B2B enterprises now sell nearly 50% of their products online (48%). Likewise, by 2025, that ratio is expected to rise to 88 percent. People are eager to spend extra for a great online shopping experience. As a result, businesses are being forced to concentrate on customer satisfaction and compete primarily or totally.
A B2B vendor will not win and keep clients unless they have an online presence developed on a purpose-made B2B e-commerce platform. The B2B ecommerce software market has grown, which is good, but it may be challenging to sort through the options and choose the best one.
To assist you in managing your online sales, we’ve compiled a list of features and evaluated some of the most popular B2B e-commerce solutions on the market.
Table of Contents
What are the most critical aspects of B2B e-commerce?
A B2B e-commerce platform is an essential component of any e-commerce enterprise. The platform selection process should be done systematically, and each vendor’s feature set should be analyzed appropriately.
The platform’s capacity to manage high traffic levels, ease of setup and user experience, and pricing are all variables to consider. B2B-specific features, for example, can assist streamline and automate operations, improve engagement and lead generation, and increase sales.
They are specifically designed for business-to-business transactions
B2B activities are often overlooked by business owners. Others believe their e-commerce platform should be capable of doing the same things as B2C retailers. They were completely off base. Poor website speed and the requirement to move data fast might come from a lack of B2B-specific features in a solution. Make sure that your B2B e-commerce platform is suitable with your team, clientele, and business processes before implementing it into your organization.
The “customer is always right” premise
The platform’s design should be adaptive enough to handle a diverse variety of users, such as buyers, managers, and buying agents, among others. In addition, representatives of a company’s customers may demand varying levels of access and authorization. Examine systems capable of managing the numerous roles and access privileges that your clients may require.
Some features allow for a great deal of personalization
The option to develop several websites in multiple languages for different verticals and geographical regions will allow you to reach your target audience more effectively and provide a better user experience.
Personalized landing pages, marketing, and promotional materials aren’t enough for B2B e-commerce websites. This indicates that you should be able to design unique websites for specific vertical markets.
Customers shopping and purchasing in government-owned hospitals, private practices, and labs will behave differently from customers shopping and buying in the private sector. Customers should create their self-service portals, complete with product catalogs and pricing adapted to their specific needs. Determine how you will tailor your ordering, checkout, and shipping processes to meet the demands of your customers.
Attributes of automation in the workplace
When it comes to corporate conversations and the purchase procedure, things might become a little complicated. Your e-commerce platform should allow you to set up specific order procedures that improve both your sales reps’ consumer experience and efficiency. It is possible to avoid costly mistakes by centralizing the quotation, contract management, and term negotiation operations.
Pricing and purchasing options
There are numerous distinctions in how company purchasers acquire, invoice, and pay. They’ll be willing to haggle over price and terms to get a better bargain on their orders. This means your platform must be able to handle both RFQ (request for quotation) and order negotiation procedures. You might also include unique price tiers and shipping limits in your strategy. Customers who purchase on a platform with these features are more likely to return.
There are plenty more options
In addition to the B2B-specific features described above, your e-commerce platform should provide the following universal features:
Customers and back-end personnel should find it easy to utilize responsive interfaces. The appropriate action should be simple, regardless of who is doing it: a client purchasing their smartphone or a buying manager authorizing orders through the admin panel.
Multiple integrations
Customers, operations, and inventory are all tracked by a variety of systems. These systems must be integrated with ERP and CRM systems and other systems like PIM and 3PL. It will be simple to incorporate new services as your company expands.
Scalability
When you’re ready to expand your business into other locations, build different websites, add more languages or commodities, integrations, or selling methods. Regardless, your solution should be able to handle high volumes of visitors, hold vast catalogs, and grow with your company.
Customization features
To assist you satisfy the demands of both your customers and your back-office staff, you may want to engage digital consultants or developers. Their work will be made easier by a headless commerce API and development environment.
Platforms for comparing B2B e-commerce
Now that you’ve decided what you want, it’s time to weigh your options.
OroCommerce
Because it was designed from the bottom up for B2B commerce, OroCommerce is a ready-to-use B2B e-commerce solution for businesses wishing to enter this market. OroCommerce is built on the same proven technology and ideas as Magento because its creators were part of Magento’s founding team. A vast community of developers and integrators is available to help you tailor the platform to your particular needs. Finally, OroCommerce interfaces with both an internal CRM and several external systems. This platform might enable B2B2B, D2C, and B2C sales formats.
CommerceCloud by Salesforce
Salesforce CommerceCloud is a good solution for organizations wishing to expand into e-commerce because many clients already use Salesforce for sales and CRM. Customers may leverage their Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud e-commerce platforms to design various features for B2B firms, such as reordering forms and back-end workflows.
Magento, a product of Adobe
Over 240,000 businesses utilize Magento, an open-source e-commerce platform. Although Magento is primarily a B2C platform, it has a plethora of B2B extensions and add-ons. The cost of your B2B e-commerce site will vary greatly depending on the degree of customization and functionality you add to this platform.
Final thought
We already know that online purchasing will grow and attract more people and B2B businesses.
There is no better moment to start strategizing your B2B e-commerce strategy than right now. Your company will benefit in the long run if you view it as a long-term investment.
B2B e-commerce platforms can help you find the functionalities that work best for your industry and your consumers by assessing them and asking the relevant questions of suppliers.
