In recent years, the online shopping trend has rapidly been extended from the business-to-customers (B2C) model to the business-to-business (B2B) model. Businesses are now showing a growing interest in ordering and managing their online purchases and introducing eCommerce as a purchasing channel for their buyers. Some of the most significant reasons B2B businesses move to online selling include:В
- Making information readily availableВ
An eCommerce site offers an easily accessible platform for your existing and potential clients to browse products and services and receive valuable information about your offerings at the touch of a button.В
- COVID-19В
The worldwide pandemic has brought about many changes for businesses. Businesses were forced to take their operations remotely. As a result, many businesses closed their physical stores and changed the way their sales agents operate. Specifically, B2B businesses have had to turn to remote marketing and selling.В
- Clients ordering repeat products
B2B clients often select a preferred supplier if they are satisfied with the products, services and customer support. With repeat customers, the opportunity to provide ongoing subscription-like services become a reality. With an eCommerce platform, B2B can allow repeat clients to automatically purchase their preferred products or services fast and efficiently without the need of getting in touch with a representative. This allows both businesses and clients to save valuable time.
- Less dependence on staffВ
An eCommerce platform for your B2B business enables you to free up our sales team’s time from processing inbound emails and calls. Because sales are made online, in many cases, it can remove the need for a sales team entirely. With the complex nature of hiring and retention of staff today, this is a welcoming benefit for many businesses.В В
- Convenient access to full product catalogВ
By listing and selling products or services online, you’re giving everyone that visits your website an entire catalog of your offerings. The biggest advantage of this is that the full catalog is available 24/7 for anyone to access at any time from anywhere.В
- Automation that reduces costsВ
With ecommerce, you can automate your sales processes through seamless integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. This reduces operating costs as it removes the need for lengthy and complex sales procedures and staff managing sales processes.В
Furthermore, an effective B2B ecommerce platform can enable your business to grow and scale easily to meet customer needs and market demands. It allows your business to open new sales channels and continuously reach new market segments.
B2B eCommerce is now growing rapidly and its global market is expected to reach $6.6 trillion, exceeding B2C sales. If B2Bs want to not only survive but also prosper in today’s testing climate, they must be ready to join the trend and match their competitors’ offerings.
The benefits of having an eCommerce website for your B2B businessВ
Adjusting your business for eCommerce offers an occasion to gain major benefits that can help you to streamline operations and create new business opportunities. Some of these include:В
- A reduction in costsВ
An eCommerce platform can lead to valuable savings. Such a platform can automate processes like order processing, invoicing and stock management that speed up smaller tasks and reduce the number of staff involved in their delivery.
- More personalizationВ
eCommerce platforms offer built-in personalization options where visitors can receive customized recommendations. By presenting your customers with products that offer better specifications than others increases cross-selling and drives higher value deals.
- Saving timeВ
In traditional B2B commerce, admins are often overwhelmed with a growing customer base and tons of paperwork. These processes can be slow, costly and inflict a higher risk for human error. eCommerce digital processing can markedly reduce human error and can be done faster as orders made are immediately processed for shipping.
- Reaching new markets
One of the biggest reasons B2B retailers have an eCommerce site is that it expands their reach to new markets. For businesses that have traditionally relied on reputation to drive sales, an eCommerce site opens new doors for digital advertising and organic search to reach prospective clients elsewhere in the world.
- Enhanced inventory management
If you do not have an ERP but you are a B2B business, you can leverage eCommerce built-in functionality so it works as your inventory management system, thereby helping you track inventory and automatically updating it with every order. Many suppliers find this feature helpful as it leads to efficient inventory monitoring. This also eases the laborious process of manual inventory count.
- Seamless payment methods
Traditional B2B payment processes can slow down transactions. Customers often don’t make payments up front and invoices are subject to several approval stages before they can be processed. Some additional fees and taxes also form part of cross-border transactions. But with B2B eCommerce, you can create a seamless journey through payment processes. It involves a shorter wait time and fewer additional fees.В
- Integration
B2B businesses also opt for eCommerce sites to automate their sales processes through seamless integration with CRM and ERP platforms. This allows them to spend less time doing paperwork and more time selling.
Risks and challenges of building a B2B eCommerce website
Because the eCommerce industry is constantly evolving, it can be tricky for any business who wants to go digital to transition without facing any challenges. Of course, as with any major business transition, there are some risks that must be taken into account too before starting the process of going digital. Some of these include:В
- Working around unique workflowsВ
Unlike B2C, each B2B business has something unique about it’s workflow. The traditional buying process of B2B typically has many people involved with separate responsibilities. This often delays the process of delivery. To move this complexity to online processes requires strong knowledge of B2B businesses and every stakeholders’ individual tasks.
- A high degree of customizationВ
Every B2B business is different and, therefore, requires its eCommerce website to be innovatively customized to accommodate its unique elements. This requires the developers of the eCommerce website to have strong business analysis skills and diligent planning. Few agencies have the capacity to offer this.
- Complex implementationsВ
B2B development and the languages used are very different from conventional B2C eCommerce terminology. As a result, B2B implementations require the development team to speak the merchant language and understand exactly how to translate and lock together a number of structures and processes.В
To help your business avoid these challenges in a smooth and effective manner, you want to work with an experienced eCommerce partner that can find solutions fast. Codifi specializes in custom eCommerce web development projects and helps businesses to transform digitally in the most effective way possible. Our experience sets us apart as we’ve developed sound practices to help our clients seamlessly augment development teams with highly skilled resources.
Choosing an eCommerce platform for business successВ
eCommerce is a tidal wave that has shifted how businesses sell, regardless of the market. It also brings many benefits to B2B businesses. But to truly perform, your eCommerce website must be built on a scalable platform ideal for B2B. With the right tools, you can reach new markets, manage products and services, integrate with third-party applications, offer better customer service and boost sales.В
