So, you’re the proud owner of a brand-new and highly successful e-commerce site? The delighted manager of a dedicated space in a marketplace (or market place) like Amazon or Etsy? Maybe you've even combined the two? Putting new items online, ensuring consistency between platforms, managing inventory and suppliers: all these tasks are pretty time-consuming, aren’t they? There’s got to be a way to streamline everything. How can you increase efficiency and simplify the management of your different sales channels?
A simple connection between Odoo and your e-commerce site or marketplace
Although Odoo offers its own powerful and easy-to-use e-commerce plug-in, the company takes into consideration those who have decided to manage their site with other technologies (Shopify, Magento...). And for those who use only online marketplaces, you haven't been forgotten either. There’s good news: you too can take full advantage of everything Odoo has to offer. Thanks to the plugins created by Odoo's active community, all you have to do is connect your e-commerce site and/or marketplace to Odoo. This can be done by yourself or by a specialized integrator.
Choosing an integrator is more common because an integrator will be able to choose the proper connectors. They will also be able to make the necessary adjustments to synchronize Odoo ERP with your sales channels, account for any platform differences (I sell in bulk on my marketplace and individually on my Shopify website), import online customer data into the CRM, and much more... It sounds like a lot, but don't panic! Working with an integrator to connect Odoo to your e-commerce or marketplace sites doesn't necessarily mean setting aside a huge budget. Quite the opposite. Integrating with Odoo will help you start off on the right foot and save a lot of time and money in the long run.
Centralized management for your product catalogue, customers and orders
Centralization and automation are two of the biggest advantages of connecting your site or marketplace to an ERP. This streamlined connection means you only need to maintain a single, up-to-date product catalogue. As soon as any information changes in your inventory, everything is automatically updated on your sites. This is a huge time saver for data management tasks: no more double-checking each platform to make sure information has been updated properly. As a best practice, it's better to make your ERP your "data master" as opposed to your e-commerce site. If you use your e-commerce site as a data repository, it can quickly become overloaded because marketplaces are designed to drive very high volumes. Unfortunately, your site wasn’t built to handle that kind of traffic. Your ERP, on the other hand, is designed to take on this volume. And yes, you guessed it: the orders and customer data in Odoo are also centralized thanks to the "Sales" and CRM modules. Once a sale has been made, customer information is transferred in one quick, streamlined step. Everything in an ERP is interconnected — as it should be.
An automated link between your production and inventory
The Odoo magic doesn’t stop there! Thanks to Odoo’s very broad functional coverage, you have the power to link your e-commerce sites or marketplaces to your production tools. You can set up as many rules as you need. Odoo, for example, lets you configure make-to-order manufacturing and minimum stock rules. When an order is placed on a sales channel, the information is transmitted to your production operations, which can then launch the necessary raw material and manufacturing orders.
You can also centralize inventory management in Odoo, even if you have three e-commerce sites with different builds, currencies, or languages. Take Suomen Automaalit Oy in Finland as an example: with the help of an integrator, they were able to set up a central product data management system that automatically pushes information to each platform. If a product is out of stock or a discount is applied, the sites are updated in real time, taking each platform’s specifications into account.
The Odoo advantage for e-commerce
Thanks to Odoo, you can be confident you’ll be prominently listed on the marketplace. Odoo offers an unlimited range of customization options so you can add as many product attributes as you want for each item. Size, weight, material, packaging, etc.—these are all specifications that marketplaces favour, and Odoo lets you publish an extensive list of precise criteria online. Best of all, you won’t have to enter this information multiple times for each sales platform. This feature saves time and helps boost your market visibility.
Captivea Odoo Gold partner
Captivea supports companies in Odoo integration. Captivea is an Odoo Gold Partner and Odoo Certified.