Ecommerce-ERP integration improves
Drop shipping arrangement

What makes drop shipping attractive is the ability to offer variety of items without having the burden of carrying the inventory. But a retailer needs an assurance that the product customer bought online is the same one that is being drop shipped. All you need is a common platform across suppliers so that you and your customer knows what, when and where is being shipped. Drop shipping refers to a service for the retailer offered by another member of the supply chain. Retailers take the customer order and the shipment information and transfer the same to the supplier/manufacturer right away. The supplier/manufacturer in turn then ships the product directly to the end consumer.
It may appear, as an online retailer in this situation that you do not need an ERP with inventory management capabilities connected to your ecommerce, given that you hardly hold any inventory. But, since you are ordering product from suppliers/manufacturers who distribute to other businesses as well, it is crucial to keep track of which products are available, and what orders have been placed. You need an ERP solution that connects you with your suppliers, and definitely with the ecommerce. A connected ecommerce-ERP solution allows you to constantly see up to date inventory and avoid unnecessary backorders. Plus, it is important to monitor the shipping of product to the customer against an order. Although the supplier/manufacturer usually handles the actual shipping of the product to the end consumer, it might be a retailer’s responsibility to send out order confirmations and shipping tracking information. All you need is an ecommerce-ERP integration solution so that any information in the backend is transparent to the customer. Imagine a situation when customer orders four or five products which are sourced from multiple supplier/manufacturers; since such a scenario results in several sub parts of an order in the backend, your customer will look forward to a single order instead of tracking multiple sub parts individually. All you need is an efficient ecommerce-ERP solution that can provide the correct order information for the customer to track the order irrespective of how many products it comprises of or how many suppliers/manufacturers are involved.
In case you are looking for an ecommerce-ERP integration solution in order to help your business opt for an effective drop ship layout, please feel free to connect with us at http://www.i95dev.com/contact/ or give us a call at 301.760.7499