Connecting your online shop to your accounting and stock
An online shop on its own takes orders. What happens next usually depends on someone copying each order into the stock records, then the accounts, then an email to the customer. Connecting the shop to those systems removes that copying.
Written by Yiangos Vitsaides, founder of NYV Digital · Published
What gets connected
- Stock: every sale comes off stock where your stock is actually kept, and changes in the stockroom show up in the shop.
- Prices: change a price once and the shop follows.
- Invoices: an invoice is created when a payment clears and lands in the system your accountant uses.
- Customers: new customers and their orders appear in your customer records.
- Email: confirmations and delivery updates go out on their own.
Why it matters
Every time information is typed from one place into another, there is a chance of a mistake and a certain cost in time. Connected systems remove both. They also mean the shop never sells something you no longer have, which is the fastest way to lose a customer's trust.
What to check before you start
- Where does each piece of information live today, and who updates it?
- Which system should have the final say on stock and prices?
- Can your current systems exchange data? Most modern business tools can.
- What should happen when something goes wrong, such as a payment failing after an order?
When a connection is not possible
Sometimes an older system cannot exchange data at all. Even then there are options, from regular file exports to changing one tool. Either way, you should know before any work starts.
Connecting shops to the tools behind them is a large part of what NYV Digital does. If you are not sure whether your systems can talk to each other, we will check and tell you plainly.