B2B eCommerce On The Rise

B2B eCommerce, or business-to-business electronic commerce, is the sale of goods or services through online transactions between businesses. Orders are processed digitally, and buying efficiency and effectiveness are improved for wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors, and other types of B2B sellers. Amazon is one of the biggest eCommerce platforms which is making headlines with its increasing market share and new product offerings. Shopify is another eCommerce platform gaining the attention of businesses from around the world as it starts to expand on an international scale. In 2020, the global B2B eCommerce market was valued at $14.9 trillion — over five times that of the B2C market.

On top of that, Forrester predicts that B2B eCommerce will account for 17% of all B2B sales in the U.S. by 2023, reaching $1.8 trillion.?

For small businesses, opportunity lies within the world of B2B eCommerce. The fact that most B2B eCommerce orders have a higher-than-average dollar value, includes fewer “one-item” orders which simplifies the picking, packing, and shipping process, has lower B2B shopping cart abandonment and higher conversion rates, provides you the perfect recipe for market expansion.

Wholesale & Distributors in B2B?

Businesses often buy goods in bulk for a low price and then sell them at retail value. When a retailer purchases goods from the manufacturer or distributor, this?could also be described as the sale of goods to other businesses. Wholesale B2B models are present in many industries including retail, food service, medical, and many others. With wholesale eCommerce, everything can be digital which allows the wholesaler to display products more easily and creates a seamless buying experience.

Wholesale distributors have a few options when selling online. They can choose to sell through an online marketplace like Amazon, run and market their own eCommerce site which is often accessible publicly for direct-to-consumer strategies or offer a B2B online order portal that is accessible only by customers with a login. While an eCommerce store is open to the public, a B2B online portal allows your established customers to log in whenever they want and gives your sales people an easier view of inventory. Order Portals and eCommerce stores offer the ability to save previous shopping history to benefit your customers and sales people. The information can be used to develop sales strategies and build an exceptional customer experience for clients.?Distributors have three options to sells their products and ERP integrates all three options from back end to front end.

B2B eCommerce vs B2C eCommerce?

ERP Integration with B2B eCommerce??

With eCommerce and the demand for product increasing, this means that the order fulfillment process should be up to the mark as it is a critical element of a B2B eCommerce operation. The customers expect that their orders are dispatched quickly and efficiently, which is a key factor in ensuring customer satisfaction. So, before diving head first into the exciting world of online selling, integrating an already established ecommerce store is easy. First, to ensure you have a rock-solid process for the picking, packing, and especially shipping of products. This will allow you to keep up with the demands of an increased order volume and remain competitive.?

Courier Integration?

Many B2B eCommerce businesses face a challenge with integrating couriers with their ERP systems. In wholesale distribution businesses, many employees are required to spend countless hours manually managing orders on their current software which they then have to input into courier websites by logging into separate accounts. The process is repetitive and time-consuming and can lead to errors as they must manually enter the shipment and customer information order by order. The key here is to automate this process by integrating with large courier companies such as FedEx, Purolator, or UPS with an ERP system to manage the picking, packing, and shipping processes. The ERP system pushes and pulls information from your account on the shipment courier's site which saves you the effort of entering shipment details twice into two separate software screens. This will allow you to automatically feed customer shipment information from the ERP system, such as addresses, phone numbers, and emails to courier screens, and eliminate the need for employees to manually enter information, thus significantly reducing dispatch times.?

Features and Benefits of an ERP System in B2B Ecommerce?

An ERP system has characteristics that make them important for business growth, so let's look at the features and their benefits: ?

1. Feature: Centralized database - Centralized database allows the information from multiple departments to be aggregated automatically and accurately. Benefit: The need to manually enter a new sales order every time a customer places an online order is eliminated. As the product is sold online, order information flows directly from the website into your inventory and accounting system, updating quantities available and allocating inventory for picking.?
2. Feature: User interface (UI) & User experience (UX)- The UI and UX of ERP are designed for businesses to have a friendly and easy-to-use interface.? Benefit: An ERP integration can provide better customer account tracking and personalization offered by brands which can create a fulfilling experience for customers as an integrated ERP can offer customers information about their products, fulfillment and shipping preferences, or order history which will lead to more sales and business growth.?
3. Feature: Business process integration- ERP is a system software programmed to integrate into other eCommerce platforms such as Magento to optimize and support business workflow. ? Benefit: An ERP integration for eCommerce automates various processes that would have been performed manually such as manual order entry into the eCommerce system, updating inventory or invoicing data, generating reports, and so on. It also greatly lessens the chances of productivity losses and errors, which can add up to substantial savings over time.?
4. Feature :Task automation- The fundamental feature of ERP software is the ability to automate repetitive tasks which is handled by advanced AI systems, saving time and minimizing errors. Benefit: When new items are received into the warehouse, the products need to be entered into your inventory and accounting ERP software, which will then convey the product’s information such as descriptions, pricing, and quantities, online. The need to re-enter the same product into your ERP and then online to your eCommerce site is eliminated.?
5. Feature: Reporting & Analytics- ERP helps analyze the collected data of different departments such as revenue, capital, customer behavior, etc. ? Benefit: Provides data analysis and business reports which are used to build strategies. The reports such as sales by product or sales by month gives insights as to what products are doing the best and these reports can be used to strategize on ways the products are to be managed.

