Choosing the right business-to-business ecommerce website platform

The expectations of B2B buyers are evolving, and causing leaders to reconsider the role of ecommerce in their organizations.

In this article, we discuss critical features and functionality to look for when evaluating and choosing the right website platform for your online business.

In addition, we offer tips on how to choose a development partner as well as thoughts about ongoing support and training.

It's no secret that a massive digital transformation has been underway in the B2B commerce space.

In 2022 McKinsey and Company shared astonishing data describing how business-to-business buyers were purchasing products:

In this new and evolving reality, business-to-business decision-makers continue to grapple with changing buying behaviors and customer expectations. So it's no wonder that evaluating and choosing the right B2B platform is becoming more significant.

Beyond fundamentals such as a platform's security, performance, and cost, there are many more areas to consider when choosing the right B2B platform. A platform’s flexibility, extensibility, user-friendliness, and customer experience are critical to assess and understand.

At Foster Commerce, our approach has been to put choice and creative control into the hands of our clients. For example, we built a business-to-business ecommerce boilerplate on Craft Commerce, an open-source platform. Our boilerplate enables clients to launch a self-hosted, custom store more quickly and affordably.

However, each business is unique. While a self-hosted custom ecommerce website may be perfect for one company, a SaaS platform might be the ideal solution for another. But what should B2B decision-makers be looking for?

This article highlights central features and functionality in business-to-business ecommerce and explains their importance.

When deciding on the right ecommerce platform for your business, aligning your choice of technology with business goals and objectives is a good place to start. Carefully assessing a platform in this way can help avoid being locked into technology that, down the line, may hamper your business's ability to grow.

There are several off-the-shelf SaaS products that have some B2B functionality, however many fall short of being fully developed for business-to-business commerce. While these systems could be adequate for some businesses, they may not be for others.

Alternatively, open-source ecommerce platforms allow you to create the precise experience you need and want for your business. We're an agency that specializes in building custom websites for businesses that don't "fit" on off-the-shelf SaaS platforms and we prefer to work with open-source platforms for that reason.

However, whether you're more attracted to a SaaS product or an open-source platform, using a list of features and functionality essential to B2B ecommerce can be helpful when evaluating your choices.

Ideally, each feature should work seamlessly with the others to address three critical areas of a B2B brand’s ability to do business online:

• The buyer's experience

• The operations, sales, and administrative experience

• The content marketing experience

Business-to-business buyers expect a more B2C experience. For example, many buyers research products and services, compare pricing, and read reviews before talking to a sales representative.

Alongside this new trend to research B2B companies and products, modern buyers expect a more self-managed experience on business-to-business websites once they've made the choice to buy.

Things like online account management dashboards, quote management, and various ordering capabilities that streamline the process, especially for repeat orders, are quickly becoming the expectation.

Below are buyer experiences to consider when evaluating business-to-business platforms:

Search functionality that allows buyers to find specific products quickly and intuitively via things like filtering, keyword search, dynamic search, and the option to save search results.

Tools that allow buyers to manage their order history, account updates, payment information, and access to customer support.

A transaction flow that allows customers to request quotes for products and receive them quickly before purchase.

Support for bulk ordering, volume-based pricing, customizing products, quick order forms, repeat orders, and order approval workflows.

A worry-free, secure, and efficient checkout experience with the ability to choose and save a preferred payment method, see an order summary, and receive a confirmation of purchase.

Integration with shipping carriers and fulfillment services, allowing buyers to see shipping rate calculations, real-time product delivery, and receive tracking notifications.

Choosing the right B2B platform can significantly impact internal teams' ability to do their jobs well.

From the ability to connect your B2B ecommerce platform with needed third-party services to customer-specific pricing catalogs, below are features and functionalities that provide necessary functionality and enhance workflows.

APIs that seamlessly integrate third-party applications and business systems, such as shipping and fulfillment services, to reduce manual work.

Multiple storefront management and multi-language and multi-currency pages that allow marketing, sales, and customer support teams to be responsive to changing market conditions or customer demands.

Automated catalog management which enables teams to organize, categorize, and accurately update products, variants, and inventory levels for customers.

