At its core, ERP software manages a company’s database of information, automates routine tasks, and simplifies business processes.
It optimizes operations so team members can focus on tasks that help build and maintain a business. Essentially, ERPs streamline a lot of the busywork of running a company. But without the realized benefit of ERP integration software, systems, and channels remain disconnected.
The real efficiency unlock comes when your ERP doesn’t just store information, but becomes a connected hub for your entire order flow using integrations to enhance your current workflows.
Whether you're syncing orders from Shopify, exchanging EDI documents with a big retailer, ERP integration helps your order operations run without manual data entry.
ERP integration occurs when you add third-party solutions to your existing ERP system to build out its functionality through digital connectivity.
ERPs are powerful tools, but they are only part of the technology stack used in modern operations. ERP integrations connect your platforms so data flows without manual keying between systems. This ensures that all your ecommerce platforms and EDI trading data is consistent across systems.
E-commerce Integration: Syncing an ERP with Shopify or WooCommerce to automatically update product inventory, process orders, and manage shipments.
EDI Integration: Connecting an ERP with trading partners like Walmart or Canadian Tire to automate document exchange (e.g., purchase orders, invoices).
Website Integration: Centralize catalog and pricing updates across your B2B portal or DTC website.
Integrations provide more functionality to help your ERP go the extra mile and bring it up to speed.
These solutions sync:
Orders
Inventory
Customer data
Pricing
Invoices and shipping notifications
ERP integration means your team doesn't have to jump between sales portals and your ERPs to update order information. Your ERP receives real-time, accurate information.
Ultimately, as a growing business, time is your most valuable resource. ERP integration helps you reclaim it. By automating manual processes like data entry, order processing, and fulfillment, you free your team from repetitive admin work and unlock true operational efficiency.
Beyond the benefits of a more productive team, your employees will notice the difference, according to the Harvard Business Review and Salesforce.
Syncing your ERP provides teams across your organization with real-time information, whether in the office or on the road. This keeps teams selling and fulfilling instead of worrying about whether they have the correct inventory, pricing, and order status on hand.
With integrations, your ERP becomes the single source of truth. Inventory levels, fulfillment statuses, and product data stay consistent across all your platforms and channels.
Manual data entry is prone to errors. In your supply chain operations, these mistakes can lead to shipping the wrong items, delays, and productivity loss.
An integrated ERP automates the flow of accurate data between systems for better decision-making, stronger brand reputation, and clear analytics.
Implementing a new ERP system has high risks associated; Gartner estimates 75% of all ERP change projects fail.
“By 2027, more than 70 % of recently implemented ERP initiatives will fail to fully meet their original business‑case goals. And as many as 25 % of these will fail catastrophically.”
With poor change management and unclear goals, these migrations can cause serious financial risk.
ERP integrations enhance what you already have by adding functionality to your ERP or financial software without having to rip and replace.
When every channel connects to your ERP, every way your customers buy from you stays up to date.
As your company grows, managing the increasing volume of orders, inventory, and sales channels becomes challenging. Integrated ERPs provide the infrastructure to handle larger operations without a proportional increase in resources or workforce.
ERP integrations tend to help businesses save on overhead, prevent costly errors, and reduce chargebacks. You also save by not switching your systems.
For businesses that operate in regulated industries, ERP integration can ensure compliance with reporting requirements. Integrated systems automatically capture and store the necessary data for audits, tax filings, or industry-specific regulations.
Integration turns your ERP into a connected ecosystem ready to handle modern B2B operations.
| Before ERP Integration | After ERP Integration | |
|---|---|---|
| Order Entry | Manual (email/PDF) | Automatic from all sales channels |
| Inventory Data | Manually updated | Synced in real time from ERP |
| Pricing | Risk of mismatch | Consistent, customer-specific |
| Fulfillment | Prone to delay/errors | Accurate and auto-triggered |
| Reporting | Fragmented across systems | Centralized in ERP |
| Customer Impact | Frustration, rework | Faster, more reliable service |
While the benefits of ERP integration are substantial, businesses often face challenges during the process. Addressing these obstacles early on can ensure a smoother transition and better results.
