Whether they’re beginning their research, comparing products, or making a purchase, B2B buyers are using the Internet as part of their buying journey. Online shopping is paramount for today’s wholesale distribution customers. They prefer the accessibility and flexibility it offers and, according to research by McKinsey & Company, 60% of B2B customers find buying products online more convenient than going through traditional channels.
If you don’t already have an eCommerce site in place, you are lagging behind your B2B counterparts and missing out on additional sales opportunities. A digital commerce channel serves both your customers and your business because it reaches more buyers, enhances the customer experience, and drives business growth.
For those of you with a robust digital branch, kudos to you. Well-built B2B eCommerce solutions are designed to scale with you as your business evolves and grows. This adaptability is also critical in keeping up with new technologies and changing buyer needs. With convenience and transparency topping today’s B2B buyer priorities, your business must have core eCommerce site features that give customers the ability to shop and buy your products how they want, when they want, and with all the information they need to make their purchase decision. In a recent webinar hosted by Unilog, we presented four key eCommerce features that meet your customers’ needs and help drive your success in the digital marketplace:
1. Advanced Search and Filtering Tools
Advanced site search and filtering tools turn more site visits into conversions because they lead buyers more quickly and easily to your products. To ensure a quicker path to purchase, your digital commerce platform should include sophisticated onsite search capabilities that accommodate multiple types of search parameters including product or category name, part number, or manufacturer. From the search bar, auto-complete suggestions should appear as the buyer begins typing to display products and related categories that match their search. On the backend, you need the ability to add alternative words/synonyms, different orders of words, and even commonly misspelled words to your site’s search vocabulary so, no matter what they type in the search box, their search will always render relevant results.
Wholesale products can come in a multitude of sizes, colors, and materials, which is why a navigation bar with filtering tools is a must-have feature on a B2B eCommerce site. On a search results page, the left navigation bar displays faceted attributes that enable buyers to drill down to a specific item or subset that fits their needs.
2. Pricing and Availability Display
When you display the latest product pricing and availability on your site, you attract more visitors and drive more sales. Providing transparency to pricing information is critical to remaining competitive. Logged-in customers should always see their contracted pricing and general site visitors should see, at the very least, list prices. Current inventory availability is also important, especially if a customer needs a product immediately. If your online availability doesn’t match what you actually have in stock, you will not only frustrate the customer but could also lose the sale.
Ensuring your digital sales channels reflect the latest product pricing and availability requires tight integration with your ERP system. Without a real-time API call in place to feed your ERP pricing and inventory data to your website, your online storefront will have differing information from your brick-and-mortar store and other sales channels.
3. Quick Order Pad
A quick order pad is a handy ordering feature integrated into your eCommerce platform that enables customers to add products to their shopping carts by directly copying and pasting item SKUs into an online table or uploading a CSV file. Convenient and efficient, it’s a time-saving tool that many B2B customers prefer to use, especially those who regularly buy multiple items at a time.
Save your customers the hassle of browsing and searching your product pages to reorder items by providing a quick order pad as an ordering option on your website.
4. Punchout Capabilities
If you serve larger customers in the government or higher education, you’ve most likely been asked if you have punchout capabilities. Designed to give customers better control over their spend management, punchout creates a direct connection between your eCommerce site and their e-procurement system, enabling them to browse and order your products without ever having to leave their procurement system.
In addition to better purchasing management, punchout provides your customers with tailored catalogs of the products they buy from you, ensures accurate ordering, and eliminates duplicate data entry on their end. This value-added service also helps you realize operational efficiencies, drive repeat business, and build loyal customers. Make sure your eCommerce platform has the ability to integrate punchout to make it even easier for your customers to do business with you.
Want to see these features in action? Schedule a complimentary demo of our CX1 CIMM2 eCommerce platform and see for yourself how these tools enhance the user experience and help you get more out of every transaction.