B2storefront Shopify-to-Supabase Connector was used to build a Shopify integrated ERP layer for Manufacturer online store.
As a team we had a privilege to work with ProVelocityBat for a while now, during our partnership we were able to introduce ERP layer to their operations.
As a manufacturer they are facing completely different level of complexity in terms of managing their inventory levels. Multiple products are supposed to be assembled using dedicated BOM's to become available in the warehouse for shipping.
Always Customer facing new sections and bumping up the conversion rates is more rewarding and exciting thing to do, sometimes less exciting topics like ERP and single source of truth of what orders are dictating to assemble first and which Purchase Orders needed to be sent out ASAP to keep the production flow uninterrupted should be handled.
Since in the world of ERP's the small-scale ERP's are not having affordabel price tag and their features are overwhelming creating a steep learning curve, jump over the fence and switching from handling business decisions inside warm and cozy Spreadsheets is particularly difficult, we joined this fascinating adventure with our B2storefront Shopify to Supabase connector.
Our key principle when we work on additional layers of software for Shopify merchants is to avoid a platforms bloat at all costs and utilize to a maximum extent existing core platform capabilities first and introduce other 3rd party platforms carefully. That allows to avoid not only additional costs but multiplication of points of failure.
In this specific case we used:
- Netlify to host edge functions necessary for 2-way communication between Shopify and Supabase,
- Supabase itself to store data, run calculations based on SQL queries and entire interface of the ERP functionality was built using Liquid Template and hosted within Shopify itself using Password Protected page.
- 3rd party service to print Purchase Orders into PDF
It often said that challenges of today are not the same that the business will face for tomorrow but from the architecture and codebase perspective building something that would contain features which would not be in use immidiately is creating a legacy codebase that will make maintenance, debugging and evolving of core features difficult.
To establish single source of truth we decided to use Shopify data, all additional information that needed for ERP UX to be functional was possible to add and edit in the Metaobjects using Shopify Admin Panel.
The feature set of the ERP Layer contained:
- Current Open Purchase Orders
- Create New Purchase Order
- Record Delivery on specific Purchase Order
- Parts consumption based on submitted orders per SKU
- Assembly Backlog based on orders aging time
- Assembly Scheduling Calendar with capacity planning
Main challenge with development of custom features is inability to clearly see impact and properly weigh cost/benefit to justify the expense in most cases shopify merchant just accept existing situation, it's limitations and keep using platform "as is" even if that suboptimal for their needs.
The Approach: Keep data on one platform without introducing unnecessary fragmentation
- No data input outside of the Shopify Admin panel and dedicated password protected page
- Inventory levels fetched from Shopify
- Products tied up to the variants
- Orders line items fetched from Shopify via App integration
Cost of ownership
Ongoing cost of ownership is minimal - free-tier on Netlify for necessary backend lambda-functions, free-tier on Supabase, PDF generation 3rd party solution free-tier up to 100 PDF's per month
Cost of development:
100 hours of development
+
20 hours to migrate initial data from Purchase Orders created manually and create Bill of Material for each product to switch fully into the ERP-driven data processing ASAP
~5-10 SKU's aka BOM's with roughly 100 parts total
What are typical goals manufacturer-eCommerce businesses are focused to solve with their ERP?
- track and identify needs for replenishment of accessories, parts, packing materials
- collect seasonal, historical demand data to be capable to forecast and predict how much ramping up would be needed to optimize inventory levels and shrink waiting time for customers orders
- Release new Purchase Orders for parts suppliers
- Monitor opened Purchase Orders to see are the pricing and delivery terms are followed
- Spot purchasing problems, take corrective actions (oversupplied parts, or missing deliveries) and see supply risks as early as possible
- KPI monitoring on the specific supplier performance
- See discrepancies in received items from opened Purchase Orders
- Collect data for data-driven insights to be used in cost improvements and process optimization initiatives
- Maintain audit trail and log of documentation for any audits or regulatory compliance needs
What data reporting capabilities B2storefront Shopify-to-Supabase connector enables?
- get data to Google Spreadsheets or Power BI to easily present data in form of charts, tables
- Use as a source for management dashboards in PowerBI, Metabase or custom-built
- Feed data into AI-enabled knowledge base for further explorations, questions answered, interactive chat-bot use cases.
- Correlate historical purchasing data and market trends on top of ongoing orders data
- Help to monitor are purchasing decisions are made in a timely manner and grounded in specific data
- Ensuring deadlines monitoring for key sales season dates and promo initiatives, like Black Friday
