Which is the most suitable B2B eCommerce Platform

Are you able to provide services that aid businesses in their growth, hiring, or manage their teams? Do you provide products to businesses? Do you offer items for sale wholesale?

If you're in the B2B space (or want to be -- you may very well benefit from a B2B eCommerce platform. It can simplify processes for the clients you serve as well as your staff as well as help you expand quicker and with greater efficiency.

Let's glance at the ways that an eCommerce store can help the B2B industry, and how to choose the right store.

The reason for creating a B2B eCommerce store?

The majority of online stores that you've come across are B2C (Business to Consumer), supplying your dog's food, your son's birthday present, or perhaps the best specialty foods you've ever bought. Beware of thinking that eCommerce stores are just for consumer-facing companies. They could be a powerful instrument to B2B firms too.

A recent study found that 41 percent of shoppers from B2B said that the self-service feature would improve the process of making business transactions online. That's a big percentage! and the capability for customers to manage their accounts as well as perform similar tasks is an important aspect of eCommerce functionality.

Instead of calling for a quote, a Sourcing Manager could send a request via the web and find out this information instantly, regardless of the moment of the day. It is also possible to submit an order or opt to sign up for having your products delivered automatically each month. If you offer landscaping services for retailers, the business owner could log into their account to alter the frequency of their service and also check the next time you're scheduled to drop by.

B2B eCommerce stores can also go a long way towards making processes easier to manage. They can take the load off customer service reps and sales team members through some of the self-service tasks mentioned earlier. They can transfer information across multiple distribution channels and ensure that everything's up-to-date and accurate. Additionally, they eliminate the painful steps involved in mailing invoices or quotes manually in the process of following up with every prospective client.

In the end, an online store acts as the brand's image as well as the central point of the marketing strategies you employ. It is possible to directly link to the products and services you offer in your marketing emails and marketing campaigns. It is possible to create information that can guide prospects through the sales funnel. You can also track the success of your efforts to steer the future direction of your business.

A few things to think about when selecting an B2B eCommerce platform

The eCommerce platform you choose is the base of your storefront online. We'll look at some of the factors to think about when choosing one, and examine why is the top solution for B2B online stores.

Types of products that you're offering

There is a wide range of opportunities that are available to B2B companies. There are several items you may sell, and some of the examples you can use:

• Physical items. Think equipment, printed training booksand cleaning products.  Storage and handling equipment  For instance, Storage and Handling Equipment supplies eco-friendly shopping carts to supermarkets and retail stores.
• Digital items. Things like online classes including eBooks and eBooks available for download, as well as software licenses. TipoType is one example. It gives font licenses to companies and freelancers.
• Services. Offers include graphic design, accounting as well as legal assistance. Your Benefit Store is a service-provider, selling healthcare coverage which companies may offer as part of plans for employees.
• Wholesale goods. Selling large volumes of products to retailers, effectively serving as their supply. Porta Pro Chem For instance, offers portable toiletries to clients around the country.
• Memberships. Access to a collection of benefits and resources like a video library, or an online forum. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, as an example, has an membership program that includes resources, courses, event invites and more, specifically for media and marketing companies.
• Subscriptions. Services or products that are recurring, such as a year-long licence, weekly cleaning service and monthly boxes of coffee beans for the break room. Modo Design Modo sells subscriptions to design software, but subscriptions can also involve physical products as well as even newsletters.

You can tell that they all vary widely between them, however, there is also the possibility of overlap. It is possible to sell wholesale as well as retail items. You could sell both digital and physical books side by side. You could also offer a monthly subscription which includes an office clean-up every week, and a box of cleaning products.

The point here is, you may do business in a variety of ways and be sure that your platform supports all of them.

sells functionality on every product and services mentioned above, plus more! In fact, all of the sites listed above make use of . Selling one product or several side-by-side. Anyone can purchase or restrict capabilities to specific customers or wholesale clients.

What ever you'd like to sell, makes it possible.

Design Flexibility

Just as your products or services are distinct Your brand, too. Of course, you want your website to reflect the character and characteristics of that brand.

A reliable B2B eCommerce platform will allow customers total and complete flexibility in the design and development of anything you can imagine and not have to edit code or hire an expert developer, even if you don't wish to.

Because it is an extension to WordPress and is an extension of WordPress, you are able to use the power of Block Editor. Block Editor to build all of your pages and posts. The Block Editor enables you to drag and drop various elementsincluding headings, paragraphs, images, videos, and columns to design your very own layout. Then, you can switch settings to customize colors, font styles, and other aspects of the design to make your page completely unique to you.

Ownership of content

In the world of online business, ensuring that you own your content is absolutely critical. Your website is a source of income -- you can't risk that it will disappear. You see, many proprietary eCommerce platforms will remove your website with no warning if they decide that you've violated their terms and regulations. This means losing revenue along with time and work!

