Do you provide solutions aiding business growth, recruitment, or team management? Do you offer products tailored for corporate clients or wholesale distribution? If you operate as a B2B vendor, or aspire to become one, leveraging a B2B ecommerce platform could greatly enhance your operations. Such a platform streamlines processes for both your clientele and internal team, fostering faster and more efficient growth.
Numerous success stories in online commerce underscore the potential of ecommerce platforms. Here, we delve into how an online storefront can catalyze the expansion of your B2B enterprise and offer guidance on selecting the optimal ecommerce platform for your needs.
Why Establish a B2B Ecommerce Store
While the majority of online stores may cater to B2C (business-to-consumer) needs, supplying items like pet food, birthday gifts, or specialty groceries, it’s essential not to overlook the potential for B2B organizations in the ecommerce sphere.
Recent surveys indicate that 41% of B2B shoppers express a desire for self-service capabilities to enhance their online business interactions—an impressive figure. Empowering clients with the ability to manage their accounts and conduct related tasks is a pivotal aspect of ecommerce functionality.
For instance, instead of relying on traditional methods like phone inquiries for quotes, a sourcing manager could effortlessly submit a request online and receive prompt information regardless of the time. Additionally, they could place orders or opt for automated monthly deliveries of your products, streamlining the procurement process significantly.
Alternatively, if you offer lawn care services to businesses, a business owner could access their account to modify service frequency or view upcoming scheduled visits.
B2B ecommerce platforms also streamline operations by automating tasks, reducing the workload for customer service representatives and augmenting sales team productivity.
These platforms facilitate seamless data synchronization across distribution channels, ensuring accuracy and timeliness. Moreover, they eliminate the tedious process of manually issuing invoices and quotes, as well as following up with potential clients.
Moreover, an online store serves as the digital storefront and central hub for all marketing endeavors. Direct links to products and services in marketing emails and campaigns enhance online transactions.
Valuable content can be crafted to guide prospects through the sales funnel, while robust analytics enable tracking of marketing success, informing future strategic decisions.
Factors to Consider When Selecting a B2B Ecommerce Platform
Your choice of ecommerce platform serves as the cornerstone of your online storefront. Delving into key considerations can help you make an informed decision. In this exploration, we’ll highlight why WooCommerce emerges as a leading contender among the top B2B ecommerce platforms.
Range of Products Offered
B2B companies have a plethora of options when it comes to product offerings. Below are several categories of items you might sell, accompanied by illustrative examples:
Physical Products
This encompasses equipment, printed training materials, and cleaning supplies. For example, Storage and Handling Equipment supplies eco-friendly shopping carts to retail and grocery stores.
Digital Products
This category includes online courses, downloadable eBooks, and software licenses. TipoType, for instance, offers font licenses to businesses and freelancers.
Services
Offerings range from graphic design to accounting and legal assistance. Your Benefit Store is a service provider, offering healthcare coverage that companies can incorporate into their employees’ compensation packages.
Wholesale Items
Businesses may sell large volumes of products to retailers, effectively serving as their supplier. For example, Porta Pro Chem sells portable restroom products to clients across the country.
Memberships
Access to a range of benefits and resources, such as a training video library or online forum. The Interactive Advertising Bureau offers a membership program with resources, courses, event invitations, and more, tailored for media and marketing companies.
Subscriptions
Recurring products or services, such as yearly licenses, weekly cleaning services, or monthly coffee pod deliveries for the break room. Design Modo, for instance, sells digital subscriptions to design tools, though subscriptions can also include physical products or newsletters.
As evident, these offerings vary significantly, yet there can also be overlap. A business might operate both as a wholesale and retail entity, sell both physical and digital books concurrently, or offer a subscription encompassing weekly office cleaning alongside a box of supplies.
The key takeaway is the potential for conducting business in diverse ways on the same platform—ensuring the chosen platform supports these varied needs.
