Top 10 B2B ecommerce platforms that you’d love to sell on

B2B eCommerce is frequently referred to as the future of online shopping, and they are not mistaken! According to experts, the global B2B eCommerce sector is worth $12 trillion. That is more than six times what the B2C industry is worth. You need a B2B eCommerce platform you can trust if you want to scale your present B2B eCommerce business or convert your B2C store into a B2B/B2C hybrid.

We’ll examine the B2B platforms you’ll love to sell on, including the ones that are more experience-demanding and lucrative.

Chapter 1: What is B2B eCommerce?

B2B (business-to-business), a type of electronic commerce (e-commerce), is the exchange of products, services, or information between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers (B2C).

1) Introducing the term B2B eCommerce

A B2B transaction is between two firms, like wholesalers or online retailers. In all B2B commercial models, every company benefits in some manner and generally has the same negotiating power.

According to the research of Grand View Research, by percent by 2027, B2B online commerce is predicted to be $20.9 trillion, which is an annual CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 17.5 per cent over the forecast timeframe (2020–2027).

2) Collaboration of B2B with eCommerce

Whatever your hesitation is about launching your B2B e-commerce store, you should know everything you need to allow a B2B company to succeed online.

• Are you a business owner with customers who require bulk orders? Done.
• Do you have customers who require specific dimensions or materials? Check.
• Do you have customers who have current accounts or agreements for rates? They are taken care of.

Here’s how you can advertise to your B2B clients to boost those sales online. Simplify your business, and focus on your strengths to get your products into the buyers’ hands:

Learn more than your competition.

• Help customers learn how to save themselves and your time.
• Utilize technology to cut down on manual effort and errors.
• Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty by putting in all the extra time.
• Create the exact source of truth and grow more.
• Cut costs while increasing revenue (no need to think about it).
• Make e-commerce an integral component and not a central one.
• Communicate with customers the way you have always done—today, via messages or text.
• Segment customer experience so that everyone feels unique (and you don’t get trapped).

3) Importance of B2B eCommerce

B2B is crucial as every business has to purchase goods and services from other companies to operate, start and expand. The B2B providers of a company provide office spaces, office furniture, computers, equipment and programs, and more. The food products companies have in their kitchens, and the signage they display in their office buildings are bought from suppliers.

4) How does B2B eCommerce work?

In B2B, one company sells various goods or services to another. In most cases, there’s a group or department that makes use of the items and services. On the other hand, in rare cases, one person on the other side of the transaction makes transactions to help the company’s business objectives. Some instances in B2B transactions require the whole business’s use products that are purchased, including computers, office furniture, or productivity tools.

For more complicated or more extensive purchases products, For more complex purchases, the B2B product choice process is handled by a committee of buyers, which includes: A business decision-maker in business, like a person in charge of the budget, an expert in technical decision-making or someone who assesses the capabilities of potential products as influencers, like individuals who contribute to the decision.

Large purchases may require a request for proposals where buyers invite potential suppliers to present proposals that outline their offerings, terms, and pricing.

5) What do B2B eCommerce platforms offer?

If a company fails to make investments on online platforms in the present era, it will soon confront the issue of being left behind in the race. People today are more willing to shop online for everything in a way that is unlike any other channel. Thus, making this an intelligent decision to invest in a B2B online marketplace is an excellent option when companies want to generate millions of dollars of revenue.

Furthermore, Furthermore, the B2B e-Commerce industry is indeed increasing, with a market worth of $10.6 trillion in the year 2018. In addition, as per an eMarketer report, 94% of executives in B2B across North America said B2B e-Commerce is essential to business success and results.

You’re completely wrong if you think B2B e-Commerce cannot affect your business. In addition, B2B customers are seeking the same flexibility that B2C customers enjoy. In another way, B2B buyers want a “B2C-like” experience in their purchase journey. This could include faster checkout, speedy delivery, and easy repeat orders that are automated and improved tracking.

A robust B2B eCommerce website is essential to any company in this field. It improves customer satisfaction on a grander scale, improving conversion rates over the long run, and resulting in a profit.

Chapter 2: B2B eCommerce Marketing

B2B user experiences have evolved from screens that provide only a few details to educational avenues that promote products and offers to your customers.

