E-commerce has incredibly risen in the past few years. The massive global influences of brands have seen B2B e-commerce receive the attention it deserves. So if you intend to venture into B2B, you must ensure a seamless and personalized online shopping experience with a realm of automation and state-of-the-art tools to win over and retain as many customers as possible.
For those who have never had a B2B eCommerce solution, what are their main objections to selling online?
B2B e-commerce, or business-to-business e-commerce, is an online transaction similar to B2C e-commerce but the parties involved are businesses. It is a software-based solution that includes an online sales portal, and the sale of products and services between companies.
So, with such an impressive business model, why would a business shy away from adopting a B2B e-commerce solution? Reasons are plenty but the most common ones include lack of appreciation of B2B e-commerce, lack of support, lack of infrastructure, organizational politics, and resistance to change.
Essential Considerations When Choosing B2B Ecommerce Solution
When choosing the best B2B e-commerce solution for your business, be mindful of the common features a good solution should have. For instance, a good solution should be flexible enough to provide a personalized and customizable shopping experience. It should include a robust software architecture to meet a business’s future scalability needs. Other features include reliability and ease of use. Below are essential factors to consider while seeking B2B e-commerce website development services.
Easy ERP integration
The ability of the solution to integrate with your business’s systems is an essential factor to consider. The ERP system invaluable tool for your business, helping you align all functions, from financial management, supply chain management, and human resource factors. In other words, the ERP system is essential to your business, so when choosing the B2B solution, ensure it can integrate easily and work seamlessly with your ERP system.
Your budget
Cost is a significant deciding factor when seeking the right B2B e-commerce solution for your business. For instance, with a hosted solution, you’ll costs like license fees, maintenance costs of server hosting, development costs, and in-house IT team costs.
Alternatively, if the costs above are beyond your budget, a fully-hosted, cloud-based platform is an excellent alternative. You’ll only need a monthly fee for hosting, security, maintenance, and support. A fully-hosted cloud-based will help reduce your operational costs and give you time to focus on your company’s core business activities.
Scalability
As your business grows, the systems in place, including the B2B e-commerce solution should be able to handle the increased demand, heavy traffic, and business needs. So, be sure to choose a scalable B2B solution that can grow your business. The solution should have a flexible infrastructure that can handle a sudden surge in visitors efficiently without slowing down or even crashing. A cloud-based platform from Spiral Scout is built to scale with you and maintain reliable speed and performance even in your peak periods.
User experience
Usually, B2B e-commerce stores often adopt a standard one-size-fits-all design, making it difficult for companies to customize products and sellers to shop. So, a personalized and customized B2B catalog is perhaps the most profound and notable among B2B e-commerce features. Having such a platform would allow you to customize product lists for companies, business units, divisions, or even individual buyers. Such a solution makes customers enjoy surfing and shopping on your platform and thus have a reason to come back. In addition, get a solution that’s responsive, easy to use, and has flexible payment options. S
Technical support
At some point in your business, no matter how efficient your systems are, you’ll encounter technical issues or be required to clarify issues, answer queries, or offer a solution to a problem. nothing is as infuriating to customers as waiting for a response. With many competitors in the market, you’ll lose customers. So, your B2B solution should include a superior technology support capability that allows you to respond promptly to your customers.
Security
Cyberspace is seeing a rapid eruption of various forms of criminal activities. As such, you should give your prospects a reason to trust you with their personal and payment information. You can achieve this by ensuring the B2B solution of your choice is built with safeguards to prevent security breaches.
How does Shopify Plus B2B eCommerce Software Make it Easy to Overcome Challenges of Ecommerce Businesses?
Shopify is a popular and sought-after e-commerce solution. So, questions regarding its security, operations, scalability, and several other questions around e-commerce. A common question often asked is whether and how Shopify Plus B2B e-commerce software makes it easy to overcome the challenges of the e-commerce business.
The short answer is a resounding YES. Operating a B2B e-commerce business demands a robust and scalable infrastructure capable of serving exponentially more customers, complex operations, integrations, and support. The Shopify software is designed with these issues in mind and more. The software is built with the knowledge that expanding your business comes with a set of additional challenges, so it is designed to anticipate and address these challenges.
Get Start with B2B Ecommerce Solution – Shopify Plus Development from Spiral Scout
Now that you’re conversant with the value of having the right B2B e-commerce solution and how custom Shopify development can help, another point is where to start. Spiral Scout is a highly experienced and proactive software development agency in the US that can solve your most complex tech challenges. The company takes time to examine your business and its vision to design a personalized and customized B2B e-commerce that meets all your needs.