WooCommerce boasts selling functionality for all the aforementioned products and services, and beyond! Interestingly, all the mentioned example sites utilize WooCommerce. Whether selling one type of product or multiple varieties side by side, and whether catering to general customers or specific clientele like wholesale buyers, WooCommerce offers the flexibility to accommodate diverse business models.
Regardless of what you wish to sell or how you plan to sell it, WooCommerce facilitates the realization of your goals.
Flexibility in Design
Just as your products and services showcase uniqueness, so does your brand. Naturally, you desire your website to embody the personality and traits of your brand.
Top-tier B2B ecommerce platforms offer complete flexibility in design and development, empowering you to bring your creative visions to life without the necessity of code editing or hiring a developer.
Given that WooCommerce operates as an extension of WordPress, you can leverage the robust capabilities of the Block Editor to craft your pages and posts effortlessly. The Block Editor facilitates drag-and-drop functionality, allowing you to seamlessly arrange elements such as paragraphs, headings, images, videos, and columns to fashion a bespoke layout.
Furthermore, you can easily customize colors, font styles, and other design attributes through intuitive settings, ensuring your website reflects your brand identity perfectly.
Furthermore, blocks offer versatility in designing and constructing global site elements, ranging from headers and footers to product page templates. For instance, you can seamlessly integrate related products, videos, or specifications into your product page layout, or incorporate filters into your category page sidebar, all without the need for coding expertise or hiring a developer.
Moreover, a plethora of free and premium themes are available, serving as excellent starting points for your site design. Some themes act as blank canvases, providing fundamental structures that you can customize extensively. Others come equipped with pre-designed layouts and designs, enabling you to swiftly switch images, text, and colors to commence selling without delay.
Content Ownership
For B2B merchants, retaining ownership of your content is paramount. Your website serves as a crucial revenue source, and the prospect of it vanishing is simply untenable.
Proprietary B2B ecommerce platforms pose a significant risk, as they may unilaterally remove your site without warning if they perceive a violation of their terms and conditions. Such actions can result in substantial losses of revenue, time, and effort.
However, by leveraging WordPress and WooCommerce, you maintain complete ownership and control over your creations. Your website is hosted wherever you choose, and you can rest assured that WooCommerce will never dismantle your site without cause. After all, it’s your property, plain and simple.
Integration of Payment Gateways
Payment gateways serve as the secure conduit for collecting funds from customers and clients, facilitating seamless transfer into your bank account. Each tool comes with its own set of advantages and limitations, and your specific business needs will dictate the required functionality.
For instance, you might require the ability to process recurring payments, accept various currencies, integrate with express pay tools such as Apple Pay, or offer financing alternatives.
It’s crucial to ensure that the ecommerce platform you select is compatible with your preferred payment gateway, particularly if your business already utilizes a specific solution for payment collection and invoicing.
WooCommerce offers seamless integration with a diverse range of payment solutions, including:
Additionally, WooCommerce provides its own fully-integrated payment gateway called WooPayments. This feature boasts a user-friendly interface, allowing you to manage payments and refunds directly from the WordPress dashboard. Best of all, it’s free to begin using. Despite being cost-effective, WooPayments offers top-tier functionality, including express pay options, recurring payment support, and multi-currency capabilities.
Shipping Considerations
For businesses dealing in physical products, shipping logistics play a pivotal role in choosing the right ecommerce platform. Shipping processes can be intricate, necessitating a tool that grants you the flexibility to configure fees according to your preferences and seamlessly integrates with your chosen shipping carriers.
This need becomes even more pronounced if you handle large product volumes or have specific requirements such as refrigeration during transit.
With WooCommerce, you enjoy a plethora of options. You can integrate seamlessly with conventional carriers like USPS, FedEx, and UPS, as well as specialty providers like Purolator and Aramex. Whether you prefer flat-rate shipping fees, free shipping incentives, or charges based on factors like weight and cart total, WooCommerce caters to your needs.
