B2B Info Center

If you run a B2B e-commerce platform, your entire business depends on your site. Most of your customers are probably doing business through your site, and if it doesn't fit what they want or need, they'll go somewhere else. When businesses need something, whether it's a lower price or more modern technology from a company, they'll do whatever it takes to get it. Unfortunately, some companies will even go as far as leaving a company they've been doing business with for years if it hasn’t caught up to their discerning standards.

Here are a few of the things that your customers are looking for in a B2B e-commerce platform.

Finding an affordable solution for effective B2B e-commerce management is a valuable asset for any business. Now Commerce has a platform that offers not only efficient management, but a viable method to increase sales and simplify business processes in general. The result is simplifying B2B e-commerce with customers and increasing profitability.

It’s a new year, and perhaps you're on a quest toward simplifying your B2B e-commerce site to increase sales, satisfy customers and still have time to check things off your ever-growing to do list.  Without B2B order software, processing orders can be complicated.  Take a cue from B2C websites and improve your B2B e-commerce site in 2016.  If the B2C world finally mastered e-commerce, the B2B world can too.

To gain a competitive edge, more and more wholesalers are adding e-commerce capabilities to their operations. It's clear that customers want to be able to order without having to call and wait for representatives, make appointments with salespeople, or go through other time-consuming and error-prone processes.

There isn't any question that customer engagement in the B2B world is more imperative than ever in a time when buyers want a more personalized experience with companies they buy from. Creating brand loyalty is never easy in a world where B2B competition is so intense. You're possibly feeling this pinch lately and wondering how you can stand out from hundreds of other B2B companies selling the same products you do.

As new technology disrupts the B2B market, B2B customers are adapting to new ways of doing business.  Increased personalization, mobility, and automation are the leading trends. Previously, B2B operations have been a little behind in offering their customers this type of B2C experience.  They weren't sure if offering their customers an online experience could still enable them to build customer relationships and increase ROI. But now, with online sales expected to increase within the next five years, wholesalers, manufactures and distributors need to invest more in bringing a typical e-commerce experience to the B2B world.

Forrester's US B2B report predicts that e-commerce will grow from $780 billion to $1.13 trillion over the five years between 2015 and 2020. It will constitute more than 12% of the total B2B market at that time. The B2B buying habits of business purchasers are already heavily influenced by the capabilities of one-line options. The report also points out that nearly three-quarters of B2B buyers are conducting at least half of their buying online.

Any company that is looking to expand its reach should be asking the question, "What is B2B e-commerce?" When wholesalers and distributors reach their max capacity with internal teams and outside sales reps, companies have a hard time growing their business.  The answer to growth may very well lie in expanding their business to business (B2B) model. By expanding into an e-commerce model, small businesses who can’t afford a lot of overhead expense are able to expand their markets.

Business-to-business commerce is the first idea that jumps into people's minds when they think of how a wholesaler or distributor operates. Some examples are looking for local companies to get supplies, looking at warehouses to hold your inventory, finding a retailer to provide a market, or sourcing shipping companies to send your products.  B2B e-commerce is the transfer of that normal operation from traditional routes to ones conducted over the Web. It's when businesses find suppliers and make purchases on-line without using the traditional means of placing orders with a sales rep or over the phone or fax with a customer service rep in the home office.

For years, B2C e-commerce had surged while the B2B version had either been stagnant or was growing only slowly. At first, wholesalers and other B2B suppliers didn't believe that e-commerce was important to their customers, and this was a big reason for the disparity. Once they realized that e-commerce could bring in more wholesale business and keep loyal customers, B2B companies began to put some actual effort into adding online ordering capabilities to their offerings. Even then, however, investment was lacking and improvements have been slow in coming.  These attitudes could prove to be detrimental in today's world. But the mindset is now changing.