The best features for B2B eCommerce success

The lasting impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Although the role of self-serve B2B eCommerce started well before the pandemic, the importance of an effective B2B site is now widely accepted - with customers and prospects using sites in numerous ways:

• Brand research
• Product research
• Competitor comparison
• Price checks
• Order history
• Out of hours self service and realtime information from services such as live chat

10 - User Roles and Permissions in B2B purchasing

User Roles and Permissions: B2B purchases can be more involved that B2C purchases. Different trade accounts may see different price lists or buy on different terms.

In some cases purchasing decisions may involve multiple stakeholders within a customer organisation. Defining user roles and permissions can allow you to accomodate such workflows - for example, creating orders, making and approving purchases which may involve different people in different locations.

In some wholesale operations there may be a need to set up branches to limit ordering to specific delivery addresses, or allow head office accounts full access to order on behalf of multiple locations. 

9 - Custom Pricing

Reflect your price agreements with automated pricing linked to customer accounts.  Custom pricing allows you to display unique product prices based on customer contracts, bulk buy volume discounts, or other factors. Create a single trade price list, set up individual discounts, or multiple price lsits for groups of similar customers, all set up so that your customers get accurate pricing when the log into their account. 

8 - Automated Ordering

B2B customers frequently order in large quantities. Bulk ordering features, like bulk upload of orders via CSV files or quick re-order options, streamline this process, but full automation is the best solution. APIs enbable web orders to be sent to an ERP system - no delay, no manual re-keying of order information - see 3 below.

7 - Quotes

Buyers are often given quotes, either over the phone, or in person, while quote generation features enable customers to submit requests for quotes, which can be reviewed, negotiated, and converted into orders.

The addition of a simple online 'accept quote' feature enables a quote to be reviewed and accepted by a customer and then progressed by the customer account team.

6 - Repeat Ordering

Many B2B customers place the same orders again and again; you need a simple solution to encourage and speed these transactions; a large, simple, 'repeat order' button for one click ordering.

5 - Payment and Billing Options

Payment and Billing Options: B2B eCommerce platforms should support multiple payment methods, including credit accounts, net terms, and bank transfers. Ideally, these would synch up with credit limits and outstanding balances in ERP or accounting software via an Integration.

4 - Personalisation

Personalised experiences, such as product recommendations based on past purchases or personalised pricing, enhance customer engagement and increase sales. As online transactions increase, your website should learn about your customers, allowing you to segment by average order value, frequency of orders, or what they're buying; then simply provide tailored marketing to each customer group either on the website, or externally, e.g. by email.

3 - ERP Integration

A properly developed integration can make for increased operational efficiency. Web orders should flow automatically to ERP software for processing, fulfilment and accounting. Going the other way, get those balances onto the website along with customer specific pricing, stock and availability to add value and convenience for you customer. 

2 - Field Sales Portal

So many ERP solutions have hard to use, clunky interfaces for order creation; these are ill-suited to life on the road. Many orders created by sales agents are quickly jotted down on pen and paper, which leads to double entry, delays and increased errors. With an intuitive cloud based portal, salespeople can create orders that are injected immediately into your order fulfilment workflows. 

1 - Outstanding eCommerce

With everything else you need your website to do, this is the one that is really easy to overlook. It should be functional, automated and powerful, but also optimised for search engines, built for conversion, with an outstanding user experience. 

A B2B boost

The best B2B eCommerce systems will deliver cost savings by automating ordering processes, reducing errors in ordering and facilitating clients in self-service for re-orders, returns and information on various things like delivery dates, spend to date etc. 

Revenue gains will come from allowing customers 24/7 availability, encouraging big order values, automating the personalisation of marketing communications and significantly freeing up your staff time to focus on nurturing high-margin customers.  

The boost given to B2B eCommerce over the last few years means investing in more features and striving for the best B2B websites is both a short term imperative and a long term future-proofing strategy.