What is B2B e-commerce?
As the name suggests, business-to-business (B2B) is transaction made between businesses, such as one between a manufacturer and a wholesaler or a wholesaler and a retailer.
B2B e-commerce digitises and takes these transactions online. A B2B e-commerce platform is an online portal that enables B2B businesses to market and sell their products and services directly to customers or business partners.
Here are some examples of B2B e-commerce:
- Xerox established a powerful digital sales channel for its operations in 160 countries, driving a 30% increase in order value.
- Miele’s B2B online shop supplies industrial kitchens with 24/7 convenience in browsing, buying, and tracking delivery.
- KION North America converted 96% of its offline orders into online orders, with online orders up by 15% per day.
Why B2B e-commerce is important?
B2B e-commerce is now a key purchasing gateway for corporate buyers. Two-thirds of corporate buyers surveyed by McKinsey & Company prefer digital and remote channels throughout their purchasing journey.
Don’t get left behind—today’s B2B sellers are more likely to offer e-commerce channels than in-person selling, making it a crucial strategy for any supplier to stay ahead of the competition. In fact, e-commerce has surpassed in-person selling as the single most effective sales channel for B2B companies.
B2B e-commerce requirements
Companies are pulling out all the stops to make their B2B e-commerce sites a smooth, user-friendly experience through functionality and personalisation. Around 80% of B2B companies surveyed by McKinsey & Company are making their online channels as good as or better than their offline ones, keeping these key functionalities in mind:
Front-end functionalities
The front-end forms the interface users interact with directly, such as websites, mobile apps, connected devices, and other user experience (UX) features. Your front-end functionalities must meet business goals and buyer expectations for a friction-free online shopping journey.
Here are some examples of key front-end functionalities that B2B e-commerce sites require:
Personalisation
Allows customers to look for and filter specific products. Every search, recommendation, and navigation of the site is specific to the user, their role, and the company they work at.
Product information management
Manages product information and catalogue data across various touchpoints. Since B2B companies typically have large catalogues of complex products, the focus must be on structuring product relationships, managing product life cycles, and ensuring the completeness of data.
Pricing
Accommodates any pricing scenario—from discounted price to listed price, price by customer type, customer-specific pricing, time-based pricing, and tiered quantity pricing, among other pricing schemes.
Order and checkout
Allows customers to add products to their shopping cart, provide an order summary, and input discount and promo codes. B2B ordering, however, takes more than just adding items to your cart. Here are a few common ordering scenarios:
- Ordering in bulk via file import. To place an order with many items, users can upload a CSV file instead of adding items one by one.
- Ordering from an order list. Customers who order certain items often enough can create order lists to ease ordering and checkout.
- Ordering via subscriptions. Customers who order certain items on a schedule can place recurring orders via subscriptions.
<rt-blue-box>Note: Similarly, B2B checkout functions the same way, and users can reference a purchase order (PO), cost centre, or business unit and set a delivery schedule for every item in the order.<rt-blue-box>
Delivery and shipping schedule
Provides delivery options and indicates additional shipping fees and charges.
Self-service module
Allows customers to review their purchase and order history, track their order status, manage their account information, and retrieve sales invoices.
Additional front-end functionalities may include:
Warehouse and inventory
Provides customers with real-time inventory updates (i.e., sold-out items or how many items are still left in stock) and allows sellers to manage and optimise their inventory levels from multiple warehouse locations.
Quote
Pulls data from inventory levels and pricing specifications to generate quotes. Typically, there are two quoting scenarios:
Cost centre and budget
Allows customers to manage and control corporate spending by assigning cost centre to their orders and creating custom approval workflows when their order value exceeds a certain amount.
Back-end functionalities
Beyond customer experience, you also need to consider the functionalities your internal users require — such as your staff and management team—to store and organise data. These functionalities may include:
Organisation modelling
Manages your users, brands, and sales channels based on the way the company is structured.
Order management module
Manages orders from multiple channels, automates order processing, and updates inventory levels.
Third-party integrations
Integrates various plug-ins for customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and other applications.
Analytics
Tracks user behaviour such as clicks, searches, self-service activities, and mobile app purchases. You can also deploy analytics in customer service, sales, and operations.
