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How eCommerce Platforms Are Revolutionizing The B2B Industry

July 8, 2022
12:57 PM

Through the years, we have seen ecommerce revolutionize the way businesses are being carried on across the world. The main reasons for the sudden boom of ecommerce was the rise of internet and smartphone penetration. B2B ecommerce has also started to grow rapidly because of automation, targeted marketing, and more intuitive customer journeys.

Yes, B2B ecommerce is not up to the speed with B2C ecommerce, but the ongoing global pandemic pushed B2B businesses to use ecommerce platforms to reach out to their clients.

B2B ecommerce is now going above and Keep reading to find out how you can revolutionize your B2B business with ecommerce platforms. Keep reading to find out how you can revolutionize your B2B business with ecommerce platforms.

Table of contents

What is a B2B ecommerce platform?

B2B ecommerce is a platform where you can sell products and services with businesses via online transactions between businesses. It is the most efficient way to buy or sell products for wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors, and other types of B2B sellers. B2B ecommerce platforms continue to emerge with the growth of advanced technology, ecommerce advances, and profitable models.

B2B companies can use curated B2B E-commerce platforms to showcase all the essential information, images, descriptions, pricing, and promotions to build connections with their clients. B2B clients can now make more rational, carefully calculated, and intelligent decisions on whether or not to purchase the product because they will have access to data through ecommerce platforms.

What is the future of B2B ecommerce?

It is known that B2B companies make up the other half of the global economy. But not many people know that based on Statista’s B2B ecommerce Report published in 2021, the B2B ecommerce market was valued at $14.9 trillion in 2020, five times more than the B2C market. The same report also mentioned that an estimated 17% of B2B sales are expected to be generated digitally by 2023, this shows the potential of B2B ecommerce platforms.

We are now living in the day and age where B2B clients don’t have the time to coordinate extensively with their business partners or vendors physically and so prefer to do business searches online. COVID-19 pandemic has also played a massive role in accelerating the adoption of digitalization, especially in the B2B industry.

B2B clients expect high-quality customer services and top-class user experience. You can meet these standards as the ecommerce sector is moving towards automation and other modern methods.

While the future of the ecommerce marketplace is moving towards creating competitive designs, fluid interfaces, Artificial intelligence, Virtual reality, and Augmented reality, among others. Many millennials are now entering the B2B space, while the buyer’s expectations are also increasing rapidly. B2B companies are using ecommerce platforms to stay up to speed. Needless to say, B2B ecommerce is reaching new heights.

How does ecommerce promote the B2B Industry?

Ecommerce has helped numerous B2B companies in shifting their business online. Ecommerce marketplace has given the B2B community access to new markets, increased conversions, improved customer satisfaction, and centralized data, among others.

Here are a few ways ecommerce promotes the B2B industry:

Drive revenue growth

With the help of ecommerce platforms, B2B companies can now reach out to new audiences, get into fresh markets, and test sales models.

Reduce operating costs

B2B is now using ecommerce platforms mainly because it saves time and is highly cost-efficient. Not only does it reduce operating costs resulting in greater efficiency, but it also helps them to grow their business.

Artificial intelligence

With many AI technological advancements and innovations, the B2B businesses streamline certain business functions and test to analyze large amounts of data.

Omnichannel opportunities

Since ecommerce sites are accessed on different platforms, your company will have more opportunities to sell its products and services. The omnichannel business will also help you provide higher customer satisfaction.

Benefits of B2B ecommerce platforms

Better management for companies and their clients

Ecommerce sites allow you to use business management software that gives all the essential data on how customers shop. You can manage everything under one platform, streamline B2B processes and even provide your prospects with a more personalized shopping experience. Ecommerce sites also have built-in business tools and systems that will help you automate sales processes.

Repeat sales to the existing clients

Most people think that ecommerce is only used for reaching out to new clients, but that is wrong as you can quickly implement an automated cross-selling and up-selling program. You can even get access to finding products clients are looking for and use it to reach out to them with personalized offers, discounts, and deals.

Get access to better data analytics

Checking sales analytics is one of the most critical steps in marketing anything because it is the only way you get insights into how your products or services performed, how many sold, impressions, clicks, etc. You can also optimize the user experience and make better marketing decisions. Analytics is beneficial for creating marketing campaigns and improving the overall shopping experience.

