--- title: "Syncing your online store and your ERP: where to start" description: "Orders keyed in twice and stock that never matches: how an SME can sync its online store and ERP, in what order, and when it is not worth doing." --- [Home](https://se2marketing.it/en?hsLang=en) [What I fix](https://se2marketing.it/en#risolvo) [Connections](https://se2marketing.it/en#rete) [How I work](https://se2marketing.it/en#lavoro) [Pricing](https://se2marketing.it/en#offerta) [Blog](https://se2marketing.it/en/blog?hsLang=en) [About](https://se2marketing.it/en/about?hsLang=en) [Get in touch](https://se2marketing.it/en/contact?hsLang=en)[IT](https://se2marketing.it/blog) Blog # Syncing your online store and your ERP: where to start Syncing your online store and your ERP means deciding which of the two systems has the final say on stock, prices and customer records, and then letting orders and updates flow between them automatically. In Italy 20.1% of enterprises with at least 10 ... **29 September 2026** 1851 parole · 10 min di lettura by **Sergio Selvelli** [← All articles](https://se2marketing.it/en/blog) **Syncing your online store and your ERP means deciding which of the two systems has the final say on stock, prices and customer records, and then letting orders and updates flow between them automatically. In Italy 20.1% of enterprises with at least 10 employees sell online and 49.5% use an ERP (Istat, the Italian national statistics institute, "Imprese e ICT", 2025 reference year, press release of 15 December 2025): how many have the two systems connected is not measured by any official statistic.** An order comes in through the website at 11:40 pm; at 9 the next morning someone opens it, prints or copies it, and keys it into the ERP by hand. Hardly anyone counts it as a cost, but it is one: hours of work repeated every day, and a point where a typo turns into a wrong shipment. Meanwhile the channel keeps growing. Online product purchases in Italy are estimated at €42.6 billion in 2026, up 6% on 2025, or 11.5% of total retail purchases (Osservatorio eCommerce B2c Netcomm – Politecnico di Milano, press release of 19 May 2026). With the systems connected, that growth becomes a lever rather than a burden on the back office. ## What syncing an online store and an ERP means The **online store** is the platform that sells: the website or app where the customer chooses, pays and leaves their details. The **ERP** (enterprise resource planning) is the software that runs the warehouse, invoicing, accounting and often purchasing. **Syncing** means that a piece of data changed in one system is updated in the other without anyone retyping it, at an agreed frequency: in real time, every few minutes, or once a day. The tool that moves the data is a **connector** (a ready-made module between two platforms) or **middleware** (software that sits in between and translates data across several systems). Choosing the tool, though, comes after a more important decision: for each type of data, which system is the **system of record**, the one that is right when the two versions disagree. It's the same principle we applied to the [single customer record](https://se2marketing.it/en/blog/a-single-customer-record-how-to-build-one-in-an-sme?hsLang=en). ## How many companies sell online, and with what tools? Istat's figures describe two groups that only partly overlap: companies that sell online and companies with an ERP. There is no official figure for how many have both and keep them connected. | Indicator | Value | | --- | --- | | Enterprises with at least 10 employees selling online | 20.1% | | … among enterprises with 10–49 employees | 18.8% | | … among large enterprises (250+ employees) | 46.6% | | Share of total turnover from online sales | 15.7% | | Web sellers using their own sites and channels | 73.0% | | Web sellers using online platforms, such as marketplaces | 65.1% | | Enterprises with at least 10 employees using an ERP | 49.5% (SMEs 48.8%, large enterprises 85.9%) | | Enterprises with online store and ERP connected | no official figure available | *Source: Istat, "Imprese e ICT", 2025 reference year, press release of 15 December 2025; universe: enterprises with at least 10 employees. The shares for own channels and platforms refer only to enterprises selling via the web and don't add up, because many use both.* One reading, which is mine and not Istat's: a company selling both on its own site and on a marketplace has at least three systems that must agree on the same stock level. That's where syncing stops being an optimisation and becomes a condition for selling without errors. ## What happens when the online store and the ERP don't talk? The work doesn't disappear: it shifts onto people. The table below lists the main flows, what happens without a connection, and which system usually makes sense as the one in charge. The last column is an operational proposal, not a rule: check it case by case. | Flow | Without syncing | Usually in charge | | --- | --- | --- | | Orders | Every order is entered twice | Online store (where it starts), then passed to the ERP | | Stock | Online and warehouse figures drift apart: you sell something you don't have | ERP | | Prices and price lists | A price changed in one system stays old in the other | ERP (online promotions decided separately) | | Customer records | The same customer exists twice, with different details | One system chosen in advance, often the ERP or the CRM | | Returns and changes | Copied across by hand, with a chance of error at every step | ERP, with status updated on the online store | | Shipping status | The customer writes in to ask where the parcel is | ERP or the courier's system, towards the online store | The cost is measured in hours. An example with purely hypothetical numbers, not a data point: 30 orders a day at 3 minutes of retyping each makes 90 minutes a day, roughly 30 hours a month over 20 working days. ## How to sync your online store and ERP in 5 steps 1. **Measure today's manual work.** For one week, count orders, minutes spent keying them in, errors and corrections. Without this number, no integration quote can be judged. 2. **Decide who is in charge of what.** For each type of data (orders, stock, prices, customer records, returns) choose the system of record and write it down. It's an organisational decision, not a technical one. 3. **Clean up the codes before connecting.** Product codes, variants and customer codes must match in both systems. Connecting misaligned data just syncs the errors. 