In the early days of e-commerce, getting a simple link between your e-commerce site and your back-office accounting system was a cause for celebration. You installed a connector, watched the first set of sales flow into your ERP, and said to yourself, “Yes, we’re integrated.”
But are you?
Many companies have been operating under the delusion that they are integrated for years simply by moving data from Point A to Point B. They are using software that only synchronizes orders.
While synchronizing orders is better than doing it by hand, it is hardly integration. Using a one-dimensional, one-way flow of data creates blind spots in your operations that will hold you back.
Here’s why “syncing orders only” is a bad idea and how it compares to real e-commerce integration.
1. The Inventory Illusion
The number one problem with “orders only” syncing is the lack of inventory visibility. If all you’re doing is pushing orders from your system to your ERP or WMS, you’re playing catch-up. The sale occurs on the front end of your store, the customer pays, and then your system alerts the warehouse, “Hey, we’ve got to ship this out.”
This is a critical delay. During this delay, your ERP still believes it has this product in stock. If you’re selling the same product on a secondary channel (Amazon, or a point-of-sale system in a brick-and-mortar store), or even if two people buy the last one at the same time on your online store, you’re going to oversell.
Integration, on the other hand, is a two-way, real-time process. When a sale occurs, your inventory levels drop instantly across all channels at once. When you get a new shipment of product into your warehouse, your online store reflects this instantly. With orders-only syncing, you’re just guessing at what you have in stock.
2. The Financial Blind Spot
There is a lot of hidden financial detail in an order: taxes, shipping charges, payment gateway fees, discounts, and gift card redemptions. Most “orders-only” sync tools simply treat the order. They simply sync the total revenue into the ERP without detailing the individual tax regions or the individual merchant fees. This means your finance team must manually reconcile this information every month.
Moreover, most order syncs never actually deal with the life cycle of an invoice. What happens when a customer returns a product? Does your connector automatically create a credit memo in your ERP and adjust the inventory status back to “available”? With simple order syncing, the answer is no.
3. The Customer Data Silo
Your customers are not just order numbers; they are relationships. When you just sync the transaction, you are leaving the Customer 360-degree view behind. A real integration will sync the Customer Master Data.
If you don’t, your support team is flying blind. When a customer calls to inquire about a previous purchase or to update their shipping information, you must look it up on the website and on the accounting system separately. You can’t see their lifetime value (LTV), purchase history, or credit status in one place.
The Difference: Automation vs. Data Entry
The best way to know if you are integrated is to look at the amount of manual work your business is doing.
Syncing Orders Only: Cuts down on manual data entry by maybe 50%. You still must manually check inventory, handle returns, correct financial errors, and update product pricing individually.
True Integration: Cuts down on manual data entry by 90%+. The ERP System is the “brain” (Product, Pricing, Inventory) and the E-commerce site is the “mouth” (Presentation). They are like one living creature.
Conclusion
You don’t need a digital version of a paper trail. Syncing orders is a requirement, but it is not a plan. As you grow, the fragmentation created by one-way syncing becomes a bottleneck. True integration combines your inventory, your accounting, your customer information, and your logistics into one smooth operation. It prevents you from overselling, accelerates your fulfillment, and provides you with the insights you need to make better decisions.
