Everything You Need To Know About WMS Integrations: Benefits & Examples

Subscribe for More

These days, brands aren’t just selling on one channel, they’re on Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, and more. In fact, Sellbrite found that brands selling on three or more channels generate 143% higher revenue than brands selling on fewer channels. With this, orders end up coming in from every direction. 

On top of that, if your inventory is spread across multiple warehouses this makes warehouse management increasingly complex. And customers? They expect fast, flawless delivery every single time.

If you’re feeling the pressure, you’re not alone. That’s why more ecommerce brands are investing in warehouse management systems (WMS) and integrating them with their tech stack.

At ShipBob, we help thousands of fast-growing brands scale their logistics. We’ve seen firsthand how the right WMS integrations eliminate the friction that comes with growth, helping businesses ship faster, cut costs, and improve customer satisfaction.

In this guide, we’ll break down what WMS integrations are and how they work, the business benefits of connecting your systems, and how ShipBob’s WMS is built to help you scale.

What are WMS integrations?

A WMS integration connects your warehouse management system, the software that runs your warehouse, to the other business tools you rely on every day.

This can include your ecommerce platforms (like Shopify), your order management system (OMS), your enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, shipping carriers (like UPS or FedEx), and customer relationship management (CRM) tools.

These connections make sure that all of your systems talk to each other in real time. For example:

• When a customer places an order on your website, it instantly shows up in your WMS.
• When your warehouse team picks, packs, and ships that order, the tracking number gets pushed back to your store automatically.
• When inventory runs low in your warehouse, your ecommerce store updates to prevent overselling.

Without integrations, these updates have to be done manually, leading to delays, errors, and wasted time. However, with the right integrations in place, you can maximize warehouse capacity, control warehouse costs, and deliver the seamless experience your customers expect.

How a warehouse management system integrates with your fulfillment tech stack

When integrated properly, your WMS acts as the bridge between your physical operations and your digital ecosystem. It ensures the right data flows between your sales channels, inventory, shipping partners, and customer experience tools.

This is especially important for brands using a fulfillment partner or 3PL like ShipBob, which need visibility into every stage of fulfillment while maintaining control over the customer experience side of things.

To fully unlock its potential, your WMS should connect with:

• Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, or Amazon
• Order management systems (OMS) that centralize multi-channel orders
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software like NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics
• Inventory management systems to control stock levels
• Shipping carriers like USPS, FedEx, and UPS
• CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot

When your systems work together, your operational efficiency and fulfillment reliability are improved. Here’s how that plays out step by step:

1. Order placed: A customer places an order on your website, a marketplace like Amazon, or any of your connected sales channels.
2. Order sent to WMS: The WMS receives the order details in real time, pulling in the product SKUs, quantities, customer shipping information, and any special instructions.
3. Inventory check: The WMS checks your warehouse inventory to confirm that the items are in stock and ready to ship. If you’re using multiple fulfillment centers, it can also determine the best location to fulfill the order from based on proximity or stock availability.
4. Order picked & packed: Your warehouse team receives a digital picking list or fulfillment task through the WMS. Guided picking paths help them locate the items quickly and accurately. The team then packs the order, applies branding materials if needed, and prepares it for shipment.
5. Shipping label generated: The WMS connects directly to your chosen shipping carrier to generate a shipping label with the correct weight, dimensions, and customer address.
6. Tracking info sent back: The WMS pushes the tracking number back to your ecommerce platform or marketplace, triggering a notification email or SMS to the customer.
7. Inventory updated: Finally, the WMS updates your inventory counts across all connected channels and systems, preventing overselling and keeping stock levels accurate in real time.

Benefits of WMS integrations

Integrating your WMS with the rest of your tech stack delivers real, measurable benefits across your entire operation. Here’s how:

Reduce errors and optimize picking & packing

Manual data entry is a recipe for mistakes. When your systems aren’t connected, you risk overselling, mispicks, and delayed shipments.

With real-time inventory integration, your warehouse team always knows what’s in stock and where it’s located. This improves picking accuracy, reduces fulfillment errors, and speeds up packing times.

“We went from 3-4 people spending all day packing orders, and now we have our manager doing everything herself. She picks and packs orders from 7:00 am to noon, and then she’s done with DTC orders for the day. And now our team doesn’t have to rely on tribal knowledge for anything!” 

