What types of companies do you see when you think of an e-commerce platform? Do you envision any online shops that offer goods for everyday use like clothing, jewelry, and sweets?
There is no denying that consumer product stores have a sizable market for e-commerce. Although B2C brands dominate the online retail market, some of the most prosperous internet firms cater to Successful B2B clients.
E-commerce software is necessary for both B2B and B2C businesses. For instance, wholesale websites and resellers are important components of the commerce ecosystem. For starters, they provide the goods that fuel B2C stores.
How B2B success is facilitated by e-commerce platforms?
While many B2B businesses are aware of the advantages of having an e-commerce website, some still insist on using more antiquated methods, such as phone or email transactions.
The fact is that using an e-commerce website to conduct wholesale and reseller transactions is far simpler. The customer finds it simpler, and B2B businesses benefit by saving time and selling more goods.
The success of your B2B online endeavor depends on choosing the appropriate e-commerce solution because not all e-commerce platforms are designed to handle business-to-business transactions.
Here are some essential characteristics that e-commerce solutions must have to qualify as B2B platforms and offer B2B customers the capabilities they need.
Customer groups and profile segmentation
Customers are typically treated similarly in B2C. The larger orders that wholesalers deal in, however, differ from customer to customer. Therefore, these firms require stringent group designations for customer segmentation.
B2B businesses should be able to categorize their clients. Businesses can do this to customize each segment’s pricing, minimum order requirements, and group-specific information (such as promotions, shipping, and payment methods).
Your B2B clients should be able to be categorized based on their profiles, including
- Place in the world
- Order total
- Catalog choice
- Repeated orders
- Number of items ordered
Customer-specific pricing and a catalog
Based on the type of consumer or, as was already indicated, the customer group, B2B businesses might charge varying prices. Additionally, even though you are merely segmenting your customers to tailor the shopping experience, you will frequently find that your more demanding customers require “special” product prices.
This must not be mistaken for affordable prices. That is a whole different tactic. The core of a B2B e-commerce website is the ability to set different base prices for any product in your catalog and assign these to specific customer groups.
This capability will determine whether or not your customers complete their orders online or continue to contact you by phone or email to have their orders filled.
The requirement for a customer-specific product catalog follows closely behind the capacity to offer pricing that is particular to each customer. Your e-commerce website should enable the creation of products.
Specifically, those that are exclusively available to particular consumers if B2B clients require a unique layout of products or a price structure that is too distinctive to be incorporated into the existing products.
Discounts for bulk purchases and volume
B2B customers typically purchase items in bulk, so even while your products can be displayed as cases, packs, or pallets, you might still want to offer different levels of discounts based on the total number of items that will be ordered.
You must have a means for your e-commerce platforms to support quantity thresholds that permit delivering bulk discounts.
You might anticipate being able to set different tiers for the discounts based on the customer groups given to your client base if you anticipate the quantity discounts to operate along the customer-specific price levels.
Limited access
In many circumstances, you’ll want to limit access to your website so that only users who have previously registered may view your items and content.
Look for built-in capabilities in your e-commerce platform that will allow you to create a fully password-protected website that requires users to register to access.
On a more specific level, retailers can manage the visibility of their primary site using tools that let you conceal products and pricing or prevent purchases from being made by unregistered users.
Form for wholesale bulk orders
A bulk order form can improve the overall shopping experience for B2B clients placing large orders by providing a straightforward, user-friendly method to do so on your website.
Your website now has the option for users to enter part numbers and choose the desired quantity for each product thanks to a bulk order form. When all the items added at once to the cart, the process should lead the customer immediately to checkout.
Successful B2B platforms
Following are the top 10 B2B websites in the world that can support your business:
- Amazon
- Alibaba
- Tradekey.com
- Rakuten
- Made-in-China
- eBay
- AliExpress
- Global sources
- EC21
- ECplaza
