Select the Proper Answer

Do you supply providers that assist companies develop, rent, or handle their groups? Do you provide merchandise particularly to firms? Do you promote objects wholesale? Should you’re within the B2B area — or if you wish to be — you could very nicely profit from a B2B ecommerce platform. It may possibly simplify processes in your shoppers and your crew, and assist you to develop quicker and extra effectively.

Let’s take a better take a look at how a web based storefront will help your B2B enterprise progress, and the way to decide on the correct ecommerce platform.

Why create a B2B ecommerce retailer

Nearly all of on-line shops you’re accustomed to could also be B2C (business-to-consumer), supplying your canine’s meals, your son’s birthday presents, or your favourite specialty groceries. 

However don’t be lured into pondering that ecommerce shops are only for consumer-facing organizations. They are often an extremely {powerful} device for B2B firms as nicely. 

In a current survey, 41% of B2B shoppers said that self-service capabilities would enhance the method of doing enterprise on-line. That’s a giant quantity! And offering the power for shoppers to handle their accounts and carry out different associated duties is a spotlight of ecommerce performance. 

For instance, as a substitute of calling to ask for a quote, a sourcing supervisor might submit a request on-line and discover out this info instantly, irrespective of the time of day. They might additionally submit an order, and even signal as much as have your merchandise delivered robotically on a month-to-month foundation. 

Or, in the event you present garden care providers for firms, a enterprise proprietor might log into their account to regulate the frequency of their providers, or see the subsequent time you’re scheduled to cease by.

B2B ecommerce companies additionally go a good distance in the direction of automating processes. They’ll take the load off of customer support representatives and enhance gross sales crew members’ efforts by among the self-service duties we simply mentioned. 

They’ll sync info between numerous distribution channels, guaranteeing that all the pieces’s up-to-date and correct. They usually can take away the painful steps concerned in manually sending invoices and quotes, then following up with every potential shopper.

Lastly, a web based retailer acts because the face of your organization and the hub of all of your advertising and marketing methods. You possibly can hyperlink on to services and products in your advertising and marketing emails and promoting campaigns to spice up on-line transactions. 

You possibly can create invaluable content material that guides prospects by your gross sales funnel. And you’ll monitor the success of your efforts to steer future choices.

Concerns for selecting a B2B ecommerce platform

The ecommerce platform you select is actually the muse of your on-line storefront. Let’s dive into some components to contemplate when selecting one, and study why WooCommerce is the highest answer for B2B on-line shops.

Varieties of merchandise you’re promoting

There are an enormous number of prospects for B2B firms. Listed below are a number of objects you could promote, together with some examples: 

Bodily merchandise

Assume gear, printed coaching books, and cleansing provides. Storage and Handling Equipment, for instance, provides eco-friendly buying carts to retail and grocery shops.

Digital merchandise

Objects like on-line programs, downloadable eBooks, and software program licenses. TipoType, for example, presents font licenses to companies and freelancers.

Companies

Choices reminiscent of graphic design, accounting, and authorized assist. Your Benefit Store is a service supplier, promoting healthcare protection that firms can embody as a part of their staff’ compensation packages.

Wholesale objects

Promoting giant volumes of merchandise to retailers, basically appearing as their provider. Porta Pro Chem, for instance, sells moveable restroom merchandise to shoppers across the nation. 

Memberships

Entry to a group of advantages and sources, reminiscent of a coaching video library or on-line discussion board. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, for example, has a membership program with sources, programs, occasion invitations and extra, particularly for media and advertising and marketing firms. 

Subscriptions

Recurring services or products, like a yearly license, weekly cleansing service, or month-to-month field of espresso pods for the break room. Design Modo sells digital subscriptions to design instruments, however subscriptions also can contain bodily merchandise or even newsletters.

As you possibly can see, these all differ extensively from each other, however there can be overlap. You may promote each retail and wholesale merchandise. You might promote each bodily and digital books facet by facet. Or you’ll have a subscription that features a weekly workplace cleansing, and a field of provides.

The purpose right here is, you could wish to do enterprise in a wide range of methods on the identical platform — be certain the platform you select helps all of them.

