Do you need an ERP? A practical guide for e-commerce sellers

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. It's software that connects everything in a business—inventory, orders, finance, HR, manufacturing, warehousing—into one system. When someone in sales creates an order, the warehouse sees it instantly, finance can invoice it, and purchasing knows to reorder stock.

Sounds great. But here's the honest truth: most e-commerce sellers don't need one.

The connected tools approach

For the majority of online sellers, connecting best-in-class tools works better than implementing a full ERP. You pick the right tool for each job: inventory management software, accounting software, shipping solution. Then you connect them.

This "virtual ERP" approach gives you most of the benefits—data flows between systems, less manual work, everyone sees current information—without the complexity and cost of a monolithic platform.

It's also faster to set up, easier to change, and you're not locked into one vendor's ecosystem. If your shipping tool isn't working out, swap it. Try doing that mid-implementation with SAP.

Signs you don't need an ERP (yet)

If most of these sound like you, connected tools are probably the right choice:

Your core challenge is inventory and orders. You need stock to sync across channels, orders to flow smoothly, and shipments to go out on time. That's inventory management, not ERP.

Your team is small. Under 10 people, maybe under 20. Everyone knows what's happening. You don't need enterprise-grade workflow management.

You're not manufacturing. You buy finished goods and resell them. No production planning, no bills of materials, no shop floor scheduling.

Your accounting is straightforward. One entity, standard invoicing, no complex intercompany transactions or multi-currency consolidation.

Speed matters more than control. You'd rather move fast and adapt than spend months implementing a system that covers every edge case.

Signs you might be outgrowing connected tools

Sometimes businesses genuinely need an ERP. Here's what that looks like:

You're manufacturing or assembling products. Production planning, raw material management, and work orders need to tie directly into inventory and finance.

Finance is getting complex. Multiple entities, intercompany transactions, detailed cost accounting, or regulatory requirements that demand tight integration.

You're running a large warehouse operation. Not just "we have a warehouse" but complex picking strategies, wave planning, and labor management.

Processes span many departments. You have dedicated teams for purchasing, warehouse, finance, and customer service who all need to work from the same system.

Your current setup has too many gaps. Data isn't flowing, things slip through cracks, and you're spending more time managing integrations than running the business.

How Stockpilot fits either path

If connected tools are right for you, Stockpilot works standalone. It handles inventory across channels, order management, purchase orders, and warehouse operations. Connect it to your accounting software through Webwinkelfacturen or Zapier, hook up your shipping carrier, and you have a working system without ERP complexity.

If you're at the stage where a real ERP makes sense, Stockpilot can be the inventory and order layer that connects to it. We integrate with Odoo, SAP Business One, Priority, Xentral, and others. You get the deep functionality of an ERP for finance and operations, with Stockpilot handling the multi-channel e-commerce piece where ERPs often fall short.

The practical takeaway

Don't buy an ERP because it sounds professional or because you think you should have one. Buy it when you genuinely need the integration depth it provides—usually when manufacturing, complex finance, or large-scale operations demand it.

For most e-commerce sellers, the right answer is good tools that connect well. Grow into the complexity only when you actually need it.