While at face value the various listed B2B eCommerce platforms share major similarities due to the changing nature of B2B operations, new essential features have been demanded by customers in eCommerce platforms.
Many of these expectations are a result of a large percentage of people working from home and therefore shifting the B2B environment online. B2B customers now want and need access to their products and services online.
This competitive advantage is why it is imperative for you to choose the best eCommerce platform and achieve maximum optimisation and results. Here we will be discussing major eCommerce platforms and provide their key features to help in designing a successful B2B eCommerce solution.
Key B2B eCommerce features:
- Restricted options (for example to hide your bulk buying prices from your non-registered members).
- Providing the capability for purchasing options on one singular platform.
- Creating an enjoyable and memorable user experience.
- A personalised approach for providing unique yet easily accessed content services and products
- Live customer service
- Personalising your content to audiences
WooCommerce
A wholesale solution for your company’s eCommerce, WooCommerce is a popular plugin choice for WordPress websites. The platform allows for plenty of flexibility and is user friendly, not requiring an extensive amount of web development knowledge.
It provides users with the ability to customise B2B and B2C registration forms, providing a tailored experience based on the user who is viewing. In offering this, it enables companies to remove product categories and prices depending on their customer specification.
Key features of the platform include:
- Ability to restrict/grant content/page/price views based on user types
- Minimum purchasing amount and product quantity
- Admin bulk actions
- Custom hooks and snippets
- Uncomplex and integrated friendly
- Quotation notifications
- Reviewing and approving user registrations
- Tax exemption
Magento
Whilst Magento is slightly more advanced and complex than the WooCommerce, the eCommerce site allows organisations to go further than creating a B2B strategy.
Magento describes their service as providing “flexible and intelligent solutions” which they feel targets a newer audience, B2E (Business to Everyone), meeting the increasing demands of the modern-day buyer.
Magento Key Features:
- Full tracking of buyers across the company.
- Flexible in serving both B2B and B2C eCommerce needs.
- Intelligence and performance tools and reports providing insights helping achieve faster growth
- Mobile optimised for enabling field-based sales and purchasing
- Available multi-site support to tailor experiences for different brands, audiences and channels
- Targeted content personalised each visit and helping boost conversations and relationships.
- Provides real-time online chat whilst buyers are visiting the site
- Unique customised integrations to reflect your business model
- A popular platform so likey to have integrations with other marketing platforms
Shopify Plus
Whilst the previous two platforms are high contenders for achieving a successful B2B eCommerce solution, Shopify Plus can automate your selling process for your B2B and wholesale customers.
It offers the opportunity to scale your business’ eCommerce managing all aspects in one singular place.
Key Features:
- An integrated and personalised approach for sales and marketing across different channels and devices.
- Offer flexible payment options.
- Repeat buyers may use Shop Pay, achieving a 40% speedier checkout process.
- Optimise conversion rates with checkout promotions
- Create custom pricing for individual customers or groups
- Allow registered B2B customers easily accessible purchasing, tracking and repurchasing products
- If operating globally, sell in local currency whilst being paid in your domestic currency
- Built-in analytics and insight tools to help decide the next strategy
- Identify high-risk orders and avoid chargebacks using fraud analysis
- Also a popular platform so likely to have integrations with other marketing platforms
The unique characteristic for Shopify is that it is very customisable with tons of plugins on the Shopify Store that offer solutions to almost any function B2B eCommerce would need. However, the big disadvantage to this is that the more plugins you have, the higher your page speed load time is – which is terrible for SEO rankings and the user experience. Plus, most of the good plugins are chargeable.
CS-Cart
This eCommerce provides the capabilities for users to build a digital presence in which you can easily automate purchasing functions and cooperate easily with buyers.
To gain maximum efficiency when operating both B2B and B2C, the eCommerce platform is available for both audiences allowing for a maximised integration for your eCommerce needs.
Key Features include:
- Unlimited number of categories and a catalogue management system
- Unlimited integration capabilities for allowing organisations the potential to build a functional B2B eCommerce ecosystem
- Regular software update ensuring your eCommerce does not become outdated
- Restrict information to unregistered visitors
- Personalise prices for different buyer groups
- Easy repurchasing options bypassing order forms for regular customers
- In stock notifications for customers and low stock notification for admin
- Automatic invoice generation and order status notifications
This platform is our favourite to work with in regards to SEO and rankings. If you set your site up correctly, it’s straightforward to optimise for good rankings on CS-Cart. The only downside is that this platform has fewer partner integrations with other marketing platforms. However, if you have a dev like ours on hand, they can build any customised integration you would need! It is less popular which makes it more secure – fewer patches are needed on this platform than with (say) WooCommerce.
BigCommerce
This platform allows hybrid organisations the capacity of integrating both B2B and B2C platforms allowing for maximum efficiency for the maintenance of the sites.
Key Features
- Integration with your already existing business tools and technologies in use
- Customised shipping rates
- Automated 3rd party data syncing
- One-click options for quote generation, user permission and re-ordering
- Individual quote management and bulk purchasing prices with no caps
- eCommerce hybrid integration for B2B and B2C
We at ExtraDigital have a highly skilled team ready to help your organisation enter the digitalised marketplace or improve your already existing eCommerce platform. Please speak to us today to discover how we can maximise your online potential.