– Adam LaGesse, Global Warehousing Director at Spikeball

Automation faster and smarter

Integrations unlock automation across your entire fulfillment workflow, including:

• Order imports: Orders flow automatically from your store to your WMS.
• Inventory sync: Stock levels update in real time across all channels.
• Shipping label generation: Carriers are connected directly to generate labels without extra steps.
• Order status updates: Tracking information is automatically sent to your customers.

This automation reduces manual work, provides labor cost savings, and increases throughput, which are key principles of lean warehousing.

“Our business relies heavily on the key integrations between ShipBob, Loop Returns, and Shopify. The direct integration between ShipBob and Shopify is crucial to our success, serving as the primary driver for all our third-party services that depend on up-to-date order data. Additionally, the direct integration with Loop Returns enhances our customer support team’s efficiency and empowers our customers.”

– Sal Perera, Director of Supply Chain at CLEARSTEM 

Forecast better and satisfy more customers

With real-time visibility into your inventory and order data, you can make smarter business decisions. You can forecast demand more accurately, avoid stockouts, and optimize your replenishment strategy.

Plus, with automated order status updates and reliable order fulfillment, you’ll improve your customer experience, build loyalty, and increase repeat purchases.

Semaine Health, a wellness brand, leveraged  ShipBob’s WMS and Inventory Placement Program to enhance their supply chain. This led to a $2 per order savings and a 99.95% order accuracy rate, allowing them to scale their volume by 4x without compromising customer satisfaction. 

7 types of WMS integrations

Different integrations serve distinct purposes in your logistics tech stack. Depending on the complexity of your ecommerce warehousing you’ll need different types of integrations to keep operations running smoothly.

1. Ecommerce platform integrations

Examples: Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Squarespace

These integrations pull orders directly from your online stores into your WMS. They also push back tracking numbers and update order statuses automatically.

How It Helps:

• Prevents overselling by syncing inventory in real time
• Eliminates manual order entry
• Keeps customers updated on order status and tracking

2. Order management system (OMS) integrations

Examples: Brightpearl, Skubana

If you sell on multiple channels, an OMS helps centralize your orders into one system. Integrating your OMS with your WMS ensures seamless handoffs between order capture and fulfillment.

How It Helps:

• Centralizes multi-channel orders
• Keeps inventory synced to avoid stockouts
• Simplifies complex fulfillment workflows

3. ERP system integrations

Examples: NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics

An ERP connects your warehouse data with your financials, procurement, and sales operations. Integrating your ERP with your WMS provides a 360-degree view of your business.

How It Helps:

• Streamlines operations across departments
• Improves data accuracy for reporting and forecasting
• Supports growth across multiple warehouses or regions

4. Inventory management system integrations

Examples: TradeGecko, Cin7, Stitch Labs

Inventory management tools help you track stock levels, forecast demand, and automate reordering. Integrating them with your WMS keeps your data accurate across all locations and channels.

How It Helps:

• Provides real-time inventory visibility
• Automates reorder points and stock alerts
• Optimizes inventory to reduce carrying costs

5. Shipping and carrier integrations

Examples: USPS, FedEx, UPS

Direct carrier integrations automate label generation and tracking updates, speeding up your shipping process and reducing costs.

How It Helps:

• Accesses real-time shipping rates
• Automates label creation
• Provides instant tracking updates to customers

6. CRM integrations

Examples: HubSpot, Salesforce

Linking your CRM with your WMS helps your customer service team access real-time order and inventory data, enabling them to provide better support.

How It Helps:

• Improves customer communication
• Provides accurate order status info
• Enables proactive service for shipping delays or stock issues

7. Custom integrations via open APIs

Examples: ShipBob’s open Developer API

Some businesses have unique workflows or niche software needs. Open APIs allow you to build custom integrations tailored to your business.

How It Helps:

• Supports custom workflows
• Connects niche tools not supported by pre-built integrations
• Scales with your unique operational needs

How to plan & implement a WMS integration

By now, we know a WMS integration can unlock major benefits—but only if it’s planned and executed properly. Before you dive in, it’s important to assess your WMS requirements to ensure you choose a system that meets your operational goals and technical needs. 

Once complete, the next step is to build a detailed integration plan that outlines how your systems will work together day-to-day.

Define project scope & goals

Every integration project should start with a clear definition of why you’re doing it.

Ask yourself:

• Are you trying to speed up fulfillment to meet customer delivery expectations (like 2-day shipping)?
• Do you want to reduce human error by eliminating manual data entry?
• Is your goal to lower operational costs by automating more of your workflows?
• Are you preparing to expand to new channels or warehouses and need better inventory visibility?

Document these goals and set measurable KPIs to track your success.

