So, you’re the proud owner of a brand new and very 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 inventories 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 facilitate 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 enjoy all the power of Odoo. 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 the Odoo ERP to your sales channels, account for any platform differences (I sell in batch on my marketplace and individually on my website with Shopify), import internet customer data to the CRM, and much more... It sounds like a lot but don't panic! Calling on an integrator to connect Odoo to your e-commerce or marketplace sites does not necessarily mean that you have to set aside a huge budget. On the contrary. Integrating with Odoo will allow you to start off on the right foot and save you a lot of time and money in the long run.
Centralized management for your product catalog, customers and orders
Centralization and automation are two of the biggest advantages of connecting your site or marketplace to an ERP. This streamlined connection only requires you to maintain a single, up-to-date product catalog. As soon as any information is changed in your inventory, everything is automatically updated on your sites. This is a huge time saver for data management tasks: no more needing to double-check each platform to verify that information has been updated properly. In good practice, it is a better idea to make 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 as a result of the marketplace's high volume driven objective. Unfortunately, your site was not built to take on such high volumes. On the other hand, your ERP will be able to handle the load. And yes, you guessed it; the orders and customer data in Odoo are also centralized thanks to the "Sales" and CRM modules. Once the 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 here! Thanks to Odoo's very large 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 may need. Odoo, for example, lets you make 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 then launches the necessary raw material/manufacturing orders.
You can also centralize inventory management in Odoo, even if you have three e-commerce sites with different builds, currencies or languages. Let's take the example of Suomen Automaalit Oy in Finland: with the help of an integrator, they were able to set up a central product data management system that allows information to be pushed to each different platform automatically. If a product is out of stock or a discount is applied, the sites are updated in real-time with each platform's specifications taken into consideration.
The Odoo advantage for E-Commerce
Thanks to Odoo, you are sure to be well referenced on the marketplace. Odoo offers an unlimited number of customization possibilities so you can add the number of product attributes you want for each product. Size, weight, material, packaging, etc, these are all specifications the marketplace favors and Odoo allows you to put a whole list of precise criteria online. The best part is that you won’t have to input this information multiple times for each sales platform. This feature in turn saves time and ensures improved market visibility.
Captivea Odoo Gold partner
Captivea supports companies in Odoo Integration. Captivea is an Odoo Gold Partner and Odoo Certified.