It’s not surprising that a lot of companies are talking about B2B Ecommerce right now – the growth has been continual, and the opportunities are strong. But finding the best platform for you can take a bit of time and research.
To help, here are five things you should think about when it comes to finding the best B2B Ecommerce platform – and then at the end of the article, we’ll provide you a link to another tool that can help you dive deeper into what you need.
Best B2B Ecommerce Platform: 5 Things to Consider
- Built for B2B Ecommerce, not an add-on
- Fits your business goals
- Has the features you need
- Strong support options
- Easily connects to other systems
Let’s review each of these and how the impact a business and their ability to leverage a solution.
1. Built for B2B Ecommerce, not an add-on
While Ecommerce as a whole has certain tenets that are true regardless of type, there are specific needs for B2B Ecommerce just there are other specific needs for B2C.
B2C customers tend to like to shop, whereas B2B customers like to buy. B2C sales are going direct to consumer and so various efforts to encourage higher cart values by encouraging those customers to browse is helpful. B2B purchases tend to be more transactional and are driven in large part by price, volume, convenience and efficiency.
So, if you’re selecting a tool that’s adding B2B Ecommerce on as a secondary supported benefit, whether it be a B2C Ecommerce platform that “also” supports B2B, or an inventory solution that offers an ordering screen as an extra benefit, you are going to get a more limited feature set that has to hew to whatever the core platform is about, as opposed to something purpose built for B2B Ecommerce.
If B2B Ecommerce is a core tenet of your business, it helps to select a platform that’s truly designed to support that business.
2. Fits your business goals
Sometimes you have specific needs because of your industry. Other times it’s how you do business. Or it could simply be that your business logic requires certain types of rule implementation that requires some deeper research.
There’s a plethora of tools out there, some industry specific, some purpose specific, and some more generally all purpose. So knowing your business goals and what you hope to accomplish with B2B Ecommerce will help you find a solution that can connect with your requirements.
3. Has the features you need
Taking that a step further, you may have specific business logic around pricing, customer segments, billing and payment needs, or various scenarios you conduct business that have to be supported.
A deeper feature dive, once you’ve narrowed down your list, can help you determine what is the best B2B Ecommerce platform for you.
As a way to help, we’ll offer you a New Solution B2B Commerce Checklist for free at the end of this article. This piece surfaces dozens of common and not-so-common features that you should think about as you do your research. It will help you generate a list of features to ask about based on what your business requires.
4. Strong support options
Alongside your ability to get the capabilities that will help your business, support’s an important aspect of things too. While support options can vary based on the type of solution you’re looking at, support can vary by solution type as well.
Zoey, for instance, has been rated a “Champion” by its customers in last year’s SoftwareReviews Ecommerce Emotional Footprint rankings. Part of that emotional connection comes from superior support to our competitors.
5. Easily connects to other solutions
If you’re going to avoid an all-in-one solution that shortchanges you on flexibility and capability, then you’ll also need to make sure the systems you select can talk to each other.
Most platforms have some integrations available out of the box, even if some configuration is needed. Others have an ecosystem or APIs that allow for other connections above and beyond what’s supported directly. Regardless of method, you’ll want to make sure you can easily move data to/from other various systems, such as accounting, CRM or ERP systems.
Zoey is the best B2B Ecommerce platform for many
Zoey is a mature, robust B2B Ecommerce platform that offers best-in-breed features across a variety of industries. Contact us to learn how you can leverage B2B Ecommerce to grow and improve your business.
Get your free copy of the New Solution B2B Commerce checklist
As a thank you for reading this piece, you can download a free copy of our New Solution B2B Commerce Checklist. It’s filled with features that can help you think through what you need your next solution to support, and what integrations are relevant for your business. Click the button to get your copy:
