ERP integration for your webshop that grows with you
An ERP integration for a webshop almost always starts small. One script that pushes products from the ERP to the webshop, and one that sends orders back. That works, until customer specific pricing arrives, then a second warehouse, a marketplace, returns and a second country. By then those two scripts have turned into six integrations, each with its own logic and one person who knows how they work.
That is why we do not build ERP integrations as standalone connections but as routes in an integration layer: Alumio, the integration platform Memo has partnered with since 2020. The ERP talks to Alumio, the webshop talks to Alumio, and in between every translation is captured as configuration you can read, test and change.
The systems we work with most are Exact Online, Microsoft Dynamics (including Business Central) and AFAS. If you run something else, that is rarely a problem. What matters is the data flows and whether your ERP has a usable API, not the name on the box.
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Where it goes wrong in practice
The technology is rarely the problem. What makes an ERP integration stall are decisions nobody has made.
Who owns which data? If a customer changes their address in the webshop while the sales team changes it in the ERP, which one wins? Without an agreement, whichever integration ran last wins, and that differs by the day.
What do you do with messy data? An ERP that has been in service for twenty years holds products without weights, customers without email addresses and prices only the sales team understands. An integration makes that mess visible in the webshop. Cleaning up belongs in the plan, not after it.
How often is often enough? Syncing stock every minute sounds safe, but it costs capacity and, with a slow ERP, mostly produces queues. The right frequency follows from how fast your stock really changes and what an oversell costs.
What happens when it fails? An order that never reaches the ERP needs to be spotted before the customer calls. That means logs per message, automatic retries and an alert to the right person. Standalone scripts rarely have any of that.
That is why we do not give a lead time for a first ERP integration until those decisions are made. They set the schedule, not the build.
Seven flows found in almost every ERP integration
Products
New and changed products from the ERP, with the fields the webshop needs.
Prices and tiers
List prices, customer specific agreements and volume tiers, without maintaining them twice.
Stock
Available stock per warehouse, often enough to avoid overselling.
Customers
Business accounts, delivery addresses and payment terms in both directions.
Orders
Webshop orders into the ERP, including shipping, discounts and VAT.
Invoices and credit notes
Back to the customer's account, so the webshop becomes the customer portal.
Returns
From registration in the webshop to processing in ERP and warehouse.
Why an integration layer between ERP and webshop
A direct connection between your ERP and your webshop is quick to build. The problem comes later. Every new system that needs the same data, a PIM, a WMS, a marketplace tool, gets its own connection to the ERP. A few years on, your ERP has five consumers each fetching products their own way, and every ERP update hits all of those connections at once.
With Alumio in between, the integration layer fetches the data once and distributes it. Change webshop platform and you replace one connection while the ERP side stays put. Add a WMS and it plugs into routes that already exist. And because every Alumio edition includes unlimited connections, an extra integration does not cost an extra licence.
The biggest change is visibility. Every message is in the logs, per route. When an order is stuck, you see where and why, and you can resubmit it without guessing whether it was already processed.
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Two ERP integrations in practice
Boomlab: Business Central, Stibo and Shopware. Boomlab, a laboratory wholesaler with more than 60,000 products across the Benelux, came to us halfway through a project. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the Stibo PIM and Shopware had to work together through Alumio, while the Stibo API had no endpoint for the full category tree. In Alumio we built a webhook process that walks that tree node by node. Customers can also assign orders to their own cost centres, handled through user permissions. Read the Boomlab case.
XXL Nutrition: Exact Online, Magento, Pimcore and a new WMS. At XXL Nutrition everything was already connected. When a new WMS arrived, Ceyenne by Diract IT, we brought the routes between Magento, Pimcore, Exact Online and Ceyenne together in Alumio: sales orders, purchase orders, product and stock updates, fulfilment, returns and receipt of purchase orders. The result was not more automation, but overview and a landscape that can handle growth. Read the XXL Nutrition case.
Two different ERPs, two different webshop platforms, the same pattern: data landscape first, routes second.
Running Shopware and want to know how the shop side of the integration works? Read Connecting Shopware to your ERP, PIM and marketplaces. If product data from a PIM is involved too, PIM integration shows how the two sources work side by side.
Which systems need to talk to each other?
Tell us which ERP and which webshop you run, and where it hurts today. In half an hour we will know whether the issue sits in the integration, the data or the agreements, and which route to start with.
Frequently asked questions
What does an ERP integration for a webshop cost?
It depends on the number of flows, the quality of your data and how good your ERP's API is, so we do not quote a fixed amount. The costs come in three layers: the Alumio licence (the Essential, Growth and Custom editions, priced on the number of tasks processed), implementing the routes, and management after go-live. A quote shows those three separately. More on What an integration costs.
Which ERP systems can you connect?
We work most often with Exact Online, Microsoft Dynamics (including Business Central) and AFAS. Alumio can connect any system with a usable API, so other packages are possible too. In a first conversation we look at what your ERP offers.
Can I connect my ERP if I am not on Shopware?
Yes. Alumio is not tied to a webshop platform. Our ERP integrations run on Shopware, Shopify and Magento. If you change platform later, the ERP side of the integration stays in place.
How up to date is the stock in my webshop?
As up to date as it needs to be, and that differs per business. For fast-moving items or stock shared with marketplaces we set a higher frequency than for a range that rarely changes. We decide that together, based on how fast your stock really moves and what overselling costs.
What happens if the ERP is briefly unavailable?
Nothing gets lost. Alumio holds on to the messages, retries them according to the rules you set and reports what stays stuck. On top of that we agree an SLA that matches your routes, with short response times on the order flow. See Managed integrations.