B2B eCommerce Strategy for Growth: Three Ways B2B eCommerce Benefits a Manufacturer

Despite the need for business growth solutions, manufacturers have historically avoided the adoption of Web technology, such as B2B eCommerce, into their plans. Manufacturing is well known for its complexities in planning, workflow, distribution and communications, as well as processes and channels. Enabling customer self-service for these complex processes with technology was not only difficult, it was time-consuming and expensive. Manufacturers commonly shied away from Web solutions, because they expected a costly headache that could negatively impact customer relationships.

However, just the opposite is true. With these myriad challenges in mind, flexible software systems have been built to solve these problems — systems that mold to the needs of manufacturers to improve customer relationships, increase efficiency and deliver growth to the bottom line.

Here’s a few ways B2B eCommerce can benefit a Manufacturer

1. Accommodate the manufacturer’s special needs with a flexible system

Manufacturers have use cases specific to their unique workflow, configuration of products, or complex pricing schedules. All make it difficult (or nearly impossible) to do business online. Today’s technology solutions are constructed with these challenges in mind; they’re built with a foundation to support the manufacturing industry and are flexible enough to adapt to specific use cases of any manufacturer.

With B2B eCommerce technology, the buyer’s customized account is based on information that exists in the manufacturer’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and each customer’s unique profile is also made available online. Example: manufacturers maintain a variety of unique relationship types. Buyers may have differing negotiated rates: some may only purchase a fraction of the manufacturer’s offering while others may purchase on behalf of other customers. If granted in the ERP, buyers can make such purchases.

Using pre-existing data in the ERP, the eCommerce system knows which products to display at which prices. Buyer information within their account, such as multiple ship-to addresses, payment options and recipient data, can be easily maintained by the buyer themselves, and automatically saved into the ERP. With just these few examples, you can see ways in which manufacturers can save time. By giving buyers more access and control to manage their account, browse for products and place orders, the relationship between the manufacturer’s team and the buyer is much more efficient.

2. Enhance customer relationships for greater intimacy

In our personal lives we are accustomed to using Web technology for research, purchasing and account management tasks. B2B buyers are also adapting to the process of doing business on the Web. Manufacturers benefit from this trend by providing Web-based tools to satisfy commercial customers with their own service needs and for sales staff, distributors or purchasing agents to perform their job responsibilities online.

By giving manufacturing customers access to a Web portal, manufacturers can save time and money while fostering positive customer relationships. The Web portal not only allows customers to place orders, but also manage their accounts, see past invoices, track shipments, research products, review inventory levels and much more.

Offering these kinds of tools, manufacturers can give customers the specific levels of access to account data they need, using a permission plan to offer access to only the most appropriate information. Perhaps customers can view past invoices, see their pending orders, research product information, download marketing and sales documents (e.g., PDFs), or even manage their own payment options. Manufacturers keep buyers happy by letting them work comfortably online on their own terms.

3. Deliver bottom line profits through improved efficiency, customer loyalty

If customers are happier dealing with their personal lives online, give them tools to engage with you and your sales team in a similar manner. Imagine a buyer’s frustration when required to call their sales representative just to update contact information or ask about inventory levels of a product or the status of an order. Buyers desire a more efficient workflow that increases performance, just like manufacturers.

When customers call their sales rep to learn about a product, they do so because it’s the only option. By giving customers access to product information online (e.g., inventory levels, related products, configuration options, specifications, etc.), you are giving them the self-service tools to improve their performance and their own efficiency. This results in sales calls that are focused around relationship-building and the art of selling rather than simply sharing information.

 

“Manufacturers commonly shied away from Web solutions, because they expected a costly headache that could negatively impact customer relationships. However, just the opposite is true.”

 

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• Executive Summary
• Introduction —
• Are you generating the greatest value for (and from) customers?
• The times they are a-changin’
• What’s your return on investment (ROI)?
• Three Ways B2B eCommerce Benefits a Manufacturer
• How Can You Meet Customer Demands for B2B eCommerce?
• Chapter 1 — Sales Growth
• Chapter 2 — Pricing Schedules
• Chapter 3 — Marketing or ERP Content
• Chapter 4 — Customer Engagement
• Chapter 5 — Multiple Locations
• Chapter 6 — Omnichannel Customer Experience
• Chapter 7 — Sales Reps and Vendors
• Chapter 8 — Customer Complexity
• Chapter 9 — Customer Service
• Glossary of eCommerce Terms
• Conclusion