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The eCommerce sector has grown immensely over the last couple of years and is forecasted to grow even more. B2B brands, the industrial sector and manufacturers are recognizing the power of selling online and the COVID pandemic has forced many companies to digitize their businesses.
Since B2B businesses operate slightly different than B2C businesses, specific B2B functionalities should be considered to optimize the operations of the online store and to offer the best B2B Customer Experience.
If you have a B2B and you are thinking of creating an eCommerce, keep reading this article and discover the twelve must-have features to grow your business and achieve success.
User-friendly searches
In B2B, customers usually already know the products they are looking for and the technical details such as the reference. This is why it is important to have a search engine in your eCommerce that helps them to find the products quicker and more efficiently. Moreover, you can offer a search engine that has an autocomplete function, that is, the customer will only have to enter the first three letters and the platform itself will make several suggestions about what you are looking for, something that will speed up the search process and the purchase of products.
Personalized shopping cart and product catalog
Configure the product catalog according to the user or user group, define the minimum and multiple order quantity according to customers or groups, facilitate the ordering process with maximum efficiency by letting your customers repeat previous orders in only one click, define prices depending on the quantity of products, allow your customers to quickly buy a list of products for each category, brand or campaign, show all taxes shipping costs and costs associated with the payment method in the shopping cart, and many more.
It is also very important for B2B businesses to have an online catalog where all products, detailed information, price, shipping, reference number, and much more are clearly displayed. The product listing should be presented in a single view with the most essential information. Providing easy access to the product, will result in time savings and a better customer experience.
Integrations
Seamlessly integrate and synchronize with ERPs, CRMs, PIMs or any other application to keep all the information updated in real-time. This will increase your efficiency by synchronizing all your inventory, orders, customer data, promotions and shipping details between all your business systems.
Save time and build efficient customer relationships by synchronizing information from your ERP and showing it for example in your customer’s user area within the eCommerce, such as Order History, Invoices, status of the order, different shipping addresses, etc. That way your customers can quickly have an overview of all important information and unnecessary emails or phone calls are avoided.
Easy-to-use BackOffice
Easily manage all your eCommerce activity from a single Control Panel and a user-friendly BackOffice to cut down the amount of time you spend managing your eCommerce.
Access all your eCommerce settings and features from a simple menu. Utilize the search system to find any item of your eCommerce from a reference or name. View and work with several BackOffice windows simultaneously and use the Drag&Drop or Copy Paste functionality to move, organize, and reallocate items and information between them. Moreover, you should be able to define multiple roles and permissions to control access to administration tools and give “CRUD” restrictions (Create, read, update, delete) to the different BackOffice modules.
Pricing
B2B Pricing can be complex; therefore, it is important that the platform you work with allows you to configure rates, prices and discounts based on customers, customer groups, countries and areas.
To reach a wider audience it is also recommendable to convert prices in different currencies or to set up rates per currency. Pricing should also reflect bulk purchasing options, as this type of business model typically buys in larger quantities. It also often works to offer slightly lower prices when buying a large quantity of products or even offer discounts when the order exceeds a certain amount.
Shipping and Logistics
B2B’s have demanding delivery needs, especially shipping to several locations, splitting expeditions, sending products from vendors and warehouses. Using drop shipping, you will increase the speed of deliveries or shipping from different logistics centers.
Therefore, it is important to be integrated with national and international shipping carriers, as well as to assign your warehouses to different logistics centers to manage your deliveries easier and generate multiple shipments of an order according to different logistic criteria such as warehouse, shipping carriers and delivery times.
Flexible Payment Options
Offer multiple payment methods such as checks, money orders, payment by bank transfer, cash on delivery and many more according to your customers’ preferences. Provide different payment conditions and methods based on customers or groups, and filter which Payment Gateway to show to each of them. Offering multiple payment options, will help you to increase sales, create a more user-friendly customer experience and build customer loyalty.
Content Management System
The key for a B2B business is to have powerful content creation and editing tools to manage and optimize exceptional customer experience. Having your content and information updated with ease, scheduling content for later publication, creating interesting blogposts for B2B customers, customizing content display on multiple devices, providing the necessary performance data parameters, among others that will help you scale your business more effectively.
Order Management System
B2B online orders are usually more complex than those of a B2C, since products are bought in large quantities, different rates are applied per user or user group etc. A complete Order Management System will help you to manage and track sales, orders, inventory and fulfilment from your B2B customers. Create personalized order statuses to track and perform actions in real-time. Set a maximum number of orders that a user or user group can make, show a visual summary of the order with product images and detailed texts, configure actions when an order or shipment status changes, and many more. Synchronize all orders with your ERP or validate the orders before moving them to the ERP.
Specific offers and promotions
Send multiple discount codes and promotional codes to your B2B customers in real-time so that they can apply them during the checkout. Providing a percentage discount off their total cart value for bulk orders could be an opportunity to increase sales and improve the whole customer experience. Attract new customers by browsing through promotions, discounts and active offers and increase your sales by informing the buyer about what products are needed in their cart to access a certain promotion
Marketing tools
B2B businesses models in eCommerce are increasingly using the same Marketing tools as B2C online shops. Marketing automation is starting to be implemented in B2B online shops to convert abandoned carts into sales by sending automated mails to those users who didn’t complete their purchase before, to send special promotions to those users who are registered to the online store, among others or even to recommend related or additional products to motivate the B2B customer to add more products to their order or to place another order in the future.
Sales Agent Management
Most B2B businesses have Sales Representatives that manage several customers, make them special offers, carry out orders for them etc. So, what if you could assign these Sales Agents to existing customer accounts in your eCommerce? That way they will have an overview of the orders from each of their assigned customers, they can prepare the carts for them or even carry out the purchases on behalf of their customers. You can also assign commissions to each of your Sales Representatives.
The B2B eCommerce sector is taking full advantage of the growth opportunity that this business model is providing. It offers easy and real-time access to inventory data and updates, 24/7 access, flexible payment methods, product catalogs, etc. To achieve success, it is essential to be equipped with the most demanded functionalities while adapting to the new purchasing habits.
Productivity is the key to profitability and for this reason, B2B customers have turned to the online channel in order to make business purchases more cost-effective, efficient and faster.
LogiCommerce is the Headless eCommerce platform that help you adapt the digital transformation for your B2B. Reduce operating costs, improve transparency by connecting field sales and B2B eCommerce in a single platform and fully integrated with your ERP. Customize your catalogue products banners and content according to customers and customers groups, provide real-time inventory control in a multi-warehouse functionality, differentiate ricing and items for sales to different customers or geographic areas in a multicurrency system, and endless features to help you achieve B2B business success and increase your online sales. ¡Contact us!
