Q&A with brilliance: How to find the right B2B Ecommerce solution

 

Many B2B companies have been slow to embrace ecommerce in the past. According to one eMarker report, only 9% of all US B2B product sales were made via an ecommerce website.

Many B2Bs have used the pandemic to help them accelerate their digital transformation. eMarker reports that ecommerce has boosted the average revenue share of companies by 23% compared to COVID-19.

Complex needs can lead to reservations about selling online, or a reluctance to replatform from a monolithic or custom-built solution.

These fears shouldn't be a hindrance to your success. We reached out to Lori McDonald of Brilliance Business Solutions to get some insight on how to choose the best B2B eCommerce solution.

What are the main objections of those who have not used an ecommerce platform for B2B?

Lori McDonald:

Although this is less common, I still hear it from B2B companies that customers don't purchase that way. People need to speak to sales people about complex products. They won't place orders online. That logic is changing, I believe.

Another obstacle is the fear that ecommerce might be a threat to their sales team. Many distributors and manufacturers have built their businesses on the sales team. This has been their way to success and they don’t want to compromise what’s working.

Another problem is that these companies often lack digital expertise. They have never sold online before and don’t have any previous experience with B2B eCommerce software. This perspective shows that there are strategies as well as ecommerce functionality and features that can make the transition smoother.

What can they do to overcome these obstacles so they can sell online?

Lori McDonald:

Organizations that have never sold anything online before should consider selling it online. You might start out selling parts, or you could find a segment of your products you want to sell online. This will allow you to gain some internal experience that you can use to learn and build on.

That's the beauty of BigCommerce's B2B eCommerce solution. You can use the platform to get started, test some things and then scale up your investment over time.

It is important for sales teams to buy-in. Some sales people, owners or teams, believe that ecommerce will replace salespeople or you won't use them anymore. This mindset is false. Ecommerce doesn't replace salespeople. If done right, it can support them. Salespeople are essential. Your salespeople need an online store to make their jobs easier and sell more.

ECOMMERCE COMPENSATIONS FOR SALES

Brilliance also offers an additional resource that explains how to structure sales compensation in ecommerce.

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What makes BigCommerce's B2B eCommerce software so easy to use for people with less experience?

Lori McDonald:

The BigCommerce platform has many functionalities and features that can be used to help you overcome some of the difficulties of selling online.

BigCommerce's naitive functionality has included custom pricing and contract pricing for customers. This was even before B2B Edition. This is a great feature because customers can log in to see a price they have chosen.

BigCommerce Edition can be a great tool for strengthening your customer relationships and thinking about your sales team. Multiple users can log into an account and salespeople can create quotes for customers, customers, or request their own. Customers can also purchase from a list.

These are B2B ecommerce features that support customers' relationships with sales. Your ecommerce site can become an extension to your sales team.

What are your top recommendations for businesses that are already online and looking to start ecommerce?

Lori McDonald:

You need to understand the platform's capabilities and how they can help you make more money. If you are thinking about your goals and how you want to achieve them in B2B, such as enabling punchout or leveraging new email marketing capabilities, make sure to look for platforms that have connectors to other systems. This will simplify the process and make it less time-consuming.

You should also prioritize an ecommerce platform that is easy to use by your salespeople, marketers, and admins without needing to contact their IT department. Many companies still use legacy solutions, whether they were custom-built or made by their own staff. The problem is that it is often limited by the amount of information a marketer can modify and change to promote new products and accomplish other tasks.

You may have an internal team of developers, but it is better to use them to create innovative features that will improve customer experience than to do things that a platform can support you in.

What are the main benefits of multi-tenant SaaS versus monolithic, legacy B2B ecommerce solutions?

Lori McDonald:

There are a few things. Low total cost of ownership. Let's take, for example, a feature you wish to add or a browser version you need to support. You might find yourself with a legacy solution or a custom-built solution where you are constantly spending development resources to support a new feature, browser version, or just keeping the platform alive.

My experience is that merchants would spend $100,000 to set up a platform, then spend $50,000 each time they want to upgrade. This was simply because the platform was so custom. Companies are better served spending their money on innovative features that increase revenue.

Another reason I believe multi-tenant SaaS is beneficial is the fact that ecommerce solutions such as BigCommerce constantly add new functionality, features and capabilities that organizations can take advantage of without having to do any development.

If you have a custom-built solution, this is unlikely to be true. Even with other platforms, you may not be able to get the most recent version if you or your partner in development spends weeks or months upgrading to take advantage of the new features.

How can Brilliance Business Solutions assist companies in making the transition from legacy platforms or custom-built platforms to SaaS B2B eCommerce solutions?

Lori McDonald:

Many organizations who have custom-built applications or legacy solutions face the challenge of not knowing all the functionality and features they have built. They might be able to know what they are doing, but it is not well documented because they have modified it over time.

Brilliance business solutions brings in our team business analysts and software architects to help determine technical requirements. Then, we create a technical plan that assists merchants with their new B2B Ecommerce solution. We offer a money-back guarantee if you are not on time or on budget.

Moving to a new location can be frightening for companies. IT projects such as these can be stressful because of the many instances where they go wrong. Knowing that your entire team has been through this type of work before gives you confidence.

The topic of headless in B2B has been the subject of much debate. Which is your opinion? Are you convinced that B2B ecommerce companies want to be headless?

Lori McDonald:

It really depends on the company. Headless commerce is more appropriate for larger companies that have made significant investments in enterprise CMSs. They don't want it to be replaced, but they want to add commerce functionality.

While there may be a business case to headless, it is more costly to implement. Some of the benefits of lower total cost ownership are lost.

If an organization has never used ecommerce before, and is just starting, I don’t see many people choosing to go headless in this scenario. It's often the larger companies that have an established system that they can replace but want to expand.