The footwear industry is sprinting into a digital future—and if your tech stack isn’t keeping pace, you’re already a step behind. For brands that want to thrive (not just survive), the foundation starts with a robust ERP tailored towards footwear brand needs. Add in a B2B portal, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools, and a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution,, and you’ve got your footwear tech stack. And that stack needs to be invisible to your reps and retailers - they don’t want to wrestle with technology, they just want to get the job done. In this guide, we’ll break down the modern footwear tech stack and show how the right systems drive efficiency, growth, and happier retailer partners.
A footwear tech stack is the collection of digital tools and platforms that power your brand’s operations, spanning everything from design and manufacturing to wholesale sales and retailer relationships. When built right, your tech stack automates manual tasks, delivers real-time inventory data,standardizes workflows, and supports seamless retailer ordering. It also empowers you to track performance with actionable analytics, leading to smarter decisions that grow your business with confidence. Key components for your stack include the ERP at the operational core, a B2B portal for the retailer experience, a product lifecycle management tool (PLM), and software for digital asset management (DAM)—all working together in harmony.
At the heart of your footwear tech stack is the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. A purpose-built ERP enables automated order management, real-time inventory visibility, and integrated pricing and size matrices. It’s the source of truth for the rest of your tech stack, seamlessly connecting to your wholesale B2B platform, ensuring your brand operates efficiently at every step. For footwear brands, the most valuable ERP features include seasonal pre-book management, automated catalog segmentation by retailer type and price level, turnkey integrations with leading platforms like NetSuite or SAP, and flexible options for both batch and real-time data synchronization.
NetSuite is a powerful ERP platform well-suited for mid-market and up footwear brands. It excels at managing complex inventory, streamlining order management, and providing unified financial oversight. NetSuite’s flexibility and integration options make it a strong operational backbone, supporting growth and evolving business needs. While some brands may require additional configuration or integrations for specific footwear workflows, NetSuite remains a key component in a modern, scalable tech stack.
SAP is designed for large, enterprise footwear brands with global operations and complex requirements. It excels in multi-region and multi-language environments, and can handle any future or at-once inventory scenarios you find yourself having. For brands needing a highly customizable ERP that can handle intricate workflows and unique business processes, SAP delivers the flexibility and scalability that out-of-the-box solutions often can’t match. This makes SAP a strong choice for established footwear companies operating at scale.
A B2B platform is where your brand’s promise becomes a reality for your retail partners. Instead of wrestling with a clunky, ancient order process or juggling endless email threads, retailers can order from you in an experience like a consumer would, but tuned towards wholesale.
The best portals deliver an intuitive experience across devices. They make it easy for retailers to place an order any time, from anywhere, as well as give retailers instant access to catalogs that are automatically tailored to their specific needs through segmentation tools. Real-time inventory and pricing are always at a buyer's fingertips, self-service tools reduce friction and support efficient ordering, and order status updates are clear and accessible, reducing confusion and delays.
Brands get a direct line of communication to their retailers, control of what buyers have access to and when to keep the right product in front of the right people, and robust analytics that deliver powerful insights into retailer behavior.
These capabilities ensure that retailers have the information and flexibility they need, without the hassle of manual processes or custom development. For example, Envoy B2B supports these needs with streamlined catalog management, standardized ordering tools, powerful analytics dashboards, and a user-friendly interface designed specifically for the wholesale footwear industry.
When it comes to connecting your B2B portal with your ERP, the integration approach is crucial, and it’s where failure most often happens. Direct API connections offer real-time, seamless data flow, ensuring that information is always up to date. For brands with legacy systems or more complex needs, middle ware or iPaaS solutions can bridge the gap effectively. Brands can choose between real-time syncing for maximum inventory accuracy, or batch updates for less time-sensitive information, depending on their operational priorities.
Think of a PLM as the single, boring-but-critical brain where a product lives before it ever becomes inventory. If ERP counts products and your B2B portal moves them, PLM decides what the product actually is—from idea to approved, build-ready reality. It’s where design specs, materials, costs, revisions, and approvals all live in one source of truth, long before e-commerce or inventory systems get involved. A good PLM isn’t flashy, but it quietly prevents million-dollar mistakes by making sure everyone agrees on what exists before anything gets made or sold.
Centric is one of the more common PLMs in the footwear industry, used by enterprise-level brands like Nike and New Balance. Smaller and more mid-market brands might look at something like Fan PLM, which was created by industry veterans specifically for footwear and apparel brands.
Your DAM is the boring-but-essential place where a brand’s approved visuals live. If PLM decides what a product is, the ERP counts the product, and the B2B moves them, a DAM controls how that product shows up in the world—photos, videos, logos, and campaign assets, all in one source of truth. For a footwear brand, it’s where final product imagery lives so e-commerce, wholesale, marketing, and sales are all using the same, correct files. A good DAM prevents the wrong images, outdated assets, and brand mistakes from ever making it to customers.
Enterprise-level brands can be found on DAMs like Canto, Bynder, or Brandfolder, but the range of solutions here is broad, scaling all the way down to something as simple as Google Drive.
Most footwear brands already have plenty of systems—ERP, B2B portals, e-commerce, PLM—but analytics are what turn those systems into understanding. In simple terms, analytics answer one question: what’s actually happening in the business? ERP data shows whether orders are flowing, inventory is accurate, and margins are holding. B2B portal data shows behavior—who’s logging in, what retailers and reps are looking at, where carts get built but never checked out, and who’s still emailing spreadsheets instead of using the system. Together, this moves the conversation from guesses to facts.
The real value shows up when those systems are connected and visible in dashboards people actually look at. Sales leaders can see which reps are driving adoption and which accounts are going dark. Ops teams can spot order errors or inventory risk early. Leadership can tell the difference between a demand problem and a discovery problem. Good analytics don’t make the business more complex—they make it more honest. Like PLM and DAM, they’re not flashy, but in an industry with long lead times and thin margins, seeing issues early is often the difference between a small fix and an expensive mistake.
Envoy B2B offers insights and analytics dashboards, giving brands a view into how reps and retailers are moving around in their wholesale B2B portal. Microsoft Power BI (business intelligence) is a very popular analytics & BI tool that turns data from multiple systems into interactive dashboards and visual reports you can share across teams, for brands that want a larger view across their entire tech stack.
When your PLM, ERP, B2B portal, and DAM tool all work in harmony, brands gain access to accurate, real-time data across every part of the business. This integration enables faster, smarter decision-making, creates happier retailer partners, and eliminates the headaches that come from disconnected systems. As a result, brands are able to scale with confidence, knowing their tech stack is supporting every step of their growth journey.
The modern footwear tech stack isn’t just a collection of tools—it’s your competitive advantage. If your ERP for footwear isn’t connected to a powerful B2B portal, pulling the right data from your DAM (which is populated by products designed through your PLM), you’re leaving efficiency and revenue on the table.
Ready to level up? Contact Envoy B2B for a tech stack consultation and discover how we help brands like yours win in wholesale.