WooCommerce supplies promoting performance for the entire services and products listed above, and extra! The truth is, the entire instance websites talked about are utilizing WooCommerce. Promote one kind of product or a number of facet by facet. Permit anybody to buy, or prohibit capabilities to particular shoppers or wholesale prospects.

It doesn’t matter what you wish to promote or the way you promote it, WooCommerce makes it attainable.

Design flexibility 

Simply as your services and products are distinctive, your model is, too. And, after all, you need your web site to replicate the persona and traits of that model.

Good B2B ecommerce platforms will permit you full and whole flexibility to design and construct something you possibly can think about — with out having to edit code or rent a developer in the event you don’t wish to. 

Since WooCommerce is an extension of WordPress, you possibly can harness the facility of the Block Editor to construct your entire pages and posts. The Block Editor allows you to drag and drop components — like paragraphs, headings, photos, movies, and columns — to create your personal customized structure.

You possibly can then toggle settings to customise colours, font types, and different design traits to make the web page your personal.

You may also use blocks to construct and design world website components, from headers and footers to product web page templates. For instance, you may add associated merchandise, movies, or specs to your product pages. Or maybe you wish to add filters to your class web page sidebar. All of that is attainable with out working with code or hiring a developer.

There are additionally plenty of free and premium themes you possibly can select from as beginning factors in your website design. Some are like clean slates, offering simply the fundamentals that you may really customise to your coronary heart’s content material. Others supply ready-to-go designs and layouts. Simply change photos, textual content, and colours and get promoting!

Content material possession

For on-line companies, proudly owning your content material is totally important. Your web site is a income — you possibly can’t danger the opportunity of it disappearing. 

You see, many proprietary B2B ecommerce platforms can take your website down with no warning in the event that they resolve that you just’ve violated their phrases and circumstances. Meaning lack of income, time, and onerous work!

However if you use WordPress and WooCommerce, you personal and management what you create! Your web site is hosted wherever you’d prefer it and also you’ll by no means have to fret about WooCommerce taking down your website. As a result of it’s simply that — yours.

Fee gateway integration

Fee gateways allow you to gather cash from prospects and shoppers securely, then switch that cash into your checking account. There are professionals and cons of every device, and sure performance you’ll want in your particular enterprise. 

For instance, you could want to gather recurring funds, settle for a number of currencies, combine with categorical pay instruments like Apple Pay, or supply financing choices. 

You’ll wish to guarantee that the ecommerce platform you select works with the one you wish to use — particularly if your small business already makes use of one thing for fee assortment and invoicing. 

WooCommerce integrates with a big selection of fee options, together with:

You may also use a fully-integrated fee gateway from WooCommerce, referred to as WooPayments. It has a person pleasant interface, permitting you to handle funds and refunds from the WordPress dashboard. Plus, it’s free to get began.But it surely nonetheless supplies world-class performance, like categorical pay choices, recurring fee assortment, and multi-currency assist.

See a full record of gateways and study extra about selecting a fee gateway for your small business.

Delivery

Should you promote bodily merchandise, then transport goes to be an essential issue with regards to selecting an ecommerce platform. Delivery will be sophisticated, so that you want a device that lets you arrange charges the best way you need, and that integrates with any transport carriers you’re employed with. 

That is very true in the event you ship giant volumes of merchandise directly, or have particular necessities like refrigeration.

With WooCommerce, you’ve plenty of completely different choices. Combine with conventional carriers like USPS, FedEx, and UPS, or specialty suppliers like Purolator and Aramex. Cost flat charge transport charges, supply free transport, or cost primarily based on a wide range of components like weight and cart whole. 

You possibly can even arrange sophisticated guidelines with the Desk Price Delivery extension. Handle all the pieces out of your WordPress dashboard with WooCommerce Delivery or connect with third-party instruments like ShipStation.

Learn extra in our ecommerce transport information.

Integration with different software program

There are a big selection of instruments that you could be already use to run your small business, or know that you just wish to implement sooner or later. A few of these could also be advertising and marketing and customer support associated — assume e-mail advertising and marketing platforms or CRM instruments to prepare buyer information — however we’ll contact on these a bit later.

Others might embody enterprise useful resource administration software program (ERPs), stock administration instruments, accounting software program, collaboration instruments, and so forth. The purpose right here is that it’s best to take the time to confirm that the platform you select works seamlessly with the entire different forms of software program which are important to your small business. 

