Things To Consider While Choosing a B2B eCommerce Platform in 2023

How buyers research and interact with a brand and buy is changing radically. Some of your best customers have changed their buying habits, but is your company ready? Focusing on e-commerce website development and prioritizing customer experience is quite essential for e-commerce for a successful business. But prior to that, we need to discuss the things to consider while choosing a B2B eCommerce Platform in 2023.

According to a report, 89% of organizations intend to compete primarily on the basis of buyer experience in the near future. So, handpicking the B2B e-commerce will greatly influence the type of experience you can provide to your loyal and potential customers.

So. Selecting the best B2B platform is a critical business decision.

Choosing The Right B2B Platform For Your Business in 2023

As we all know B2B is different from the rest of the website businesses. So, B2b Businesses face some unique challenges while selling to other businesses. So, it is very important that your platform to cater those requirements for running your business smoothly. Following are some of the key factors to look out for according to our experts at Intersmart Solutions, the top e-commerce website development in Kochi.
 

• The ERP Integration

A smooth enterprise resource planning systems are important for every businesses. It allows businesses to share data and collaborate with partners and suppliers. A successfully integrated ERP can promise you great efficiency, less cost and good customer satisfaction. But it is very important to mention that there are certain factors to consider before making the final decision of integrating the ERP into the b2b business. 

Firstly, let's begin with the integration capabilities. It is very essential to ensure that it is capable of integrating with your already existing systems. For eg; If someone is making an online purchase via your website/store, their data and order is sent to the ERP automatically. It results in the updates of your inventory and customer data. So, this means, you don't need to do any of these updates manually since your e-commerce platform and ERP are synchronising data.

• Personalized Experience

User experience (UX) is important when choosing a B2B platform because it can affect the success of your business. A good UX can make it easier for users during their buyer’s journey. You don't probably want to spend your time on a confusing and difficult-to-process website right? But a website with better UX can boost sales and improve customer satisfaction at the same time. Besides a personalized user experience will help your business to gain more conversions. For example, some e-commerce platforms use multi-user management and even assist shoppers through live chat etc.

• Flexible Payment Options

Payment gateways allow you to securely accept money from customers and clients and then deposit it into your bank account. You may need to collect recurring payments, accept several currencies, and interface with express payment solutions such as Apple Pay, CREDIT, NEFT, IMPS etc, says our e-commerce web development Kochi experts. B2b buyers purchase unlike the rest of the customers and they tend to order in bulk. Also, customers are more gravitating towards credit cards and other modes of purchases. The bottom line is you need to give flexible options for customers to reach their business goals.

• Self-Service

Most of the customers and potential buyers want to be able to discover information and solve problems by themselves. Your eCommerce experience should enable them to do so.

The buyers should be able to access basic information including shipping information, tracking the order and real-time inventory availability. 

Also, giving an option to self-serve outside of your normal working hours, which might vary substantially from normal working days/hours, can play a key factor in establishing trust with your customers. So, make sure that you are giving them various options to make the whole shopping experience seamless.

• Responsive Design

As we all know, people shop online from various devices. They may compare pricing on a phone or tablet, but then finish the transaction on a desktop computer. This prevalent type of buyer should be accommodated by your platform. Because purchasers are frequently busy during the day operating their store(s), your site content should render effectively across many devices. With a responsive website design, you are basically telling people that you understand their needs and are ready to help by guiding them through the website. Responsive website designs guarantee higher conversion rates and higher rankings, say the experts. Investing in a responsive website will help in the long run.

• Security

Yes. you read that right. Security is very crucial when selecting a B2B platform. Since B2 B transactions also handle sensitive financial data and confidential information like the details of the employee's information, you don't want them to end up in the wrong hands. Also, B2B  companies are also legally obliged to protect the privacy of their customers.

So make sure that choosing a B2B e-Commerce platform has enough security measures such as:

1. Encryption

2. SSL Certificates

3. Data Backup and recovery

4. Compliance with Industry Standards.

• Budget

Spending a fortune on the e-commerce platform does not promise you a better experience. However, it does not mean you should go for the cheapest one. The most affordable packages typically lack critical capabilities, and you'll end up spending more in the long run when you purchase add-ons from third-party providers. 

Instead, you can carefully take the time to carefully evaluate what you require from your e-commerce platform and build your budget on that. Consider how much you're willing to spend on hosting, maintenance, design, web development, and IT resources on a monthly basis. Many providers provide bundles that include all of these services at a reasonable price.

Another option is to save money to make sure that e-commerce is a  PCI-compliant e-commerce platform. Maintaining a safe, secure, and compliant online store may be costly and time-consuming, so choose a platform that has full certification and guaranteed data protection for your consumers and your business.