Why integrate your Prima and Magento systems?

Home Why integrate your Prima and Magento systems?

Take a moment to think about what makes a business successful.

Each business is of course somewhat different, but certain approaches stand many businesses in better stead than others. Small margins can make a big difference.

One area that can separate a business from their main competition is efficiency. Doing what you do best, in the most effective and streamlined way possible, can help a business stay ahead of the game.

For fashion retailers, competition is always fierce. First and foremost, you need great products that people want to buy, wear and look great in. But in this competitive industry, fine margins make a big difference. You therefore should want to ensure that there’s nothing to deter a shopper from buying from you.

But potential deterrents are always a possibility. One such deterrent is a bad customer shopping experience when looking to buy online from your company. This would include wrong information about available products, laborious ordering processes and a lack of info about order status.

A way to avoid unwanted inefficiencies is by integrating the systems that your business relies on to operate successfully.

For fashion retailers, this can mean integrating your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and your ecommerce platform.

This business process allows online stores to provide up to date information to customers on what you have available. This in turn prevents the ordering of unavailable items - a nightmare for both customer and company. Nobody wins when that happens - the customer doesn’t get their product and the company’s credibility takes a serious hit.

Prima is one of the most popular ERP software solutions for fashion businesses, and Magento Commerce is one of the leading ecommerce solutions on the market. By integrating these two systems, it’s possible to deliver a better all round customer experience. And at Williams Commerce, we are experts in the integration of Prima and Magento.

Why integrate your ERP and ecommerce systems?

Systems integration is essentially when two systems are linked up and can then share and reflect data to the end user.

When it comes to ERP and ecommerce system integration for retailers, one of the systems needs to contain the ‘truth’ of the data. One of the systems has to have accurate, up to date, and widespanning information about a variety of important elements (more on these elements below).

The ‘truth’ HAS to be contained in the ERP system, as this system is all about accurately reflecting your business’s stock and current product situation.

But by integrating and reflecting this information in your ecommerce system, you can provide your customers with all the insight they need to make an informed purchasing decision and avoid any disappointment. Whether you are a small business or large fashion retailer, this kind of information is invaluable to your customers.

What information does Prima hold?

Prima is an ERP business system that has been used within the clothing, footwear and accessories marketplace for over 25 years. Today, Prima boasts one of the UK’s largest team of industry-specific software specialists.

The Prima ERP system can hold your business’s:

Supplier details
Suppliera purchase orders
Product info
Product stock and stock location
Customer details with multi addresses

Customer credit account details
Product price list which are allocated per product, per customer, or customer type
Orders and order status
Invoices and credits
Courier integration (often for order dispatch)

Based on this information, a business can reconcile their financials and run reports to analyse the business as a whole. This covers purchase, cost and sales.

This information also contains everything required to deliver that all important up to date information to end customers.

What information can be shared with Magento?

Magento is an ecommerce system that facilitates the ability for online users to buy products and therefore increase your sales. To do this in a truly effective way, your Magento site needs to contain your:

Supplier details
Supplier purchase orders
Product info
Product stock and stock location
Customer details with multi addresses
Customer credit account details
Product price list which are allocated per product, per customer, or customer type
Orders and order status: in process, dispatch, cancelled etc.

9. SEO content for marketing
10. Invoices and credits
11. An About us and Contact us page
12. Extended product info like images and videos

All of this information and data can be loaded directly into Magento. But for certain information, if integration with Prima is in place, there’s no need to do so. The integration automatically keeps that all important information up to date. If your Prima ERP information is correct, your website will be too.

What data in the Prima system is shared with Magento once integrated?

Supplier details

This explains who is supplying the product.

Supplier purchase orders

The purchase order lets online shoppers know which products are available, which are not, and which are ‘coming soon’.

Product info

All the information about why the customer should buy this product is shared.

Product stock and stock location

This indicates whether a product is in stock, and if so where it is, allowing for delivery costs to be calculated for an order.

Customer details with multiple addresses

Customer information helps facilitate the end purchase and makes for an easier purchasing and delivery process.

Customer credit account details

This determines whether a customer can have an ‘on account’ payment option or if a customer can buy on account above a certain order value.

Product price list which is allocated per product, per customer, or customer type

What price will a customer pay, for which product on which order quantity.

Orders and order status

This provides status and information for clients online, meaning they won’t call customer service.

Invoices and credits

This provides information on invoices and credits for clients online, avoiding a customer service call.

Courier integration

This shows tracking numbers for orders, again meaning customers won’t need to call customer service.

Should I integrate my Prima and Magento systems?

By integrating Prima with Magento, a website administrator doesn't need to import and populate information in Magento manually. It’s a case of managing the ERP data. This means only one system needs to be maintained rather than two.

Any data solely dealing with online elements will still need to be populated – either by a website administrator or held in a more online friendly system like a PIM system. These can also be integrated with Magento so that it auto syncs, keeping the website up to date.

The integration process ultimately makes things simpler for staff, who can dedicate time to keeping their Prima ERP system safe in the knowledge that their ecommerce website will accurately reflect this information.

For fashion retailers, this kind of integration setup really allows you to rest easy in the knowledge that your website is providing your customers with accurate information. This in turn only increases the chances of securing sales, boosting customer loyalty and generating revenue.

If you want to get started, get in contact with Williams Commerce today.