Best Practices to Launching your B2B Commerce Storefront

As more and more businesses embrace the B2B ecommerce model, buyers’ expectations are currently mirroring those of B2C clients. 

B2B buyers presently incline toward ecommerce self-service options at each phase of the funnel - from awareness to intent to purchase.

B2B eCommerce earnings are considered to twofold this year, with 55% of B2B buyers completing at least half of their online purchases. Buyer inclinations are continually changing and acclimating to patterns produced by digitalization, and B2B buyers are no special case. 

So it is nothing unexpected that in 2020 the online sales channel and online customer experience (CX) will represent the principle territories where B2B businesses will have the option to create differentiation.

The ease and accessibility advantages of online commerce have extended past the consumer market and into B2B, or businesses selling to other businesses.

Understand the B2B Ecommerce Essentials

The foundation for a successful B2B ecommerce business is critical to its functionality that ensures optimal usability and positive customer experience. 

Before you begin searching for an ecommerce platform, understand what these highlights are and why they’re important. Additional capabilities can always be incorporated after your site is live, but every B2B site should initially begin with the accompanying fundamental components:

• PIM: This product information management solution is crucial for all the significant product information and content for your selling channels. PIM sources, standardizes, and exports data to different channels and partners, and ensures clean, accurate product information is delivered consistently and effectively to provide a true omnichannel experience. 

• Site search: A state-of-the-art search tool utilizes algorithms that allow vendors to direct the outcomes that display on their site during a user search. Advanced search capabilities such as auto-complete suggestions, configurable search, and a navigation bar with faceted attributes provide more focused, relevant search results for buyers, which lead to a quicker and easier path to purchase. Site search speed directly affects the adoption of any eCommerce site.

• Shopping cart: With an extensive shopping cart set up, buyers have an adaptable and secure approach to shop and transact online. In addition to providing live product pricing and availability, shopping cart tools should meet the different needs of your buyers by offering shared carts, shipping alternatives, and multiple payment methods, including credit cards and purchase orders.

• Content management system: A robust CMS  takes into account simple updates to web pages and content, yet it additionally empowers to build SEO for better site visibility and create personalization options like product recommendations for customers. Your marketing team will take advantage of the CMS to create promotional pages and add content to support campaigns.

• Mobile: With more buyers utilizing their cell phones to research and shop for products, an ecommerce site must be versatile and cordial. Responsive website architecture adjusts a site's design to ensure that the substance and structure of the webpage stay predictable overall for buyer devices,  creating a seamless customer experience. 

• Taxonomy: This classification methodology classifies products in a way that bodes well to buyers and leads them to products in as few clicks as possible. A proper taxonomy defines the hierarchy, attributes, and classes within a product catalog to create a better framework and boost a site’s search and browsing capabilities.

• Event management: Many B2B companies – especially wholesale distributors – offer training classes, new product exhibits, customer appreciation days, and other events that help them connect with their customers and educate buyers on the products they carry. An Event Management module allows companies to build an ongoing calendar of events and oversee online enrollments easily.

• Punchout: Many B2B customers – especially those in government, higher education, and larger buying groups – will necessitate that you provide punch out capability. These online orders are sent directly from the customer’s procurement system to your website. You will need an approach to effectively configure punch out for each customer’s system.

You can spare a great deal of time and cash and dodge pointless complexities if you can get every one of these parts from a solitary vendor. The expense to integrate divergent frameworks and train your staff on different UIs and product abilities can be restrictive. Numerous B2B organizations select the "one throat to stifle" model with regards to the vendors in their ecommerce ecosystem.

How Ecommerce Platforms are equipped for B2B Success?

While numerous B2B organizations are hip to the advantages of keeping up an ecommerce site, others, despite everything, demand progressively old courses—exchanges via telephone or by means of email, for example. 

Actually, it's far easier to run discount and affiliate exchanges through an ecommerce site. It makes it simpler for the client, and it permits B2B organizations to spare time and sell more products. 

Not all ecommerce platforms are prepared to deal with B2B exchanges, so choosing a personalized ecommerce solution is fundamental to the success of your B2B online endeavor. 

Here are the means by which to create a buying experience that retailers can't get enough of:

1. Offer specials that bring retailers better-than-wholesale prices. Building twofold savings into your offerings every day, week after week, or month to month deals will put you at an upper hand and assist you with moving your product all the more rapidly and without any problem. 

B2B buyers will look for these specials and welcome the additional savings they get when they deal with your organization — which implies more orders for you. Like any retail foundation, wholesale businesses can likewise offer extraordinary deals, past the underlying discount rebate. You can likewise offer motivators as discounted prices for bulk orders.

2. Provide first-class customer service. Always treat your buyers with courtesy, be willing to go the extra mile for a retailer who purchases your products, and never be reluctant to lose an occasional “battle” in order to win the B2B “war.” 

Treat each retailer with sympathy and comprehension — regardless of whether sometimes you need to sweep a request. This kind of treatment will go far toward making firm and higher-volume wholesale customers.

3. Make wholesale ordering, delivery, and billing as smooth as possible. Automate your order management and product distribution processes as much as you possibly can. 

The utility of automation is that it smoothes out complex fulfillment processes and diminishes the requirement for manual work, empowering you to provide better, increasingly effective customer service from ordering to payment and shipping.

4. Streamline your operations. Business owners that run their own companies effectively look forward to the equivalent from their suppliers. 

This means that you have a responsibility to maximize operational efficiency in your own business. Integration of inventory, finance, shipping, logistics, etc. In an intelligent inventory management system, B2B or ERP, it is a win-win for both the customer and your company.

5. Make order recommendations. You might need to propose an additional product dependent on the order put by the retailer, a procedure that can either be automated or dealt with by a live customer support delegate. This is what could be compared to selling additional items in retail deals. 

6. Security: Selling online requires an elevated level of information security. At the very least, plan to make sure about your site utilizing SSL declarations, provide user authentications, and set up consent rules. If you handle online payment exchanges, work with your card processing services, and be certain you are PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant.

The advantages of ecommerce don't only lie with consumers. B2B businesses with eCommerce capacities beat their peers by pretty much every metric. 

Top-performing B2B organizations are 70% bound to utilize digital technologies to automate processes with clients, suppliers, and accomplices. In a domain where the sales cycles and connections are longer than B2C, ecommerce frameworks and digital technologies enable businesses to be progressively proficient, provide customized client support, and utilize analytical data to educate sales reps.

Can't wait to enjoy the benefits of Salesforce B2B Commerce and wish to quick-start the process? Docmation has just the right product for you:  the Salesforce B2B Commerce Quick Start Package. 

Using our Quick Start package, you can have a full-fledged ecommerce experience in less than 2 weeks! And what's more, is that it is an affordable investment that is guaranteed to increase ROI and brand loyalty.

So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us today!