B2B eCommerce Solutions have the potential to improve business operations while transforming the economy. 

In 2020 alone, the global B2B eCommerce revenue reached $6.6 trillion. 

 

What is a B2B eCommerce solution?

 B2B eCommerce is similar to traditional B2C transactions. However, the storefront or salesperson in a B2C transaction gets replaced by an online portal in a B2B transaction. B2B eCommerce can change your organization's business operations entirely. Online portals allow buyers to incorporate product management software with their suppliers, identify product trends, simplify sales processes, and control stock.

Three examples of B2B eCommerce platforms

Amazon
Amazon is the leading B2C eCommerce platform. Amazon Business has now opened up to the B2B market as well. 

Shopify
Shopify users can begin, develop, and manage businesses. Transactions can occur anywhere, and Shopify offers users a suite of eCommerce tools, including payments and shipping.

Squarespace
Squarespace is an eCommerce platform that helps organizations make websites and launch marketing and sales campaigns through those websites.

 

What are B2B eCommerce Advantages?

Both buyers and sellers can benefit from B2B eCommerce. 

Here are some advantages of B2B eCommerce:

JIT manufacturing
Low overhead 
Easy payments and invoicing
Dropshipping 
Big scope

What are B2B eCommerce Disadvantages?

High competition 
Inverted structure (buyers have a lot of power determining prices because sellers don't want to lose their buyers to competition)
More time between sales
Longer buying processes

 

Successful B2B eCommerce Practices

Accept a wide range of payment options

Accepting a wide variety of payments (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Afterpay, etc.) will convey a notion of convenience to your clients. Convenience is a common appeal of eCommerce.  

Don't Ignore SEO

Use the money saved on advertising costs on SEO. You want your website to have good rankings to boost search engine results. Better SEO ranking will boost website traffic.

Streamline website and integrate software

Make sure your website looks good, is user-friendly and displays relevant information. Automatic integration will reduce inefficiencies in sales operations. 

Maintain good client relationships

Ecommerce will get your company more exposure, so you will get more new clients. However, you can't forget about your current clients. Providing a good customer experience will ensure that your clients stay on your platform and don't seek out solutions from competitors.

Wrap up

B2B eCommerce can be extremely advantageous and increase your business's sales.  

Make sure to maintain strong client relationships, streamline your website, pay attention to your SEO, and accept many forms of payments.  

Advantage CSP has a wide variety of tools for eCommerce solutions, including options and variants, recurring payments and subscriptions, digital downloads, customer dashboard, cart abandonment with email recovery, inventory management, and so much more!

B2B eCommerce is improving businesses everywhere, so we encourage you to consider how it could help your business grow too!