For more sophisticated shipping rules, the Table Rate Shipping extension offers extensive customization options. Alternatively, streamline your shipping management directly from your WordPress dashboard with WooCommerce Shipping, or seamlessly connect to third-party tools like ShipStation for enhanced functionality.
Integration with Other Software
Your business likely utilizes a range of tools to manage various aspects, both presently and in the foreseeable future. Some of these tools may relate to marketing and customer service, such as email marketing platforms or CRM systems for organizing customer data. We’ll delve deeper into these aspects shortly.
Others might encompass enterprise resource management software (ERPs), inventory management solutions, accounting software, collaboration tools, and more. It’s imperative to ensure that the platform you opt for seamlessly integrates with all the critical software types essential to your business operations.
For instance, WooCommerce provides top-tier extensions facilitating seamless and rapid integration with diverse software solutions. Even if an extension tailored to your specific needs isn’t readily available, you can leverage the REST API and enlist the expertise of a developer to craft a bespoke solution for you.
Enhancing User Experience
User experience (UX) holds significant importance for any business, serving various purposes. Firstly, if a prospective customer or client encounters difficulty navigating your site, they are likely to abandon it and seek out a competitor instead. Secondly, search engines take into account the user experience when determining website rankings. Your immediate task is to identify a platform that facilitates the creation of an outstanding user experience. Consider the following factors:
Site Speed
Avoiding slow load times is crucial to retaining potential clients. Your chosen platform should inherently be lightweight, with provisions for optimizing speed. Explore top speed optimization techniques to ensure optimal performance.
Enhanced Checkout Experience
To minimize abandoned carts, it’s essential to streamline the checkout process for ease and simplicity. WooCommerce offers tools such as one-page checkout, express payment options, and on-site payments to facilitate a seamless checkout experience.
User-Friendly Search Functionality
Ensure visitors can quickly find what they’re searching for with an intuitive search bar. While WordPress features robust built-in search functionality, you can also leverage tools like Jetpack Search, which offers a user-friendly interface with benefits like instant filters and spelling correction.
Intuitive Customer Accounts or Self-Service Portal
Businesses you engage with should have the capability to update their accounts and orders effortlessly. Ideally, they should be able to make simple modifications independently, without requiring assistance from your customer service team. Consider functionalities such as changing subscription frequency, requesting refunds, updating payment information, and editing passwords.
Efficient Content Organization
Select a B2B ecommerce platform that aids in structuring menus, categorizing posts and products, and incorporating features like breadcrumbs for improved navigation. Given WordPress’s origins as a blogging platform, its content management tools are unparalleled in versatility and effectiveness.
Mobile-Friendly Design
Ensure your site delivers an exceptional experience across all devices, including desktops, tablets, and mobile phones. WordPress and WooCommerce come with responsive designs by default, and numerous mobile-friendly themes are available for further customization to suit your needs.
Ensuring Security
Security is paramount for any ecommerce website, especially for those engaged in B2B commerce. Protecting both your clients’ information and your own hard work and content is essential. Therefore, selecting a secure platform equipped with ample tools to safeguard your online business is crucial.
Start by opting for ecommerce software built upon a foundation of security. Platforms like WordPress and WooCommerce prioritize security, and with a few simple steps, you can fortify your website and protect customer information effectively.
Additionally, seek a platform that simplifies the integration of solutions such as real-time backups, automatic malware scans, activity logs, web application firewalls (WAFs), and similar tools. These components collaborate to offer a comprehensive security solution, ensuring the safety of your entire B2B ecommerce store.
Jetpack Security serves as an exemplary illustration of this approach. Within a plan tailored for WordPress sites, you can establish:
- Spam protection
- Real-time, off-site backups
- Automatic malware scanning and one-click fixes
- Activity log displaying all site actions
- Brute force attack protection
- Robust website firewall
- Downtime monitoring
- Two-factor authentication
In addition to integrating these tools, WooCommerce empowers you to select a secure hosting provider. Ideally, your provider should offer vital features such as SSL certificates, server-level backups, robust customer support, and more.
