When establishing B2B e-commerce

We focus on e-commerce sites offering goods, not services. However, we won’t go too much into detail, but we will rather introduce the key features of a B2B e-commerce implementation.

We assume you already have your business up and running …

• Are you a company operating in B2B market? Is your business up and running? Do you need a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use B2B system?
• We assume you are interested in a professional B2B e-commerce able to manage hundreds or thousands of orders.
• We assume you have thousands of products and your own catalog.
• We assume you already have a high-quality ERP system or you plan to change it.

Possible scenarios

• Small e-shop with 10-30 products, managed manually without back-end
• E-commerce site with hundreds of products that are managed on both sites individually, or synchronized manually
• E-commerce site with thousands of products and daily transactions where manual synchronization is not an option and therefore automatic synchronization is needed

What is B2B?

• B2B (Business to Business) includes all sorts of business activities taking place between two or more business entities. You can find the term in e-commerce, marketing, or information systems.
• B2B is almost like an e-shop, but there are no individual consumers, just enterprises and companies who sell and buy goods and services.
• In B2B, there are usually two business partners such as manufacturers and wholesalers, or manufacturers and stores.

Main aspects

When you decide to start B2B e-commerce, it is necessary to target several points to reach its full potential. B2B activity requires some careful planning. Each of the following points is important and we recommend that none of them be neglected.

• Good e-commerce system
• Web development
• Front-end and back-end integration
• High-quality master data
• Correct SEO strategy
• Marketing

Who can help you?

As the final product is an online store, you will need the right people who are professionals in several specific areas. You can choose between freelancers or companies specializing in the area. The key feature you should notice is their expertise in the area. You need professionals who understand your strategy, your goals, and, last but not least, have all the necessary resources and knowledge to achieve your goals.

ERP vendor – Business Consultant – their competitive advantage is their understanding of your company and its internal processes. They can adapt their work to your company’s needs.

Freelancer – They are usually multi-talented people who can handle any problem. If you find a good freelancer, you get a programmer, graphic designer, web designer, and sometimes even marketer in one. Their advantage is a relatively lower price compared to large companies, but be ready to make compromises.

Marketing agencies – Professional companies, which should be chosen mainly by those who are planning a large project with precisely defined goals and a sufficiently large budget. Usually, these companies hire their own freelancers.

Project manager – you can choose from internal sources or hire an external one. It is important that "your person" knows your company well and is familiar with the areas entrusted to you. It provides support to the company's traders in the form of communication with business partners.

1. Good e-commerce system

• DIY – “Do-It-Yourself”– You can create your own platform. It is fairly cost-savvy, but on the other hand, you are spending your precious time needed for other business activities.
• Commercial frameworks– Companies with their own licensed frameworks. However, they may have their disadvantages, such as little experience, wrong code, long development, missing concepts.
• Open-source system– Such as MAGENTO, Prestashop. These systems already have an existing template, bug community, best practices to draw on. Behind communities are companies providing professional support and services.
• ERP e-shop– Built-in, with back-end having its own e-commerce platform. All the data are available immediately. Unfortunately, though, some designers don’t like foreign platforms.

Key aspects:

• Technology
• Functionality
• Support Availability
• Customization

Special features:

Standard or individual pricing – prices can be the same for all customers or they can be set individually based on the customer data available in the back-end.

Read more about what is in an e-commerce platform.

2. Web development

When it comes to e-commerce, the first impression of your website really does matter a lot for internet users. It is therefore not surprising that user-friendly, easy to navigate, cool design, and relevant content is a mix that adds up to your marketing tools. You can set up an e-commerce website in various ways. One of the simplest and cheapest options is to choose an e-commerce template for up to 100 USD, choose a theme designed exactly for your platform or buy a generic HTML template (including .html, .css, .js, .psd, .eps files). You can as well hire a web designer to adapt it to your platform. A more expensive option is to hire a professional who creates a new design customized specifically to your corporate identity. The latter one implies a lot of experience and requires several other tasks such as prototyping, design, slicing, UX design, testing, browser optimization. This most complex approach can cost you thousands and test your patience.

Key aspects (what not to forget):

• Target platforms – a web browser, mobile application
• Web browsers you are going to use
• Devices – in the case of mobile-friendly e-commerce
• Media coverage
• Browser priorities

3. Front-end and back-end integration

We assume you already have developed a strong back-end (ERP, CRM, WMS) with existing data. You can either choose a ready-to-go integration or develop your own. Today’s modern integration data models are described in the SOAP or JSON structures. The principle is, that most of the business entities must be able to work on both systems or, as much as possible, data should be normalized when sent or received. One of the systems is always a master and the other one is the slave. The right setup usually depends on the technical capabilities of each system and the ability to change behavior.

Standard scenario (synchronous)

For example, open-source frameworks offer them – well designed – endpoints (REST or SOAP), suitable for simple implementation. For custom features, generic services are not an option, developers will have to code them.

Advances scenario (asynchronous)

There are several options, especially if you need high scalability and asynchronous integration for big data transfers. You can choose technologies such as messaging services (e.g. Cloudempiere using AWS SQS and Messaging Services)

Technology options

• Can we use generic interfaces? (SOAP, REST)
• What format is best for the project (XML or JSON)?
• Which is a better choice – synchronous or asynchronous communication?
• Which system will be the master and which will be the slave? The master will be decided upon on a case-by-case basis?
• Event-driven push notifications or periodic polling?

Discover more about push notifications.

Examples

• Example 1: If there is a change in a product, ERP systems sends a push notification to the e-shop, or ERP system polls periodically for new or changed products.
• Example 2: Orders created in the e-shop are delivered to the ERP system via push notification or ERP system polls periodically for new orders.
• Example 3: An e-shop (or e-shop app) is informed with text messages about any changes in products or loading of any new data.

4. High-quality master data

For a successful e-commerce project, master data of the highest quality is a must. The data must be well-structured and clear. Entities such as business partners, users, products, images, or categories are among the most important data, but there are many more. Although many of them change in B2B sales conditions (for example individual prices, turnover, discount by business partner), we suggest for all customers to manage the main data in the back-end – in a well-structured ERP system.

Questions to consider

• Where will our company manage data? ERP back-end or e-commerce platform?
• Is our data good enough?
• Is our back-end system good enough for efficient data management?

Creating and managing products is a complex task and a big challenge. Quality content shared in several canals at the same time must be consistent and exact. Customer complaints are mostly due to inaccurate product information.

The ERP solution for Product Information Management (PIM) helps manage product information and create a unified and trusted source of data shared in both the back-end and front-end.

5. Correct SEO strategy

Based on studies, many potential customers do their own online research before making a purchase. Naturally, they will start with a keyword typed into a search box. Your Search Engine Optimization strategy will therefore be the decisive factor in whether there will be any viewer traffic on your site, boosting your sales and turnover. We highly recommend engaging a professional SEO master who understands your company goals and develops a SEO strategy tailored to your needs. At the same time, they can provide much-needed regular analyses and reports on achieved results.

Read more about e-commerce SEO .

6. Marketing

Unlike a physical store that can attract random visitors or passers-by, your e-commerce will unlikely experience much traffic unless you actively encourage people to visit your site. Furthermore, you cannot expect your customers to become regular or even loyal ones after their first purchase. It is therefore of utmost importance to build a brand that is visible on relevant portals, platforms, and social media, preferably with tools such as banners, campaigns, and e-mail marketing. Your expectations should be proportional to your marketing expenditures.

Read more about marketing team structure.