The B2B and B2C markets operate in contrast to each other. In general, B2B buyers are more knowledgeable of the products they buy and better understand the value associated with it.
B2B buyers must also be more thorough in the buying process to make sure they are making a purchase that will benefit their business, not just give them the best price. Because of the complexity of this process, it is more important to improve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and increase profits. This leads to the benefits of adding a robust ecommerce layer to a B2B business. So which B2C features would benefit B2B businesses the most?
B2B can be complicated. You must take great care when implementing these features into your B2B site. When you take the time to select the right features for your customers, you will increase sales and improve your business’s profitability.
Here is a checklist of B2C ecommerce features that can be used for effective B2B operations:
Pricing
- Create unlimited price lists and control which of your customers have access to which price lists.
- Recognize past orders and use that information again, such as order quantities and credit limits.
- Control personalized products and shipping prices for individual customers.
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Account Management (Customer Side)
- The ability for customers to view previous orders, including order status and line items.
- Edit, view and analyze back order items.
- One main account for customers with the ability to assign sub accounts for individuals within the company.
- The ability to display “request service call.”
- Request an email when items are back in stock.
- Offer a quick order system to use product codes for ordering.
- Provide the recommended retail price and trade price in all areas of the site.
- View saved and abandoned orders to better target customers and what they are interested in.
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Promotions
- Target specific customers with personalized promotions and special offers.
- Create special incentives to refer a friend or meet some other requirement.
- Manage bundle promotions.
- Offer tiered discounts for specific customers.
- Remove promotions after they have been used a set number of times.
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Product
- Integrate with a third-party warehouse to sync stock levels immediately.
- Set certain products to appear in a set template.
- View related products.
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Content Management
- Display different templates to specified groups of customers.
- Display product videos and pictures in several different sizes.
- Display in-depth product attributes and comparison charts.
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Multisite Management
- An agile website that displays on a single centralized platform in multiple SBU windows (B2B, B2C, forums, blogs, microsites, etc.)
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Order Management and Checkout
- Add mass items to the shopping cart with one click.
- Offer a “repeat order tab” to duplicate a past or saved order.
- Accept multiple payments for the same order.
- Ship to multiple addresses in the same order.
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Other Features
- Fast search options to find items from different suppliers through a custom search (by country, location, etc.).
- Price and feature comparisons for all brands within a SKU.
- Process orders automatically after a set period of time with credit limits.
- Auto-generate an email to remind users to repeat orders.
- Auto-detect customer location with GEO IP and automatically display the correct storefront for the location.
Archana Yenna is a Partner & PR Executive with i95Dev.