How to Integrate B2B eCommerce Solutions to Improve Your Business?

If you are a manufacturer or seller of products, you must be familiar with how difficult it is to reach out to your customers. Finding the right customers and then engaging them is a difficult task. So, if you want to expand your business and decrease the loss of your online sales, you must consider integrating your e-commerce solutions. This blog will look at some of the top-selling B2B eCommerce solutions.

As a business owner, you know that eCommerce is a powerful sales channel for your business. A recent report by Forrester Research (2017) predicts that by 2022, eCommerce will account for 18% of all retail sales in the United States. B2B companies are no different. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, B2B eCommerce sales in 2016 totaled $1.5 trillion, a 10% year-over-year increase. With eCommerce sales growing at such remarkable rates, it is easy for businesses to become overwhelmed.

E-commerce platforms need to combine with other systems to ensure consistency and offer improved experiences across channels. Let us explore in detail what B2B eCommerce solutions are and how to integrate them.

What is B2B Ecommerce?

B2B eCommerce software can be a powerful tool for boosting sales. B2B eCommerce is advantageous because it increases the chance of exposure to new markets, generates more significant revenue, and lowers costs. It is the fastest-growing industry, and purchasers have great expectations. B2B eCommerce is the sale of products or services through digital transactions between companies. Orders are processed online, and the buying process is made effective for the manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and B2B sellers.

A growing number of businesses are emerging into the B2B space, buyer expectations are higher than ever before, and B2B companies should be able to satisfy the rising expectations.

What are B2B Ecommerce Solutions?

It is one of the essential facets of a business today. If you’re an online retailer, you know it’s essential to have your website available on multiple platforms. Having a secure platform with a high conversion rate is even more critical. By choosing a B2B eCommerce solution, you’re ensuring that your business has a website that is safe for customers and easy for you to maintain. Not only does it make the customer experience better, but it also increases your customer retention rate!

Implementing an in-house B2B eCommerce platform can be expensive and time-consuming and might drain away IT resources. Many eCommerce solutions offer digital portals to process particular orders, one-off issue payments, and receive funds. Such operations are conducted manually but are not feasible as the transaction volume grows. Businesses can solve this issue by partnering with a B2B eCommerce software provider. This helps to process transactions more efficiently and allows organized connectivity to trading partners through EDI and API.

Companies are utilizing the expertise of a cloud-based integration technology provider to maximize profits and revenue of B2B eCommerce.

Best Way to Integrate B2B Ecommerce Solutions to Improve Your Business

Integration of eCommerce is the coordination and connection between various systems within a greater eCommerce ecosystem. When talking about eCommerce integration, it implies the collaboration of the front and back end systems of eCommerce that allow the bi-directional data flow.

For example, if your business utilizes an ERP for keeping track of inventory, and in case you want the purchasers to know the real-time stock levels. Your eCommerce solution should be integrated with ERP for systems to coordinate. With the integration of crucial systems with eCommerce, your product information and customer data remain constant along all the distribution channels. Such consistency ensures that you do not need to maintain, check and shift data between systems.

Many companies still find it challenging to incorporate the eCommerce solution into their businesses. eCommerce is an essential part of your business. If you can use the B2B eCommerce software available in the e-market, you will be able to reach more customers and get more sales. This can help you cut down on your expenses while gaining more profit.

Starting from planning to integration, there are a lot of steps you need to follow for integration. While there is no specific formula of integration that would work for every company, there are some common steps:

• Know the data – Get accustomed to the data and how it is set up. It would assist in comprehending what exactly requires improvement, how it can be achieved, and what integration approach should be pursued.
• Organize processes – Determine slow, manual, and weak processes and convoluted steps you would want to minimize or eliminate. Review buyer journey and other areas for reducing friction. Inspect information flows and comprehend how the ERP routes information, how the accounting system manages payments, or how CRM monitors customer data.
• Determine what to integrate – Identify what should be integrated, such as pricing, inventory, or product data, and then sync the integration procedures.
• Cross-check data – Clear data you already have, prevent duplicate entries, fix inconsistencies, double-check system updates, and so on.
• Identify limitations – Consider constraints such as budget and set the integration processes accordingly. Select tools and approaches carefully to prevent any disturbances.

Conclusion

B2B eCommerce solutions are an essential part of any business. They allow you to increase your sales and improve your overall bottom line. You should choose the eCommerce software for order management carefully after considering your business requirements and needs, business goals, etc.