Omnichannel or headless capabilities
A collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allows brands to offer the same consistent B2B e-commerce experience across multiple touchpoints.
Non-functional requirements
This refers to non-technical requirements that enhance user experience and boost a B2B e-commerce site’s performance. These functionalities may include:
Accessibility
There’s no overlooking the importance of accessibility in web design. Make your site easy to use for people of all needs by including common accessibility features such as alternative text for product images, enhanced colour contrasts, and layouts designed with keyboard navigation in mind.
Enterprise-ready security
Make your site secure so customers can trust you with their sensitive financial information needed for online transactions. B2B e-commerce sites can follow the ISO/IEC 27000 family of standards to protect data and manage the security of assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee data, and other information entrusted by third parties.
Load speed
For every second of load delay, website conversion rates can fall by an average of 4.42%. Make your site easy to load for more conversions and better SEO rankings. Google uses load speed as a site ranking factor, especially on mobile. For your e-commerce site to rank higher, keep page load time to two seconds and below.
Auto-scaling
When you’re in the middle of a massive online sale, the last thing you want to happen is for your B2B e-commerce site to crash. With auto-scaling, you can automatically adjust the capacity of your website’s responsiveness based on changing demand or site traffic, ensuring 100% uptime.
High-availability clustering
Speaking of uptime, you can also group computers, hosts, or servers into high-availability clusters (HA clusters) to provide continuous uptime for your B2B e-commerce site.
B2B e-commerce feature list
Looking for a B2B e-commerce platform to support your online sales strategy? These are the key features you’ll need in a B2B e-commerce platform:
Personalised experiences
B2B buyers expect an enhanced customer experience tailored to their needs and interests. The right B2B e-commerce platform should make it easy to customise user experiences, with features such as customer-specific pricing, intelligent product recommendations, and segmentation based on needs.
Deliver search results and product recommendations precisely tailored to your customers’ needs. Intershop’s search and recommendations engine helps us explore the possibilities of personalised experiences. The AI-powered search engine lets you build algorithms that map your data based on demographics, customer preferences by segment, product information, and more.
Omnichannel capabilities
Along with a more personalised experience, B2B customers also want more channels and more convenience. Now, B2B buyers and decision-makers are using more channels to connect with suppliers: 10 channels, to be exact. This calls for the right mix of in-person interactions, remote contact via phone or video calls, and e-commerce self-service across their purchasing journey.
B2B buyers have embraced omnichannel sales, so it’s crucial for your chosen B2B e-commerce platform to support your omnichannel strategy. Even on the B2B seller side, more than 90% of B2B companies view omnichannel strategies as equally or more effective in reaching and serving customers.
B2B e-commerce websites that run on headless, API-based architecture are often the best candidates for an omnichannel strategy, as they enable you to add touchpoints and update content swiftly and flexibly. Intershop has a plethora of B2B-specific APIs that provide a smooth digital experience across all front ends, from smartphones to machine terminals.
Self-service functionality
Equip your B2B e-commerce site with self-service capabilities. Not only will this save time for everyone involved, but it will also ensure a smooth and efficient shopping experience for your B2B customers. B2B buyers must be able to check inventory levels, track orders in real-time, and manage quotes when needed.
Ability to integrate multiple systems
Even as your business moves toward B2B e-commerce, there might be instances when you need to make sales calls, take purchase orders, or issue sales invoices in person. As such, you should still be able to integrate your B2B e-commerce platform with your point of sale (POS) system.
If you are currently using another software for customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP), ensure it works well with your B2B e-commerce platform.
Simplified order orchestration
Given the large orders, complex supply chains, and multi-channel transactions involved in B2B e-commerce, order management can be challenging. The right B2B e-commerce platform can help you optimise your ordering processes, from supply chain to shipping.
B2B e-commerce platforms allow businesses to operate on different channels, offering a consistent customer experience across multiple touchpoints. However, order fulfilment across channels can get complicated quickly, especially with large order volumes and multiple fulfilment centres, suppliers, and logistics partners.
In this case, you can use an Order Management System (OMS) with your B2B e-commerce platform to help manage and automate your order fulfilment process more seamlessly. Intershop’s Order Management System combines inventory overview across multiple channels, real-time order insights, and integrations with different payment gateways.
