5 Things to Consider When Selecting Your B2B eCommerce Platform

by Redstage Team | Jan 2, 2018 | eCommerce Platforms

Whether your product is bottles of lemonade or festive bikinis for the summer; if you’re new to B2B eCommerce, it’s important to have a plan when selecting the best platform for your business.

The explosion of online shopping popularity projects eCommerce transactions to out-pace in-store sales in the next few years. Nielsen confirms this with research and offers up some of the browse to buy rates for goods & services. Recent trends show B2B customers seeking more of the eCommerce experience as opposed to shopping offline. So who exactly are these customers?

B2B eCommerce has several types of customers, each with their individual requirements for how they define their success. These customer types include B2B consumers (the company plans to resell the product or service to them). Other customer types include wholesalers/distributors who will sell your products and services to other B2B companies and dealers who sometimes resell the company’s product for them.

Knowing your customers, here’s a few things to consider when selecting the best eCommerce platform for your online store.

1. What are your company’s objectives for your B2B eCommerce store?

• It is important to know what you want to achieve when you’re building an eCommerce store. Choosing the platform with the best deployment method for your store will ensure your business needs and your brand objectives are supported.

2. Is the platform best for B2B eCommerce?

• The platform you choose should have documented successful experience meeting the demands of eCommerce online stores. Conduct your own research to see what similar online stores are using and if the platforms of their choice have sufficient experience to meet the demands of an e- commerce store such as a high traffic volume, search engine optimization and mobile friendliness. B2B stores operate best on an open source platform such as Magento. The demands of an online B2B store are much greater than that of a B2C. Magento software caters to this need with such benefits as bulk order management and inventory tracking across multiple warehouse locations.

3. Is the platform customizable?

• For companies like Zoetis, it was important to have an online B2B store that provides a B2C experience for their customers. Catering to the needs of veterinary professionals in over 50 countries 24/7, they needed an eCommerce platform that provided world class customer experience, met the needs of their complex business rules, featured promotions and included 40+ database feeds. The best option for them was to use the Magento Enterprise Edition to implement their online store.

4. Can you integrate any existing software into your new platform?

• Integration is very important to the success of your online store. Large businesses that are typical users of B2B eCommerce platforms understand that integration of pre-existing software such as your CRM to your back office is critical. Building an IT environment that improves company efficiency is vitally important; if your existing software does not integrate with the new eCommerce platform it will negatively impact your overall result.

5. Does the platform provide the best user experience for your customers?

• Today’s customers expect and demand a user experience that is second to none when they visit eCommerce stores. The platform chosen for your store should provide streamlined features like one click purchasing for both software and professional training, providing an easier buyer experience. Staying up to date on how buyers utilize the internet in non B2B environments will enhance your store’s B2B experience. According to Magento, “93 percent of business-to-business buyers prefer to purchase online, with self-serve information, direct from vendors,” so an intuitive experience is key. Learn more about Magento’s B2B module here.

When choosing a B2B eCommerce platform choose a platform with a proven success rate of developing B2B eCommerce stores and can adapt to the changing needs of your company.

Here at Redstage, as a Shopify Plus Partner and Magento Enterprise Partner, we believe one of these great platforms may be the right fit for your B2B store and personally vouch for their abilities. Give us a call anytime for a free consultation on options, features and considerations for each to find the perfect platform for your business.