Top 10 B2B eCommerce benefits

This content was updated on December 18th, 2023

B2B eCommerce solutions can transform the way that companies do business.

As B2B sales increasingly shift from traditional outbound channels to inbound online platforms, businesses must respond in order to meet their customers’ expectations and remain competitive in the marketplace.

As well as allowing your customers to purchase your products online, B2B eCommerce solutions also offer numerous benefits for businesses, enabling them to increase sales, optimise efficiency, and reach new customers and markets.

At TrueCommerce, we understand the importance of having a robust B2B eCommerce platform that can cater to the needs of modern businesses. Our solution is designed to help you streamline your sales processes, reduce manual efforts, and errors and provide your customers with a seamless buying experience.

Our platform is built with the latest technology and is scalable to meet the evolving needs of your business. With us as your partner, you can rest assured that your B2B eCommerce platform is in safe hands.

Here are the key benefits of dedicated and tailored B2B eCommerce software:

1. Tap Into a Huge and Growing Market

The B2B eCommerce market is huge, with buyers now finding the online sales experience more convenient than buying from a sales representative, as they would have done in the past. This represents a significant opportunity for businesses.

In addition, B2B eCommerce provides a wider reach to businesses. This allows them to expand their customer base beyond their geographical location. With B2B eCommerce, businesses can easily track their inventory, manage orders, and streamline their operations, which translates to increased profitability and competitiveness in the market.

2. Reach More Buyers and New Markets

Expanding into new markets and reaching more buyers is crucial for the growth of any business. With B2B eCommerce, you can now reach new customers who were previously out of your reach with online sales channels that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Your online sales channels will work continuously to connect with new potential clients, even when your sales team is unavailable. Customers from different markets and time zones can easily buy your products, and you can reach out to new local and international markets without worrying about time differences or logistical barriers.

Buyers want to be able to research and buy online. According to a millennial buyer survey report, millennials are increasingly taking on decision-making roles within their organisations, and they expect to be able to buy online. With B2B eCommerce solutions, you can reach those buyers, strengthen your online presence, and help potential new clients find you via search engines.

3. Improve Brand Recognition

When you transition to B2B eCommerce, you can increase brand recognition at scale. Instead of spending all your marketing resources on expensive campaigns with little return on investment, you can use B2B eCommerce software to easily promote products, increase sales, and attract new customers, all while building a positive brand image.

B2B eCommerce allows you to focus your marketing resources on activities that increase brand awareness and credibility. You can create partnerships, work on collaborations, simplify ordering processes, and streamline other aspects of your online business with the right platform fuelling your goals.

B2B eCommerce solutions can also help you improve customer relationships and satisfaction to create a better brand image. You can enhance the customer experience and become a trustworthy brand as you efficiently and quickly fulfill orders, address concerns, and communicate essential information.

4. Increase Sales

B2B eCommerce enables you to reach a wider customer base and attract more buyers to maximise sales. You can generate predictable income as you establish long-term relationships with your wide range of buyers. With a steady cash flow, your business can make plans to grow and improve.

By utilising B2B eCommerce software, you have the ability to increase sales through automated cross-selling and up-selling programmes. A large wholesaler utilising our B2B eCommerce solution, for example, saw an average sales increase of 10.5 per cent. These personalised promotions and price mapping features encourage customers to purchase more, leading to a great boost in revenue. 

Programmes can be used to:

• Offer relevant suggestions
• Encourage customers to buy additional, related items
• Persuade customers to upgrade their chosen products to ones with a higher spec
• Run personalised promotions
• Feature price mapping so the right customers see the right prices at the right time

5. Enhance Efficiency

B2B sales involve several moving parts. When you use B2B eCommerce software, you can automate these processes to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and improve decision-making.

Your B2B eCommerce software can be integrated with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) in order to remove paper-based processes and reduce the time and resources required for administration. An integrated setup will enable your ERP to automatically detail sales statistics for your clients, including order totals, revenue, profit percentages, and discounts. You can also integrate with your customers’ procurement systems to win new business and improve customer retention.

And, because customers can order online, your customer service team can focus on core customer service functions rather than taking orders. Your business will have the flexibility to improve sales by building better relationships.

6. Speed up Delivery

B2B eCommerce solutions not only make the sales process more efficient for the seller but also speed up the process for buyers.

Rather than having to manually manage and track orders and inventory, a synchronised online system allows brands to sync data across all channels, automate fulfilment and inventory updates, and handle complex orders. This leads to fast, accurate and transparent delivery and, ultimately, satisfied customers. 

7. Reduce Costs

Among the benefits of eCommerce for B2B is the potential to minimise costs while boosting revenue. You can automate and streamline processes to increase operational efficiency and eliminate unnecessary expenses.

By taking the majority of your business processes online, B2B eCommerce software saves time and money in areas such as:

• Physical location management
• Staffing requirements
• Order entry
• Customer service
• The provision of client information

8. Stay Competitive

With B2B customers increasingly switching channels to buy online, if you don’t keep up and offer this service, you risk being left behind. As eCommerce sales become the norm, we will in turn see buyers stop calling, emailing, and visiting – they will want to do their purchasing online to improve efficiency and cut costs. If you don’t offer an effective B2B eCommerce facility, you risk losing your customer base and being left behind by your competitors.

One way to ensure success in B2B eCommerce is to focus on personalisation. By tailoring your website to the specific needs and preferences of your customers, you can provide a seamless online shopping experience that will make them want to return to the website.

This can include customised pricing, personalised recommendations, and targeted marketing campaigns. By exploiting the power of data and analytics, you can gain deep understanding of your customers and their behaviour, allowing you to make powerful decisions that drive growth and profitability. 

9. Boost Analytics

Data is a key part of B2B sales. eCommerce platforms allow businesses to acquire, analyse, and measure core data far more easily, including customer engagement metrics, sales, product mix, inventory turns, and more.

By integrating analytics with your ERP, you can obtain invaluable data and actionable insights that will take your customer understanding to a whole new level.

10. Experience Scalability

One of the key advantages of a B2B eCommerce platform is its scalability. As your business grows, you can easily add new products, customers, and sales channels. This allows you to respond quickly to market demand and stay ahead of the competition.

A single digital touchpoint will let you easily expand your operations and market reach while minimising costs.

Leverage the Advantages of B2B eCommerce

B2B eCommerce enables you to reach a wider audience, improve sales, and enhance your brand image while reducing costs.

With TrueCommerce’s B2B eCommerce solution, you can appreciate the benefits of seamless scalability, increased efficiency, and lower costs without worrying about technical complexities. To find out how we are helping clients such as Mathew Clark, Bunzl, and Greene King embrace the benefits of B2B eCommerce, please get in touch.

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B2B eCommerce across all sectors

The TrueCommerce B2B platform is used across many sectors including apparel, food, electronics and industrial to drive increased sales, greater profitability and improved customer service. 

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Contributor:

Claire Gibbons is a Marketing Director here at TrueCommerce. With over 15 years’ experience in the IT sector, Claire’s specialises in market analysis, supply chain strategy and educational articles. Claire is based in our Coventry office.