There are many facets to the buying process that are unique to B2B. Unlike B2C, where I am an individual buying products for myself or for a friend and possibly shipping it to one location.
B2B buying has quite a few challenges to overcome in order to simplify the process for the end buyer.
Two Key Differences That Can Make or Break an eCommerce Buying Experience
One situation that happens quite frequently is that I am buying for multiple stores in multiple locations while also being part of a team of buyers for those stores and locations. I might be responsible for some or all of the products while my teammates might share the same responsibilities. What typically happens is that we’re all buying and basing what is needed for our stores on historical data. Then we’d need to set up separate orders for each store so that those orders are shipped to the appropriate stores. It becomes a very involved and lengthy process.
The next situation complicates things further. Let’s say I get sick or go on vacation. Now my teammate has to fill in for me. He goes out and he buys things that I would normally buy for the stores in those locations. In most systems today, it would look like I did the buying.
What if my teammate botches it by overbuying or underbuying? There’s going to be a problem that reflects poorly on me!
eCommerce Solutions to These Issues
It’s possible to set up your eCommerce in such a way that it takes all those situations into consideration that allows you, as a team, to make purchases across your team while keeping each team member separate. This setup allows you to purchase for a certain store off one page and apply those purchases to all of the same type of store and its orders while also allowing you to repeatedly come back and reorder from a single screen to have all the products distributed to the appropriate store.
Those are tweaks that typically don’t exist in B2B eCommerce today. You’ll find that many of the people that are in B2B have multiple other people that have to spend a tremendous amount of time placing orders and following up on those orders to get them done right. Our customers are given the tools to make their customers’ lives easier by simplifying that entire process through B2X solutions.
One of things I find so unique in these instances is that oftentimes what ends up happening for our customers that implement our B2X solutions is that they get almost real time ordering from their customers without their customers having to think about the ordering process. The reason is that our system refines itself over time. With the right eCommerce platform, you can continue to scale up and refine your system with machine learning and AI that suits your needs.
By Tom Sieger, Managing Partner
When Your World Depends on eCommerce, Depend on Us!
At CSS Commerce, we have your B2X eCommerce solutions and services you need for your Omnichannel. This includes Advanced AI Product Search and Supply Chain visibility. We are expert specialists in building your platform and interconnecting all of your business systems. Our full commerce value chain approach gives us the perspective and the experience needed to deliver the ROI you are looking for in your digital transformation.
Open your world to superior B2X!
