Advanced B2B e-commerce and its potential

Advanced B2B e-commerce has huge potential in the era of digitalization – every company needs to have an internet shop. The mere foundation of the e-commerce platform is not enough. The development of B2B e-commerce is crucial. The seller has to introduce additional functionalities for the clients to encourage them to continue the co-operation. What else do you need to know about advanced B2B e-commerce?

Advanced B2B e-commerce – table of contents:

1. Advanced capabilities of B2B e-commerce
2. Extensive search
3. Direct contact with the sales representatives
4. Minimum order size
5. Advanced billing functions
6. Custom B2B platform options
7. Summary

Advanced capabilities of B2B e-commerce

What elements can be developed to facilitate the usage of the B2B internet store for the clients? What novelties have to be introduced to attract the customers to make shopping at your store? A few examples are below.

Extensive search

The search engine is the most important function of the store that has to be functional and work flawlessly. It has to search both the products’ names, their codes or even segments of codes. What is crucial, is it has to localize accordingly the product’s details, prices, availability, and discounts. It has to suggest phrases in case of erroneous entries and sort out the accuracy of the results.

The clients can enter different types of questions, but the search engine should give the right results. The good option is the option to add products to the basket directly in the browser.

Direct contact with the sales representatives

Implementation of the B2B platform is an opportunity to make savings for the company since the team of representatives is replaced by the system. However, the self-operating, unattended service may cause problems for the clients. There is always a question, what can be done when the client needs help and cannot get it from the system?

This is why the company should introduce a dedicated supervisor for all business partners. The person that plays the role of the supervisor should be introduced by name and his profile should contain a photo of his face. The platform should contain a chat so the contractor can contact their supervisor. This humane element will cause the seller will feel safe and will receive better service.

Minimum order size

The owner of the B2B e-commerce platform may use such type of protection. It is not profitable to process too small orders, hence the minimum order size for all or specified products has to be set. This is necessary for profitability and margin management.

Advanced billing functions

The process of billing in the case of B2B is more complicated than in the B2C internet store. It has to be designed to minimalize the risk of basket abandonment. The ability of the previous basket replication is equally important. Clients should have the ability to transfer the delivery cost to the accounts of their trading partners (such as FedEx, UPS, and so on).

Custom B2B platform options

The advanced B2B platform has not only extensive functionalities, but it presents interesting, sometimes unusual solutions. One of them is the panic button. This is the option for the brave. The company that sells products on the B2B platform can place the such button on each subpage.

After hitting the button, the entry field emerges, where the client can enter the message that is delivered directly to the managing board. This is a clear sign that the company cares and is not afraid of critique, and quite the contrary, the company wishes to know, what accordingly the business partners need to be improved.

The next advanced option is the preliminary order. Every person will appreciate that another person will do the work for them. This option facilitates the process of ordering by creating a list of products, that may interest the buyer. This list is made based on the average from the last several visits. The platform should give the client the ability to edit such lists. It would be a huge saving of time for the company that is the buyer. The function gives the seller the option to present discounts and rebates.

The next interesting convenience for the company is the electronic checklist that enhances the process of goods reception and delivery confirmation of compliance. It is worth providing this functionality in the form of a mobile application, that will enable the touch moving of the particular products to be accepted or changed. After the acceptance, the product should disappear from the list.

Summary

Advanced e-commerce gives many possibilities to improve the operation of the B2B internet store. The most important is to get to know well the target group to find out, which functions have to be introduced in the store.

Read also: What is e-commerce and who are online shoppers?

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