ERP
Retail Operations
Being prepared for AI looks much different than having a chatbot on your site, or using it in your customer service operations to filter out easily answered questions. Because Salesforce is an AI-first CRM tool, your business needs to have the structures in place to maximize its impact.
Growing retail brands eventually reach a level of complexity that demands the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Salesforce. These brands may also have an ERP at the heart of their tech stack, and integrating the two can come with some unintended challenges to overcome.
If this sounds like your business, we’ve created this guide to help you prepare for Salesforce ERP integration by asking four questions.
What you will learn:
Why you should prepare your workflows for AI agents, automation, and agentic commerce.
What makes prioritizing good data in your business so important.
How partner connections factor in.
Why mapping out your growth trajectory impacts Salesforce ERP integration.
Being prepared for AI looks much different than having a chatbot on your site, or using it in your customer service operations to filter out easily answered questions. Because Salesforce is an AI-first CRM tool, your business needs to have the structures in place to maximize its impact.
This AI-first approach can be jeopardized by a rigid ERP that treats AI as something you bolt onto your operations, workflows that are based on workarounds and convoluted processes, or disconnected systems with silos and access walls that make automations almost impossible.
Let’s identify the hurdles you must clear for your Salesforce ERP integration to work as intended:
Complex workflows. Automations require processes that can be easily repeated. Workflows that are built on workarounds — or require complex steps to complete — often get in the way of successful AI automation.
Disconnected software. AI agents often struggle when presented with unclear parameters for navigating between tools and software that are disconnected from each other.
Rigid system architecture. Rigid systems often result in AI implementations being stripped down or bolted on — where retailers technically support AI automations, AI agents, and agentic commerce, but can’t really make the most of them.
Beyond simply trying to keep up with market trends, scaling retail brands need to consider prioritizing and integrating AI into their retail ops for a few reasons:
Capture agentic commerce traffic. Retail websites benefit greatly from being designed to take advantage of agentic commerce. This can result in easier user navigation, as well as more sales traffic from previously unreachable customers.
Implement AI automation. Having access to AI automations can provide you with robust support for your frequently recurring tasks, while opening possibilities for human-in-the-loop automation workflows that give you more insight into what’s happening in your business day-to-day.
System efficiency. When you optimize your retail ops to take advantage of AI, you end up with a system that’s more efficient and able to stand up to market conditions. By choosing Tailor as your ERP, you can use its AI-native platform to make the most of AI automation and agentic commerce.
Preparing your retail brand for Salesforce ERP integration requires you to have a strong grip on your data. But how do you know if your system is operating on accurate, accessible data?
Prioritize composable architecture. System architecture is extremely influential on your overall data quality. Whether you currently operate with a legacy ERP system or a series of brittle software connections, your data may not be handled in a way that allows new connections to form. Composable architecture enables your data to be handled properly by providing your system the flexibility it needs to make sure you have the right tools, rather than the ones you may be “stuck” with.
Sometimes it’s easy to consider “good data management” tomorrow’s problem — especially for small retail brands that are juggling a seemingly endless string of new tasks.
Good data management can be the difference between soaring success and grinding decline. To better understand why good data management matters for your business, let’s take a look at how data is managed in two different types of systems — composable and rigid:
| Infrastructure Type | Data Sync | System Visibility | Data Reconciliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Composable Data Management | Real-time. Data flows from connected apps into a composable, headless ERP like Tailor, rather than being batch-delivered and reconciled later. | High. Because composable architecture connects API-enabled software, it removes silos from your data management — resulting in data that’s easy to parse for accuracy and errors. | Fast, accurate. Manual reconciliation is a rarity because your ERP serves as a single source of truth for your entire operation. Your teams can trust the numbers they see and keep processes running as planned. |
| Rigid Data Management | Batch reporting. With a rigid system, the disconnected tools your business runs on will be [stuck with batch reporting](https://www.tailor.tech/resources/posts/erp-reporting) that can require manual reconciliation. | Low. System visibility is often obscured by disconnected tools, resulting in fractured data authority. Without a single source of truth, you’re more likely to have errors and inaccuracies that cascade into bigger problems. | Slow, sometimes inaccurate. Rigid systems often struggle with delayed data delivery, which can cause errors and disrupt workflows. |
One consideration to make, before integrating a CRM like Salesforce with your ERP, is whether or not your supply chain and partner connections are ready. Here are some additional questions to ask:
Do you have EDI software? Electronic data interchange (or EDI) software is a key tool for supply chain workflows and partner management. If you don’t have an EDI yet, make sure it’s compatible with both Salesforce and your ERP. And if you do have an EDI, check if your vendor has a Salesforce connector or if the EDI needs one.
