B2B store for your company - how to increase your B2B sales. Learn now which points are important for a B2B store.
E-commerce is growing steadily - not only in the B2C sector, but also in the B2B sector. For this reason, the Internet is an important sales market for companies. With your own B2B store, you can increase sales and your reach. A B2B store works fundamentally different than a normal online store. We realize your B2B store project for you and take into account all important requirements.
What are the special requirements of a B2B store?
Online stores for private customers and those designed specifically for commercial customers differ in many respects. This is mainly due to the different types of transactions that take place between companies. Thus, companies make purchases in different volumes or with different modalities.
These are the key points that matter in a B2B store and distinguish them from other online stores:
- Payment options
- Shipping options
- Ordering options
- Currency conversion
- Support for special formalities that are important in commercial sales
- Connection to the central merchandise system
What does an ordering process in a B2B store look like, and what special requirements do companies have when making purchases?
Traditional business in commercial trade is often based on individual and personal negotiations. The B2B store basically does not offer this direct communication option. Nevertheless, a B2B online store can be designed in such a way that individual contracts are possible.
This is a key point when building business relationships. Companies often negotiate individual conditions. They are influenced by the quantities purchased, delivery terms and other factors. For this reason, companies usually do not place direct orders.
Rather, they want an individual offer. A B2B store must therefore offer a function that allows companies to request quotes for specific goods. This gives you the option of responding specifically to inquiries and then converting them into orders. With the help of directly scheduled graduated prices, the B2B store can also set advantageous conditions for customers with high purchase quantities.
Another function that is especially needed in the B2B sector is pre-orders. They exist for many types of goods. Seasonal goods or fresh food are just two examples. The option for pre-orders gives you, as a supplier, the freedom to coordinate your production and supply chain.
With your own B2B online store, individual checkout processes can also be implemented. There are no limits to your ideas. We at cloudtec implement your ideas. In this context, a customer portal is also available in the B2B store.
In the customer portal, customers can initiate the printing of warranty documents or VAT refund forms. This is not only good for customer service, but also makes it easier for you to handle such processes.
In the B2B segment, samples, demo products and prototypes are also relevant. Potential customers want to convince themselves of the quality and condition of your goods. With a special sample function, the B2B store triggers a special order. This can be completely free of charge, for example. This also influences shipping - especially for international customers.
Orders and payments from abroad
What is a rarity in normal online stores is the norm for companies in commercial sales. It's about business relationships with customers from abroad. In fact, there are many companies in the B2B sector where the majority of customers are located abroad. This is especially true for specialized and highly technical companies.
Accordingly, the clientele in a B2B online store is also different. Many visitors come from abroad. These are companies from the European Union, but also customers from North America, Russia or the Middle East.
For these visitors, the store must be comfortable and accessible. This is ensured, for example, by the store being available in several languages. A focus on specific target regions or countries and their languages is possible.
In addition, this also applies to currencies and prices. For commercial transactions, it is important that the buyer knows immediately what costs are coming his way. Therefore, he needs prices and offers in his currency. The modern B2B store converts costs directly into other national currencies and displays binding prices. This gives your customers security when placing orders.
How does payment work in a B2B store?
Between commercial customers, there are often different payment terms and payment methods. Your B2B online store must offer these in order to appeal to corresponding customers.
Payment methods that are widely used in normal online stores, such as credit cards or PayPal, are rather unusual in the commercial sector. Direct connections to the bank are much more important.
When it comes to payment processing, the partners often agree on special conditions. For example, it is not unusual for a down payment to be made first. Several installments are quite possible. For specialized equipment, it is more common that the final payment is due only after delivery and installation. A B2B online store has such options implemented directly, so you can offer these conditions straightforwardly.
What shipping options must a B2B store offer?
Shipping in B2B e-commerce follows its own set of rules. In international transactions between two companies, options such as Incoterms DDP and DAP play an important role.
Such options are natively available in a B2B store, so that business partners can directly select the shipping option that is of interest to them. With DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), for example, this means that you as the supplier assume all costs until arrival in the destination country. This includes customs as well as shipping.
However, this is not all that such a store has to provide. For example, if an international shipment is triggered, the system automatically creates the necessary customs documents. Likewise, the system pushes the associated payments such as customs duties and shipping costs.
In addition, the relevant shipping companies are integrated directly into the B2B store system. This simplifies the handling of international shipping for you.
Connection to your ERP system
Most retailers nowadays use several sales channels. In addition to their own online store, these include Amazon or eBay, for example. It is also conceivable that you operate an online store for private customers in addition to a B2B store.
Central management of all channels is an absolute priority in modern marketing. On the one hand, this minimizes the workload. On the other hand, synchronization takes place in real time. This is particularly important for inventories, which must always be up-to-date. This prevents customers from ordering goods that are actually no longer available.
Our e-commerce solutions have interfaces that allow a direct connection to your ERP system. This allows you to manage your B2B store as usual via the ERP system. Thus, your new online store is simply another sales channel that integrates perfectly into the existing structures.
Create your own B2B store
When setting up your own new B2B store, it is important that you choose an experienced partner. We at cloudtec digitize business models for our customers. A large part of our work is the creation of web platforms. This includes online stores and especially B2B stores.
With our experience in creating online platforms you will get a professional B2B store that offers all necessary functions. We always respond to the wishes of our customers. The planning of a new platform takes place together with you. For example, we create business platforms for specialty retailers, which are individually tailored to the industry and its requirements.
We use agile software development. This makes it possible to implement even complex projects with many individual requirements in a short time frame. Use our contact form and tell us your wishes. Together we will make your B2B store a reality.