1) Use the eCommerce B2B platform for your business

The idea of an online marketing strategy combining commerce and content has an efficient application. Information, including an aIf a customer isn’t given all the necessary information, including a size chart to list ingredients or step-by-step instructions, they’ll search for it elsewhere. This can lead to the consumer using a different purchasing channel beyond your company’s electronic commerce platform.

Your contribution is evident to your customers free of charge by providing educational content. Then, you can close the deal after they have reaffirmed their trust in what they can trust.

Business people have used this method of conversation over the phone or with drinks. Now, it is time to use this approach to generate customers for your website and make sales.

2) Increase traffic with SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) means simply optimizing your website to be higher in search engine results for a specific keyword. If you’re unsure how SEO is done, conducting some study or viewing some tutorials is worthwhile. Essentially, it’s about ranking higher over other sites and making it to the first page of the search results web pages (SERPs).

You’ve likely noticed how many marketing professionals stress SEO to achieve more effective outcomes. It’s because SEO provides you with an advantage. If you’re one of two companies selling similar products, you’ll likely outdo them when your B2B eCommerce website is optimized better than the other sites.

Most of the time, your customers will likely look up items or services using generic terms before they find the appropriate B2B online e-commerce website. Utilize keyword search tools to determine the appropriate words to reach your customers.

To fully understand your site’s efficiency, dig deep into analytics, analyzing essential metrics on your websites, such as the amount of time a user spends on your website and the rate at which they leave your site, to improve your website’s performance. If you have restricted content, such as downloadable PDFs or guides for business, you should measure the rate of downloads as well.

3) Reach customers through advertising

Have you ever had the experience where you sat for hours browsing the internet without seeing one advert? You’re not alone if you don’t recall, since online advertisements are now integral to everything around us. They’re powerful, and if properly executed, they can be a boon for your company.

There are numerous kinds of ads you can take part in: search ads, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, social media advertisements, in-app advertisements, and many more!

Explore the options that are the most effective for your audience and give you the highest click-through rate and rates of conversion. Bland ads that only declare features are no longer practical. Make sure to write a well-written ad copy with adequate words and call-to-actions that work (skip the typical ‘Buy Now or ‘Buy Now and think of an alternative).

4) Educate your audience and show them why they need you

E-commerce and content marketing are inextricably linked. For instance, they offer informative “how-to” content and buyer guides that can assist your customers in choosing the appropriate product or service and influence how they shop.

Your content marketing plan should assist your customers in finding details related to your domain. They’re more likely to visit your site and purchase from you in the future if they can get quality content from your website rather than searching the internet for information.

In addition, providing high-quality content can help you show off your expertise in the field and help convince clients to purchase through your site.

To earn customers’ trust, ensure you consistently post articles, posts, and helpful content such as videos, blog posts, infographics, vital articles, corporate tips, tricks and webinars, and even how-to-content.

Include more videos in the content you have planned. The number of people who regularly check videos has been increasing recently. According to a market study, 70 per cent of B2B customers and researchers view videos before buying, and 73 per cent of B2B marketers said that video content positively affects the return on investment for marketing.

5) Talk to your customers

To ensure that sales rise and customers are satisfied, you must provide an excellent and convincing online purchasing experience. It is possible to achieve this by the following methods:

Visually pleasing web stores Bring customers’ attention by using captivating pictures of high quality, GIFs, and videos. Please find out more about our five tips for improving the design of your online store, or take a look at the following examples of B2B-oriented e-commerce websites.

Chapter 3: Top features that a B2B e-commerce platform must have

All eCommerce retailers want to connect with more customers and increase their revenues. Internationalization provides eCommerce companies, along with their selling platforms for B2B, better chances to achieve their objectives. Thus, internationalization is a crucial feature that the best B2B eCommerce platforms should offer to their clients.

1) Security is the first priority

It is no surprise that security is at the top of every company’s priorities. In e-commerce, protecting your data is more essential and complicated as hackers constantly try to take down websites. Therefore, the best B2B eCommerce platforms should ensure that they keep their retailer’s and clients’ data secure.

