The phrase covers a wide range of work. At one end is a native connector that maps a product catalogue and pushes orders back, configured in days. At the other is a middleware layer that resolves contract pricing per customer, converts units, splits availability by warehouse and holds orders that fail a credit check. Both get called ERP integration in a sales conversation.
The useful way to scope it is field by field and direction by direction. For everything the storefront shows, ask which system owns it, how fresh it has to be, and what happens when the two disagree. That exercise usually surfaces two or three fields that cannot tolerate a scheduled sync, and those fields decide the architecture.
The second thing to establish is what happens when the integration fails, because it will. An order that cannot reach the ERP has to queue somewhere a human can see it rather than disappear. Sellers learn this the hard way when the ERP goes down for maintenance and a day of orders is quietly lost.
Why it decides a platform
Integration is where B2B commerce budgets are won and lost. A platform that fits the business perfectly and cannot be integrated economically is the wrong platform.
Also called: ecommerce ERP integration, ERP ecommerce integration, integrating ERP with ecommerce, ERP connector project.
Last updated 2026-08-20.