Data mapping & alignment

One of the most critical steps in any WMS integration is data mapping. This involves working with your technical team or integration partner to:

• Identify all the key data points your systems need to share (e.g., SKUs, product names, quantities, customer shipping info, order statuses, tracking numbers, etc.).
• Align naming conventions and data formats to ensure consistency across systems.
• Define how data will flow between your ecommerce platform, WMS, ERP, OMS, and any other connected tools.

For example, if your ecommerce platform uses “Product ID” while your WMS uses “SKU,” you’ll need to map these fields so the systems recognize them as the same data point. Failing to do this can lead to inventory mismatches and incorrect order processing.

Stakeholder involvement & internal alignment

WMS integrations impact multiple parts of your organization, not just your warehouse team. Make sure to engage all relevant stakeholders early, including:

• Operations to ensure the integration supports real-world workflows on the warehouse floor.
• IT/Engineering to manage the technical build, testing, and maintenance.
• Finance to track costs, manage budgets, and report on ROI.
• Customer service to ensure they have access to real-time order and inventory data.

Testing & quality assurance

Once your systems are mapped and connected, don’t skip testing. Rushing to go live without thorough validation can lead to major issues.

Create a sandbox environment—a safe, non-production version of your system—to simulate real-world scenarios without impacting actual orders or inventory.

Key areas to test include:

• Order flow validation: Ensure orders move correctly from your ecommerce platform to your WMS and back again with updated statuses.
• Inventory sync: Confirm that stock levels update in real time across all systems.
• Shipping label generation: Validate that carriers generate labels accurately based on product weights, dimensions, and shipping preferences.
• Tracking updates: Test that customers receive correct and timely tracking information.

Ongoing maintenance & optimization

Successful WMS integration isn’t a “set it and forget it” project. Over time, your business will evolve, whether it’s selling via new channels, adding new products, or placing inventory in new warehouses. This means your integrations need to evolve too.

Establish a process for ongoing monitoring to catch:

• Data sync failures (e.g., inventory not updating correctly)
• System slowdowns or API timeouts
• Order routing errors

Regularly review your workflows, system performance, and KPIs to identify areas for improvement. Work with your tech team or provider to:

• Update APIs or middleware as systems change or new versions are released.
• Add new integrations as your tech stack grows.
• Refine automation rules based on operational learnings.

Continuous optimization is key to achieving warehouse optimization and keeping your fulfillment operation running at peak performance.

Scale fast and drive revenue with ShipBob’s proprietary WMS

ShipBob’s WMS is purpose-built to help fast-growing ecommerce brands streamline fulfillment, improve inventory visibility, and scale effortlessly.

Whether you’re fulfilling orders in your own facility, fully outsourcing to ShipBob’s fulfillment network, or blending both approaches in a hybrid model, our WMS is designed to flex with your business as it grows.

Pre-built ecommerce integrations

Connect your online stores in minutes with native integrations for Shopify, Amazon, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Squarespace, and more. Orders sync in real time, and tracking updates flow back to your customers automatically.

Connections to ERPs, OMSs, and inventory management systems

Easily integrate with platforms like NetSuite, Brightpearl, Skubana (Extensiv), Cin7, and other enterprise tools—bringing your entire operation under one connected ecosystem.

Direct shipping carrier integrations

Access live rates and automated label generation with direct connections to USPS, FedEx, UPS, DHL, Canada Post, and other leading carriers. This allows you to optimize shipping costs and delivery speeds without switching between platforms.

Custom integration support via our open API

For businesses with unique tech stacks or proprietary software, ShipBob’s API makes it easy to build custom integrations that fit your exact workflows—whether that’s connecting to a subscription management tool, ERP, or custom-built OMS.

Flexible fulfillment models to support growth

• In-house fulfillment: Use ShipBob’s WMS to power your own facility with enterprise-grade software and processes.
• Outsourced fulfillment: Tap into ShipBob’s global network of fulfillment centers to reach customers faster and reduce shipping costs.
• Hybrid fulfillment: Combine both models to scale flexibly while maintaining visibility and control over your inventory.

Real-time visibility into your entire fulfillment network

Gain instant access to key metrics like inventory levels, order status, carrier performance, and fulfillment speed, whether you’re using your own warehouse, on-demand warehousing, or ShipBob’s network. Our user-friendly dashboard puts actionable insights at your fingertips.

Get started with ShipBob

Learn more about ShipBob’s warehouse management system and our fulfillment solutions, and get started.

WMS integration FAQs

This article originally appeared on ShipBob and is available here for further discovery.