Are you thinking of setting up a B2B eCommerce store? Or you already have a B2B store that is not integrated with the latest eCommerce technology or you own a legacy eCommerce solution? In this article, we have discussed how B2B eCommerce works compared to traditional B2B and the Business Impact.
This blog will walk you through the B2B eCommerce solution and major costs associated with it Business Impact.
So, if you are a newbie and searching for the best eCommerce software you will find that existing solutions have significant functionality and technological gaps & Business Impact . The platforms typically fall into two camps:
- Retail software with great marketing capabilities but here manufacturers and distributors face operational challenges as it comes with limited B2B functionality.
- The second camp is of businesses who are using B2B eCommerce technology with exceptional back-office but has limited marketing or merchandising capabilities. Such companies are using the eCommerce software that is lacking in some or the other points and attracts less ROI.
As you have landed on this post the chances are that you fall into either of the two camps. So, let’s start with some of the major issues that B2B business faces. Here you will get an idea of Why B2B eCommerce is worth the investment and What is the potential ROI? What are the various B2B ordering challenges? And How B2B eCommerce technology helps? In total Business Impact
Reduction of various costs using B2B eCommerce Strategy
B2B eCommerce software solves several operational challenges related to B2B ordering. The first step you should take is to understand the current cost you are facing during B2B processing and how to reduce it further. Here B2B eCommerce solutions work well of Business Impact.The costs that can be reduced through the best multichannel selling eCommerce software.
Costs of printing, distribution of Paper catalogs and forms:
Suppose you spend about $20K a year on printing and distributing the forms and catalogs. The companies using B2B eCommerce have to spend almost less or no money on catalogs and forms.
Costs related to Data entry:
If you are a business who has not at all used the B2B eCommerce strategy, then its common that your ordering processes include unnecessary and redundant steps such as re-entering the orders into the ERP system or account books after you have received the order by the back office. These processes need multiple resources and thus increases business investment costs. It also consumes a lot of your time.
Costs related to order returns and errors:
Order returns are unpredictable and it adds to your cost. Manually handling the entire process may include errors that may lead to order cancellation or sometimes reshipments. On an average, errors cost approximately $50/order to fix (the number can be higher or even lower depending on the order). Orders that come through B2B eCommerce are much less prone to errors, cancellation and returns. Thus, the B2B business ends up reducing the costs related to order errors.
Cost of legacy B2B eCommerce technology:
You might be leveraging B2B eCommerce for many years, but using the same old technology. So, its high time to either upgrade your old eCommerce software or look for new cloud-based software that is highly reliable and cost-effective. The aged old eCommerce solution will only delay your B2B processes and wouldn’t have many features to cope up with the current business trends.
Above are some of the major challenges that are easily handled by B2B technology.
Now, if you are really serious about understanding the B2B eCommerce impact and ROI, then it would be incomplete if we left the real concept of opportunity cost.
The opportunity cost means the opportunity for your business that your employees are missing while looking into the manual and outdated B2B ordering and management processes.
Your staff would have a specific focus on bringing more customers and retaining old customers.