Next-level customer engagement
Given the scale and complexity of many B2B purchases, your buyers will likely need all the assistance they can get. It is during these moments when the quality of your customer engagement matters.
Gartner research reveals that, by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between buyers and suppliers will take place in digital channels. In fact, 33% of B2B buyers prefer a seller-free sales experience—this preference is higher among millennials at 44%. However, being seller-free doesn’t mean it’s devoid of personalised customer care.
Personalised customer support is still essential, especially via digital channels. Thus, your B2B e-commerce platform must have the tools to deliver a superior customer engagement experience.
Using a B2B e-commerce platform with strong customer support capabilities can help your sales team provide consistent customer support across multiple channels. Intershop’s Customer Engagement Center, for example, offers co-browsing capabilities and guides customers through to order completion.
Benefits of B2B e-commerce
- It allows your business to fast-track transactions and order fulfilment.
- It allows your business to reach potential customers anytime, anywhere.
- It gives your sales teams better visibility into orders, product pricing, and customer purchase history even when they are working remotely.
- It allows your business to easily measure and evaluate its product marketing campaigns, sales effectiveness, product mix, inventory levels, and customer engagement.
- It allows your business to offer a stellar customer experience and retain repeat customers.
- It provides your business with real-time insights to stay ahead of buying trends.
B2B e-commerce value chain
B2B companies must rethink their e-commerce value chain and offer their customers the right balance of cost, responsiveness, and experience. Here are six priorities to consider to bring your B2B e-commerce value chain to life:
- Think about the value chain, not just your physical supply chain
- Understand and segment your dynamic customers’ priorities
- Establish a culture that values the customer experience
- Focus digital capabilities on customers’ priorities
- Focus on physical capabilities and skills
- Make an emotional connection and create customer-oriented experiences
B2B e-commerce best practices
B2B e-commerce for manufacturers
E-commerce is fast becoming mainstream in industrial manufacturing, as customers now expect to work with any brand online. Having an information-only presence online is not enough anymore, so diving headlong into B2B e-commerce can give industrial manufacturers an edge. Here are some best practices to consider when building your B2B e-commerce strategy:
Decide what gets sold online and offline
Most manufacturers sell through a mix of purchasing models, such as direct online sales (i.e., research and buy products online) and Ro/Po, a combination of researching a product online yet purchasing offline. Given the number of products manufacturers sell, deciding which items get sold online or offline would be best. Replacement parts are easy candidates for B2B e-commerce, while more complex equipment systems might require in-person sales and after-sales maintenance.
Upload your complete product catalogue
While not all your products might be sold online, your complete product catalogue is still on your B2B e-commerce site. Enrich it with robust product data and purchasing and delivery information.
Offer personalised product catalogues
You can further personalise your product catalogues based on demographics, industry, location, previous customer preferences, and purchase history.
B2B e-commerce for distributors and wholesalers
Distributors and wholesalers act as intermediaries between manufacturers and retailers. Wholesalers sell products in bulk at discounted prices to B2B buyers. Here are some best practices to consider when doing wholesale B2B e-commerce:
Create a wholesale pricing strategy
Even though you sell products wholesale at a lower price, don’t jeopardise your profit by offering your buyers too good of a deal. Wholesale prices will depend on how much it costs to manufacture each unit, including operational costs for raw materials, shipping, handling, and labour.
You can approach your wholesale pricing strategy the same way you would a loyalty programme. Build a strategy based on your customers, how much they buy from you, and what types of products they buy from you.
Digitise and automate the sales process
Launching new brands, targeting new segments, and onboarding resellers are all time-consuming tasks for wholesalers. Use an online shop built for wholesalers, such as Intershop’s e-commerce for wholesale, to instantly set up attractive and responsive online stores to digitalise and automate your sales process without major coding or web development.
Streamline wholesale logistics
Shipping large amounts of stock to wholesale B2B customers can be a nightmare. Use an omnichannel inventory management system like Intershop’s e-commerce for wholesale to streamline wholesale logistics.
B2B e-commerce for healthcare
B2B e-commerce is changing the face of healthcare. Providers such as doctors, nurses, other medical practitioners, and even insurance companies are tapping into digital platforms to improve efficiency, reduce transaction costs, and provide real-time inventory updates across the supply chain.