WooCommerce, for instance, presents high-quality extensions that make a lot of these integrations seamless and quick. And if, for some motive, one doesn’t exist already for the device that you just want, you possibly can reap the benefits of the REST API and rent a developer to create one for you.

Consumer expertise

Consumer expertise is essential for any enterprise, for a wide range of causes. First, if a possible buyer or shopper visits your website and it’s tough to make use of, they’ll almost certainly hand over and store with a competitor as a substitute. Second, serps think about person expertise when figuring out rankings. Your job, for now, is to discover a platform that makes creating a wonderful person expertise attainable. Listed below are some components to consider:

Web site pace

Keep away from gradual load instances that may drive potential shoppers away! Your platform must be as light-weight as attainable by default, and supply the power so that you can optimize for pace. Get high pace suggestions.

A streamlined checkout expertise

The checkout course of must be as easy-to-use and easy as attainable to stop deserted carts. WooCommerce supplies instruments for one-page checkout, categorical fee choices, on-site funds, and extra to assist with this. 

Simple-to-use search instruments

Assist guests discover precisely what they’re on the lookout for with an intuitive search bar. WordPress has nice built-in search performance, however it’s also possible to use instruments like Jetpack Search, that gives a buyer pleasant interface with advantages that embody on the spot filters and spelling correction.

Intuitive buyer accounts or self-service portal

The companies that you just work with need to have the ability to replace their accounts and orders with out an enormous trouble. Ideally, they need to be capable of make easy modifications without having the assistance of your customer support crew. Assume altering subscription frequency, requesting a refund, updating fee info, and modifying a password.

Content material group

Search for a B2B ecommerce platform that helps you construction your menus, categorize posts and merchandise, and add options like breadcrumbs to assist with navigation. Since WordPress was constructed as a running a blog platform from the start, its content material instruments are unequalled.

Cellular-friendly design

Your website ought to look nice on units of all sizes — desktops, tablets, and cellphones. WordPress and WooCommerce are responsive by default, and there are many nice mobile-friendly themes you possibly can select from.

Safety

Safety is essential for any ecommerce web site, however arguably much more so for those who have a enterprise to enterprise operation. Not solely do you wish to keep away from placing your shoppers’ info in danger, you additionally wish to shield your onerous work and content material. That’s why it’s so essential to decide on a safe platform with loads of instruments to maintain your on-line enterprise protected.

To start, select ecommerce software program that’s constructed on a basis of safety. WordPress and WooCommerce, for instance, prioritize safety and, with a number of easy steps in your finish, your web site and buyer info will probably be locked down.

Additionally search for a platform that makes it easy to combine options like real-time backups, computerized malware scans, exercise logs, net software firewalls (WAFs), and different related instruments. These work collectively to supply a complete safety answer in your total B2B ecommerce retailer.

Jetpack Security is a superb instance of this. In a single plan constructed particularly for WordPress websites, you possibly can arrange:

• Spam safety
• Actual-time, off-site backups
• Automated malware scanning and one-click fixes
• An exercise log that exhibits all actions taken in your website
• Brute power assault safety
• A strong web site firewall
• Downtime monitoring
• Two-factor authentication

Past incorporating a lot of these instruments, WooCommerce allows you to decide on your personal safe internet hosting supplier, which ought to ideally supply important options like SSL certificates, server-level backups, buyer assist, and extra.

Customer support and advertising and marketing

Advertising instruments, after all, assist you to attain new prospects and encourage extra gross sales from current ones. Good customer support helps you retain consumers round and drive them to unfold the phrase about your organization. They’re each key to a profitable B2B ecommerce retailer.

The B2B ecommerce platform that you just work with ought to make your entire customer support and advertising and marketing methods attainable, whether or not meaning integrating seamlessly with instruments you already use or making it simple so as to add monitoring codes. 

Listed below are some advertising and marketing and customer support capabilities included with WooCommerce:

Integration with CRMs

Hook up with the CRM of your selecting with extensions for Jetpack CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce, and extra.

Integration with assist boards and ticketing methods

Add dwell chat to your website, create a assist discussion board, or combine with instruments like Freshdesk and HelpScout.