Efficient custom catalog and relevant pricing level management for specific customer segments or individual customers displayed via a customer portal or dashboard.

Suppose buyers need help finding helpful information on your website that answers basic questions about your business or its products and services. If that information is difficult to find, they'll likely seek it elsewhere.

Enhancing the customer experience with content such as articles, videos, white papers, customer success stories, FAQs, and other educational resources reduces the need for customers to go to a competitor.

When reviewing business-to-business ecommerce platforms, look for platforms that support creating, managing, and delivering various content.

Here's what to look for:

A content management system with features like flexible page builders, SEO optimization, and content previews that allows authors the creative freedom to deliver unique content integrated with a storefront.

Robust website infrastructure and architecture that can handle growth in traffic, transactions, and data, as well as the delivery and distribution of large volumes of multimedia content, allow marketing teams to pursue growth initiatives confidently.

The ability to organize pages, determine URL structures, and create and publish a variety of multimedia content, allowing marketing teams to launch campaigns without developer input.

Responsive design and layouts that support marketers' ability to create and deliver content for various audiences across different devices and screen sizes.

If you've read this far, you understand the importance of choosing a website platform that can be customized to meet your business requirements now and in the future.

Equally important is the team of developers you have available to customize it. A dedicated ecosystem of developers available to support the platform you choose is essential.

Ideally, the developers you choose should have specialized training and be experts in optimizing the platform for business growth.

Here are a few additional things to consider regarding developer ability, reliability, and support.

Business-to-business websites can be more complex to build than B2C websites. B2B builds often have greater product volume, multiple variants, and non-standard checkout flows.

Interview developers to understand their experience developing commerce websites, specifically B2B. Most importantly, look for developers who love solving complex problems with code and are excited to do it on your behalf.

Keeping a project on track is one of the biggest challenges businesses face in a new website build or migration.

Ask if your developer provides project management and what project management tool they use. Learn about their development processes and workflows and who on their team is assigned to monitor progress and keep you informed.

Interview development teams to learn more about how they ensure your website's performance and ability to handle increasing traffic or spikes in demand.

If you're a global business or plan to be, ask potential developers about their experience developing global, multi-currency, and multilingual websites.

Evaluate a development team's experience with and training in integrations commonly needed by B2B businesses, such as an ERP, CRM, CMS, inventory management, and other third-party applications.

Ask about a team's experience developing extensible, composable websites, especially if you plan to grow your business.

If you need customized features and functionality for your website, such as order approval workflows, pricing rules, and customer segmentation, evaluate whether a team can propose and provide creative solutions.

If you choose a SaaS platform, ongoing general website maintenance and management will likely be included in your monthly subscription.

However, for a fully customized website, you'll want to choose developers who will happily support security updates, backups, and regular site monitoring for a reasonable fee.

Each developer and agency differs in how they charge for services and structure payments and contracts. Be sure you understand what you'll need to budget for in addition to the cost of the platform itself and other expenses, like website management and transaction fees.

Choosing the right business-to-business platform is about more than how it performs. It's also about how easy or difficult it is to use and support after launch.

Platforms that require many third-party apps and plugins can increase your team's learning curve and add a significant time burden for teams managing the website.

On the other hand, if you choose to build a fully custom, self-hosted website, you can have your developers code extended functionality into the website itself.

Extending the website itself may reduce complexity and streamline functionality, making it easier to use and maintain.

Either way, when choosing a business-to-business platform, research what support and training will be provided by the vendor supplying the platform, agencies providing development services, and/or any other third-party integrations.

Ensure your development team provides all necessary training, documentation, user guides, and support resources for your website and any unique customizations.

Feel free to get specific! Ask your vendor what kind of support you can expect, how quickly, and how to reach them (e.g., via phone, email, or chat).

Choosing the right business-to-business platform starts with understanding what your organization needs.

Beyond fundamentals like a platform's security, performance, and cost, decision-makers should consider the platform's ability to satisfy requirements in three areas:

• The buyer's experience

• The ops, sales, and admin experience

• The content marketing experience

Decision-makers will also want to assess a platform's ecosystem of available developers.

Choosing the right development partner for your project, support, team training, and ongoing maintenance all play a role in choosing the right B2B platform.