By 2025, the global healthcare e-commerce market will surge to over US$435.8 billion. Healthcare e-commerce can be broken down into four lines of business: telemedicine websites, medical supply and equipment stores, online pharmacies, and healthcare marketplace websites.
Purchasing medical supplies online can be challenging. Aside from knowing the prices and product specifications, the reputation of medical suppliers or manufacturers is also an important selection criteria for B2B buyers. Here are some best practices to consider for B2B healthcare suppliers:
Offer competitive prices and discounts
Overall, B2B buyers, from hospitals to pharmacies, consider pricing and discounts the most important selection criteria for their choice of medical supplier. They look at the best prices and discounts various vendors offer before making a choice.
Speed up delivery times
Longer delivery times are a major deterrent for B2B buyers of medical supplies.
Ensure product variety and availability
The unavailability of specific medical products and lack of product variety deters most B2B buyers of medical supplies. Build a comprehensive online product catalogue with detailed pricing and shipping information.
<rt-blue-box>Case study: B2B e-commerce for healthcare To help customers avoid errors while placing orders, Bunzl allows customers from residential aged care facilities in Australia and New Zealand to place orders based on the medical supplies and equipment needed for specific rooms or business units.<rt-blue-box>
B2B e-commerce for office supplies
By 2025, the global office supplies market will reach nearly US$273.9 billion. This is no surprise, as offices, schools, and even businesses use office supplies for daily workflows. Here are some best practices to consider for B2B office supplies e-commerce:
Sell complementary products
Upsell some goods by packaging them as complementary products. If you sell one product, it would be much easier to sell other products that complement it. If you sell a printer, for example, it would be easier to sell some printer paper and ink to go along with it. You can sell complementary products as a bundle, or upsell related products during checkout.
Offer volume pricing and bulk ordering
Organisations tend to order huge quantities of office supplies. With bulk orders, you can offer lower and more competitive prices, which helps improve sales and profit margins. Your B2B e-commerce platform must be able to display volume discounts.
Integrate with your brick-and-mortar stores
Some B2B buyers might prefer to pick up their office supplies in-store. As such, integrate your online and offline sales channels for a seamless omnichannel customer experience. For added value, allow B2B buyers who visit your physical store to take advantage of the discounted prices and digital invoicing available on your e-commerce site.
Types of B2B e-commerce
Headless B2B e-commerce
What is it?
This is an approach to B2B e-commerce architecture where the front end (a.k.a., the “head”) is separated from the back-end functionalities. This approach allows businesses to create different front-ends or user experiences through application programming interfaces (APIs).
Is it for you?
This approach to B2B e-commerce is right for you if you want the freedom to customise and roll out changes quickly. This approach can help you build an omnichannel commerce strategy that delivers experiences across multiple touchpoints.
The downside?
Headless B2B e-commerce platforms can be time-consuming and costly, especially when building numerous bespoke front-ends from scratch. The platform will also likely require a full-time technical support team for upkeep post-launch.
The good news?
Platforms like Intershop offers a packaged pre-built solution that can be configured, customised, and launched in as little as 100 days.
If you’re just getting started, there will be a resource ramp-up period. Intershop offers add-on resources that can stand in as your in-house technical and business operations teams to help operate the platform.
B2B e-commerce marketplace
What is it?
An approach to B2B e-commerce where multiple B2B companies are networking and trading in one marketplace. This approach allows companies to conduct business, consolidate and organise their communications and transactions, and network and trade with other B2B companies safely and securely under one roof. A good B2B e-commerce marketplace must have multi-vendor capabilities and self-service functions for buyers who want to place orders themselves.
- B2B buyers see e-commerce marketplaces as a vital part of their purchasing mix: 60% of B2B buyers surveyed by McKinsey & Company are open to purchasing from e-commerce marketplaces, close to the percentage of B2B buyers who purchase from supplier-branded e-commerce websites (64%).
- B2B companies are actively investing in e-commerce marketplaces: 79% of B2B suppliers surveyed by McKinsey & Company have built, are planning to build, or are considering building an e-commerce marketplace.
Is it for you?
This approach to B2B e-commerce is right for you if you want to streamline your business transactions while significantly increasing your company’s visibility. Given its reach, B2B e-commerce marketplaces allow companies to showcase their industry expertise and leadership, and target many buyers and sellers from different industries.