Enhancing Customer Service and Marketing
Marketing tools play a vital role in reaching new prospects and nurturing existing ones to drive sales. Similarly, effective customer service is essential for retaining buyers and encouraging positive word-of-mouth about your company. Both elements are integral to the success of a B2B ecommerce store.
Your chosen B2B ecommerce platform should facilitate the implementation of all your customer service and marketing strategies. This could involve seamless integration with existing tools or providing straightforward methods for adding tracking codes.
Here are some marketing and customer service capabilities offered by WooCommerce:
Integration with CRM Platforms
Connect seamlessly to the CRM platform of your choice using extensions for Jetpack CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce, and more.
Integration with Support Forums and Ticketing Systems
Enhance customer support by adding live chat functionality, creating a support forum, or integrating with tools like Freshdesk and HelpScout.
Client Portal Possibilities
Create a client portal allowing customers to access resources, documentation, communicate with your service team, and edit their purchases.
Content Creation Capabilities
Regularly produce engaging blog posts, landing pages, and more to support marketing efforts and educate potential customers. The Block Editor enables you to achieve this without coding.
Integration with a Wide Array of Marketing Tools
Monitor website traffic with Google Analytics, connect to social media platforms, publish Google ads, send email campaigns, and follow up on abandoned carts—all from your dashboard.
Simplicity for Team Members
Grant each team member their own account with role-based permissions. Approved accounts can respond to support queries, process orders, administer refunds, publish blog posts, and more.
Email Marketing
Leverage the power of email marketing by sending abandoned cart emails, delivering relevant content and updates, and welcoming new clients to your business.
Furthermore, with WooCommerce, you can integrate various tools like MailPoet for enhanced email marketing capabilities. Implement customer segmentation to target buyers based on their behavior, preferences, and characteristics.
Additional Functionality
The functionality required for your B2B ecommerce store is unique to your company. Consider any special requirements you may have. Here are examples of essential ecommerce features that could be relevant:
- Customer-Specific Pricing: Offer special price lists for certain clients based on agreements with their company. This could be determined by user roles (e.g., gold tier vs. silver tier) or individual businesses.
- Invoicing: Allow customers to place orders without immediate payment and send invoices to their company at a later time.
- Quotes: Hide prices and the “add to cart” button, requiring shoppers to request a quote instead. This is beneficial for projects or orders with custom pricing.
- Deposits: Enable companies to place deposits or initiate payment plans.
- Role-Based Product Display: Hide certain products or categories based on user roles if you sell to different types of clients.
- Price Calculation Based on Measurements: Implement a price calculator considering factors like weight, area, length, and volume. Ideal for equipment manufacturers or custom design projects.
- Wholesale Capabilities: Establish a wholesale ecommerce store with custom user roles and pricing, registration forms, privatization, and rules for shipping, tax exemption, and more.
- Volume Discounts: Provide bulk pricing and volume discounts based on the quantity of products purchased or the total cart value.
Scalability
Your chosen B2B ecommerce platform should never hinder your growth. Be cautious of platforms that base fees on factors like sales, number of customers, or site visit volume. It’s imperative that your platform loads swiftly, regardless of whether you have 100 visitors or 100,000.
WooCommerce offers limitless scalability. There are no restrictions on the number of products or variations you can have; in fact, WooCommerce has been tested with one million products. It’s engineered to handle large order volumes and traffic surges efficiently. Moreover, WooCommerce is a completely free B2B ecommerce platform, although you may opt for paid extensions. Importantly, pricing is never tied to factors like sales or customer count.
One of the standout features is the freedom to choose any hosting provider you prefer. This means you can start with a shared hosting plan and seamlessly upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server as your traffic grows, without impacting your online store.
With WooCommerce, high-volume stores qualify for unique benefits such as dedicated support and discounted extensions. Explore how our team can support your business growth further.