2) Featuring your business in the international market

Internationalization describes the method of increasing the participation of businesses in international markets. It ensures your website adapts to different languages, taxes, currencies, and locations without needing to modify the source code.

3) Customizable and Scalable

Customization refers to modifying or creating a program that does something the software currently cannot do. The platforms also allow users to utilize the B2B platforms for eCommerce and design services.

4) Omni channel sales approach

Wholesale eCommerce is a term used to describe online transactions where businesses purchase goods in massive quantities from producers or distributors and then sell them to other companies.

If you’re doing it right, enabling wholesale eCommerce can open up new possibilities for your business to increase sales, reduce costs, and boost the retention of customers.

B2B buyers are similar to your other customers. They want efficient and personalized customer service from their supplier. This is why you must establish your eCommerce platform that provides wholesale e-commerce features to boost efficiency in operations and decrease expenses.

5) Ability to buy and sell wholesale products

Wholesale and bulk purchases are the mainstays of B2B sales. Buy-in customers to e-commerce websites for B2B should allow customers to buy bulk with as little hassle as possible. Pricing, bulk quantity availability, and delivery estimates are essential aspects of UX for bulk orders. Solutions such as the wholesale management system take it a step further and offer an array of B2B-specific E-commerce tools that can streamline wholesale workflows from start to finish.

6) Providing stellar customer service

Customization is altering an application or creating a program that does things that the software does not currently. The platforms also allow users to utilize the B2B platforms for eCommerce and design services.

The platform that permits the customization of websites usually attracts many more merchants to run their online businesses. This is because it can save online merchants lots of money when they need to scale up. Customers with programming skills or an in-house development team can alter the store’s functionality and design at no additional cost. Furthermore, the ability to customize the platform ensures that everything is under control, and you can modify your store by your preferences.

To this end, the best B2B eCommerce platforms should allow users to make the necessary modifications to their websites.

7) Manage your shipment

When it comes to B2B commerce, different individuals are responsible for the selection of products and checkout. Sharing shopping carts allows the user to put items into a cart for another user to check and accept. Alongside sharing a single cart, the capability to make multiple shopping carts an essential feature of B2B e-commerce

The manual quote process can cause many frictions when it comes to buying. B2B platforms for e-commerce can assist merchants in streamlining and automating procedures for their client’s benefit. For instance, an B2B online store that can submit Request for Quote (RFQ) forms could help speed up the quoting process.

A B2B online platform’s quotation management functions must be integrated with the more extensive process for managing sales orders. By integrating these processes, merchants can reduce the chance of human error and increase the speed of fulfilment.

Chapter 4: 10 Best B2B eCommerce platforms in the world

Here are the top 10 best eCommerce platforms in the world. Just go through all of them and decide which suits the best for your business.

1) Adobe Commerce for B2B

The Adobe Magento Commerce platform is designed to provide a complete eCommerce solution for businesses that conduct B2B and retail sales online. Customers can personalize your Magento web store to reflect their company’s appearance and feel and showcase their online storefronts with customized copy and promotional opportunities.

The software comes with an editor for pages, making it simple for businesses to design custom e-commerce websites using a drag-and-drop interface, eliminating the stress of creating web pages.

2) Shopify Plus

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that is a favourite for small-scale companies and online shops. It is easy to install and set up, and accepting customer payment is easy. Even the tiniest of online commerce businesses can benefit from Shopify’s features that are free from spending much time (or even a tiny amount) to set up.

The Shopify platform isn’t only for retail transactions; it’s also Shopify B2B eCommerce that takes the best aspects of Shopify and transforms them into a system designed primarily to address B2B business sales requirements. Through Shopify Plus, businesses can automate their sales processes across B2B, direct-to-consumer, and wholesale customers. This eliminates the need to manage separate online platforms for B2B and retail channels. This makes it much easier to track your sales in one place.

Shopify Plus, which starts at just $2,000 per month, allows users to build custom interfaces specifically for B2B and wholesale customers. These interfaces can be secured with a password and include prices specific to each business customer. Like other B2B eCommerce platforms we’ve discussed, it is easy to manage inventory and track the current B2B clients’ purchases with the click of a button.

