Years ago, Amazon didn’t exist, the World Wide Web was still a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye, and nobody (except maybe a few science fiction authors) could have possibly predicted the effect that eCommerce websites and online sales systems would have on the world.
Today, with a single click of a button (or even a sentence or two shouted at Alexa), customers around the world can order anything from a book to groceries to bags of cat food to a new pair of shoes.
What does this have to do with you and your B2B business? What does this mean for wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers? People have come to expect this functionality in the B2C landscape, and that expectation has bled over into their business life.
Wholesale customers expect online ordering
The truth is, as a society, we’ve been spoiled rotten by the idea of being able to order products online — but we’re not doing this out of laziness. It simply works better. It’s faster, it’s more efficient, and best of all, it doesn’t have to involve anyone but the customer.
This is the real benefit to businesses — you no longer have to keep an army of sales reps near computers and phones, constantly taking calls and emails, or continually entering data from orders. And continuously finding opportunity after opportunity to make a small mistake, screw up an order, and cause a minor disaster down the road.
And it’s not just on your employees—sure, they could make some mistakes when inputting an order back in the day, but often, the customers were just as bad, and mistakes could simply come from poor communication, even a bad phone connection.
Online ordering makes life easier for your wholesale customers
Online order entry systems are the new norm — and B2B customers have come to expect them just as B2C customers have for some time.
The truth is that your customers don’t always want to work with a sales rep, send a series of emails, or pick up the phone. There's nothing easier than jumping online, ordering some products, sending in the order, and returning to work.
It makes life smooth and easy for your customers. As long as they have access to a B2B customer portal, as Now Commerce provides, this becomes a simple matter for them.
But this capability makes life easier for you, the manufacturer, distributor, and wholesaler. You no longer have to worry about one of your employees accidentally making a mistake via email or over the phone on a recurring order, or worse, getting involved in some silly misunderstanding with a long-time customer and souring the relationship.
Your sales reps benefit too
A sales rep portal can also make life easier for your sales reps. They can easily access real-time pricing information and inventory levels while out in the field—all without bothering you or your employees at the home office with a phone call.
This also means your reps can be more effective in the field. They don’t have to leave your customers in the lurch while they check on inventory or price data, and they can always feel confident that those levels are accurate.
On your side, you have incredible control over the prices, inventory, and customers that sales reps can access. The same goes for your wholesale customers who order through the online portal—you can set minimum purchases, prices, and even what inventory they can see and cannot.
Switching to an online order entry system can take some getting used to, so we’ll pair you with a dedicated account manager to ensure you get exactly what you need from Now Commerce.