The downside?
B2B e-commerce marketplaces are competitive, given the sheer number of buyers and sellers gathered in one place. Finding ways to stand out to potential buyers can be challenging, limiting sales potential. High marketing costs and a complicated initial set-up make B2B e-commerce marketplaces a less-than-ideal solution.
The good news?
Platforms like Intershop can help you build your own B2B e-commerce marketplace. You can also use our standard integrators to seamlessly connect our e-commerce platform and order management systems with global digital marketplaces such as Amazon and Alibaba, to name a few preferred sales channels.
Trends and insights
- B2B buyers see e-commerce marketplaces as a vital part of their purchasing mix: 60% of B2B buyers surveyed by McKinsey & Company are open to purchasing from e-commerce marketplaces, close to the percentage of B2B buyers who purchase from supplier-branded e-commerce websites (64%).
- 79% of B2B suppliers surveyed by McKinsey & Company have built, are planning to build, or are considering building an e-commerce marketplace.
B2B self-service portal
What is it?
A portal where B2B customers can access their account information, invoice and order history, order status, and other digital self-services online 24/7. A B2B self-service portal can provide all kinds of integrations through standard APIs.
Is it for you?
This option is for you if you want to boost your after-sales management without adding extra load to your sales team. And depending on how it’s designed, a B2B self-service portal can also give your customers the power to manage their own data, products, and service agreements at their own time and pace, improving customer satisfaction and retention in the process.
The downside?
If not designed well, a B2B self-service portal can be a cause of frustration among customers. Aside from creating extra work for users, an ill-designed B2B self-service portal may actually constrain what customers can do on the platform. As such, B2B self-service portals must be simple and intuitive enough to navigate across channels.
The good news?
Platforms like Intershop’s Digital Customer Portal can take the guesswork out of designing your own B2B self-service portals. We can personalise and unify your after-sales management, self-service options, and omnichannel customer experience all in one place. Our co-browsing functions, sales apps, and self-service configurators help smoothen the learning curve and guide your customers throughout the purchasing journey.
B2B e-commerce trends
Get to know today’s B2B buyers
Do you really know your B2B buyers? Here are some key trends and insights to help you learn more about the behaviour and preferences of today’s B2B buyers:
Millennials: the driving force of change
The primary driver pushing B2B e-commerce trends in 2023 is the generational shift to millennials and other digital natives.
Millennials now hold the purchasing power in the B2C market, so it’s no surprise that they make up the majority of today’s B2B buyers as well. According to TrustRadius’ 2020 survey, 60% of all B2B tech buyers and 51% of lead buyers are millennials, or individuals between the ages of 26 and 41.
Digital and mobile natives
As digital natives, millennials prefer buying online over traditional offline channels, both in professional and personal contexts. This TrustRadius survey found that millennial buyers are twice as likely as previous generations to discover products through online searches.
Mobile habits take centre stage in this digital shift. Research by the Boston Consulting Group found that 80% of B2B buyers use mobile at work, which directly translates to conversions, with over 60% stating that mobile plays a key role in their purchases.
B2B buyers are strategic
B2B buyers think and search differently from their B2C counterparts: while B2C shoppers might buy on impulse, B2B buyers typically come to your e-commerce site with a well-defined need. Additionally, B2C customers tend to be swayed by new products and emotional factors, while B2B buyers are less likely to deviate from pre-defined specifications in their search.
Research takes priority
The B2B buying process usually takes longer than B2C shopping, as B2B buyers have more to evaluate: budget, functionalities, and opinions from multiple decision-makers.
A typical B2B buyer today tends to research more thoroughly, consulting an average of 6.9 information sources before making a purchase. Many information sources buyers rely on are now online, including product demos, vendor websites, and user reviews.
What B2B buyers want
B2B buyer expectations are changing. Aligning your offerings with these expectations will help your e-commerce site stand out. Here are some B2B e-commerce site trends that companies must consider:
Personalised experiences
B2B buyers expect an elevated customer experience tailored to their needs and interests. The most effective B2B e-commerce sites deliver personalised content in real-time, such as customer-specific pricing and smart product recommendations.
