Figure 1: an example retail customer company with many buying roles facilitated for Self-Service by Magento 2

(a platform agnostic spin on self service B2B Vs. the Oct ‘20 version which was Magento-focused)

B2B procurement professionals are looking for increasing sophistication and ease-of-use when interacting with their vendors. In many cases they are doing much more online purchasing, much less by telephone and EDI and more by smartphone tapping and scrolling as their choices increase and as their use of B2B e-commerce features and functionalities increase. For example:

Construction Managers and Contractors ordering equipments, supplies and more from a remote job site outside of an office

Retail store workers ordering inventory from the store floor or warehouse

Spa managers ordering health and beauty supplies

Hospital managers ordering and re-ordering supplies from secure medical storage facilities

In order to keep B2B customers, many of which are companies with multiple buyers, returning and buying from your e-commerce website in greater numbers, it’s important to consider and execute a “Self-Service B2B E-Commerce” model. This can be accomplished by merchants at basic and complex levels in e-commerce depending upon the platform, the technology and the user experience that they are planning on designing. This blog post quickly summarizes a range of features from basic to complex that B2B merchants should work towards as they adopt a self-service model for their customers.

Remember, B2B customers are looking for B2C-like e-commerce features – ultimately they want similar experiences even if they’re shopping and buying online as a part of their “day job.”

The Basic Features of B2B Self Service E-Commerce

B2B is different and in order for the merchant to make an e-commerce site more or less “self-service”, it needs more than a unique login, a detailed catalog and a way to checkout. It needs to give customers the functionality to conduct business as their business – with the benefits and functional requirements that a company typically has when it transacts business with another company. Some of these basic requirements include:

Different prices for different customers – “price tiers”

Different discounts for different customers

An ability to generate and share a “quote” with accurate, account-specific pricing and availability

Multiple sub-account log ins for each B2B account – this allows multiple buyers to use the same commercial account

An ability to transact “on account” without a credit card

An ability to reference purchase order or customer number as a part of creating an order

An ability to review and order from past orders

An ability to see reports on purchasing activity by account and sub-account

Associating sales reps with account activity

Associating different shipping rules with different accounts

Limiting the catalog availability by account – at a minimum by category

These are really the basics of functionality that a B2B merchant must provide in order to give their customers the confidence to serve themselves. Accorin has worked with a number of platforms including Big Commerce, Magento CE, and others to enable these types of self-service scenarios for its clients. Some of these B2B features come “out-of-the-box” on the most popular e-commerce platforms, some require extensions and plugins. As a part of a planning phase prior to developing a new e-commerce website, it’s best to map out the requirements and the source of the functionality prior to proceeding.

More Complex Functional Use Cases That Serve More Complex B2B Buyers

Beyond the basics, larger, more complex B2B businesses need greater sophistication and a vast array or features in order to give their customers that true sense of “self-service.” Setting up these features and making them work with all of the integrations that are typically required in a B2B setup can still require significant effort. It can also be frustrating to set it up differently for ...