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Today, eCommerce is more popular than ever. While it's easy to believe that the age of online retailers is solely focused on the B2C market, the truth is that B2B businesses are gaining traction as well. The global B2B eCommerce market is valued at $12.2 trillion, according to Statista (as of 2019). That's more than 6 times what B2C eCommerce is worth.
The dilemma for today's aspirant entrepreneurs is: how can you profit from this expanding market? It all starts, as usual, with the correct tools.
In today's world, B2B companies rely on everything from ERP systems to self-service chatbots to drive sales. However, we think that the most important asset of all for a beginner is the right eCommerce software.
If you want to succeed in this competitive market, you need the proper B2B eCommerce platform, whether you're selling wholesale products to developers, business owners, and investors, or providing digital services and education.
Your B2B platform will provide you with everything you need to convert customers, including a customized checkout experience, marketing tools, and analytics.
So, where do you start looking?
The Best B2B Ecommerce Platforms
· Shopify Plus
· BigCommerce Enterprise
· OpenCart
· Magento
· Shift4Shop
· Yo! Kart
· OroCommerce
· WooCommerce
· nopCommerce
· Oracle Netsuite
· Volusion Prime
· Prestashop
Identifying the Best B2B Ecommerce Platforms
There are a lot of factors that overlap between B2C and B2B selling.
Whether you’re selling to a company or an end-customer, you’re going to need a strategy for building relationships with your target audience. This means investing in tools like landing page builders, email marketing that you can automate, and even social media integrations.
You also need to ensure that you have a viable way to process transactions and fulfill orders. This means finding a B2B platform that delivers a reliable, (secure) checkout, alongside things like shipping rates for your online store, and inventory management.
However, B2B eCommerce also comes with additional challenges that need to be considered. For instance, when you invest in B2B commerce, are you going to:
Offer digital services? If so, you need a B2B digital commerce platform that allows you to access plugins for downloads, and even create memberships for your clients.
· Provide consultations and quotes? This could mean that you need to add a booking form to your website, as well as easy-to-use contact systems.
· Deliver recurring subscriptions? This will mean that you need to give your b2b customers an easy way to reorder their services and products regularly.
· Sell on multiple channels? This means investing in software for your eCommerce store that helps with order management across a range of systems, including social media.
· Provide wholesale offers: This could mean investing in automated systems that calculate discounts for bulk purchases and calculate appropriate shipping rates.
To save you some crucial time and effort in the hunt for the right eCommerce capabilities, I’ve put together this list of our top B2B eCommerce website builders and tools.
There are a lot of fantastic B2B eCommerce platforms available on the market today, all with their unique benefits to offer budding business owners. The platform that you need will depend on your specific requirements. For instance, if you’re looking for something that integrates well with your WordPress website, and offers tons of extensibility, then you could try WooCommerce. If you need a product that delivers sensational CRM and ERP features, then the NetSuite solution might be better for you.
Shopify Plus offers an excellent choice for those who want high-level eCommerce features combined with a reliable and easy-to-use back-end, and dozens of apps and add-ons. On the other hand, Magento is one of the most well-known and popular B2B eCommerce platforms, with functionality that’s good enough to have earned it awards over the years.
