3 steps to best-in-class B2B e-commerce

If your company isn’t yet e-commerce enabled, you’re not headed to where your customers (and your future business) is going. Enabling a business with e-commerce can be both hugely profitable, and full of potential pot holes.

Part of the challenge is because most companies today want more than just an e-commerce platform. They need sophisticated omni-channel fulfillment and online merchandising tools so they can match the same high expectations of consumer online experiences – personalized, responsive and efficient.

Start with a vision

It always surprises me how many implementations start without a clear view of the organization’s vision for a success, or even consideration as to which stakeholders will be involved. Inevitably this descends into delays or results in a watered down version with less functionality due to lost time and resources. It’s hard to know where to start or how not to repeat other people’s mistakes.

Thankfully, you don’t need to. The B2B e-commerce Playbook and Resource Guide provides best practices and resources for companies researching, justifying, developing, launching, and maintaining a B2B e-commerce solution. I’ve summarized the key points from the playbook below, outlining three critical steps.

1) Research and justification. This stage often includes a business case and ROI analysis to determine the core reasons why you are investing in a B2B e-commerce platform. It includes presenting the evidence to management as to why the upside for building an online B2B business adequately justifies the expense. The playbook takes you through a step by step process that helps you structure your business case. It also includes consideration around softer metrics, such as the impact on customer satisfaction and retention. While these may not show up on a P&L each quarter, the positive effects will be seen by the company.

2) Gathering requirements. Which stakeholders should be included, what requirements should be examined, and the impact on customers, which a surprising number of people forget to factor into the equation? For me, the most useful part of this section is the summary of the top 10 most common B2B e-commerce platform RFP mistakes.

3) Best practices for vendor selection. This section includes helpful tips for vendor analysis, qualification, and selection, and the role of your cross-functional team in bringing on board one or more organizations as your development partner, platform supplier, and integration team.

According to Forrester, companies are looking at alternatives to point solutions from niche vendors in favor of integrated technology stacks, feature rich APIs and end-to-end e-commerce capabilities. These types of B2B platforms are being increasingly used to manage strategic challenges. As a result, managers are relying more on vendors to act as their strategic partners and to become more involved with managing their B2B relationships with both online and offline customers.

Finally, in addition to the playbook, there are two independent analyst reports which I think are well worth reviewing—Gartner’s Critical Capabilities for Digital Commerce, and The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites: Both provide an objective and comprehensive review of competitive solutions and market options available.

Regardless of your choice of platform, in the “Age of the Customer,” it must be on a par with the best B2C websites. More than half of global B2B buyers expect to make 50 percent of their purchases online within three years. They expect seamless omni-channel experiences, 24/7 self-service access and accurate information. Disjointed channel experiences and inaccurate data is simply not an option. Good luck out there!