4. **Choose the tool.** A ready-made connector if both platforms support one; middleware if there are more than two systems, such as website, marketplace and ERP. 5. **Connect one flow at a time and watch the exceptions.** Usually orders first, then stock, then the rest. Each flow has an error log that someone actually reads. If there is a CRM as well as the online store, the order of work is the one described in the article on [CRM and ERP integration](https://se2marketing.it/en/blog/integrating-crm-and-erp-in-an-sme-where-to-start?hsLang=en): rules first, then connections. And once orders reach the ERP cleanly, you can also tell which campaign each one came from, as explained in [tracking from campaign to order](https://se2marketing.it/en/blog/from-campaign-to-order-tracking-marketing-roi-in-an-sme?hsLang=en). ## When integrating the online store and the ERP isn't worth it This is my own assessment, not a data point: with only a few orders a week, an automatic integration can cost more than the hours it saves. In that case a well-run manual procedure is enough: a fixed time for keying orders in, a stock check at the end of the day, one person responsible. Likewise, it's not worth integrating when the ERP is about to be replaced: connect the new system, not the one you're about to switch off. And it's not worth it while product codes are a mess: fix the product master data first, then connect. ## What it costs to sync an online store and an ERP There is no price that fits everyone: it depends on the platforms in use, how many flows need connecting and how clean the data is. The structure of the spend, though, is always the same. **Diagnosis.** Measure current manual work and errors, map the flows and decide who is in charge of what. This is the phase that defines the scope and makes quotes comparable. **Implementation.** Clean up codes, choose and configure the connector or middleware, connect the flows one at a time and test the exceptions. A recurring fee for the connection tool is often added to this line. **Monthly review.** Platform updates can break a connection without warning. Someone needs to check the error log and step in before a customer notices. ## Frequently asked questions ### How often should the online store and the ERP sync? It depends on the data. Stock should be updated as often as possible, ideally in real time or every few minutes, because a delay leads to selling items that are out of stock. Prices and product pages can update once a day. Orders should reach the ERP as soon as they're confirmed, so shipping isn't held up. ### Do you need a specific ERP to connect an online store? No. You need an ERP that can exchange data automatically, through APIs (application programming interfaces) or scheduled import and export files. Many ERPs common among SMEs have ready-made connectors for the most widely used e-commerce platforms; where they don't, middleware fills the gap. ### What about marketplace orders? They follow the same logic: a marketplace is one more channel that has to read stock from the system of record and write orders into the ERP. With your own site and marketplaces running together, at least three systems need to stay aligned, and keeping them in step by hand quickly becomes hard to sustain. ### Where do you start if everything is manual today? With measurement: a week of timing how long order entry takes and a list of the errors. Right after that, the decision on who is in charge of stock, prices and customer records. Neither step needs software, and together they show whether integration pays off. ## In summary When the online store and the ERP don't talk, the work shifts onto people: orders entered twice, stock levels that drift apart, returns to copy across. In Italy, 20.1% of enterprises with at least 10 employees sell online and 49.5% use an ERP (Istat, 2025), but no official source measures how many have the two connected. The first step isn't buying a connector: it's deciding which of the two systems is in charge of stock, prices and customer records. Connected, the two systems give hours back instead of consuming them, and the online channel becomes a growth lever rather than a burden on the office. If you want to know what retyping costs you today and which flow to start with, the diagnosis described on the [pricing](https://se2marketing.it/en?hsLang=en#offerta) page is built to measure exactly that before proposing solutions. Related reading: [how to build a single customer record](https://se2marketing.it/en/blog/a-single-customer-record-how-to-build-one-in-an-sme?hsLang=en) and [where to start integrating CRM and ERP](https://se2marketing.it/en/blog/integrating-crm-and-erp-in-an-sme-where-to-start?hsLang=en). To talk it through: [get in touch](https://se2marketing.it/en/contact?hsLang=en). ## Sources Istat, "Imprese e ICT", 2025 reference year, press release of 15 December 2025 (universe: enterprises with at least 10 employees): online sales 20.1% of enterprises (18.8% among those with 10–49 employees, 46.6% among large enterprises), accounting for 15.7% of total turnover; among enterprises selling via the web, 73.0% use their own sites and channels and 65.1% online platforms; ERP 49.5% overall, 48.8% of SMEs and 85.9% of large enterprises. Osservatorio eCommerce B2c Netcomm – School of Management, Politecnico di Milano, press release of 19 May 2026: online product purchases in Italy estimated at €42.6 billion in 2026 (+6% on 2025), 11.5% of total retail purchases. As far as could be verified, there is no official statistic on the share of Italian companies with their online store and ERP connected: this article says so rather than estimating it. The hours example is a stated hypothesis; the "usually in charge" column and the "when it isn't worth it" section are the author's assessments, not data. *Sergio Selvelli, 29 September 2026.* [← Previous**Marketing dashboard for SMEs: the KPIs that actually matter**](https://se2marketing.it/en/blog/marketing-dashboard-for-smes-the-kpis-that-actually-matter?hsLang=en) About the author **[Sergio Selvelli](https://se2marketing.it/en/about?hsLang=en)** — I connect the CRM, online store, ad spend and data of small and mid-sized companies into one flow, and build automations and agents on top of it. Milan. [Get in touch](https://se2marketing.it/en/contact?hsLang=en) ## **Thirty minutes** to work out how to improve the systems you already have. 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