3) Orocommerce

OroCommerce was created with B2B e-commerce in the back of your mind, specifically for mid-market companies. It also has assistance for B2C in addition to DTC sales, which makes it a single-stop solution for your company’s sales channels.

With OroCommerce, you can design and manage your online store, create customised portals, and create custom retail environments that cater to wholesalers, too. It is also possible to choose to operate OroCommerce via local servers on the cloud or directly from your servers, according to what is the best option for your existing technology infrastructure.

With OroCommerce, companies can roll out important B2B eCommerce features such as corporate account management, memorable pricing catalogues for each business customer, custom workflows, and other features. The API is also flexible, making integrations straightforward to establish, whether connecting OroCommerce into your existing system or ensuring it keeps up with the latest additions to your company software.

4) eWorldTrade

eWorldTrade is a reasonably new B2B platform that has gained impressive recognition. eWorldTrade is a new, innovative approach for collaborating with buyers and sellers. It is a B2B platform and is operated by Reckon Media LLC. Reckon Media LLC, United States The company owns a large amount of experience in providing digital media and technology-related services.

The headquarters of eWorldTrade are in Dallas, Texas. The most popular B2B platform is designed to help Chinese dealers, manufacturers, suppliers, and other dealers in their quest to join. eWorldTrade is the fastest-growing network, with thousands of sellers, retailers, suppliers, vendors, and manufacturers signing up daily to connect with potential customers in diverse regions worldwide.

5) BigCommerce B2B Edition

BigCommerce, the B2B eCommerce platform, is popular with sellers looking for an integrated solution. It’s one of the most significant selling points, along with its integrations with Shipper, Bright pearl and other platforms.

Merchants can develop customized shipping rates for buyers from B2B and transfer data between their CRMs, ERPs, OMSs, and other platforms. Shoppers can recreate the convenience of a single click on Amazon by reordering immediately and using quotation generation tools.

The B2B offering is relatively new. Thus the numbers of customers aren’t yet available. However, more than 60,000 companies utilize BigCommerce to host its B2C eCommerce website, which includes Avery Dennison, Toyota, and The Real Yellow Pages.

6) Alibaba

Alibaba is a well-known Chinese consortium based in Hangzhou. The B2B platform is dedicated to standing stands as the leading e-commerce platform that offers business-to-business, consumer sales portals, retail, and much more. The B2B platform can accept online payment services as well as the ability to search for comparisons.

The website also provides storage of data in cloud-based servers. In 2012, Alibaba portals racked up a shocking 1.1 trillion dollars in sales, i.e. $170,000 million. The platform made more sales than the total sales of its rivals-the two largest competitors-eBay and Amazon.

7) DHgate

DHgate is the most well-known B2B platform that permits importers from various regions of the globe to purchase Chinese items in small quantities at wholesale prices. Ornaments, DHgate, On DHgate, customers can buy electronic items, ornaments, clothes, sports equipment, and other items. DHgate offers more than 30 million items across 226 nations around the world. The company is home to over 5 million customers and is among the top 2100 most popular websites.

But, DHgate was once accused of being a fake website in earlier times. Afterwards, the allegations were defeated by the rising popularity of the website. Like Amazon and eBay, the website is recognized as the world’s largest vendor. Additionally, the site is used by 1 million small-scale vendors in China. DHgate monitors the vendors attentively for potential fraud. However, verifying that each seller is legally licensed is difficult.

8) TradeGecko

With their B2B eCommerce platform, TradeGecko aims to simplify wholesale retail online.

With TradeGecko, merchants can design custom discounts, order quantities, and catalogues for B2B customers and provide them with invite-only access to their store, which is accessible online or through a mobile application with the brand name. TradeGecko also allows one-click payment.

Pricing is between $39 and $599 based on the volume of orders and warehouse locations. It also comes with a 14-day trial. Test. TradeGecko customers represent over 100 countries and a wide range of industries.

9) NetSuite

Net Suite is committed to offering top-of-the-line e-commerce services for B2B and retail businesses. While the company is known to target mid-sized businesses, many smaller companies may find NetSuite’s collection of tools an ideal choice for their needs.