AI-powered search and recommendations
According to a Forrester report, B2B e-commerce brands are already harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI), especially for business intelligence, automated conversations, and personalisation. In 2023, millennials and digital natives expect AI-driven personalised experiences to be a part of any B2B e-commerce operation, as AI can help filter information into meaningful content and speed up the buying process.
Digital self-service
With most B2B buyers now wanting to control their buying journey, another key trend in e-commerce sites is self-service functionalities. B2B self-service focuses on accelerating efficiency for everyone involved by providing up-to-date information upfront. This approach speeds up your B2B buyers’ decision-making and frees up your team for more value-adding tasks.
Customer portals are the ideal solution for self-service B2B e-commerce as they give customers continuous access to your brand. With customer portals, you can provide customers access to your product catalogue, online shop, and services and support 24/7, every day of the year.
Trustworthy information
Given the complexity of the B2B buying journey, buyers need trustworthy information. Customers who perceived information from suppliers as helpful were 2.8 times more likely to experience a high degree of purchase ease, and three times more likely to make a bigger purchase with less regret.
However, many B2B e-commerce sites do not provide the right information. TrustRadius’ B2B Buying Disconnect 2021 report reveals a disconnect between the top information sources that buyers rely on and the resources that sellers invest in.
User reviews, vendor representatives, and free trials rank high on B2B buyers’ lists of trustworthy sources. However, many B2B sellers focus on less reliable tactics, such as marketing collaterals and case studies.
Intuitive design
B2C buyers today expect an easy-to-use experience in online shopping, and the same is true for B2B buyers. However, intuitive design is still a major pain point in B2B e-commerce. Businesses need to think more about creating a convenient, responsive buying experience.
According to Wunderman Thompson Commerce’s B2B Future Shopper Report 2021, a third of buyers experience challenges in finding products on supplier sites. Additionally, 61% of B2B buyers are frustrated with the lack of functionality on supplier sites, while over three-quarters want a better mobile experience from their suppliers.
Virtual commerce
Humans are visual creatures by nature, and the fact that images sell is certainly not news—almost 90% of online buyers look for relevant images and videos before buying a product or service online. With B2B e-commerce, this reality becomes more pronounced as online buyers can’t physically experience products before making a purchase.
Virtual commerce enhances the online buying experience with the help of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) technologies. With virtual commerce, customers can preview products in a virtual environment in different ways, such as:
- Try on clothes virtually
- Visualise machines to match an assembly line
- Visualise spare parts that can be used to repair or upgrade current equipment
OS-agnostic mobile technology and progressive web apps
Progressive web apps (PWAs) combine the best of the classic e-commerce website optimised for mobile—responsive, and can be accessed via browser—with the advantages of a fully developed native app. What you get is a mobile website accessible to search engines, but with the same look and feel as native apps.
This is the natural progression of mobile B2B e-commerce, untethered from specific operating systems (OS) and accessible on any device. For B2B brands, PWAs are the easiest and most effective means of creating high-performing mobile websites without the need for app development, downloads, or installation. In fact, PWAs can increase mobile conversion rates by up to 20%.
Packaged business capabilities for composable commerce
Composable commerce has emerged as the latest approach to building and managing B2B e-commerce systems. As its name suggests, composable commerce ‘composes’ select best-of-breed commerce components into a custom application built for specific business needs, with a focus on flexibility and modularity.
To prevent the pitfalls of composable architecture, B2B companies can tap into packaged business capabilities (PBCs). Also known as microservices or packaged functionalities, PBCs are software components that represent a well-defined business capability (e.g., shopping cart, checkout, promotion, or customer and account management).
Sustainability in e-fulfilment
Efficiency and sustainability in e-fulfilment has become a significant issue, especially as 73% of online buyers now consider environmental impact when choosing a brand. In fact, 65% of B2B buyers can accept slower delivery times if it minimises negative environmental impact.
But sustainable e-fulfilment is not just about eco-friendly packaging and delivery options—it starts with how B2B companies process and fulfil orders across different channels. An order management system (OMS) is an essential tool to achieve sustainable e-fulfilment as it helps B2B companies plan, control, and implement their order fulfilment process, all while minimising their carbon footprint and negative environmental impact across the value chain.
