B2B functionalities that promote your competitiveness, efficiency and customer relations

From customer-specific pricing models to sophisticated inventory management systems. You add value with a seamless and personalized shopping experience, this is certainly not only true for B2C e-commerce. Discover in this article which functionalities you make the difference with and how they can be implemented, often out-of-the-box, from various e-commerce platforms.

A customized offer

In the B2B e-commerce world, personalization is a key factor in improving sales results and customer satisfaction. Personalization goes beyond just showing someone's name; it's about showing the right offer at the right time. This increases the chances of additional sales by being relevant to your customer. Segmentation makes it possible to show specific pricing models, catalogs and content to different customer groups, both out-of-the-box within the e-commerce platform and through third-party extensions.

Pricing Models

A common reason why you may be reluctant to embrace e-commerce as a wholesaler or brand manufacturer is the complexity of pricing structures. Thanks to technological advances, you no longer have to worry about this. Modern e-commerce platforms offer robust pricing mechanisms and integrate effortlessly with an ERP, for example. Unlike in the B2C market, where standard pricing is often sufficient, B2B transactions require customized pricing strategies tailored to the unique needs of customer segments.

Within advanced e-commerce platforms, you manage dynamic pricing rules and customer segments to display customer-specific prices. Upon login, customers immediately see the prices agreed upon in their contractual agreements, while standard prices are displayed if there is no specific price list. These customer-specific prices can be set for each customer in the e-commerce platform itself, or retrieved from the ERP.

It is also possible to set up automatic discount structures based on purchase criteria, such as graduated prices that automatically adjust to the total amount depending on the quantity entered. It is also possible to request a customized proposal or quotation.

Catalogs

Customer-specific catalogs offer significant benefits to B2B organizations, especially with an extensive assortment that may include even hundreds of thousands of SKUs. The entire assortment is unlikely to be relevant to a customer, and even within the same organization it is common for different employees to order only one specific product category.

Segmentation in the backend of the e-commerce platform allows you to create a customized catalog for each customer with relevant product content. Instead of filtering through thousands of SKUs, the customer can focus on a more manageable selection. This promotes ease of ordering and saves time.

Advanced search and filtering capabilities.

Your customers often have specific product needs and search for certain product information, technical specifications or prices. For B2B organizations with extensive product catalogs, advanced search and filtering capabilities are therefore indispensable. Efficiency is key with business customers.

With search functionalities such as faceted search, autocomplete and searches based on specific attributes, you can refine and personalize search results. This increases the likelihood of successful transactions.

Many e-commerce platforms include good out-of-the box functionality around filtering based on product features, price ranges, brands, item number, ean codes and more. For most issues, these capabilities are sufficient, but in the case of specific needs, a third-party module may be a good choice.

Ordering options

Business customers often order products in large quantities and have recurring orders on a regular basis. Therefore, a streamlined and simple ordering process is essential. With bulk order functionality, your customers are able to quickly add large numbers of products to their cart. Think of uploading an XML or CVS that automatically prepares the right products. Filling multiple order lists (wish lists) is another popular functionality. This allows your customers to store desired products in their own account environment and place them in the shopping cart or share them with other colleagues within the company at the touch of a button. Also, repeat orders, where customers simply duplicate the previous order, saves time and reduces the risk of errors.

Account management and user rights

Creating various accounts and assigning user rights offers great advantages in the procurement process. In many B2B organizations, multiple employees are involved in this process, from product selection to order approval. With account management features, you create detailed user profiles and assign specific roles and permissions to each user. By implementing a clearly defined system of user rights, you not only increase security but also reduce the risk of errors and improve operational efficiency.