Ecommerce Platform B2B Blues

B2B blues: Why most ecommerce platforms are slowing you down

For these operating a B2B enterprise, it’s apparent that B2B is a far cry from B2C. But, many ecommerce platforms deal with them the identical. Or worse, make B2B an afterthought, leading to processes that solely gradual you down.

With ecommerce making up 80% of the B2B gross sales in 2025, B2B must be something however an afterthought within the on-line house.

B2B workflows are traditionally advanced, however this doesn’t imply ecommerce workflows must be too. Simply as ecommerce has helped streamline catalog shopping and advertising and past for the B2C house, it could actually assist B2B organizations ship a greater expertise.

However first, what sort of challenges are these platforms inflicting within the first place?

5 frequent challenges with many B2B ecommerce platforms

B2B orders are sometimes bigger than these in B2C. With large, high-dollar orders come equally large, high-stress workflows. The size of those orders and workflows doesn’t imply a platform must be monolithic and troublesome to navigate.

Sadly, that is usually the case, with 81% of B2B consumers saying they run into points making an attempt to put orders, which regularly stems from outdated techniques. Outdated techniques alone aren’t the only offender, nevertheless. It’s the numerous challenges they spawn that lead to a nasty expertise for consumers and your workforce alike.

Hindered agility.

Whether or not you’re making an attempt to launch a brand new product in your website or aiming to replace website performance, a quick time-to-market is important within the aggressive B2B house. Day by day you’re behind rivals is cash left on the desk.

Sadly, a variety of ecommerce platforms have been both constructed with out B2B in thoughts, or function on a dated basis that strikes at a glacial tempo. The improper infrastructure or a heavy reliance on plugins can all result in pricey, gradual developer cycles in your finish, and problem launching a lot of something.

Excessive whole price of possession.

Pricing is commonly one other sticking level with ecommerce platforms within the B2B house. Typically the results of unclear pricing fashions and a reliance on third-party, paid plugins, your whole price of possession for a B2B ecommerce platform can eat a large chunk out of your earnings.

Some platforms supply an open-source mannequin, with a seemingly decrease and even “free” tag. Even in these circumstances, whole price of possession can balloon as your corporation grows, with:

• More and more costly internet hosting from a third-party

• Rising developer wants and prices

• Higher safety wants and equally larger prices

• A heightening want for extra plugins so as to add performance

In the meantime, many B2C ecommerce platforms maintain issues easy with a month-to-month plan and predictable pricing.

Archaic workflows.

It’s straightforward to make the error of considering brick-and-mortar workflows could make a 1:1 translation to the ecommerce house. Even within the oft-simpler B2C world this isn’t the case. Within the B2B market? No approach.

Comfort is a first-rate promoting level of ecommerce, however when workflows are archaic and handled as an afterthought, that comfort goes out the window.

For instance, in B2C, you may sometimes have a catalog with pricing, seen for anybody and everybody. Within the B2B world, particular person prospects usually have distinctive pricing, depending on every little thing from bulk ordering to ongoing agreements.

In the meantime, B2B ordering itself can shortly disintegrate when ecommerce workflows aren’t optimized correctly. The place a B2C order consists of an individual including an merchandise to a cart, a B2B workflow can require enter from a number of stakeholders on the client aspect, together with authorized overview. In case your platform lacks multi-user help, these orders can flip right into a sport of phone for the client and drive them elsewhere.

Poor personalization.

Prospects need a customized expertise, particularly within the ecommerce house. Within the B2C house, it’s commonplace: customized advertising emails, customized product suggestions, and even customized internet content material.

Within the B2B house, 90% of companies are claiming to ship personalization, but solely 20% of market leaders are literally reaching one-to-one personalization. With so many B2B ecommerce platforms making it troublesome to customise and personalize efforts, this disparity ought to come as little shock.

Sophisticated backend expertise.

Giant catalogs, giant orders, advanced buyer hierarchies, and extra can lead to an information nightmare on the backend for B2B ecommerce organizations. Particularly when many ecommerce platforms are designed with B2C processes and buyer bases in thoughts.

Not solely can a messy backend make it tougher in your workforce to course of buyer orders, it could actually additionally hinder makes an attempt at increasing into different markets and trigger difficulties when making an attempt to remain up-to-date with safety and have updates.

