Whenever anyone here the word “eCommerce”, the first thing most people think about is the B2C industry. The truth is that B2B e-commerce is massively lucrative.

Statista's report stated that the global B2B eCommerce market was valued at $14.9 trillion in 2020. That’s roughly over five times the size of the B2C market. On top of that, as per Forrester's prediction, by 2023 B2B ecommerce will account for 17% of all B2B sales in the U.S. mean reaching $1.8 trillion.

Without a second thought, we are able to see that B2B e-commerce is reaching new heights.

Here is a detailed guide for you to learn everything about a B2B eCommerce:

What is B2B eCommerce?

B2B e-commerce, or business to business e-commerce, is the sale of goods or services through online transactions between businesses. Buying efficiency is being improved for wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers, and other B2B sellers because now B2B orders and transactions are processed digitally.

What are the Types of B2B eCommerce?

There are several types of b2b ecommerce platforms available today:

B2B2B - Business to Business to Business

B2B2B is an eCommerce model that simply keeps adding additional parties to the B2B chain. Two parties are involved in the standard B2B model, which includes the manufacturer and the retailer. But a B2B2B model has other parties involved such as wholesalers, distributors, sub-distributors, etc.

B2B2C - Business to Business to Consumer

B2B2C is an eCommerce model that bridges the gap between B2B and B2C businesses. In this model, the B2B business can directly approach consumers, or you can say directly sell to the individual consumers through B2B partnerships.

Example: Amazon Business

Manufacturers

Manufacturers are the producers who use raw materials to produce products that run large-scale productions at their end. These manufacturers in the B2B eCommerce model operate an online portal like an exclusive eCommerce website where other businesses can purchase goods. They can sell products to other companies like manufacturers, wholesalers, and consumers directly.

Wholesalers

In a wholesale setup, a business purchases bulk products in large quantities directly from the manufacturer or a distributor at a much lower price and then sell them to retailers at retail value. Wholesalers sell goods to both smaller businesses and well-known franchises.

Example: Alibaba.com

Distributors

The distributors work closely with the manufacturers and act as intermediaries between other businesses and manufacturers. Distributors help manufacturers bring their products to the market by selling them to consumers or retailers. Distributors are taking the lead in the eCommerce market and set up their online eCommerce platforms to shorten the sale time.

What are the Features of the B2B eCommerce?

A business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce solution is designed specifically for businesses that sell products and services directly to other businesses. In this type of commerce, companies sell their goods and/or services as a product they offer, instead of going through a retailer like Amazon or eBay. This type of business has been around since the early 1990s, but gained popularity among small, mid-sized, and large organizations over the past decade.

The B2B eCommerce Features

• Advanced Account Management: Assign multiple users to the same company account at once in varying organizational structures. The company administrator can easily control and manage the user activity for the company account: purchasing, ordering, quoting, access to company credit information or profile, and so on.
• Quick Order Module: Customers can place orders by searching products using SKU or by importing them into the quick order form. After that, Magento will automatically validate that the product SKUs entered by customers are available or not in the inventory and catalog. If available, then the system will fetch the product information like product price and thumbnail pictures so that the customers can verify whether the correct SKUs have been entered.
• Multi-Brand Solution: The businesses that have multiple brands and stores to operate across various countries. This robust and flexible allows merchants to manage and control multiple brands, multiple businesses, and all their customers, and divisions from one place via digital platforms. A bonus point of using this feature is that no matter what your audience is, you can provide the same buying experience to all of them. So whether your audience is B2B or B2C, this multi-brand solution helps you to manage everything from content to multiple brands, products, and different business models in one place without even switching platforms.
• Quote Management: Request a quote features help to hide prices, set up quote requests, and price negotiation. Buyers can initiate the price negotiation process using this feature by simply submitting a quote request from the shopping cart. Merchants can review the submitted quote and respond accordingly. After receiving the quote response, buyers will convert the quote to a cart.
• Integrated B2B Functionality: Facilitates everything such as customized catalogs, self-service customer portals for easy account management and ordering, custom pricing, personalized experiences, etc. Eliminates time-consuming tasks and easy to offer personalized customer experiences.
• Extended Capabilities: One of the best and most useful features to grow your online business. Take your business to the next level with a marketplace of themes, extensions, and connectors. Extend the capabilities of your online store using APIs and extensions to introduce new features, improve existing features and integrate with third-party software. Expand your business the way you want with additional payment methods, integrating with your ERP or CRM, or any new marketing services from a huge collection of extensions and APIs.

The Benefits of B2B eCommerce

Business-to-business ecommerce platform has many benefits for B2B sellers and customers.

