Häufig gestellte Fragen
What is the difference between an ERP and an OMS in multichannel?
An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) covers core commercial processes such as accounting, purchasing, warehouse management and sales, and ideally holds the central master and stock data. An OMS (Order Management System), by contrast, specialises in order orchestration across many sales channels and often sits as a layer in front of the ERP to bundle orders, route them by warehouse and shipping provider, and manage partial deliveries. In smaller setups an integrated ERP such as weclapp or Xentral takes on both roles, while a dedicated OMS tends to be worthwhile with high order volumes or a complex, historically grown system landscape. Which variant fits depends on the channel mix, order volume and existing IT landscape and should be assessed on the basis of functional coverage, running costs and implementation risk.
When is Billbee enough, and when do you need weclapp or Xentral?
Billbee is a lean order and marketplace layer that collects orders from the shop and marketplaces, generates shipping labels and reconciles stock, but does not include its own complete financial accounting and is usually combined with DATEV, lexoffice or sevDesk. Anyone who wants integrated accounting connectivity, materials planning, purchasing and CRM on a single data basis is usually better served by weclapp or Xentral, which bundle these modules in one system. As a rough guide: with a manageable daily volume and a simple process landscape, a layer tool is often sufficient, while with in-house production, several warehouses or complex workflows an integrated ERP becomes sensible. The exact threshold varies considerably, however, depending on the industry, size class and customising depth of the specific setup.
How do I prevent overselling across multiple channels?
Overselling occurs when the same physical stock is offered in parallel on several marketplaces and in your own shop and synchronisation is too sluggish. Effective countermeasures are safety buffers per channel, stock updates that are as fast as possible, and reservation logic that blocks stock as early as order receipt or checkout start and reduces it across all channels. Technically, a push or webhook architecture in which the ERP actively reports stock changes to the channels is generally superior to a pure pull/polling query, because it reduces the delay. How tightly the buffers are set depends on the sales velocity, the warehouse structure and the requirements of the respective marketplace.
How are marketplaces such as Amazon, Otto and Zalando technically connected?
Each marketplace has its own particularities: Amazon distinguishes between Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) and Fulfilment by Merchant (FBM), Otto Market is connected via its own REST API or via data feeds, and Zalando works, depending on the model, with the Partner Programme (marketplace) or wholesale/vendor logic. Good multichannel ERPs and tools such as Xentral, Billbee or JTL come with prebuilt connectors that transfer product data, import orders, synchronise stock and report shipping and tracking information back. It is important that a genuine FBA integration cleanly separates the stock held by Amazon from your own warehouse and takes goods receipts into account, instead of merely picking up orders. Details and vendor lists can be found on the page ERP for marketplace sellers.
Which VAT obligations must a multichannel ERP cover?
For cross-border B2C sales within the EU, the destination principle applies above an EU-wide uniform turnover threshold of 10,000 euros net per year (cumulated across all recipient countries), so that the destination country's VAT is due; via the One-Stop-Shop procedure (OSS), these sales can be reported centrally to the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) on a quarterly basis instead of registering individually in each EU member state. For goods imports from third countries up to an intrinsic value of 150 euros per consignment, the Import One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) can be used, in which the tax is already collected at the time of sale and reported monthly. A multichannel ERP should therefore be able to derive the correct tax logic automatically per channel and country of delivery, including OSS, IOSS and reverse charge. With combined setups and internationally mixed warehouses, tax advice is recommended, as the details depend on the individual case.
How long does connecting an ERP to a shop and marketplaces take?
The duration of connecting an ERP to shop systems such as Shopware, Shopify or WooCommerce and to marketplaces depends heavily on the scope and in practice ranges from a few weeks for pure standard connectors to several months for complex projects. The main effort drivers are above all the data quality of the existing master data, the number of channels, the depth of customising, and the testing and training requirements. For simple standard scenarios, the supplied connectors and in-house know-how are often sufficient, while special cases with individual mappings, pricing rules or multiple warehouses usually require the support of an experienced service provider. Experience shows that clean data cleansing before go-live shortens the project duration considerably.