Are your partner integrations handled by spreadsheets? If you answered yes to this question, it may be time to revisit the structure of your supply chain to ensure that your existing partners won’t stand in the way of implementing the automations that will help your business stay competitive.
Do they also use Salesforce? If your retail partners and suppliers are also using Salesforce, you may be able to connect with their systems directly to amplify the speed of your communications and data transfers. This can dramatically improve the performance of your Salesforce ERP integration.
Are you a small business that’s looking to scale to mid-market, or are you a mid-market brand that has enterprise aspirations? This is important to ask because Salesforce offers different tiers of support for businesses that are looking to use their tools. Salesforce offers a starter (for less complex small businesses), pro (for more complex operations), or bespoke tier (for businesses that need a custom solution) of their CRM software.
Knowing your trajectory is important for managing your Salesforce total cost of ownership (TCO), but how do you actually determine your trajectory potential? Let’s calibrate this based on three factors:
System architecture. The type of architecture you have in your business directly impacts how much you scale (and your overall growth trajectory). If your business is built on a rigid system, your possible connections become limited, the cost of adding or removing software increases, and your workflows are more likely to break under stress.
Flexibility. Part of scaling as a business is being able to change your processes, pivot to new markets, and use AI automation. Rigid systems have a difficult time with system adjustments, leading to lengthy integrations and disruptions.
Adaptability and agility. Market pressures and unpredictable external factors can easily derail the best laid plans. Especially for scaling brands, being unable to adapt to market conditions can spell a dip in profits and productivity.
Not only is Tailor composable, headless, and AI-native, it’s also compatible with Salesforce and many of the API-enabled tools you might already be using. Choosing Tailor as your ERP means that your system can be connected end-to-end, getting the most out of your existing stack while ensuring you can add to it later.
Tailor is also designed to help you scale faster than legacy ERP systems, without per-seat pricing or user minimums, and simple integration with API-enabled software. The benefits of Tailor can be clearly seen in the factors discussed above:
Headless, composable architecture. Tailor features a decoupled frontend and backend design that enables you to develop your systems without impacting your UI, while adding and adjusting visual workflows without breaking system logic. You can modularly add to Tailor with new features, while avoiding mandatory features and tools you won’t use.
Flexible workflows and UI/UX. Tailor offers an out-of-the-box UI that’s ready to use if you don’t need to customize UI/UX functionality. You can also update your workflows and UI as your business changes and grows, or make changes to them on a per-team basis.
Greater agility and adaptability. With Tailor, your brand can weather market instability and pivot as needed, without overwhelming system adjustments or lengthy rip-and-replace cycles. New markets are opportunities ripe for the taking instead of high-risk gambles.
Implementing a CRM like Salesforce means that you need to make sure your system is prepared to integrate with it — starting with having the right ERP at the center of your tech stack. Your Salesforce ERP integration doesn’t have to be the source of endless headaches and a dwindling budget. By choosing Tailor, you can easily integrate it with Salesforce so you can keep meeting customer demand and scaling your retail brand.
Book a demo with Tailor today so our experts can show you how composable, headless, and AI-native ERP supercharges the way you do business.
AUTHOR
Elijah MacDougall
Connectors
Compare Tailor