However, WordPress and other software are instruments to assist you in achieving your objectives. Your website can be hosted anywhere you'd prefer it to be, and you have full control over and complete ownership of it. There's no need to be concerned about taking down your site. It's because it's- yours.

Payment gateway integration

Payment gateways allow you to take money from your customers as well as clients in a secure manner, and then transfer that money into your account at the bank. They have pros and cons for each tool, and certain functions you'll need to have to run your company. As an example, you might have to take recurring payments and accept different currencies. You could also connect with express payment tools such as Apple Pay, or offer finance options.

Make sure that the platform you choose works with the platform you'd like to utilize, especially when your business is already using something for payment collection and invoicing.

It is compatible with a variety of payment gateways. These include:

Shipping

If you are selling physical goods, then shipping is going to be a crucial factor when it comes to selecting an eCommerce platform. Shipping can be complicated, therefore you'll need a software that lets you set up fees the way you want, and that works with all shipping companies that you use. This is particularly true when you are able to ship large quantities of items at once or require specific requirements such as refrigeration.

User experience

The user experience is crucial for any business, for many reasons. If a prospective buyer or client comes to your website but it's not easy to use, they'll most likely give up and shop at a competitor. The second reason is that search engines take into account user experience when determining rankings.

Your job, for now is to locate the right platform to make an excellent user experience possible. There are a few things you should consider:

• Content management. Find an eCommerce system that can help with menu organization to categorize your products and posts as well as add functions such breadcrumbs for navigation. Since WordPress was designed for blogging from the beginning the tools for content can't be beaten.
• Mobile-friendly design. Your site should look great on devices of all sizes including tablets, desktops as well as phones on mobiles. WordPress and are mobile-friendly by default. there are lots of great themes for mobile that you can select from.

Marketing and customer service

Marketing, of course, can help you connect with new clients as well as increase sales from current customers. A good customer experience can help you maintain customers' loyalty and help them to spread the word about your business. They're both key to the success of your B2B eCommerce shop.

The software you're working with must make your marketing and customer service strategies feasible, whether it is integrating easily with existing tools or making it easy to incorporate tracking codes.

Here are some of the marketing and customer service skills that are included with :

• Integration with CRMs. Connect with the CRM of your choice with the help of extensions to Jetpack CRM HubSpot, Salesforce, and more.
• Integration with support forums and ticketing systems. Integrate live chat into your website, or create an online support forum or connect with other tools such as Freshdesk and HelpScout
• Content creation capabilities. Make frequent beautiful, powerful blogs as well as landing pages and others to help with the rest of your marketing efforts and educate potential customers.
• Integration with a broad range of marketing tools. Track traffic using Google Analytics, connect to social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok, make Google ads directly on your dashboard, email messages, track abandoned carts, and more.
• The simplicity for your team members. You can give each member of the team their own account with the appropriate permissions for their roles. Accounts that are approved can answer customer support inquiries, look up and process orders, administer refunds, write blog posts, and more.

Other functions

The features you require in your B2B eCommerce store is specifically tailored to your business. Consider any specific specifications you might need to consider. Here are some examples:

Scalability

A B2B eCommerce platform you select will not stop you from achieving your goals. Look out for platforms that base fees off of numbers of transactions, the number of customers, or volume of visitors to the site. Your website should perform well, no matter if there are 100 users at one time or 100,000.

You can expand your business to any size. There's no limit to the quantity of items or variations you can have (in fact, this test site was 1 million!). The platform is designed to manage large volumes of orders and traffic spikes. It's completely free although you could choose to pay for extensions and the pricing is never based on factors like sales or customers.

The most appealing part? You are able to select any provider you'd prefer. So, even though you may have the shared hosting option right now, you can always upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server when you increase traffic without having to alter the online shop you have.

User-friendliness and Management

In the world of business, time is money. It's not a good idea to be wasting time on a platform which is difficult to navigate and difficult for employees who are new to understand, and needs a programmer to create even the smallest of modifications.

If you're able to employ a web developer to handle your website if you'd prefer however, you do not have to to to be able to make the most of your store. As we mentioned earlier, the Block Editor enables you to rearrange, add, and delete elements by simply dragging and dropping. Do you want to change the layout of your products? This can be done by clicking buttons and making changes to fields -- no codes required!

Store managers have access to everything from inventory figures and website analytics, to ordering information all in one spot. If you're using tools such as Jetpack CRM, Shipping and Payments, they can print labels, paypal, refunds, quotes, and more directly through your dashboard, too.

If you're looking to engage a professional to develop, maintain or modify your store take a look at our selection of WooExperts. They're highly-rated, vetted agencies waiting to help!

Create and expand your B2B eCommerce store with

No matter if your business is a reputable B2B business or are new to the market, this platform provides the necessary tools and flexibility you need to expand. Plus, it can improve the user experience for customers and can make your team more efficient.

Ready to grow? Get started with the top B2B eCommerce platform now.