10 Essential Tips for a Successful B2B Ecommerce Store

Image source: Pixabay

B2B eCommerce stores generally deal with other businesses such as retailers. But there is a lot of competition, so you must have a B2B feature list that can make your store stand out. 

Store owners are trying to build the best online stores, which induces retailers and other businesses to buy. 

A study conducted by Safefrog in 2021 states that 51% of eCommerce store budgets consist of website development and designing alone. 

But a retailer is least concerned about how fancy your website looks; all he cares for is the kind of experience you offer to him. 

Essential tips for a successful B2B eCommerce website

So, here are ten tips that will help you offer an optimum store experience to businesses:

1: Get An SSL Certificate Installed. 

SSL certificates are essential to prevent cyberattacks. A hacker can crawl into your system and infect it with malware and viruses. 

They can intercept the communication between you and other businesses and steal valuable data. 

But an SSL certificate encrypts the communication using the Public Key Infrastructure and passes it over a secure network. 

If you are looking to buy one for your store, you can consider buying a Comodo SSL certificate. Comodo certificates are issued by a credible Certificate Authority, come at low prices, afford premium encryption standards, and are 100% authentic.  

2: Protect Your Prices With A Password

However, password protection is a must for your store; you must use it to protect your prices as well. 

Unlike a B2C store where you have to disclose your prices to many customers, in a B2B store, there is no need for that. 

Only the authorized customers should be allowed to look at the prices and take the purchase forward. 

Prices may vary for different retailers. Thus, it is better to encrypt prices using a password. 

 3: Back Your Products Up With High-quality Images

One of the most significant downsides to online trading is that the client may not get the exact product he ordered. 

As a store owner, it is your responsibility to ensure that your clients get the exact product they ordered. 

High-quality images help a lot in clearing the confusion. You can add your product images from all angles along with short videos. 

Videos give a real-time view of your product. It tells your customer how a product looks from a distance and based on that, the customer can make his buying decision. 

 4: Keep Your Products Stocked

Retailers buy products in bulk, and there is nothing more disappointing for them when they find that the product is out of stock. 

This degrades your reputation and makes your customers bounce back. 

Customer dissatisfaction invites a lot of other problems too. For example, search engines like Google decrease your overall search rankings when they find that customers bounce back from your store. 

Even if you don’t have products in stock, always make tie-ups with other store owners from whom you can buy a product to fulfil your customer requirements.

Thus, you must always keep your products stocked to provide an optimum experience to your customers. 

5: Offer Discounts To Your Customers

When your clients buy products in bulk, they expect you to discount their purchase. 

Initially, if you cannot give discounts, you can offer a low price on a particular purchase quantity. 

That way, you can enhance your sales quantity and satisfy your customers with offers. 

Unlike B2C, B2B customers generally repeat their orders after a specific time, which is why you need to satisfy your customers to be your repeat clients and fetch business from them.  

6: Include GST Prices

GST exclusive price rates are generally less and make people think that the base price mentioned in the product’s final price. 

Well, even a 1% increase in the price rate takes a toll on the bulk buyer, which is why it is better to be clear instead of shocking him on the checkout page. 

Although it is a double-edged sword as high prices may scare your customers away but, your customers will respect you for your honesty with the price tags. 

So, include the GST prices along with the base price of your product. 

7: Use Advanced Search Tools.

Having an advanced search tool is one of the most significant B2B website features. 

An average search tool cannot auto-complete words, find exact search matches, and provide optimum results. 

This often frustrates and overwhelms a buyer if he cannot find out the product in the search results. 

Thus, it is recommended to invest in an advanced search tool that can auto-fill the blank by itself and find the exact product that your customer is looking for. 

This will save both the customer’s valuable time and effort. 

 8: List Shipping Service Providers On Your Website

When ordered in bulk, a product can accumulate many shipping costs, so it is best to list the number of shipping service providers. 

You can collaborate with them and ask them to list their services in your store. 

Different service providers have different costs, and based on the customer’s preference, they can choose their service provider. 

Remember, business is all about solving customer’s problems. So, if you can help streamline their purchase to the last stage, you can always stand out. 

Listing a shipping service company does exactly that for your customers. 

 9: Create Order Management Strategies

As far as business goes, you have to be in constant touch with orders at every level, even if you automate it. 

Sometimes, the delivery time, the quantity of delivery and the quality of products may vary from those you have set sail with the shipping company. 

In that case, you have to keep a transparent system with the shipping company and track your orders even offline too. 

You can have an in-house team that can track all such things and report any problem to you immediately so that your customers don’t face any issues.

 10: Keep Track Of Your Warehouses.

One cannot keep all the stock in a single warehouse, so different warehouses are chosen in different localities to avoid confusion. 

But, with multiple warehouses, you have to keep track of everything. For example, how much stock is present in each warehouse and the commodities that need to be ordered from the manufacturer. 

This clarity should persist all the time in your mind so that when a customer places an order, you know precisely which warehouse to tap to set your order sail for shipping. 

Thus, keep track of your warehouses. 

To Conclude

Online B2B stores have different challenges than B2C stores. 

Orders are made in bulk and repeat at regular intervals.

To have a successful online B2B store, you must be clear about your inventory. 

Successful store owners keep track of all the information about their warehouses, inventory storage, customers and, market requirements. 

In the end, customer satisfaction is the key, and that is what every ecommerce business should aim for. 

So, if you want to take your store to the next level, you must streamline your processes and automate them to create a robust strategy for your customers. 

Follow these ten tips given above and increase your customer satisfaction and online sales.