Shopper portal prospects

Construct a shopper portal that allows prospects to entry sources and documentation, talk along with your service crew, edit their purchases, and extra. 

Content material creation capabilities

Recurrently create stunning, efficient weblog posts, touchdown pages, and extra to assist the remainder of your advertising and marketing efforts and educate potential prospects. The Block Editor lets you do all of this with out touching a line of code.

Integration with a big selection of selling instruments

Monitor site visitors with Google Analytics, connect with social media platforms like Fb and TikTok, publish Google advertisements proper out of your dashboard, ship e-mail messages, observe up on deserted carts, and extra.

Simplicity for crew members

Give every member of your crew their very own account with permissions primarily based on their position. Accepted accounts can reply to assist questions, view and course of orders, administer refunds, publish weblog posts, and extra.

E-mail advertising and marketing

E-mail is without doubt one of the strongest advertising and marketing strategies at your disposal. Ship deserted cart emails. Keep high of thoughts with related content material and updates. Welcome new shoppers to your small business.

And, with WooCommerce, you possibly can combine all kinds of instruments that may assist you to accomplish this, reminiscent of MailPoet. You possibly can even implement buyer segmentation, to market to consumers primarily based on earlier conduct, likes and dislikes, and different traits. 

Extra performance

The performance you want in your B2B eCommerce retailer is restricted to your organization. So assume by any particular necessities that you’ve. Listed below are some examples of important ecommerce options which will apply to you:

• Buyer particular pricing. You might wish to supply particular pricing for sure shoppers primarily based on the settlement you’ve with their firm. This can be primarily based on person position (e.g. gold tier vs. silver tier) or every particular person enterprise you’re employed with.
• Invoicing. Let prospects place orders with out fee, then ship an bill to their firm at a later time. 
• Quotes. You possibly can conceal costs and the “add to cart” button and require buyers to request a quote as a substitute. That is nice for tasks or orders with customized pricing. 
• Deposits. Let firms place a deposit or begin a fee plan.
• Merchandise displayed primarily based on person position. Should you promote to various kinds of shoppers, you could wish to conceal sure merchandise or classes primarily based on their person position. 
• Value calculation primarily based on measurements. Add a worth calculator primarily based on components like weight, space, size, and quantity. That is good for gear producers or customized design tasks.
• Wholesale capabilities. Arrange a wholesale ecommerce retailer with customized person roles and pricing, registration varieties, privatization, and guidelines for transport, tax exemption, and extra.
• Quantity reductions. Provide bulk pricing and quantity reductions to prospects primarily based on the variety of merchandise they buy or the overall of their cart.

Scalability 

The B2B ecommerce platform that you just select ought to by no means maintain you again. Be careful for ones that base charges off of gross sales, variety of prospects, or quantity of website visits. Your platform also needs to load shortly, whether or not you’ve 100 guests or 100,000. 

WooCommerce can scale with you to any measurement. There’s no restrict to the variety of merchandise or variations you possibly can have (actually, this test site had a million!). 

It’s constructed to deal with giant volumes of orders and site visitors spikes. It’s a very free B2B ecommerce platform, although you could wish to use paid extensions, and the pricing isn’t primarily based on components like gross sales or prospects.

The perfect half? You possibly can select any internet hosting supplier that you just’d like. That signifies that, whereas you’ll have a shared internet hosting plan proper now, you possibly can at all times improve to a VPS or devoted server as your site visitors will increase with out impacting your on-line retailer.

With Woo, high-volume shops qualify for distinctive advantages like devoted assist and discounted extensions. Be taught extra about how our crew will help your small business develop.

Ease of use and administration

Within the enterprise world, time is cash. And you’ll’t afford to waste time on a platform that’s onerous to make use of, tough for brand new staff to study, and that requires a developer to make even the smallest of modifications. 

Whilst you can rent a developer to handle your website in the event you’d like, you actually don’t should in an effort to take advantage of your WooCommerce retailer. As we talked about earlier, the Block Editor allows you to rearrange, add, and delete components by merely dragging and dropping. 

Wish to revise your merchandise? You are able to do so by clicking buttons and modifying fields — no code crucial!