BigCommerce features and services

Ecommerce platforms offer innumerable services and integrations that help B2B businesses function more smoothly. The cloud and SaaS services give continuous updates, are high functioning, and are easy to use, essential to any company’s growth. BigCommerce allows B2B businesses to customize their websites and integrate their landing pages with existing systems.

Strategies to revolutionize the B2B ecommerce industry

Educate your clients better than your competitors

The way to provide information on your products, features, and promotion is significant because you should be able to provide unique and better content than your competitors. Make sure to focus on the USP of your products and build content around it. You can provide them with an eBook, whitepapers, sizing charts, templates, and how-to guides about specific products or services and then direct them towards your offering.

Solving customer service issues with technology

Your brand must understand its target marketplace better than your competitors. This way you’ll be able to sell your products at the right time and ensure that they are up to your target audience’s standards. With ecommerce, you won’t have to deal with issues, customer service challenges, refunds, and apologies as the platform will take care of these things for you. Hence, your team can focus on other essential tasks.

This also helps you streamline your company’s sales processes with personalized promotions, checkout experiences, and sales messages.

Automated Inventory management

Automating inventory management uses technology to manage warehouse stock in real-time with minimum effort or errors. Some benefits of automating inventory based on customer viewpoint are – optimizing business scalability, addressing human error issues, saving time, and getting access to cost-effective company operations.

It also helps you increase the bottom-line ROI and strengthen your customer relationship. One of the main reasons companies do this is because it allows them to keep track of the number of stocks left and alert customers to the real-time inventory count.

Transfer offline client base to online

Over 65% of B2B buyers prefer purchasing B2B products and services on online platforms rather than from salespeople. It is known that at least a quarter of B2B buyers complete 50% of their purchases online. These facts highlight the importance of implementing an ecommerce channel for B2B companies.

But once you introduce them to your digital media, be prepared to answer their questions or concerns and try to highlight the advantages of migrating to a new platform with the help of FAQs, how-to guides, and Interactive navigations.

Provide value on the human and business side of transactions

A client’s ecommerce experience is usually focused on visual and interactive elements, but there is much more you can create to drive their attention. If you want to provide value you can increase the site performance, faceted search, social media integrations, detailed product information, and adding an efficient purchasing funnel.

You can also use customer segmentation to provide them with curated product catalogs, personalized price lists and introduce incentive programs. If your company implements all of this, it is a win-win situation for the business and clients.

To revolutionize the B2B ecommerce industry, a bundle of strategies needs to be implemented. The above-given strategies are just a gist of transforming the b2b ecommerce industry. A solid game plan and more strategies would be required to build the digital future for the success of the B2B ecommerce industry.

Now let’s get into the ecommerce B2B examples!

Top 5 B2B ecommerce platforms

Shopify is the best ecommerce platform, as it powers millions of businesses worldwide. This ecommerce store is an all-in-one cloud-based platform that helps people run, manage and grow their business while letting you manage orders, products, staff, and customers at the tip of your fingers. Shopify’s online store allows you to forecast and has a built-in feature that can power your B2B business in the right direction.

So, what exactly does Shopify do? It is known for unifying your commerce into a single platform, so you can build a curated online store and sell on multiple channels and online marketplaces. The online store building platform offers many tools for managing products, inventory, payments, shipping and groups different tech applications together to access them easily.

Some top companies that use Shopify or successful Shopify stores are Kraft Heinz Co, Whole Foods Market, Red Bull GmbH, Penguin Books, Fitbit, Kylie cosmetics, etc. If you want to get in touch with some of the top companies using Shopify and showcase your products, then our Shopify Store Owners Database will help you connect immediately.

Magento is one of the top B2B ecommerce platforms, also known as Adobe Commerce after Adobe acquired it in 2018. These platforms have access to hundreds of unique features that help B2B businesses reach out to their target audience and sell their products. B2B is one of the top industries that use Magento because they can control the design, functionality, and content presented on their online store without compromising the shopping experience.

Companies that use Magento do it because they access various tools that will guide them in digital marketing, SEO, and catalog management. Many people still ask, “what is Magento used for?” We think Magento is good at creating B2B ecommerce websites that enhance customer experience and improve customer relationships.