Instead of starting over with a new ERP, integrating your current system with other tools can align it with your company’s needs without significant disruption.
Integrations allow employees to continue using familiar systems, minimizing the learning curve and enabling faster adoption. This approach keeps productivity high while extending your ERP’s capabilities.
ERP integration isn’t just a technical decision, it’s a strategic approach to increasing omnichannel sales while reducing the cost of overhead and operational risks.
The tools you choose will directly impact your ability to scale across increasingly fragmented channels. Below is a breakdown of the most common ERP integration strategies, who they’re best suited for, and what trade-offs you can expect.
| Approach | Best For | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native ERP Integrations | Small businesses with simple direct to consumer needs |
Low-cost |
Limited features |
| Middleware / iPaaS | Large IT-heavy organizations | Handles complex workflows | Expensive |
| Purpose-Built Platforms | Mid-sized B2B suppliers & manufacturers | Built for B2B Multichannel | Only handles order-related integrations |
Some ERP vendors offer integrations for platforms like Shopify. These are typically pre-built connectors and have limitations in how they can be used.
Best suited for: Small businesses with straightforward direct to consumer (DTC) workflows and minimal complexity.
Key advantages:
Fast setup and low cost
ERP vendor support
May be available as part of your existing ERP license
Considerations:
Limited flexibility for more complex order operations
Typically do not support multi-level pricing, customer-specific catalogs, or EDI
Often break when adding new channels or custom logic
If your business relies on only one or two sales channels and doesn’t require advanced pricing logic, native integrations might be enough—for now.
Middleware solutions (also called Integration Platforms as a Service, or iPaaS) serve as connectors for multiple applications.
Best suited for: IT-heavy, large organizations that need to integrate many different systems and have complex orchestration needs.
Key advantages:
Flexibility to integrate any system
Can handle multi-step workflows
Supports enterprise environments
Considerations:
Long implementation cycles requiring extensive developer support
High costs
Can be overkill for mid-market teams
Middleware is powerful but it's not industry specific, meaning it's expensive to have developers customize each connection to work for your B2B ecosystem.
Purpose-built solutions, like OrderEase, are designed specifically to connect ERPs with into your order-related workflows. They're designed specificlly for B2B, syncing ERPs with ecommerce platforms, B2B portals, sales rep apps, and EDI trading partners.
Best suited for: Mid-sized manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers with growing multichannel order volume.
Key advantages:
Preconfigured workflows that push data between channels and ERP without developer resources
Designed to accommodate unique B2B scenarios like buyer-specific pricing
Implementation is typically faster than middleware or custom development
Considerations:
Not built for general-purpose integrations outside of order flows
For companies dealing with multiple B2B order sources (portals, reps, EDI, ecommerce), purpose-built integration platforms are often the fastest, most cost-effective path to full ERP connectivity.
Unlike platforms that require custom configuration for every use case, OrderEase is designed for suppliers. Our platform connects your ERP to all your key channels; EDI partners like Costco or Canadian Tire, your Shopify or WooCommerce storefront, and rep ordering tools, without duct-taped workflows.
We specialize in:
Automating every type of B2B order
Structuring data so your ERP becomes the system of record
Offering onboarding from a team who understands your business workflows
OrderEase isn’t just a connector. It’s a system of action for modern B2B order operations, so you can stop keying in data and start scaling with confidence.
As a high-growth supplier, you’re likely already selling online without ERP website integration, which creates yet another disconnected portal for teams to manually update.
Integrating your ERP with your website means orders, inventory, and pricing are auto-synced from end to end, but the B2B ecommerce experience isn’t all created equal.
Here’s a look at both sides of the equation.
Ecommerce website builders like Shopify are a solid go-to and highly successful for some brands. It’s fast to launch, easy to use, and flexible enough for DTC and some B2B transactions.
When integrated with your ERP:
Here’s the reality: B2B selling is different.