Retailer managers can entry all the pieces from stock administration and website analytics instruments to order info all in a single platform. And in the event you use instruments like Jetpack CRM, WooCommerce Delivery, and WooPayments, you possibly can deal with label printing, funds, refunds, quotes, and extra instantly out of your dashboard as nicely. 

Plus, WooCommerce presents unequalled buyer assist and thorough documentation that can assist you each step of the best way.

And in the event you do wish to rent an expert to develop, keep, or customise your retailer, try our record of WooExperts. They’re vetted, high-quality companies prepared to assist!

Examples of B2B ecommerce companies

Do you’ve a wholesale retailer or different B2B operation and wish a little bit little bit of inspiration? Let’s take a look at a number of examples of shops utilizing WooCommerce to run a B2B operation.

1. Porta Pro Chem

Porta Professional Chem is a provider for the moveable restroom business, promoting objects like bathroom paper, sanitizer, and cleaners to companies across the nation. Their store was constructed totally with their B2B shoppers in thoughts.

Utilizing instruments just like the B2B for WooCommerce extension, they hid pricing for almost all of their merchandise, making these simply seen to logged-in prospects. New guests can simply request a quote for an merchandise in the event that they’d like, or buy a number of choose merchandise with out creating an account.

Delivery charges and pricing for current prospects relies on particular person roles assigned to every one. The web site additionally has {powerful} options like a mega menu to make discovering objects simpler, accounts that prospects can handle on the backend, and invoicing capabilities. 

2. Fuji Electric

Fuji Electrical has been an innovator in industrial energy electronics gear for a century! They serve industries reminiscent of energy era, automotive, manufacturing, and medical with objects from blowers and pumps to semiconductors and generators.

Contemplating their large scope, their web site wanted to enchantment to a wide range of audiences. They’ve an easy-to-use product finder device that permits buyers to pick out their business and site to find out entry particular objects. In addition they incorporate options like breadcrumbs, search instruments, and nested menus to information buyers to the correct merchandise.

Lastly, they created detailed product pages that embody all the knowledge their company shoppers may want. They embody pictures, detailed descriptions, specs, manuals, efficiency graphs, and hyperlinks to their customer support crew.

3. OKdo

OKdo is a know-how firm that sells merchandise targeted on single-board computing and the Web of Issues. They provide {hardware}, software program, growth assist, and manufacturing to hobbyists, enterprise homeowners, industrial designers, and resellers.

They used APIs and customized integrations to connect with all of the instruments that they want, together with fee mechanisms, e-mail service suppliers (ESPs), third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and ERP integration options. OKdo additionally has completely different variations of their website accessible to worldwide customers primarily based on their location.

Their product pages are chock full of knowledge like pictures, movies, wishlist instruments, specs, critiques, reference docs, and extra. Plus, they’ve a information hub with tons of useful info for every kind of buyer. 

4. ISC Sales

ISC Gross sales is an industrial gear provide firm with greater than 17,000 merchandise listed on their B2B ecommerce retailer. To make sorting by all of these objects simpler, they’ve a wide range of product selectors that slender down the product class primarily based on prospects’ wants.

In addition they make use of filters, classes and sub-categories, search instruments, and detailed product listings to assist buyers discover the correct match for them. For some merchandise, they’ve buttons to request a quote fairly than pricing.

5. Gorilla Printing

Gorilla Printing is a large-format printing firm primarily based out of New York. They ship nationwide, and promote all the pieces from banners and signage to flags and car wraps.

Their customization course of allows companies to pick out particulars like measurement and materials, and even add their information instantly on the web site. If an organization isn’t fairly certain what they’re on the lookout for, they’ll fill out a quick quote type to get some assist.

6. OTRUSA

OTRUSA is a world wholesaler and retailer of tires for industrial gear. They function an easy-to-use filtering device that lets buyers slender down their search by measurement, ply score, and model — or they’ll merely kind in what they’re on the lookout for.

Different options embody an intricate filtering sidebar on product class pages, business credit score financing, dwell chat capabilities, and even a membership program that features reductions.

FAQs about B2B ecommerce platforms

Nonetheless have questions? Let’s deal with among the most typical ones.

What’s a B2B ecommerce platform?

A enterprise to enterprise (B2B) ecommerce platform is software program that gives all of the instruments you could promote to companies on-line. It goes past your fundamental on-line retailer, permitting entry to specialised performance like wholesale pricing, invoicing, quotes, bulk reductions, and extra. 