“We had a really custom-made model that would do something for anybody, but it surely was scary to handle in an growing world of cyber threat. We shortly fell out of kilter with varied updates. To really step by way of platform updates was going to price us a fortune.”

— Sam Galloway, Director, Snell

The massive B2B advantages of BigCommerce

With an ecommerce platform that’s constructed for B2B, you may transcend merely avoiding the above challenges and develop your organization, do extra with much less, and past.

Meet BigCommerce B2B Version: A headless platform the place B2B isn’t an afterthought, however the coronary heart of each workflow and have. The top end result?

Streamlined operations.

With BigCommerce, you may streamline traditionally laborious B2B workflows with:

• Gross sales-rep particular workflows

• Less complicated reordering processes for consumers

• Purchaser approval workflows that mirror real-world procurement

The above is a mere sampling of the workflows, as BigCommerce may deal with customization that makes it potential to suit your enterprise, not the opposite approach round.

Bio-Rad, a life science and scientific diagnostics product provider, had an extremely advanced sequence of workflows, each internally and for orders. Their ecommerce platform was growing old and holding them again and so they knew they wanted to maneuver. However, with 2.3 million country-specific SKUs and value information, migration was a frightening job.

After a seamless migration to BigCommerce, they have been in a position to not solely preserve all these information, but in addition streamline quite a few workflows. As an illustration, their standing order workflow, which beforehand sat at 5 pages, was decreased to at least one.

“Going from a monolithic system over to a headless structure that leverages APIs has allowed us to maneuver twice as quick.”

— Suzanne Lazarus, IT Path, Bio-Rad

Sooner time-to-market.

BigCommerce comes with a sturdy suite of options, lots of that are sometimes discovered solely through integrations and plugins. Much less reliance on third-party options, coupled with a extra user-friendly platform, means much less complications for IT and a sooner time-to-market generally.

BigCommerce additionally makes use of an API-first, composable commerce structure, letting you seamlessly combine your favourite instruments with the system. When you’re keen on a sure instrument or resolution, odds are, you may simply combine it together with your BigCommerce setup.

Banner Options, a supplier of door {hardware} and safety options, is a superb instance of the time financial savings potential through BigCommerce. Using our composable structure, they have been ready so as to add options and updates that beforehand took them months to do. By way of BigCommerce? These characteristic updates took a fraction of the time.

Simplified procurement.

Whether or not your consumers are procuring items for his or her group or shopping for for additional distribution, getting B2B ordering workflows proper is essential to success.

BigCommerce makes it straightforward in your consumers and your gross sales groups alike with:

• Built-in purchaser portals

• Self-service quote administration

• Quick access to bill cost

• Cellular-optimized quote engine

• Ordering on behalf of consumers

With 61% of B2B consumers preferring to order on their very own, relatively than by way of gross sales reps, self-service performance is large. And BigCommerce delivers.

An enormous transfer made straightforward

BigCommerce has helped numerous B2B organizations understand improved gross sales, much less annoying workflows, and a decrease IT burden. The truth is, many organizations who change to BigCommerce B2B Version can see:

• 391% three-year return on funding

• 50% extra productive digital platform managers

• 13% improve so as worth

• 24% extra productive gross sales groups

BigCommerce can also be recurrently acknowledged by the Paradigm B2B, which invitations choose commerce distributors to endure an intense analysis. Out of 24 potential medals, BigCommerce earned an ideal 24 out of 24. (To not brag or something.)

“Prospects persistently highlighted BigCommerce’s deep dedication to B2B performance, its strong associate ecosystem and its capability to deal with the advanced pricing, buying workflows, and integrations that enterprise consumers demand.”

— Andy Hoar, Chief Govt Officer, Paradigm B2B

Better of all? Migrating to BigCommerce is straightforward. Even in the event you’re coming from an enormous platform like SAP Commerce.

With help for quite a few migration strategies, and our personal migration app, you may take the ache out of migration, irrespective of the dimensions of your group or catalog. And, in the event you don’t wish to deal with it your self, we’ve got a number of premium migration companies that take the burden solely off your plate.

Are you at present on the SAP Commerce Cloud and in search of extra agility? Check out our SAP-specific migration information and see how straightforward it’s to make the massive change, immediately.