Additional benefits of ERP software:?

• With some ERP you can set up criteria for evaluating orders, such as product availability, customer credit limit, and total order amount. So, if all criteria are met the order gets sent through to the warehouse for picking thus removing the need for a human to manually perform any tasks. Ask your vendor about what automation tools they provide. ?
• Most B2Bs eCommerce brands require an efficient ERP integration that’s secure, scalable, and can accommodate their growth. With a cloud-based ERP system, businesses get a robust platform without substantial investment in hiring employees and setting up an IT department.?

For B2B eCommerce, ERP Integration Is a Competitive Advantage- With the wealth of data offered by the ERP system, businesses can leverage information for increased productivity and team members can dedicate resources towards growth strategies and explore new markets.?

IS YOU BUSINESS READY FOR ECOMMERCE? – Download this guide to learn about your options for selling online?

How Blue Link ERP can help with eCommerce Integration?

Blue Link provides a fully integrated B2B eCommerce Platform: Online Order Portal for use by both your wholesale distribution B2B customers and sales reps. The order portal can be integrated in real-time with Blue Link’s back-end ERP and be customized to include your company graphics, colors, and information. For advanced eCommerce functionality, Blue Link integrates with existing B2C and B2B eCommerce platforms and marketplaces such as Shopify and Amazon.?

With Blue Link’s Online Order Portal all information is synced in real-time with Blue Link ERP for accurate inventory and pricing information. It is designed for use by B2B customers and sales reps, so sales reps log in, they have the ability to choose which customer they want to make a purchase on behalf of. Once an order is submitted online through the portal, a sales order is created in Blue Link without the need for any re-keying of information.??

Benefits of Blue Link’s B2B eCommerce Platform:?

• Businesses can easily make changes and update the site as the system is user-friendly and dynamic.??
• Layout, colors, labels, and even language as the online order portal is a multi-lingual product that can be configured without any expertise.?
• Determine which of your products are displayed on the portal, which customers have access to, and what they can and cannot do?
• Have a 24/7 order presence?
• Create promotional lists and highlight “new” products under each category/brand/vendor?
• Display multiple images per inventory item for a complete view of available product?
• Blue Link’s order entry screens receive sales orders directly without re-keying anything

Pack-to-Container ?

One of the best features of Blue Link is the Pack-to-Container functionality. In Pack-to-Container you can see picked orders from multiple sales channels, including eCommerce that are going to the same ship-to address from the sales order review screen. In order to verify the accuracy of the items picked in relation to the items ordered the pack-to-container screen is used, it is also used to record which products are packed in which containers and which containers make up the entire shipment. It gives you the ability to add more as required with the help of the detailed sections which allows you to see how many packing boxes or containers are part of the shipment. You also can see which products are packed and which items are remaining to pack into the boxes.?

If a user tries to include any product not on the list, the system will generate an error message that the product is not a part of the order thereby preventing the incorrect product from being shipped to the customer. When the order is shipped, Blue Link maintains a history of the shipment, the number of boxes shipped, and the items assigned to each box. The ERP system will also generate data reports and analysis which is accessible to those who need to see it and it can be used to further enhance efficiency in the process.?

Rate Shopping?

To help your business and customers get the best shipping rates on every order, Blue Link ERP integrates with rate shopping applications. The ERP system automatically populates a list of available courier companies and the types and rates for each service they offer once orders are packed into boxes and the size and weight of each box has been entered. Employees then choose an option, and the information is used to generate shipping labels and any associated paperwork.?

Reducing Delivery Status Update Requests?

The need for employees to manually enter tracking information into the system is removed with the integration of your B2B eCommerce site with ERP software. The integration also enables customers to track orders online themselves, reducing order status update inquiries, as one of the most common issues for customers is around obtaining tracking information or status updates for their orders.??

Contact us to learn how ERP can be integrated with your B2B eCommerce