your business environment is constantly changing: new products, growing international competition, volatile markets... You therefore need to adapt to these paradigm shifts very quickly to avoid being left behind.
To address this, we strongly recommend looking to open source, which offers unmatched development potential and scalability compared to so‑called “traditional” software solutions. Odoo, the ERP game changer for mid-sized businesses, is an excellent alternative.
#3: Scalability
Your company will almost certainly have to handle more and more transaction flows, increasingly frequent interactions with your suppliers and service providers, not to mention the new internal resources that will drive your growth.
Your ERP solution must therefore be able to meet these future needs, including the option to scale up, as needed and on demand, your user licences.
You should also choose a solution whose hosting and maintenance can be outsourced to a service provider (ideally the one supporting you in implementing your project). They will ensure an availability rate and performance levels far superior to in‑house hosting.
#4: Interoperability
To ensure the success of your project, your ERP and your e-commerce platform must communicate automatically and securely via a Magento ERP connector or a Prestashop ERP gateway. Similarly, you will need to build interfaces with your other business applications.
The goal, as you will have gathered, is for your ERP software to become the centre of your information system.
Coming soon on our blog: key settings to consider for Magento and Prestashop ERP connectors.
Integration with third-party applications is critical for e-commerce businesses. Make sure the ERP system you choose supports seamless integration with key applications such as e-commerce platforms (e.g., Shopify, WooCommerce), payment gateways (e.g., Stripe, PayPal), and shipping carriers (e.g., FedEx, UPS).
Learn how to integrate your Odoo/PrestaShop or your Odoo/Magento connector
#5: Support
Choosing your integrator is straightforward. Work with a partner:
- who understands the stakes, challenges, and specific features of e-commerce;
- who can advise you on the strategy and the software solution;
- and who can push you to improve while supporting you over the long term.
So, have you made your choice?
