The shop sells. The systems disagree.
Ecommerce integration connects your online store to the software that runs the rest of the business: the ERP or accounts package that holds stock and invoices, the order management system that routes every order, the PIM that holds product data, the warehouse or 3PL that ships, the marketplaces you sell on, the CRM and email platform, and the payment gateway. Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Laravel or Django, each connection hired as its own piece of work.
What gets connected
Seven kinds of system, one store
ERP: Sage, NetSuite, Business Central
The ERP keeps stock, cost prices, customer accounts and invoices. When it doesn’t talk to the store, orders are re-typed every morning and the site sells stock the warehouse sold yesterday.
Order management: Brightpearl, Linnworks
Orders from the store and every marketplace meet in one system, which routes them to the warehouse that has the stock and sends the status back.
PIM: Akeneo, Pimcore, Salsify
Product descriptions, attributes and images written once and published to the store, Amazon and Google Shopping, so nothing is edited in two places.
Warehouse, 3PL and carriers
Stock, picking, tracking and returns kept in step with your warehouse, your 3PL or the carriers, including the cutover when you change 3PL.
Marketplaces: Amazon, eBay, TikTok Shop
Sell on the marketplaces and Google Shopping from one catalogue, with stock, prices and orders synced back to the store or the OMS.
Payment gateways
Adding or switching Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, Worldpay or pay later, with refunds, failed payments and 3-D Secure handled and order status that matches the provider.
One store, many systems
The data a store depends on
Four questions answered before anything is built
Most integration faults I’m asked to look at are not bugs in the code. They are decisions nobody made. These four are written down and agreed first.
- Decisions, in writing
- 4
- Live accounts touched first
- 0
- Which system is the master for each piece of data?Stock might belong to the ERP, product copy to the PIM, consent to the store. Two systems both owning one figure is why data flips back and forth.
- How quickly does it have to move?A fast-selling line may need stock updated in minutes; supplier cost prices can run nightly. Faster costs more to build and run.
- What happens when it fails?An API goes down, a password expires, a record is rejected. A good integration logs it, retries where safe and tells a named person.
- How are records matched?SKUs that differ between systems, customers stored twice, tax codes that don’t line up. The rules are agreed before the first sync.
Should I buy a connector or have an integration built?
Often both.
If your setup is close to what a connector expects, one warehouse, simple pricing, no unusual variants, buying it is cheaper and faster, and I’ll say so on the call. Connectors struggle with several warehouses, customer-specific prices, bundles that are one product online and several in the ERP, or a custom field a report depends on. Most jobs end in the middle: a connector for the common data, with a small piece of code for the part it can’t handle.
How much does an ERP integration cost?
It depends on the systems, the amount of data and how far the business differs from what a connector expects, so it is priced after a sample of your data, before any work starts.
How does an integration job run?
A call, then a sample export from each system so matching and edge cases are found before the price. Then a build tested on copies, a staging store and a sandbox or test company, never live accounts first. Stock and orders run side by side with the old process before anyone relies on them, and you get documentation of what moves where.
Can you connect Klaviyo to a Laravel or Django site?
Yes. Klaviyo and Mailchimp both publish APIs, and a custom site can send them the same events and profile data a platform plugin would, plus anything specific to how you trade.
Email marketing integrationWhich system should hold the stock figure?
Usually the one where stock is physically booked in and out, most often the ERP or the inventory tool. The store should read it, not overwrite it.
Is changing payment gateway risky?
It is manageable. The new provider is tested end to end before it goes live, and the old one stays available until refunds on older orders are settled.
Payment gateway integrationDo you work with our existing developer or agency?
Yes. An integration can be a separate piece of work alongside whoever maintains the store.