Autonomous commerce
Not a trend per se but, rather, the culmination of other B2B e-commerce trends, autonomous commerce reflects the impact of AI and automation on both B2B buyers and merchants alike. It yields a self-governed commerce experience among buyers, merchants, suppliers, and partners with the help of connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Getting started with B2B e-commerce for your organisation
B2B e-commerce business plans
If you still don’t have B2B e-commerce, it’s time to ramp up this capability. Today’s corporate buyers turn to B2B e-commerce at every stage of their buying journey. Here’s what organisations can do to integrate B2B e-commerce into their business plans:
- Prioritise critical capabilities that align with your business strategy.
- Design your B2B e-commerce website in phases with big- and small-ticket goals in mind.
- Explore different avenues to get you in front of more customers, whether through a presence in a specific marketplace or a partner strategy.
- Set up high-level key performance indicators (KPIs) and a roadmap for your B2B e-commerce strategy.
- Look at returns on investment (ROI) and see how the B2B e-commerce platform can impact profits and losses (P&L) and the bottom line.
- Get buy-in from top management and relevant teams like sales, customer support, and marketing.
- Start small and work your way up, but review your B2B e-commerce roadmap and KPIs every three to six months.
B2B e-commerce team structure and operations
If you want to achieve great results with B2B e-commerce, you need a great team to back it up. Start with your overall business strategy and then determine the organisational structure of your B2B e-commerce support team. It would be best if someone from your existing management or leadership team could take responsibility for B2B e-commerce, or hire a dedicated manager or director for this function.
There is no “one size fits all” approach to creating a B2B e-commerce support team. As you put together your B2B e-commerce team, think about people’s competencies and not just functions, as one person can fulfil several roles.
To keep up with rapid growth in the B2B e-commerce space, B2B companies need to make three “seismic shifts” in how they approach corporate buyers and lead sales teams:
- Become an omnichannel orchestrator. Work across multiple channels as buyer preferences may vary across the deal stages: in-person selling, outreach via social media, e-mails, chat support, or phone calls.
- Have a value-creation mindset. Develop integrated solutions, tailor your value proposition, and offer unique pricing arrangements.
- Enable continuous change management. Stay agile and manage constant changes in your product offerings and internal capabilities.
B2B e-commerce KPIs
As with your B2B e-commerce team’s structure, there is no “one size fits all” approach to determining KPIs. It varies from business to business, depending on the metrics you want to measure, monitor, and manage. However, KPIs must always align with bigger business strategies and goals.
KPIs must be actionable and measured accurately in real-time and, ultimately, make a difference to your company’s bottom line. We have identified some KPIs to consider to measure the success of your B2B e-commerce site:
Conversion rate
Measures how often a visitor or customer performs a desired action on your website, such as making actual purchases, signing up for newsletters, or downloading content. The standard benchmark for e-commerce sales conversion rate is around 2% to 3%.
<rt-center>Conversion rate = Total desired action by visitors / Total visits x 100<rt-center>
Average order value (AOV)
Measures how much an average customer pays for an order. B2B companies can increase AOV by recommending related items with purchases, selling complementary items at a discount, and offering free shipping when a customer meets a specific order value.
<rt-center>Average order value = Currency value of all sales / Number of transactions<rt-center>
Customer retention rate
Measures the percentage of customers you retain over a specified period, i.e., retaining the customers who have viewed or made purchases from your B2B e-commerce site.
A high customer retention rate spells high profits, as you stand to earn more from repeat customers than new ones. Businesses can improve customer retention through loyalty programs and excellent customer service.
<rt-center>Customer retention rate = (Number of customers at the close of a period – Number of customers acquired during the period) / Customers at the beginning of period) x 100<rt-center>
Other KPIs to consider to gauge the performance of your B2B e-commerce site may include:
- Higher adoption of digital channels
- Offline orders converted to online orders
- Increase complex product conversions
- Reduce cost of sales
- Reduced manual work
- Decrease in customer acquisition costs
- Increase in customer satisfaction or a higher Net Promoter Score
Why Intershop for B2B e-commerce?
Extensive out-of-the-box business capabilities
Even in B2B companies with complex products or sales processes, very few features need to be developed from scratch. This allows businesses to get to market quickly and start generating revenue immediately.
Intershop is designed to cater to businesses of all sizes and complexity, with built-in features that can be easily configured to meet specific business needs. This saves you valuable resources and eliminates the need for extensive custom development work.