• B2B platforms have proven to be a great way to reach your target audience through a variety of channels. When marketing to your customers, you can use B2B platforms to build stronger relationships with them.
• A B2B platform provides a complete customer experience that includes multiple delivery options, tracking information and automated notifications. This allows you to create an exceptional customer experience that can positively impact their relationship with your company.
• B2B sales processes are streamlined and efficient. You can automate many steps and reduce time spent on repetitive tasks. With this process of automation, you can spend less time managing online orders while increasing efficiency in other areas.
• You can make your product look better than ever before. With the help of a B2B website, you can add extra details like images and videos to improve the quality of your products. Your customers will enjoy the added visual appeal.
• Integrating social media into your B2B website will allow you to stay connected with your customers. Social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and others. Integrating these sites into your business will gain a loyal following of potential buyers.
• Creating an active buyer community will allow you to engage with your customers at any time of day. These communities may include groups where customers share experiences, tips, tricks, and questions.
• Other benefits include Scalability, improved productivity, and efficiency, Reach More Customers, Improved Brand Awareness, Increased Sales, Improved Customer Service, and Growing Market, Reduced Costs, Faster Delivery, Boost Analytics, Stay updated, and competitiveness.

What are the Major Challenges in the B2B E-commerce?

Here we are going to discuss some challenges of B2B eCommerce and how they might impact your business.

1. Lack of Product Knowledge

Product knowledge plays a role in the success of an enterprise. If you don't know what products your customers want or need, then you won't be able to sell them anything. This is where product knowledge comes into the picture.

If your company sells a wide range of products, it’s likely you have a good idea of the products that your customer needs. However, if you are selling only one or two specific items, then you may not have much experience with those particular items. So, how do you ensure you can provide the best possible customer service?

2. Fulfilment

The most difficult aspect of any business is fulfilling orders. This can be especially challenging if you don't have an established relationship with your customers. In order to overcome this challenge, you need to work with vendors that are able to provide services at scale.

3. Customer Service & Customer Experience

Customer service is often overlooked, but should always be prioritized early on. Your customers want to deal with people they know, like, and trust. This builds credibility and long-term relationships. When dealing with online sales, your customer's experiences become even more prominent.

Customers want to feel special. They want to know that they've been heard and that they're being treated as individuals. They want to feel connected and valued. As a business owner, it's your job to ensure that your brand provides a great experience for each of your individual customers.

You need to constantly improve your customer experience because it's what differentiates you from competitors. You must provide exceptional levels of quality and value for both existing and potential customers. Being consistent throughout your entire customer journey is just as important as providing an excellent first impression.

4. Brand Awareness

Branding and awareness are two of the biggest hurdles that stand between your brand and its success. If you don't have people aware of your brand's existence, then how do you expect them to buy from you? A company's branding should be able to identify what its product does, but also communicate who they are.

There is a lot of competition out there these days, and if you aren't able to differentiate yourself, then you'll soon fall behind in the race. In this competitive market, finding ways to build recognition and trust among customers is extremely difficult. Your brand has to be memorable and trustworthy in order to create strong customer loyalty. You can achieve this through effective marketing strategies like advertising, social media engagement, influencer relations, etc.

5. Personalization

Customization has become somewhat of a buzzword among consumers today. Consumers want their products personalized based on their individual needs, and retailers should offer this to make sure their customers feel as though they are getting something tailored specifically for them. In the case of ordering online, having the ability for shoppers to personalize their order (for example, choosing the colour of the box that their product comes in) can increase conversion rates.

6. Integration

The integration of technology into your business can help you improve your overall efficiency. Having an integrated platform allows your customers to shop from anywhere at any time without worrying about the various websites they need to visit. This saves time and money for both sides and ensures that your brand stays front-and-center throughout the entire shopping experience.

3 Successful B2B E-commerce Examples

Here are some examples of b2b eCommerce of companies that use B2B commerce solutions to enhance their brand:

Amazon Business:

Amazon Business is a marketplace for businesses of all sizes and offers access to the retail giant's vast network of suppliers for easy ordering and bulk volume discounts.

Key takeaways Amazon does well:

• Easy Bulk Ordering
• More Business Tools
• Purchasing Optimization
• Advanced Analytics
• Spend Management Tools

Snapdeal:

SnapDeal.com is another B2B ecommerce marketplace that has gone above its primarily electronic catalog it first started in 2010.

Key takeaways SnapDeal does well:

• Optimized filters
• Easy-to-use interface
• Order tracking app
• Pin code to check for the fastest delivery options

Alibaba:

Alibaba provides the largest B2B online marketplace and is also one of the largest ecommerce companies in the world.

Key takeaways Alibaba does well:

• Provides support for many languages
• Easy-to-use product catalog
• Ranked products highlighted
• Company-to-consumer messaging
• Offer bundles

4 Best B2B eCommerce Platforms

1. Magento Commerce

The Magento platform is a well-established open-source ecommerce software package used by thousands of companies around the world. It offers a powerful solution that includes advanced marketing tools and features like product management, customer relationships, analytics, and multilingual capabilities.

The B2B segment is exceptionally complex. Magento B2B is manage this complexity and has made it one of the top e-commerce platforms in the world. This platform offers businesses the freedom to market their products and services anytime, anywhere, through any digital channel.