Conditions NetSuite makes it simple for companies to offer customers a custom price, credit limits, and purchase conditions, which are perfect for use in B2B applications where pricing negotiation is standard. New or prospective customers can request price quotations directly from an e-commerce NetSuite-enabled page and then convert the quote into an order online without needing to pick up the phone.

Users can connect their existing product catalogues to their clients’ purchasing systems. However, this depends mainly on third-party add-ons available between your and your client’s software tools.

10) Conga

• It offers a variety of tools to streamline B2B commerce operations. These include an online business solution that includes CPQ and contract management. It also offers invoice and billing management and much more.
• Gartner recognized Conga’s software for managing contract lifecycles as the market’s leading product.
• More than 10,000 businesses worldwide use Conga to automate B2B transactions.

Read more about the comparisons between Alibaba and Global Sources by going towards this link

Chapter 5: Benefits of having a B2B eCommerce platform for your business

By creating and testing engaging content targeted to B2B customers, you can provide value and swiftly react to changes in your market. In addition, using an extensible B2B eCommerce cloud-based solution can upgrade your current technology and increase your marketing and merchandising capabilities.

1) High scalability, promised security

A reliable B2B eCommerce Digital Experience Platform will allow your company to expand and increase to meet the market’s demands and customer requirements through the opening of new channels of sales and continually opening new markets.

2) Fast delivery, exceptional customer service

Ecommerce offers a unique opportunity for B2B companies to enhance their customer service offerings. Ecommerce sites provide access to self-service portals, which include customers’ accounts, order histories, tracking and history information. Integrating the company’s ERP system, a well-designed eCommerce site can show specific items, services, and pricing based on customers’ login credentials.

3) Increased efficiency and productivity

Through integration with the ERP (ERP) and other back-end business systems, eCommerce can be a significant source of efficiency for B2B businesses. Convenient for them is because customers can place orders online when they are convenient, and companies can concentrate on actual customer service tasks rather than having customers place orders.

Additionally, automated ordering and workflows require reconfiguring the data within separate systems, thus reducing the risk of mistakes. This also increases the shipping process’s efficiency and boosts the delivery speed for orders.

4) More brand awareness, more customers, more sales

A B2B eCommerce platform can give your company an internet presence and give you the ability to control your brand. This lets you promote the growth and development of your brand locally as well as internationally.

Although other B2B markets could provide more brand awareness, your branded e-commerce site is your primary marketing tool to ensure a constant online presence and exposure.

Making SEO-friendly content for your eCommerce site is a quick way to increase your site’s indexing on search engines. As a result, this will boost the chances that your intended customers will be aware of who you’re.

Chapter 6: Frequently asked questions on B2B Ecommerce Platforms

1) How do I choose a B2B eCommerce platform?

Five factors to consider when deciding on a B2B eCommerce platform. If your business is selling B2B and D2C products on the internet, there’s a good chance that you’re using ERP (enterprise resource management) software.

2) What is the difference between B2B and B2C eCommerce?

B2B (business to business) salespeople sell products and services to other companies. Moreover, in B2C sales, you sell goods and services to consumers on your own. B2C sales resolve a problem that a consumer faces by offering the purchase of a product. B2B sales help solve business problems or aid employees in succeeding in their jobs.

3) What makes a successful B2B platform?

Three Critical Success Factors in B2B eCommerce

• The right platform partner to choose.
• It is aligning people, processes, technology, and data.
• They are making sure that customers have the best experience.

4) How do B2B eCommerce models work?

Businesses-to-business (B2B) can be described as a transaction or business conducted between a business and another, like retail and wholesale. B2B transactions usually occur within the supply chain, where one company purchases the raw material from another to be utilized in production.

5) What are the challenges of B2B eCommerce?

The B2B buying process is a complex one that involves many individuals, and the purchasing process is lengthy and complicated.

• Buyers face complex procurement procedures.
• Buyers require a variety of ways to pay.
• Multiple channels of data can be separated.

Conclusion

I hope the above comparison and assessment of B2B eCommerce platforms helped you discover your ideal B2B selling platform. You are welcome to use Lit Extension to carry out your data migration if you want to switch from your present B2B eCommerce site to a new one.