In today's digital age, B2B ecommerce is a crucial part of many businesses. Whether it's buying raw materials or selling finished products, conducting transactions online offers numerous advantages over traditional methods. But with so many ecommerce platforms out there, it's crucial to choose the right one to maximize those benefits. In this article, we'll explore what businesses need to consider when selecting a B2B ecommerce platform and provide a comprehensive review of the best options available.
Table of content: the best B2B ecommerce platform
Why is it important to choose the right B2B ecommerce platform?
What are the most important factors when choosing a B2B ecommerce platform?
What is B2B ecommerce?
B2B ecommerce stands for business-to-business ecommerce and it refers to online transactions between businesses. It involves the buying and selling of goods and services through an online platform, usually between manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. B2B ecommerce platforms offer a streamlined way for businesses to connect, negotiate deals, and complete transactions online, offering advantages over traditional methods of procurement and supply chain management.
Why is it important to choose the right B2B ecommerce platform?
Choosing the right B2B ecommerce platform is crucial as it significantly impacts a business's ability to effectively conduct transactions and manage its supply chain. A suitable platform can streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and improve customer satisfaction, while a poor platform can lead to lost sales, decreased productivity, and damage to a company’s reputation.
The right B2B ecommerce software supports scalability, adapting to business growth without necessitating a system overhaul. It also facilitates better data analysis and decision-making, offering insights that can drive strategic business improvements.
This strategic alignment between the platform's capabilities and a company's operational needs is fundamental to long-term success in the competitive B2B marketplace.
What are the most important factors when choosing a B2B ecommerce platform?
The products you sell
B2B companies have a range of products to sell, from physical products like equipment and printed books, to digital products like software licenses and online courses. Services such as graphic design, accounting, and legal help are also sold, along with wholesale items and subscriptions. It's important to ensure that the ecommerce platform chosen supports all these types of business.
The shopping experience you want to offer
Design flexibility is crucial when it comes to creating a unique brand and website that reflects your products and services. A good B2B ecommerce platform will allow you the freedom to design and build your pages and posts as per your imagination. You want to offer the best ecommerce shopping experiences.
You should be able to drag and drop elements like paragraphs, headings, images, videos, and columns, to create a custom layout and customize colors, font styles, and other design characteristics as per your requirements.
Ecommerce needs to work at any time, at any place, and on every possible device. An API-first ecommerce approach offers the flexibility you need in order to establish long-term success in the B2B sector.
Available integrations
The last point leads us to integrations. Ensure that you can integrate your B2B ecommerce platform with payment, shipping and fulfillment, ERP, multichannel, CRM, PIM, loyalty and rewards, legal, search and recommendations, analytics, marketing automation, and email marketing solutions.
Ability to scale
Choose a B2B ecommerce platform that allows you to scale your business without limitations and without significantly increasing your total cost of ownership, or TCO. The platform should also load fast even with a surge in visitors. So look for a scalable platform that can handle unlimited products and traffic whether it is on-premise or in the cloud.
What are the best B2B ecommerce platforms?
The best B2B ecommerce platforms are Shopware, BigCommerce, and Shopify Plus. Overall, Shopware offers the best overall package and best TCO, total cost of ownership.
Shopware
Shopware is a versatile open commerce platform that offers a comprehensive solution for B2B businesses. You can customize and automate operations without any coding skills.
The ecommerce software delivers excellent performance, agility, and top-of-the-line security, giving you complete access to the source code for data transparency. Shopware is suitable for both multi-channel and omnichannel ecommerce businesses, offering great training resources like live streams, webinars, online training courses, and a FAQ forum.
Beyond its fundamental attributes, Shopware's B2B ecommerce software stands out for creating a user-centric online environment, crucial for optimizing the B2B customer journey. Its seamless interface and versatile customization capabilities empower businesses to establish a distinct and compelling digital footprint.
Shopware's dedication to continuous innovation through regular updates ensures that B2B entities remain at the forefront of technological progress and market dynamics. This strategic approach to innovation cements Shopware's role not merely as a solution provider but as a vital growth ally for B2B ecommerce ventures.
Former users of Magento 1 and Magento 2 often choose Shopware due to its robust Magento migration tool, making it the best Magento alternative.
Shopware is PHP-based and fully open-source, with the best total cost of ownership for most mid-market sized businesses (starting at $5m online sales) and very strong B2B capabilities.
However, it may not be the best solution for businesses that only sell a few products.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers a SaaS solution that merges the advantages of SaaS and API for quick customization with enterprise integrations and tools. Their powerful dashboard allows easy changes, and user documentation is comprehensive and current. BigCommerce delivers reliable customer support.
It offers many third party integrations. However, it comes with high customization expenses, weak omnichannel capabilities, and limited options for frontend optimization.
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus provides advanced features, beyond Shopify, for large businesses. These include access to store code, integrations, and various support options. While Shopify is designed for small to medium-sized businesses, Shopify Plus caters to enterprise-level businesses. The company’s strong marketing provides high global visibility.
However, as frequently bemoaned by users, customization costs can significantly increase the total cost of ownership beyond the advertised price.
Conclusion: the right B2B ecommerce platform
There are many ecommerce platforms to choose from, which can be overwhelming. To find the right one for your business, consider your goals and the platform's tools that can help you achieve them. Also, make sure the platform is suitable for your business size. If you're interested in Shopware, you can contact them for more information or request a personal product demo to get to know the platform better.
FAQ - The best B2B ecommerce platforms
What is the best B2B ecommerce platform?
The best B2B ecommerce platform meets your unique business requirements. Shopware is excellent for SMBs and mid-market-sized businesses. Shopify is ideal for small businesses with few products.
What is the best open source B2B ecommerce platform?
The best open source B2B ecommerce platform is Shopware, with thousands of users around the world. With Shopware you own your data, and with full access to the source code, your data is truly yours—no lock-ins, no compromises, no limits.
What is a B2B ecommerce platform?
A B2B ecommerce platform is a software application that enables businesses to buy and sell products or services online to other businesses. It typically includes features such as bulk ordering, pricing and inventory management, account management, and payment and shipping options.
Selecting the right B2B ecommerce platform, equipped with comprehensive B2B ecommerce software, is pivotal for businesses aiming to streamline their online sales processes to other businesses, ensuring they can leverage the full suite of functionalities designed for B2B transactions.
What is B2B ecommerce?
B2B ecommerce refers to the buying and selling of products or services between businesses through an online platform. It involves transactions between manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers, rather than individual consumers. B2B ecommerce platforms offer features and functionality that cater to the specific needs of businesses, such as bulk ordering, account management, and integration with back-end systems.
To effectively navigate and maximize the potential of these online transactions, utilizing advanced B2B ecommerce software becomes indispensable, offering tailored solutions that resonate with the unique operational dynamics of businesses engaged in B2B commerce.
How to start a B2B ecommerce website?
To start a B2B ecommerce site you should follow the four steps of defining your shop requirements, selecting the right B2B ecommerce platform, choosing the best ERP integration, and setting sensible intervals for data exchanges.