2. Shopify Plus

Shopify's new B2B offering makes it easier for merchants to sell to more customers without complex workarounds or expensive third-party solutions. Shopify Plus gives you access to premium features like personalization tools, mobile apps, and analytics dashboards. They have developed a plethora of features including customization, company profiles, price list, ERP integration and many others. With those tools at hand, you'll be able to manage the day-to-day operations of your store and improve its performance. This could include driving more traffic to your site, increasing conversions, and growing your audience.

3. Bigcommerce

Bigcommerce B2B offers a robust set of tools and services aimed at creating professional websites, selling products online, managing inventory, and automating business processes. A large number of templates are available to choose from, and users can customize them according to their needs. There are over 500 add-ons available for Bigcommerce to further enhance your experience.

4. Woocommerce

WooCommerce B2B allows multiple themes, templates, and widgets that you can choose from to get started. With the help of WooCommerce B2B, you can easily manage products, categories, orders, shipping methods, payment gateways, promotions, and much more. It also supports external data sources such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Social Media Marketing, and many others. WooCommerce comes with a variety of built-in functions that allow you to make changes to your site without touching any code. You can change headers and footers, create pages, posts, menus, and taxonomies, upload images, delete old content, integrate social media channels, and perform plenty of other tasks.

Future of B2B eCommerce

1. E-Commerce has been around for a long, but its use for online business was slow. In recent years, it has taken off at a rapid rate. Nowadays, companies need to have the ability to sell their products online without having any real physical contact with the customer. This is where e-commerce comes into play. You can start selling your products as early as tomorrow if you are ready to go!

2. With the evolution of technology, many businesses have started using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc to advertise their products. They can reach out to thousands of people across the globe in just a few minutes. This is especially useful for small and local businesses that do not have much budget to spend on advertising.

3. Online shopping allows customers to browse through hundreds of different items from various vendors all at once. There is no need to visit multiple stores to find what they want. Because of this, customers end up spending less time in malls and stores. This gives consumers more time to focus on other things while saving money as well.

4. Social networking sites have made it easier than ever before to market your products online. Brands can post updates about their upcoming events, sales, and releases. Customers can then spread the word to their friends by posting on their walls. This increases the chances of reaching a larger audience than traditional means.

5. Another thing that has helped e-commerce grow is the increased popularity of smartphones. Many smartphones have built-in cameras that allow users to take pictures of their purchases instantly. Even better - some devices allow them to scan barcodes. This eliminates the hassle of carrying paper receipts everywhere.

6. You can use email to connect with customers and prospects at any stage of the buying cycle. Companies that don't embrace digital - especially email - risk missing out on quality leads and increasing attrition rates.

B2B eCommerce Marketing Strategies

B2B ecommerce is big because as per Statista reports by 2021 B2B sales are predicted to reach $1.2 trillion. Globally, the B2B ecommerce market was worth $12.2 trillion in 2019, having grown from $5.8 trillion in 2013, and double-digit growth of b2b ecommerce is predicted for ecommerce sales through 2024.

Below, we have listed a few of the b2b ecommerce marketing strategies that can be used to keep up with customers and to grow your online B2B business.

Loyalty Programs:

Customer loyalty programs are the best way to keep your existing customers coming back. They’re easy to implement and can generate a lot of positive results for you. Loyalty programs are great because they provide value to your customers. If someone comes from your website, has clicked through on a link, or used a coupon, then they’ve taken action, which means they’ve shown interest in your product. Now, it’s time to reward them for taking that first step toward buying your product. Whether it’s a discount code, free shipping, or even just offering a free sample.

Do your Research:

Before starting any online business, make sure you know what others are doing and how they are succeeding. You can learn from their mistakes, and avoid them at all costs.

Find a Product Niche:

Choose a keyword for your niche. If you don't know much about the subject, then start with a broad topic. As you gain experience, you could narrow down your focus.

Start Creating Content:

Create quality content around your chosen niche. This can be anything from videos to articles to blog posts to social media posts. Just have fun and create something unique!

Promote your Content Across Different Channels:

Put your content into forums, blogs, etc. Be active on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+, etc. Social media marketing (SMM) is one of the best b2b ecommerce strategies that helps you to connect with customers and prospects using electronic communication and digital platforms.

Don't Forget Email Marketing:

If you're not using email marketing yet, it's time to start. Email marketing is one of the best ways to promote your B2B e-Commerce products and services.

CRO:

The role of a CRO (Customer Relationships Optimization) is to provide strategic advice and solutions to help your B2B company achieve its business goals, including but not limited to email marketing, web design, website optimization, lead generation, and conversion rate optimization.

You can also check some b2b ecommerce trends that will have the biggest impact on your business.

Wrapping Up

B2B E-Commerce has no doubt become the future. As people are getting used to using their mobile devices to shop online, they have started looking at buying items from other companies online. This is due to the fact that shopping online allows them to get what they want without having to leave and go somewhere else.

Learn more about getting started in eCommerce by reading our blogs on growing and scaling a successful eCommerce business. You can reach out to us for any queries related to eCommerce and marketing.

FAQs:- B2B E-Commerce