The best websites using Magento in 2022 are Sigma beauty, Ford, Liverpool, Landrover, Nestle Nespresso, Monin, etc. Since Magento caters to B2C and B2B industries, reaching out to their B2B client in your niche can be difficult. Take a look at our Magento User List and connect to the list of companies using Magento.

WooCommerce is customizable, open-source and one of the most popular ecommerce platforms built on WordPress. The B2B ecommerce platform helps you manage an online store in levels of flexibility and offers unique features such as inventory and tax management, secure payments, SEO, and shipping integration which are all necessary for B2B companies.

Why use WooCommmece? This platform is best for tracking orders, customer engagement, real-time delivery status updates, and inventory management. It is also helpful for small businesses and beginner site owners, while big websites use WooCommerce for their various SEO features.

Ecommerce sites built with WooCommerce are Porter and York, Barefoot Buttons, The Good Batch, Root Science, etc. But if you are looking for companies using WooCommerce and its market share, we will help you reach out to their top users through our List of Companies that use WooCommerce.

BigCommerce is an upcoming ecommerce platform that is said to be ideal for small businesses since it is an affordable and all-in-one solution. This website builder offers numerous SaaS services for building and hosting online stores, and you get all this at a generous free trial. You can customize your websites according to your liking and then sell an unlimited number of digital service-based products.

If someone asks, “Which is the fastest growing ecommerce platform?” We can safely say that it is BigCommerce as you can access all their features and run your online business from anywhere as long as you have internet access. What is also interesting about BigCommerce is that it doesn’t require you to purchase web hosting or install anything on your PC. The list of BigCommerce companies is Toyota, Martha Stewart, and Ben and Jerry’s.

CS-Cart is an ecommerce platform with numerous options and features to customize your B2B website. What is good about this site is that you don’t have to be an expert in any programming to use this software since it has a built-in layout editor and more than 200 storefront themes. Which allows you to focus on other parts of the business instead of the technology behind it. The platform also gives options to change themes, add content, set up SEO, and add categories and products.

What is unique about CS-Carts is that you have the multi-vendor option, which means that it supports multiple independent sellers in an online marketplace. You can manage your stores with CS-Cart features like a powerful admin panel and built-in content management. The companies using CS-Cart and its Marketshare are Omega Sports, Cart-Power, Ozone, Shopit Limited, HPI International, etc.

With DataCaptive's ecommerce store owners list you will be able to save time in creating your own email list and easily connect with the top ecommerce store.

Conclusion

The Covid 19 pandemic has pushed B2B industry to get into the ecommerce industry to sell their products online quickly and cost-effectively. Ecommerce is truly game-changing for B2B industry because it has helped numerous companies get into new markets, increase their revenue and ROI, reach out to their target audience, automate business processes, and improve sales.

B2B ecommerce is transcending boundaries, with technology modernizing critical functions and business processes. We hope this blog was able to give you a clear picture on how the B2B ecommerce industry is getting revolutionized and how fast this industry will grow in the coming future. B2B ecommerce market place is growing its effectiveness.

Want us to write blogs on any interesting B2B marketing related topics that you are looking out for. Let us know your suggestions and our team of experts will get the work done.

FAQs

Which e-commerce platforms are best for B2B?

The best ecommerce platform for B2B companies is Shopify.

How does ecommerce promote B2B?

Ecommerce has helped numerous B2B companies in shifting their business online. Ecommerce platforms have given the B2B community access to new markets, increased conversions, improved customer satisfaction, and centralized data, among others. But some of the main ways it promotes ecommerce are

Drive revenue growth
Reduce operating costs
Artificial intelligence
Omnichannel opportunities
Order and inventory

Why is B2B ecommerce so essential and successful?

Ecommerce is truly game-changing for the B2B industry because it has helped numerous companies get into new markets, increase their revenue, sales and ROI, reach out to their target audience, automate business processes, etc. B2B ecommerce is now going above and beyond the boundaries by modernizing critical functions and business processes; this is why it is so essential and successful.

What is the B2B ecommerce platform?

B2B ecommerce is a platform where you can sell products and services via online transactions between businesses. It is the most efficient way to buy and sell products for wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors, and other types of B2B sellers.

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Julie Williams

Julie writes to motivate, inform, and educate people. Her major interests are marketing, artificial intelligence, and related areas. She is passionate about poetry on nature and human psychology. When not writing, she's found dancing or exploring new tourist places around!

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