Software designed for 2005 might be slowly killing your business in 2025.

It’s no surprise that many ERP providers now offer built-in eCommerce modules. On the surface, it makes perfect sense: keep everything under one roof, simplify vendor management, and extend the ERP’s role as the central system of record.

Your ERP is excellent at what it was designed to do-run operations, manage inventory, and keep the books clean. It’s the backbone of your business.

But here’s the challenge: ERPs were never built for digital selling. Their eCommerce add-ons tend to be rigid, hard to customize, and slow to evolve. What looks like a convenient all-in-one solution often results in a web store that feels outdated and clunky compared to what your customers expect today.

When you force your ERP to be your eCommerce platform, you're not just tolerating a "good enough" experience-you're holding your sales team, customers, and business back.

Why “Good Enough” Isn’t Good Enough

For years, many distributors leaned on ERP portals simply because they were already there. It felt like checking a box: customers could log in and place an order, so the system must be “working.”

But working and winning are two very different things. Today, operators expect an ordering experience that feels like Amazon - fast, intuitive, mobile-friendly, and personalized. When your ERP portal can't deliver that, you're giving up more than you think:

• Lost Growth: A static order pad doesn’t upsell, cross-sell, or put promotions in front of customers at the right time.
• Wasted Efficiency: When ordering feels like a chore, reps get dragged into fielding calls and texts instead of building new business. On average, reps spend 5–10 hours a week manually entering orders, time that could be spent prospecting and growing margin.
• Lack of Agility: Every time you need an IT ticket to launch a promo or update pricing, you lose ground to faster-moving competitors.
• Eroding Confidence: If you wouldn’t proudly demo your ERP's ordering portal to your biggest account, that's a clear sign it's not working for you.

On average, reps spend 5–10 hours a week manually entering orders from texts and calls. Modern eCommerce cuts that in half, freeing time for prospecting and high-margin sales.

The Real Cost of a “Just Okay” Experience 

The real cost of a limited eCommerce solution comes down to lost opportunities and stalled growth. Here are some real-life scenarios:

• The Static Catalog: Your rep wants to move a new specialty cheese. In a basic ERP portal, the only way to spotlight it is with a one-off email blast that might never get opened. The result? The product sits, reps fall back on the basics, and you miss a bigger basket.
• The Underused Portal: Maybe 10–15% of your operators actually use your ERP's app. They'll use it for basics like milk and eggs, but they aren't seeing new items or personalized recommendations. Industry benchmarks show ERP portals often see less than 20% operator adoption, while modern, mobile-first platforms average 70–80% adoption-a 4x difference in customer engagement.
• The DSR-Only App: Many ERP apps are technically "available" to customers, but in reality, 100% of the downloads are sales reps. They use it as a digital catalog to show a product and then place the order later, turning it into a costly and inefficient tool for which you may be paying hundreds of dollars a month.

Turning Ordering Into a Growth Engine

A modern platform designed specifically for your business changes the game:

• Customers can place orders in 90 seconds from their phone, instead of wrestling with clunky logins.
• Sales reps get alerts for churn risks and upsell opportunities, giving them leverage in every conversation.
• Pricing and promotions can be updated instantly, without an IT ticket.
• Seasonal promos or short-dated deals can buzz a customer's phone right before cutoff, so products actually move.

Distributors who upgrade to modern eCommerce see basket sizes increase by 23% on average, and that growth usually comes from higher-margin categories like specialty items and seasonal products. The result isn't just convenience-it's measurable growth, bigger baskets, and stickier customer relationships.

As one distributor put it: "ERP is our system of record. But eCommerce should be a system of growth."

The Moment of Truth

Foodservice is shifting fast. National distributors and forward-thinking independents are already giving customers a modern, mobile-first ordering experience. If your portal feels dated, customers notice - and they will make choices.

The winners in this next chapter won't be the ones who "make do" with their ERP's eCommerce. They’ll be the ones who give customers an ordering experience that feels familiar, clean, and fast, while giving reps the tools to sell smarter.

Take the Quiz: Find Out

We built a quick 2-minute quiz to show how your ERP’s eCommerce really stacks up. In just a few clicks, you’ll see if your platform is simply “getting by”… or quietly costing you sales.

Take the quiz now.

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