Sales Reps and Vendors —
Providing tools to process more orders, more quickly
If you have no Web-based solution for your reps to process orders, then they are likely meeting with their customers, collecting orders, then processing those orders manually in your accounting system, ERP or over the phone to your back-office.
With an ERP-integrated B2B eCommerce solution, sales reps can do all of this work directly on your eCommerce site. They can log into the site and use the Sales Rep Utility to purchase on behalf of their customers.
A sales rep may have a long list of accounts that they manage. When they log into the eCommerce site, they would start by updating the specific customer that they are currently representing. They’d also have the ability to choose a specific ship-to address and a future ship date for the order.
They would then continue adding items to the cart just as with a typical eCommerce Shopping Cart, and they could process the order (either via a credit card or on the customer’s credit account).
There are even more layers of complexity available.
Pricing Schedules
Your sales reps may have negotiated unique pricing schedules. Once they log into your eCommerce site and update the Sales Rep Utility, they will see the product price update to reflect these negotiated prices.
Saved Carts
Let’s imagine that your sales rep is slowly building orders over a period of time. Maybe their accounts only process purchases on a quarterly basis. As they begin building a cart for your customer, they can save that cart to their profile and re- activate the cart at any time. Additionally, they can save notes and references along with the cart to help them stay organized.
Templated Carts
In some cases, your sales reps will have customers that order the same products time and time again. Perhaps those accounts are simply stocking their shelves every quarter, and the products rarely change. Your sales rep can save a standard cart that represent their accounts’ typical purchases. When they are ready to start a new transaction for a customer, they will simply activate the Templated Cart, update quantities, and possibly add/remove products from the cart before making the transaction.
Multiple Ship-To Addresses
If the sales rep’s accounts have multiple addresses to order for, the Sales Rep can choose which is the required address at this time. For instance, imagine that the account has several retail shops. The rep can choose the appropriate location to order against.
Take precautions. Multiple “Ship-To” locations may prove to be a challenge with many eCommerce solutions. Best-of-breed platforms always deliver this advantage.
Mobile-Ready eCommerce Solution
As we’ve mentioned before: Mobile-friendly websites — which offer login-required special access to pricing, technical product information and purchasing options — are leading the way in driving results for manufacturers using eCommerce.
The B2B eCommerce system must be mobile-responsive which means that it will work on mobile devices, and your sales reps can do all of this work from a mobile device such as an iPad or smartphone. This will make it much easier for them to work while on the road.
Beyond responsive design, mobile device optimization of your B2B website (making your site mobile-friendly) is required. Over half of all Web traffic is on mobile devices. Mobile users act differently, and they buy more. They switch between screens (from desktop/laptop browser to tablet to smartphone) and expect the same great experience no matter the device.
“Most importantly, Google favors mobile responsive websites in search results.”
- 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