Ease of Use and Management
In the business realm, efficiency is crucial. You can’t afford to waste time on a platform that’s complex to navigate, challenging for new employees to grasp, and requires developer intervention for minor adjustments.
Although you have the option to enlist a developer for site management, it’s not a necessity to maximize the potential of your WooCommerce store. As previously mentioned, the Block Editor empowers you to rearrange, add, and remove elements effortlessly through drag-and-drop functionality. Need to update your products? Simply click buttons and edit fields—no coding required!
Store managers can access inventory management, site analytics tools, and order information seamlessly within a unified platform. Moreover, with tools like Jetpack CRM, WooCommerce Shipping, and WooPayments, tasks such as label printing, payment processing, refunds, and generating quotes can be managed directly from your dashboard.
Furthermore, WooCommerce provides unparalleled customer support and comprehensive documentation to assist you at every stage of your journey.
If you decide to hire a professional for development, maintenance, or customization, explore our list of WooExperts. These vetted, high-quality agencies are ready to lend their expertise!
Examples of B2B ecommerce ventures
Are you seeking inspiration for your wholesale store or other B2B venture? Let’s explore a selection of businesses utilizing WooCommerce to manage their B2B operations.
Porta Pro Chem specializes in supplying the portable restroom industry with essentials such as toilet paper, sanitizer, and cleaners, catering to businesses nationwide. Their e-commerce platform is meticulously tailored to meet the needs of their B2B clientele.
Employing tools like the B2B for WooCommerce extension, they strategically conceal pricing for the majority of their products, making them visible solely to logged-in customers. For new visitors, the process of requesting a quote for an item or purchasing select products without creating an account is seamless.
Shipping rates and pricing for existing customers are determined based on specific user roles assigned to each individual. The website boasts robust features like a mega menu for enhanced product discovery, customer-manageable accounts, and invoicing capabilities.
With a century-long legacy of innovation in industrial power electronics equipment, Fuji Electric caters to diverse sectors including power generation, automotive, manufacturing, and medical. Their product range spans from blowers and pumps to semiconductors and turbines.
Given their broad clientele, their website was designed to cater to various audiences effectively. Featuring an intuitive product finder tool, shoppers can easily select their industry and location to access specific items. Additionally, the website incorporates user-friendly features such as breadcrumbs, search tools, and nested menus to facilitate seamless navigation towards the desired products.
Furthermore, Fuji Electric ensures comprehensive product pages equipped with all necessary information for their corporate clients. These pages include photos, detailed descriptions, specifications, manuals, performance graphs, and direct links to their customer service team.
3. OKdo
OKdo is a technology company specializing in the sale of products centered around single-board computing and the Internet of Things. Their offerings encompass hardware, software, development support, and manufacturing services, catering to a diverse clientele including hobbyists, business owners, industrial designers, and resellers.
Utilizing APIs and custom integrations, OKdo has seamlessly connected to various essential tools such as payment mechanisms, email service providers (ESPs), third-party logistics (3PL) services, and ERP integration solutions. Additionally, OKdo offers different versions of their website tailored to international users based on their location.
Their product pages are rich with information, featuring photos, videos, wishlist tools, specifications, reviews, reference documents, and more. Moreover, they provide a knowledge hub brimming with valuable information tailored to each type of customer.
4. ISC Sales
ISC Sales is a leading industrial equipment supply company boasting a comprehensive catalog of over 17,000 products available on their B2B ecommerce store. To streamline the browsing experience amidst this extensive inventory, they have implemented a range of product selectors that refine product categories based on customers’ specific requirements.
In addition, ISC Sales leverages filters, categories, sub-categories, search tools, and detailed product listings to facilitate the discovery of suitable products for their clientele. For certain items, they offer the option to request a quote instead of displaying pricing upfront.
Located in New York, Gorilla Printing stands as a prominent large-format printing company with nationwide shipping. Their product range spans from banners and signage to flags and vehicle wraps.