In the end, high-quality software program will assist the B2B enterprise mannequin, making issues as simple as attainable for the corporate utilizing it, together with their shoppers.

What’s WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that features all of the ecommerce options you could promote on-line, from product listings to checkout and cart performance. It’s extraordinarily versatile, with a big library of free and premium extensions that add on to the already-powerful core performance.

WooCommerce is run by Automattic, the corporate behind WordPress.com, and is utilized by an enormous number of shops. Ecommerce outlets from small handmade artisans to giant enterprise companies reap the benefits of its {powerful} instruments to search out success. 

Is it attainable to run a B2B/B2C hybrid ecommerce retailer?

Sure, completely. This can be a enterprise mannequin that’s fairly frequent, actually. With a device like WooCommerce, you possibly can promote the identical merchandise to each B2B and B2C prospects on the identical storefront.

For instance, the B2B for WooCommerce extension allows you to:

• Cover merchandise and objects primarily based on person position. For instance, you may have some objects accessible for B2C prospects, with others seen simply to the companies you’re employed with.
• Configure buyer particular pricing for various person roles. So that you may need one set of costs for traditional buyers and one other, with reductions, for wholesale consumers.
• Permit B2B prospects to request a quote. You possibly can even customise the quote type fields only for your small business wants. 

These are just some examples. You possibly can customise your WooCommerce retailer to suit no matter your wants are. The important thing right here, although, is to personalize the expertise (and your advertising and marketing methods!) for each B2C and B2B prospects, so each really feel like their wants are being met. 

How do I select between B2B ecommerce platforms for my enterprise?

The suitable ecommerce software program for your small business to enterprise firm will rely upon the precise wants you’ve. We’ve supplied a reasonably complete record of issues, from pricing and performance to safety and advertising and marketing capabilities. Sit down along with your crew, make an inventory of what you wish to accomplish along with your retailer, and guarantee that the platform you select checks all of the bins.

WooCommerce and WordPress are versatile and {powerful} sufficient to satisfy the wants of practically any enterprise to enterprise operation. Not solely does it supply extensions to satisfy the wants of B2B organizations, it additionally presents glorious assist, safety options, content material creation instruments, and extra. 

Is WooCommerce an enterprise-grade ecommerce platform?

WooCommerce is a superb alternative for enterprise companies. It supplies all of the performance wanted to scale and is constructed for a big quantity of orders. Enterprise shops will profit from limitless flexibility, full content material possession, and free core software program no matter your gross sales quantity. Be taught extra about how WooCommerce scales.

You might also wish to think about WordPress VIP, a sophisticated answer constructed particularly for enterprise organizations. Along with the superb options which are already included with WordPress and WooCommerce, you profit from complete safety, top-level internet hosting, information analytics, and content material instruments designed across the wants of enterprises. 

What are the various kinds of B2B companies?

Since B2B merely stands for “enterprise to enterprise”, this could cowl a big selection of organizations. Listed below are a number of of the most typical sorts:

• Product-based: Promote bodily objects to different firms. They is perhaps wholesalers, distributors, or producers. 
• Service-based: Promote providers to different firms. Assume accounting, session, or insurance coverage suppliers.
• Software program-based: Promote software program that helps companies in some capability. This contains invoicing instruments, safety providers, and extra.

A retailer on a B2B ecommerce platform may present all or any of those choices to their prospects, and the construction of their operation might look completely different. The essential issue is that they’re promoting to companies, although they could additionally promote to shoppers.

Construct and develop your B2B ecommerce retailer with WooCommerce

Whether or not you’re a longtime B2B firm or simply beginning out, WooCommerce presents all of the instruments and suppleness you could develop. You possibly can create and customise with out writing or modifying any code in any respect, or work with a developer to design an intricate promoting platform.

It harnesses the facility of WordPress to supply unequalled content material capabilities, and contains plenty of extensions that assist you to customise the web expertise in your prospects. Plus, it might probably assist enhance your advertising and marketing methods and even make your crew extra environment friendly.

On the lookout for extra info? These guides will help:

Able to develop? Get began with the highest B2B ecommerce platform in the present day.