It’s not just about shopping carts and SKUs. It requires custom pricing, negotiated terms, and relationships. And increasingly, it’s about keeping those relationships private.
When you integrate a public e-commerce site with your ERP, you risk exposing sensitive pricing structures to the open web for AI scrapers and competitors to reverse-engineer your business. That’s fine for consumer brands, but dangerous for B2B.
That’s where a private B2B customer portal becomes essential.
In a real-world test, our AI assistant was asked to “find the cheapest hammers in Canada.” Within minutes, it scraped product and pricing data from Canadian suppliers, compiling specs, features, and sale prices, and cross-compared based on location and shipping reach.
This is agentic commerce in action: AI-driven bots pulling competitive intelligence from public-facing ecommerce sites, with no friction and no consent.
If your B2B pricing and product strategy live on a public site, they’re already being harvested.
With a private B2B portal, your buyers log in to see personalized pricing and catalogs. And when your ERP is integrated, it all updates automatically. You maintain total control over what each buyer sees, without sharing private information online.
Platforms like OrderEase make this integration seamless. It connects your private portal and/or ecommerce website directly to your ERP, sales reps, EDI partners, and more. If you’re selling wholesale/B2B, the portal ensures your sensitive transactions stay safe while your public-facing website is available for AI discoverability.
If you’re asking how to integrate Spire ERP with your e-commerce website, the real question is: do you want to build the connection yourself?
Spire is a solid ERP, but it doesn’t connect to ecommerce platforms or B2B portals. That means integrating your ERP with your website depends on the tools you choose.
With an iPaaS, you need to hire developers to map workflows between your website and Spire ERP. This often includes:
Customizing the API endpoints to work for your use case
Mapping each field for things like orders, inventory, and pricing
Testing workflows manually
Troubleshooting errors
This approach is doable but best for teams that already have in-house developers that are familiar with integrating ERPs to websites. It does, however, come with a time investment and added complexity.
Unlike iPaaS tools, OrderEase offers a pre-configured, code-free connection to Spire ERP.
It means your team doesn't have to integrate from scratch, it's a connection that already exists and is mapped from ERP to websites, private portals, EDI trading partners and more.
Upgrading your ERP with software integrations can be a daunting task for any company. There are technical pitfalls to be avoided, change management to be considered, and a whole lot of data that you need to have at the ready.
This is even true for upgrading your ERP to be able to manage your ordering processes. Having everything aligned beforehand can help your company smoothly make the transition into a more automated and streamlined system.
While it may seem like a lot of moving parts at first glance, if you use these tricks, you’ll be able to simplify the process for your company and make sure that your order management integration process is a resounding success.
From the beginning, you must establish which data you’ll be passing between systems, and how often. You need to have clear and well-defined data integration points for the process to go smoothly.
This doesn’t have to happen all at once.
For the fastes ROI, use order automation tools for your highest volume - receiving mostly EDI orders? Start there. Are you mostly managing email orders? Use an email order entry automation platform first.
For an order management system to be well integrated into your ERP, you need to have your SKUs ready for mapping. Your ERP system will end up being configured with your specific product SKUs, so it’s vital to make sure that your integration provider can map your SKUs to their software’s SKU system.
Make sure that your records align with your online order records. This means having a common point of information that brings together your customers’ online and offline activity. Typically, this would be a customer ID, along with other information such as an email address.
The first time you integrate data will be the most time-consuming and important of your potentially many integrations. It’s critical that you sit down with your integration solution vendor and have a clear understanding of the process and expectations behind your integration.
What are the benefits of ERP integration?
ERP integration helps your systems and channels communicate automatically.
What’s the difference between ERP integration and ERP implementation?
ERP implementation is bringing in a new ERP system; integration connects that ERP to channels and trading partners.
How does ERP website integration work?
ERP website integration syncs order data between your ERP and your B2B website or eCommerce store.
Do I need to replace my ERP to integrate it?
No. Many businesses use ERP integrations to extend the functionality of their current ERP.