Business is changing, both this oriented on the retail client and on the business partner. New technologies makes the customers’ demands evolve quickly, affecting the rules of running business in a significant way. In order to grow a business, it is important to respond dynamically to the current market needs, because as Darwin’s theory says, only those most responsive to change will survive.

Large business has to be simple

Modern entrepreneurs, using the latest technology, want to run a business in a convenient, simple and useful way. When buying online, they expect to find a specific assortment, a personalized offer, an intuitive navigation, and, above all, the ability to get information in real time.

B2C companies for a long time understood the needs of today’s customers, actively introducing newer and newer e-commerce solutions. However, the wholesale companies must also match the sales to the needs of the modern market. The new B2B era means decline of the wholesale systems, which are discouraging by the look and allow only to check the offer and place an order. Modern B2B platforms comprehensively address business needs, provide advanced analytics, full integration with external systems, and tools to support the daily work of sales team. This is a combination of functionalities, which are mandatory for building long-term collaboration between businesses, with solutions previously reserved exclusively for B2C.

Integration with ERP, meaning the consistency of data

For companies operating in the B2B model, merging the sales system with other external systems is especially important. Business partners have individual prices, terms of payment, or merchant payment limits. In addition, the B2B sales system is not just a tool for the company’s employees – it is primarily a solution for contractors who expect to be able to check their current prices, payment status or order status. Entering all data manually, on a regular basis, would be extremely time-consuming and it could generate errors.

The success of a business depends on long-term relationships

In business to business sales, tools to build customer loyalty are much more important than in the case of retail sales. This kind of sales is based on solid business partners, not individual orders, made by occasional users. It is therefore worth to implement such solutions as: the offline product catalog, the function to create individual wholesale prices, or call centers, which makes it easy to organize telephone campaigns of a sales or information nature.

In modern B2B platforms, it is common to provide knowledge bases or forums for the customers. With this tools, the system administrator passes to the contractor the necessary knowledge of the product offer, such as detailed descriptions, photos, or information about promotional campaigns. The solution also allows to focus the work of sales department on sales activities by minimizing phone or email inquiries about basic product details.

The line between the online stores and wholesale platforms is blurred. Not only retail customers, but also business partners are looking forward to make good purchases with an intuitive navigation system. Dedicated e-commerce solutions, that meet business needs of the particular entrepreneurship and ensure the good UX of the system, are the evidence of a modern approach to the business and give the opportunity to grow one.

The article was originally published in Fashionbusiness.pl.

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