5 mandatory steps to design and start a robust B2B e-commerce website

Apart from the business to customer vertical, there is another dimension in the supply chain that is having a good time with the advent of the online business portals. The business to business part of the supply chain is creating a huge spur of the moment by adding an e-commerce platform for the same reason of attracting more customers and making a huge sales volume periodically. As per the report from Forrester, B2B online market will worth $1.1 Trillion by the end of 2019 whereas B2C will worth $480 Billion.

The B2B online portals are ideal for the business owners who want to make it easier for the other business owners. The specific measures taken for the easement of putting an order by a business introduced in the form of an online platform is saving a lot of time and other resources. The current scenario depicts that more and more small, medium and large businesses are introducing this blissful business model to improve the overall functioning.

To start a B2B e-commerce website, there are few things that need to be pondered.

1. Deciding a team

Before an investment is made on such a platform, here is what you need to decide first.

• Leader

The person who is responsible to make sure that this online venture goes successfully is the designated project leader. This person will take care of the moving pieces and make sure that the website rolls out properly.

• Data specialist

A person from IT or Operation team will be perfect for this job. He will coordinate with the upload of product content and ensure regular maintenance of inventory, product and customer data.

• Customer adoption segment

A fitting profile from the sales team will ensure customer awareness, encouraging user registration and promoting the initial use of the platform. The leader here will encourage the sales team and provide incentive depending on the incorporation of the business customers with the online platform.

2. Designing a unique platform

The first and foremost thing the business will need to go online is obviously a website. The website will be the key platform where the customers will find the detailed information about the products.

The website should contain a proper description of the aptly-catalogued products. The price, product details, product blocks (presenting website elements as per the high interactive areas and heat maps highlighting important content depending on the business priorities), etc should be well defined so as to attract and engage the visitors.

An eligible IT team will be necessary to coordinate with the marketing team to design the logo, templates, product images, colors related to the brand, and other necessary elements to create a perfect website matching the business brand.

3. Data upload and maintenance

The B2B online platform needs a personalized approach way more than a B2C e-commerce website. In this case, the specific targeting of the customers is necessary so that they can be categorized following the buying trends, price acceptance, and other information.

Customer data should be introduced so that the specific customer can see the product-related information as per his preferences. The catalogs should be maintained properly so that the customers can identify the products. The visual reference will also ensure repeat buying and convenient completion of putting an order. The inclusion of order history and inventory data will also make a customer feel back to the comfortable space for putting an order.

4. Emphasis on customer awareness and adoption

This is the part where you will promote your website to the business customers. Encourage them to use the portal and enjoy a lot of good things such as convenient product purchase, personalized rates, prompt communication, clarified navigation through product range, etc.

5. B2B portal metrics

It is necessary to incorporate a metric system so as to measure the success rate of the website. Learning more about the website content such as product description, highest selling products, landing page, customer volume, customer demography, etc will help your B2B e-commerce portal to roll properly and penetrate the market.

Wrapping up

Needless to mention, you must have a proper distribution channel along with the e-commerce portal so that you can take and deliver orders promptly. the calculated approach will enable you to build a proper business portal and enjoy a maximized ROI.