B2B eCommerce Solutions for Manufacturers

Conventional eCommerce, or B2C, focuses on selling online individual products directly to consumers through online stores like retail stores selling clothes or electronics. B2B eCommerce for manufacturers, however, is about facilitating online sales between companies. Instead of selling single items for personal use, it caters to manufacturing companies selling raw materials, components, or finished goods to other businesses for production, resale, or internal operations.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the key differences:

• Customers: B2C targets individual consumers, B2B sells to other businesses, including existing customers and potential customers.
• Orders: B2C typically has smaller, one-time orders, while B2B sees larger, recurring orders that may require inventory management and inventory systems.
• Pricing: B2C uses fixed public pricing, B2B involves negotiated pricing based on volume and contracts, including customer-specific pricing.
• Payment: B2C favors immediate online payments, B2B often utilizes credit lines and purchase orders.
• Website: B2C prioritizes visual appeal and simple navigation, business to business focuses on detailed product specs and integration with procurement systems and existing systems.

Technology allows factories to gain greater visibility into their data to optimize production and enhance operational efficiency, customer focus, and the purchasing experience, leading to improve customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, new generation technologies such as B2B eCommerce manufacturing, manufacturer eCommerce, Industry 4.0, IoT, AI in eCommerce, headless deployments, B2B sales enablement, and agile supply chains are all disrupting the manufacturing industry. They can enable in-time manufacturing, optimize inventorying, shorten deliveries, and improve the customer experience, exceeding customer expectations.

Manufacturers produce finished products from raw materials or other suppliers. They’re also quickly undergoing digital transformation, and moving into new selling models such direct to consumer (D2C) eCommerce and the B2B marketplace.

However, modern B2B buyers don’t want to use fax, phone, or more recently, even in-person interactions. The majority of B2B purchasing decision-makers are millennials, and they prefer self-service and mobile. In this respect, a B2B eCommerce platform for manufacturers helps improve efficiency, boost customer focus, increase order accuracy, unlock new markets and revenue sources, as well as prepare manufacturers for a successful future.

Manufacturers can use eCommerce to streamline operations, increase revenue, and gain more new customers. An online presence helps manufacturers get discovered by new customers through online marketplaces, which lowers user acquisition costs. Without a digital presence, manufacturers are not only limited by traditional marketing strategy methods; they’re also subject to higher upfront costs and ongoing investments if they want to expand their sales channels

Manufacturers can also use eCommerce to automate back-office activities and take the pressure off sales reps and marketing staff. With a self-service portal, manufacturers can offer their B2B customers personalized product catalogs, pricing, payment, and shipping options. Since their online store is open 24/7, and is accessible on any device, it attracts buyers at all times, capitalizing on online purchasing trends.

Even today, in the age of digital transformation for manufacturers, many manufacturers stick to manual processes within their business model. It’s not hard to see why – if you’ve been copy-pasting orders from Excel sheets into the ERP and eProcurement systems, you wouldn’t want to change the status quo. At the same time, these tasks distract staff from critical functions and invite tons of room for error.

Many manufacturers run on tight schedules and manage complicated, resource-heavy processes. While they are great at optimizing these processes, they’re not so great at managing transformative change. However, a flexible B2B eCommerce system affords manufacturers even greater visibility, control, and flexibility to improve efficiency and grow their business by leveraging digital sales and selling online.

When manufacturers start searching for an eCommerce solution, they often start comparing B2C platforms and their B2B features. Not all of these features can accommodate complex product configurations, pricing needs, or approval structures that B2B buyers require. What’s more, B2C solutions often don’t have the flexibility, connectivity, or deployment options manufacturers need.

As manufacturers grow, their systems must evolve with them. They should be able to roll out new products, catalogs, and webstores. It should be easy to expand to new industry verticals and reach new customers in different markets.

Thus, a manufacturing B2B eCommerce platform must support unlimited SKUs, product catalogs, price lists, multiple websites, languages, currencies, and system integrations, including Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Plus it should also enable customers to manage their own purchasing, order tracking, and take control of reordering, all through a single online portal.

Absolutely! Modern eCommerce solutions have made it easy to sell customizable products on eCommerce sites. Through integrated Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) functionality, customers can choose from various options like sizes, colors, and features, and see the price update in real-time. This allows for instant, accurate quotes for their unique configurations, catering to specific customer demands.

Manufacturing eCommerce platforms like OroCommerce specialize in this, offering robust CPQ tools directly within their system. This streamlines sales and the entire sales process for businesses with configurable products, empowering customers, reducing manual quoting, and ultimately driving digital sales growth for existing and new customers.

Price calculators integrated into online platforms give manufacturers selling directly online instant, accurate pricing for complex or custom products, reducing manual work and errors. This speeds up quotes, improves price transparency for customers, and helps standardize pricing for consistent profitability, ultimately driving customer satisfaction.

Implementing digital marketing strategies like search engine optimization, targeted marketing, and online marketing can significantly enhance a manufacturer’s online presence.

By optimizing their eCommerce websites for search engines and leveraging online platforms like social media and industry forums, manufacturers can effectively reach potential customers.

Online marketing enables manufacturers to build brand awareness, generate leads, and drive eCommerce sales in new markets, fostering business growth and competitive advantage.

By implementing robust analytics tools and actively collecting customer feedback, manufacturers can gain valuable insights into customer preferences, and customer expectations. This data enables manufacturers to personalize customer experiences, tailor product offerings, and provide excellent customer support that meets specific customer demands.

By understanding and addressing customer feedback, manufacturers can improve customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty.