Business-to-business is a complicated industry and very different from B2C. Especially, in the e-commerce sector, B2B businesses struggle to find appropriate platforms to offer their services to other companies. Do you provide goods to businesses only? Have to deal with wholesale products? These are the questions that concern many business owners looking for the right B2B e-commerce platform.
Our experts conducted multiple research and analyzed past studies to identify the opportunities for B2B firms in terms of platforms. The article explores all questions and queries regarding the platform options available on the market, features necessary for B2B businesses, and the process of choosing the best product.
Why Create a B2B Ecommerce Platform?
B2B e-commerce platforms are rapidly developing and adopting many different features and functionalities to satisfy the needs of clients. Most B2B inbound marketing specialists spend days and weeks choosing the most suitable channel for their e-commerce businesses. The reason is that the audience is extremely specific and knowledgeable, and the decision-making process is way more complex than for other industries.
E-commerce platforms for B2B must take into account various stakeholders of a business and an unusually long sales cycle. It should correspond well to different B2B marketing strategies including content marketing, digital advertising, B2B email marketing, etc. Despite the difficulties associated with finding the right platform, the advantages of e-commerce platforms for B2B businesses are numerous:
- Increased efficiency and convenience for purchasing products and services.
- Better control over the sales process and customer relationship management.
- Improved inventory management and supply chain visibility.
- The ability to offer customized pricing and product options to specific customers.
- The ability to scale the business by reaching a wider customer base.
- The ability to collect valuable data on customer behavior and preferences.
- The potential for increased revenue and profit margins through reduced operating costs and increased sales.
Online stores are always the public face of your business. They are central figures in all marketing activities and campaigns. That is why the majority of marketing initiatives prioritize e-commerce platforms and optimize strategies to improve its performance.
How to Choose the Right B2B Ecommerce Platform?
The truth is the selection process for B2B e-commerce platforms is very time-consuming. The marketing team goes through multiple stages of research, comparison, analysis, and finally approval of the final choice. Let’s examine the steps you should take to find a suitable platform for your B2B ecommerce business.
How to Choose a B2B Ecommerce Platform?
Below is a list of the factors that play a decisive role in choosing the right platform:
- Scalability: the platform should be able to grow and change based on your needs. Make sure that the one you choose provides enough flexibility to adapt to changes in your business goals.
- User experience: buyers always prefer easy and fast solutions. In this dynamic digital era, ease of use wins over every client. Choose a platform that has a simple UX design and navigation.
- Integration: your online store needs many different tools and equipment to track the performance, analyze the results, categorize the leads, etc. No single platform can take responsibility for all of it. Hence, you want to look for a platform that integrates with your existing systems, such as your CRM and ERP systems.
- Customization: you don’t want to lose your brand image. You want to choose a platform that lets you customize various elements of the website. The store should not look like your competitors and it should have an authentic, exclusive feeling.
- Pricing: first, calculate the average price of the e-commerce platforms on the market. Make sure that you do not pay twice as much for an average-quality store. Decide your budget and set your expectations in advance.
- Customer support: customer support service is crucial for e-commerce businesses. Ideally, you need multiple features for customer support. For example, a contact form on the website and live chat support are two functions that the highest-quality stores must have.
- Security: you are going to integrate very sensitive data and payment systems into your platform. This means that you need a reliable and safe place with advanced security measures.
- Marketing and SEO: every e-commerce store requires marketing and most of them need SEO, too. Some platforms on the market offer integrated solutions both for marketing and SEO.
- Mobile responsiveness: mobile-friendly websites win over their competition in this era. All search engines prioritize mobile users now, which means that your platform must look well on all devices and work perfectly both for mobile and desktop clients.
The Best Ecommerce Platform for B2B
The market is full of e-commerce platforms. You can classify them into many different categories according to the size, types of products and services, target audience, and budget. Decide in advance on the mentioned factors – how many products/services you will need to display? How many pages or navigational elements your store must include? What is the average amount of visitors you expect daily? How much of your finances can you allocate for platform acquisition? Based on the responses you can choose your best ecommerce platform. Below is the list of the most popular ecommerce platforms for B2B companies:
- Magento – is the most flexible platform with multiple B2B features. You can easily customize Magento stores, integrate various services and apps, and benefit from ready-made templates for in-store functions.
- Shopify Plus – is the most popular e-commerce service provider which is a cloud-based platform with the highest reputation on the market. Shopify is the easiest platform to build your e-commerce business even without advanced coding skills.
- BigCommerce – another cloud-based solution for B2B stores with customizable catalogs, tiered pricing, and volume discounts. You can integrate every popular API in your BigCommerce store.
- SAP Commerce Cloud – An enterprise-level platform that comes with unique functionalities such as personalized product catalogs, quote management, and order management.
- Oracle NetSuite –is the best solution for international e-commerce brands. It offers multi-currency support and integration of different payment systems, real-time inventory tracking, and account-specific pricing.
The Benefits of B2B Ecommerce
The fact that B2B e-commerce businesses require a reliable, high-quality online store does not need much explaining. However, many underestimate the necessity to invest their time and resources in the platform selection process. Why and how businesses can benefit from finding the most suitable e-commerce platform for B2B is explored below:
- Increased Efficiency: B2B ecommerce refines the ordering process, reducing the time and resources needed to complete transactions. This includes faster checkout, automated order management, and real-time inventory updates.
- Better Customer Experience: B2B ecommerce offers customers a convenient, self-service ordering experience available 24/7. This definitely leads to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Increased Reach: B2B ecommerce lets businesses reach a wider audience, including new markets and customers. This can help to expand the customer base and drive growth.
- Improved Data Insights: B2B ecommerce platforms can bring in valuable data on customer behavior and preferences, which can take marketing and sales strategies to the next level.
- Better Collaboration: B2B ecommerce facilitates communication and collaboration between businesses, enabling more efficient and effective partnerships.
- Increased Revenue: By improving the ordering process, improving customer experience, and providing valuable data insights, B2B ecommerce can drive revenue growth.
- Improved Cash Flow: B2B ecommerce enables faster and more efficient payment processing, improving cash flow and reducing the risk of delayed payments.
It is not a complete list of the benefits you get with the right B2B e-commerce platform. It is only a tiny part. How you profit from it also depends on your niche, target audience, your daily operations, and more.
Conclusion
Choosing the right B2B ecommerce platform can change the direction of your marketing efforts and campaigns toward success. Yes, it is not simple and needs some time, effort, and investment. The platform you choose should meet your specific business needs, offer advanced features and functionalities, and be scalable and adaptable to meet your changing requirements.
When making your decision, consider factors such as scalability, user experience, integration, customization, pricing, customer support, security, marketing and SEO capabilities, and mobile responsiveness. Doing your research and carefully considering your options, will enable you to find the B2B ecommerce platform that will help you succeed online and grow your business for years to come.