Gorilla Printing offers a seamless customization process, allowing businesses to specify details such as size and material. Moreover, clients have the option to directly upload their files on the website. For those uncertain about their requirements, a quick quote form is available for assistance.
6. OTRUSA
OTRUSA serves as a global wholesaler and retailer specializing in tires for industrial equipment. Their website features an intuitive filtering tool enabling shoppers to refine their search based on parameters like size, ply rating, and brand. Alternatively, users can utilize the search bar for quick access to desired products.
Additionally, OTRUSA provides an elaborate filtering sidebar on product category pages, along with commercial credit financing options and live chat support. Furthermore, they offer a membership program entailing exclusive discounts for members.
FAQs about B2B Ecommerce Platforms
Still have questions? Let’s address some of the most common ones.
A B2B ecommerce platform is software designed to facilitate online sales to businesses. Unlike traditional online stores, B2B platforms offer specialized features such as wholesale pricing, invoicing, quoting, bulk discounts, and more. These platforms are tailored to support the unique needs of B2B transactions, ensuring seamless operations for both the selling company and its clients.
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that provides comprehensive ecommerce functionalities for online selling. It offers a wide range of features, including product listings, cart management, and checkout processes. Additionally, WooCommerce boasts a vast library of free and premium extensions, enhancing its core capabilities to meet diverse business needs.
WooCommerce is developed by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, and is trusted by a diverse array of businesses, ranging from small-scale artisans to large enterprises. Its versatility and powerful tools make it a popular choice for ecommerce ventures across various industries.
Certainly! This business model is quite prevalent. With tools like WooCommerce, it’s possible to sell the same products to both B2B and B2C customers through a single storefront.
For instance, utilizing the B2B for WooCommerce extension, you can:
- Hide products based on user roles. This allows you to display certain items exclusively to B2C customers while making others visible only to businesses.
- Configure customer-specific pricing for different user roles. This enables you to set one price for regular shoppers and another, discounted price for wholesale buyers.
- Enable B2B customers to request quotes. You can customize the quote form fields to align with your business requirements.
These are just a few examples. WooCommerce offers extensive customization options to tailor your store according to your specific needs. The key is to personalize the experience and marketing strategies for both B2C and B2B customers, ensuring that both segments feel their needs are being met.
Selecting the right ecommerce software for your business-to-business company hinges on your specific requirements. We’ve outlined a comprehensive list of factors to consider, ranging from pricing and functionality to security and marketing capabilities. Gather your team, outline your store’s objectives, and ensure that the chosen platform aligns with your criteria.
WooCommerce and WordPress stand out as flexible and robust solutions capable of meeting the diverse needs of almost any B2B operation. Not only do they offer extensions tailored to B2B organizations, but they also provide exceptional support, security solutions, content creation tools, and more.
WooCommerce is indeed a strong contender for enterprise businesses. It offers robust functionality designed to facilitate scalability and handle high volumes of orders. Enterprises can leverage its unparalleled flexibility, complete content ownership, and the core software’s free availability, irrespective of sales volume. To delve deeper into how WooCommerce scales, explore further.
Additionally, you may want to explore WordPress VIP, an advanced solution tailored specifically for enterprise organizations. Apart from the exceptional features inherent to WordPress and WooCommerce, WordPress VIP offers comprehensive security measures, premium hosting services, sophisticated data analytics, and content tools meticulously crafted to cater to the unique requirements of enterprises.
Given that B2B stands for “business to business,” the scope can encompass various types of organizations. Here are some of the most common categories:
- Product-based: These businesses sell physical goods to other companies, operating as wholesalers, distributors, or manufacturers.
- Service-based: These businesses offer services to other companies, such as accounting, consulting, or insurance services.
- Software-based: These businesses provide software solutions designed to assist other businesses, including invoicing tools, security services, and more.
A B2B ecommerce platform may offer any combination of these offerings to its customers, and the structure of their operations may vary. The crucial aspect is that they primarily cater to other businesses, although they may also serve consumers.
