9 top ERP software picks for the retail industry

Acumatica Cloud ERP

Acumatica Cloud ERP is a cloud-based product designed for growing organizations. It offers core financial, purchasing and inventory management capabilities, as well as integrations with popular e-commerce platforms. Although Acumatica offers a version of its ERP for retail industry needs, the company relies on third-party integrations for point of sale (POS) and e-commerce.

Some of Acumatica's strengths are its ease of use, strong mobile capabilities and open architecture. The company also offers flexible pricing and deployment options. Acumatica's inventory module enables users to sort products by attributes like size and color.

However, Acumatica has a smaller partner ecosystem compared with some of its larger competitors, which might limit options for adding extra functions to the ERP system.

Epicor for Retail

Epicor for Retail is aimed at midmarket retailers and offers both cloud and on-premises options. Epicor for Retail is available in industry-specific versions for hardware, auto parts, sporting goods and specialty retail, among others.

Unlike some competitors, Epicor develops and supports its own POS and e-commerce modules. Users who prefer other e-commerce platforms can integrate them with Epicor using specialized middleware.

Epicor offers strong multilocation support, a size-color matrix and AI-driven demand forecasting. However, some might find the user interface to be a bit dated, and the product's large number of features might make implementations lengthy and expensive.

Infor CloudSuite Retail

Infor CloudSuite Retail combines core ERP functions with more advanced features like merchandising, demand forecasting, supply chain optimization and workforce management. It can work for a range of retail categories like fashion, big-box retail, grocery and department stores.

Infor offers POS and e-commerce through modules that were developed and are supported directly by the company, including built-in support for size, color and style matrices. The system also includes AI and mobile capabilities and is very scalable.

However, Infor is best suited for midsize and large retailers with complex operational needs.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a cloud-based ERP product that's aimed at small to midsize companies. It offers financial, inventory, purchasing and supply chain capabilities, as well as integrations across Microsoft products such as Teams, Outlook and Power BI. While Business Central supports retail workflows through item variants and sales orders, it relies on third-party integrations for POS and e-commerce.

Business Central is known for its flexible customization and its partner ecosystem, and it supports product variants like size and color.

However, the software lacks a built-in matrix view, which might limit ease of use for apparel retailers and others with similar product variants. In addition, licensing can be complex, depending on user roles and integrations.

Odoo

Odoo is a modular, open source ERP platform that includes a wide range of business applications, from accounting and CRM to inventory and e-commerce. The core product includes POS and e-commerce apps that were developed and are supported directly by Odoo, which could make it a good option for smaller, digital-native retailers that are looking for an integrated system.

Odoo supports product variants such as size and color, though a visual matrix-style view for managing these combinations might require additional modules. The platform is very customizable and more affordable than some other products.

However, Odoo can become complex to manage as a company's business needs grow, particularly if an organization has added custom development or third-party modules.

Oracle Cloud for Retail

Oracle Cloud for Retail is built for enterprise-level retail operations and offers capabilities such as merchandising, omnichannel order orchestration, pricing optimization, POS, e-commerce and customer engagement, all of which were developed and are supported by Oracle.

Oracle Cloud for Retail also supports sophisticated product hierarchies and matrix item management, which could make it a good fit for companies with high-SKU-count environments, such as apparel, grocery and electronics retailers. In addition, the system's AI/machine learning capabilities help retailers optimize assortments, forecast demand and manage promotions more effectively.

However, due to its depth and enterprise focus, Oracle typically requires significant time and investment to implement. The product is best suited for large, complex retailers that are seeking a fully integrated product from a single vendor.

Oracle NetSuite

Oracle NetSuite is cloud-native and suitable for growing organizations and midsize companies. It offers a unified suite of tools for core financial functions, inventory, order management, CRM and supply chain. NetSuite develops and supports its own POS and e-commerce capabilities.

NetSuite also supports matrix items and offers more advanced features, like multilocation inventory and global tax compliance.

However, NetSuite can be expensive, and implementations can be complex.

SAP Business One

SAP Business One offers essential ERP features and some CRM functions within a single platform for small and midsize organizations.

Business One does not include native POS or e-commerce, but instead relies on third parties to provide those features. In addition, unlike SAP S/4HANA and some other ERP software that is aimed at retail, SAP Business One does not offer native matrix inventory for managing size and color combinations.

The right third-party add-ons can make Business One a good choice for many retailers, but those with more complex requirements might find it limiting.

SAP S/4HANA Retail

SAP S/4HANA is an enterprise-grade ERP system known for its functionality and industry-specific coverage. SAP offers ERP modules for retail industry needs such as merchandise management, assortment planning and replenishment. SAP also offers its own POS and e-commerce platforms, which were developed in-house and are integrated with its core ERP.

SAP's native support for complex product hierarchies and matrix-style inventory management, including size, color and style attributes, makes S/4HANA particularly well suited for fashion and department store retailers with diverse product catalogs and global operations.

However, SAP is best for large enterprises because of its higher cost and longer implementation times.

James Kofalt spent 16 years at SAP working with SME business applications and was a product manager for integration technology at Microsoft's Business Solutions division. He is currently the president of DX4 Research, a technology advisory practice specializing in ERP and digital transformation.