ERP and Omnichannel: The Ideal Combination for Retailers in Latin America

9.8.2025

Product
Ecommerce

There’s a key question every retailer in Latin America should ask before the next sales peak: Is my operation truly omnichannel, or do I just have multiple channels running in parallel?

The difference lies in system integration. When the ERP is isolated from e-commerce, POS, WMS, and CRM, the promised customer experience becomes fragmented: inventory fluctuates between channels, promotions contradict each other, and cancellations increase due to lack of stock.

The evidence supports the omnichannel bet: according to Harvard Business Review, their study with over 46,000 shoppers showed that omnichannel customers spend more and are more loyal than single-channel customers. Will you let another opportunity pass by?

From “patches” to architecture: Why ERP is the heart of omnichannel

In theory, omnichannel means the customer chooses how to buy and receive. In practice, that’s only profitable if you unify inventory, pricing, orders, and customers in real time.

When the ERP doesn’t communicate with the rest, everything else tries to compensate with spreadsheets, plugins, and manual tasks. The usual result: overselling, cancellations, and high operating costs.

The solution isn’t “just another isolated connector,” but orchestrating through an integration layer that normalizes data, applies business rules, manages retries, and provides observability of the flow.

LATAM today with sector rigor: Grocery vs. General Retail

It’s important to separate sector-specific findings from broad retail claims:

  • Grocery in Latin America: McKinsey reports four clear trends—value-seeking, channel mix transformation, rise of private labels, and re-acceleration of e-commercespecifically within grocery.
  • General Retail (broad view): Recent Salesforce reports highlight the growing role of the store as a fulfillment hub (BOPIS and in-store returns) and the advance of unified commerce in executive priorities. For example, the Connected Shoppers Report (6th edition) notes that shoppers use stores for pickup and returns, and that tech unification is a priority to impact business goals.

Additionally, “in-transit” comparison (researching on mobile while shopping or deciding) and the expectation of instant response are documented by Think with Google: mobile searches related to “best” grew strongly, and when people need a product immediately, nearly 8 in 10 go to the store and use their phone in the process.

In-store, shoppers expect real-time inventory visibility: NewStore studies show that 69% of consumers expect associates to check inventory without leaving their side (and associate mobility with mPOS keeps rising).

Practical conclusion: in grocery, trends justify accelerating e-commerce and orchestration; in general retail, the evidence around BOPIS/in-store returns and in-store mobility reinforces the priority of integrating ERP–OMS–POS to promise and deliver.

The data conversation: From ERP outward (and back into ERP)

Think of your architecture as a continuous data conversation:

  • From ERP to the front: catalog, price lists, stock by location with timestamp, taxes, and reservation/backorder policies.
  • From front to ERP/OMS: validated orders (payments/taxes), fulfillment events (picking/packing), returns with reasons and accounting refunds.
  • Side by side: CRM/Marketing Automation with consolidated identities and traceable audiences (without manual CSVs).

This conversation relies on well-documented standards and integration packages. In the report “SAP Omnichannel Point-of-Sale by GK, integration with SAP Customer Activity Repository, SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud”, SAP describes flows between GK POS and SAP CAR/S/4HANA (POSLog→CAR, and IDocs for masters, orders, stock, etc.).

In Oracle NetSuite, Store Pickup (BOPIS) and Ship-from-Store are natively supported in SuiteCommerce/SCIS, with official configuration steps.

BOPIS and Ship-from-Store: Promise well, deliver better

BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In Store) and SFS (Ship from Store) may look simple on the front end, but they require two backend decisions:

  • Promise: It’s not enough to say “there’s stock.” What matters is whether that stock is reserved for e-commerce, if the store has operational capacity, if pickup hours match the SLA, and if an acceptable substitute exists.
  • Orchestration: Which store prepares it? How does it impact margin (DC vs. store)? And what rules govern reassignment if the store fails?

When the OMS/ERP is well connected—and the integration layer enforces clear rules—you can respond in near real time and reduce stockouts.

The bet is backed by data: the Bain & Aptos study shows that 100% of retailers see unified commerce impacting sales (and 76% rate it “large or significant”), while 99% see an impact on profitability (and 73% rate it “large or significant”).

A success case: Telhanorte and the store as a hub

In 2022, Telhanorte turned its stores into logistics and service nodes, integrating WhatsApp into the sales process. According to VTEX, the brand serves ~40,000 customers per month via WhatsApp and more than 50% of sellers use the tool.

The lesson: if the ERP doesn’t consolidate inventory, if the OMS doesn’t allocate intelligently, and if the integration layer doesn’t normalize events (order, ready-to-pick, picked, in-transit, delivered), the conversational channel becomes an expensive shortcut. Omnichannel is not a new channel: it’s operational discipline.

Frictionless UX: speed, checkout, and consistency

Your frontend can be VTEX, Adobe Commerce, or WooCommerce; the formula doesn’t change: fast pages, short checkout, and payment methods that remove friction on mobile. But none of that saves an inconsistent backend. If the PDP promises “pickup today” and the ERP doesn’t reserve, the experience breaks.

At checkout, the empirical evidence is solid: Baymard Institute estimates the average site could improve conversion by up to 35% with UX checkout improvements.

Meanwhile, shopper mobility and smartphone use for comparing or checking availability are well documented by Google (micro-moments and in-store behavior).

For more platform-specific insights, you can read on our blog:

Security and governance: Trust is also integrated

During demand peaks, risk rises. Current minimums: HTTPS encryption, MFA, secrets vaults, principle of least privilege, and auditing.

Important SEO nuance: as Google experts explain, the engine uses HTTPS as a light ranking signal (less than content quality); it’s desirable for security and trust, but it doesn’t guarantee significant ranking improvements on its own.

Conversion is driven mainly by checkout UX, while security provides trust and operational continuity.

Metrics that truly move the needle

  • Inventory accuracy (ERP vs. physical) and SKU×store visibility.
  • Promise fulfillment (OTIF) and fill rate by delivery mode.
  • Stock-related cancellations and no-shows in BOPIS (with expiration policies).
  • Margin by route (DC vs. Ship-from-Store).
  • Post-fulfillment NPS by modality.

These metrics require normalized events across e-commerce/OMS/ERP/WMS/logistics and observability dashboards (queues, p95 latencies, error rates).

Where to start? A realistic plan

  • Weeks 1–2: Stack diagnosis; definition of master objects (SKU, price lists, stores) and KPIs/SLAs.
  • Weeks 3–6: Connect ERP↔e-commerce/OMS (catalog, prices, stock, orders); activate channel-based reservations; prepare store assignment rules.
  • Weeks 7–9: BOPIS/SFS with pickup windows, operational capacity, and notifications; BORIS returns with consistent accounting refunds.
  • Weeks 10–12: Pilot in selected stores, E2E testing, hardening, and phased rollout.

When the doubt is “SAP or NetSuite,” the answer is “well integrated”

There’s no “silver bullet”; there are principles and documentation.

  • SAP publishes flows and integration packages for GK POS ↔ SAP CAR/S/4HANA (POSLog, IDocs), useful for near real-time transactional visibility.
  • Oracle NetSuite documents BOPIS and Ship-from-Store in SuiteCommerce/SCIS with step-by-step guides.

If your operation feels “heavy,” it’s not the customer—it’s the integration. Connecting ERP + e-commerce + POS + WMS + CRM with an iPaaS like Weavee builds the foundation to keep promises, improve margins, and drive sustainable growth. And yes, it also boosts conversion by reducing friction at every step of the journey.

Take the first step now—you can explore the solutions Weavee offers to help you grow:

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