Customisability
If you do need to add a new feature or modify an existing one, every aspect of Intershop can be customised and extended to meet your specific needs, providing a unique and personalised experience for your customers.
Full-service support
Intershop provides end-to-end solutions to help you with business operations, development, and technical support while you build your team. With Intershop, you have a dedicated partner to help you achieve your business goals.
B2B e-commerce Frequently Asked Questions
B2B e-commerce vs B2C e-commerce
If you’re wondering about the differences between B2B and B2C e-commerce, here’s a quick comparison:
B2B e-commerce
- Optimised to provide information and self-service
- The buying process is typically more complex due to the involvement of multiple decision-makers
- Sales cycles are not linear and usually longer; however, the sales process of the same or related items is fast and repetitive once the supplier or product is locked in
- While some B2B products can be intuitive, others are highly complex and require some degree of advice from the seller
Key website features for B2B e-commerce include:
- Self-service account management, which allows users to retrieve information such as account statements, invoices, and credit limits
- Ability to look up product information such as pricing, inventory, and lead time, along with related items like consumables and/or spare parts
- User management features that allow the configuration of approval workflows, organisational structures, and cost centres
- Multiple shopping cart functionality, which allows business employees to add items to separate carts
- Functionality to connect to other business applications such as finances, ERP, CRM, PIM, and logistics
B2C e-commerce
- Optimised to provide consumers with a smooth shopping experience
- The buying process is fairly straightforward, involving individual consumers and short sales cycles
- Users can largely self-educate and discover what they need with little assistance, as products are easily understandable
Key website features for B2C e-commerce include:
- Seamless add-to-cart functionality
- Flexible payment options
- Promotional features
- Upselling and cross-selling techniques
B2B e-commerce vs EDI
<rt-blue-box>Remember: EDI and B2B e-commerce are not mutually exclusive, and thoughtful enterprises strategically use EDI and B2B e-commerce in for different scenarios.<rt-blue-box>
Here’s a quick comparison between B2B e-commerce and electronic data interchange (EDI).
B2B e-commerce
- Streamlines the B2B buying and selling process while expanding your customer base, penetrating new markets, and showcasing your brand online
- Provides detailed product information and catalogues for an improved buyer experience, where new buyers can know more about your offerings
- Can process new requests for quotes (RFQs) and not just established contracts or agreements
- While EDI continues to dominate B2B sales channels, business buyers and sellers now see B2B e-commerce as a more efficient way to research and purchase corporate goods and services
Electronic data interchange (EDI)
- Streamlines the B2B buying and selling process while expanding your customer base, penetrating new markets, and showcasing your brand online
- Provides detailed product information and catalogues for an improved buyer experience, where new buyers can know more about your offerings
- Can process new requests for quotes (RFQs) and not just established contracts or agreements
- While EDI continues to dominate B2B sales channels, business buyers and sellers now see B2B e-commerce as a more efficient way to research and purchase corporate goods and services
- One of the oldest and biggest B2B sales channels, often used by large manufacturers and distributors with large and recurring orders
- Allows companies to exchange standardised business documents, such as purchase orders and sales invoices, via electronic networks
- Optimised for processes such as big retail replenishment, logistics and tendering, and multi-modal status notifications for automotive assembly
- While EDI is technically B2B e-commerce, it is focused on transmitting documents rather than the buying and selling process
- EDI provides another way for you to accept orders from existing customers, and works with already established contracts or agreements
Examples of B2B e-commerce products
- Car parts like tires, batteries, electronics, hoses, and door locks
- Semiconductors for electronic devices, often used in communications, computing, healthcare, transportation, and other applications
- Building materials like wood, concrete, cement, and steel for construction projects
- Textiles like fibres, yarns, threads, and fabrics used for clothing production
- Manufacturing materials such as chemicals, metals, ceramics, polymers, and other raw materials
- Office supplies such as paper, adhesives, inks, toners, and workstation accessories
What are B2B e-commerce use cases?
- Manufacturer ordering or selling supplies
- Wholesaler selling to distributors
- Distributor selling to retailers
- Manufacturers and wholesalers selling direct
- Digitalising sales process
- Hyper-personalised self-service portal
- Unify offline and online sales channels
- Sell globally
