10 obligatory solutions for B2B stores

The popularity of B2B platforms is constantly growing. Companies that deal with other businesses are searching for automated solutions based on websites. All this is to make their work more efficient, less expensive and to expand the group of satisfied customers. What are the obligatory solutions you should employ in order to achieve those benefits in your B2B store?

More than half of the traffic comes from mobile devices. That is why Google focuses on Mobile First approach. If you wish to be positioned well in the search results, you need to be up to date in this area.

Imagine how time-consuming can even the simplest order in a B2B store be. The companies you’ll work with are going to be very strict when it comes to deadlines and seamless shopping experience. If you don’t employ certain B2B techniques, sooner or later, they will decide to go with a new e-Commerce solution. Be aware that if you’re not updating your B2B solutions your business can stop being competitive. What can save you and your employees much time are the automated B2B strategies, which take care of the chores that normally would have to be done manually.

One of the technologies you can use to improve your B2B oriented e-Commerce is Magento B2B. This platform has tools that can take a lot of responsibilities off of you. What’s more this platform can increase the conversion rate and encourage the user to come back to your store more often.

The SSL certificate is responsible for protecting the data of your customers which they disclose during completing transactions in your store. If you see the URL “https://” instead of “http://”, it means that the page is secured with an SSL certificate. Adding the appropriate protocols and certificate is crucial solution for B2B stores. That’s because an informed customer knows where to find safe purchases. In addition, customers may even get a notice that your site is unsecured. It can deter them or completely block the possibility of making transactions. It’s a risk you cannot afford.

Having an SSL certificate is also important for SEO. Google is committed to securing its users. So if you don’t have a certificate, you are really pushing your site down in the search results. In order to stop it and allow your customers to use your B2B store, you have to submit two sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools – https and http. This technique will verify you in Google’s point of view and will confirm the security of your site and allow it to be indexed.

Knowing the GDPR is crucial for online store retailers. The general principle is to inform your clients about what will happen to their personal data. This includes a clear indication that they will always have insight and the opportunity to correct the data.

Until now, most businesses preferred to maintain their privacy policy in the background. However, the GDPR forced them to open and be more transparent in this area. You also have this duty. Remember make the parts about consent that require the customer’s engagement displayed correctly. Otherwise they could interfere with the browser’s and website interface, which could decrease the user experience value.

Bad shipping choices are one of the main reasons for losing customers and profits in B2B online stores. Your contractor may change their mind or stop the cooperation, if you do not improve some important elements:

· Do not surprise the customer with unexpected shipping costs. Make sure that the delivery price list is easily available.

· Simplify the transaction process if it’s too long or complicated.

· Shorten the shipment process time. B2B delivery should not exceed one week.

· Reduce inflated delivery costs.

· Eliminate all possible risks which can lead to damaging the goods during the transport. Make sure that the package is properly secured.

These all are essentially obligatory solution for B2B store in order to keep it competitive on the e-Commerce market. If you do not develop a quick, efficient, consistent and reliable shipping method, you may lose customers to the companies who already have implemented this strategies. To meet the customer requirements, you need a highly automated shopping and reliable finalization process. Magento offers optimization and can help with the e-Commerce shopping process. What solutions does the Adobe’s platform offers?

The quick-loading images and content are a key factor in all websites. However, in case of the B2B stores, they become even more crucial. First of all, your clients probably have a lot of tasks and will need to perform the purchases on your site with speed and swiftness. What’s more, studies show that images can influence a lot about how people make decisions. This makes it extra important for you to ensure the quick loading time of your website’s images. Secondly, the faster the images load, the faster the entire webpage loads. This is of great importance in terms of good SEO, as the search engine tend to position the quick-loading sites higher in the ranking. A great way for your business to improve the swiftness and overall quality of UX of your website is PWA.

However the simplest way to speed up your website is to reduce the size of the images. The smaller the image, the faster it will load. The most important thing is to maintain its low weight while maintaining a high resolution. You can use Adobe Photoshop, which has the option Save for Web. Choose the .jpg format and set the image quality to 80 points. You can also use one of the many free compressing websites, such as Kraken.io.

There are also plugins that help you compress images when placing them on the website. The Magento Marketplace also has many tools that you can use.

Another compulsory strategy for B2b stores is well-maintained communication. Curiosity and commitment of visitors is a must-have in the content marketing strategy of your company. The content you place on your site must be of high quality. From the main page, through product descriptions, to the company’s blog. You should emphasize all the advantages of your assortment, respond to the specific needs of your customers, and at the same time offer them the best solutions.

Choosing the right tone in which the narration will be carried out on your site is just as important as the entire offer of your store. Match the style to your sales policy and company profile. How do you want to address your customers? Will they react well to a little humor? Or do you need to stay serious? Paying attention to such details may seem insignificant, but it all affects the perception of your brand. And as a result, it translates into sales results. For specific results, use the following tips:

· Highlight what sets you apart from the competitors on your main page. Place it in the center of the site so that it is immediately visible.

· Define clearly what the customer can buy with you and why it is the most beneficial offer.

· Use plugins and spell checkers. There is nothing worse than well written text riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes.

· Use the language your clients use. If they are talking about a laptop instead of a notebook, you can do it too. Do not try to forcefully educate clients. It is better to address them in a more familiar way.

· Customize all content to build a consistent image of the company and win the clients. Everyone wants to feel special and your client is no exception.

These techniques will put you on the right track, but practice will make you an expert. Over time, you will develop your own style and learn what kind of content will achieve the best results. It’s a great idea to find a good copywriter so that your ideas are properly expressed.

Personalization of content and adjusting to the client are obligatory solutions for B2B stores. Nothing will keep you as informed as the Open Source software does. It will let you adjust the platform to your own needs. You will also get an access to many useful tools.

· Add-ons – in the Magento Marketplace you will find accessories and plugins to help you work in various areas of your business.

· Community – the main reason for choosing Open Source is an extensive community dedicated to mutual help. It is comparable on Magento. Numerous vendors and developers know the answers to all your questions.

· Professionals – the Magento community is not only made up of people who know the platform well. These are primarily certified specialists who are prepared to help you.

· Specialized B2B statistics – as the owner of a company offering B2B trading services, you need the right tools to collect data. In Open Source, every user gets access to Magento Business Intelligence.

B2B platforms process transactions at a higher financial level than B2C sales (business to customer). In addition, each of them is different. That’s why it is impossible to come up a universal do-it-all solution. Therefore, using Open Source software can be so beneficial. It allows you to tailor your own platform to your needs.

The B2B store is very different from B2C activity. In the second option, you should follow the macro data, for example about the typical contents of the customer’s shopping cart. Business customers, even if they order similar products, are different. They need personalized contracts, forwarding solutions or consultancy regarding your assortment. This means that you must offer them individual solutions.

You need tools to help you create your own key performance indicators for each individual customer. You must be able to view them in the form of directories, sorting by shares and contracts. All data provided by the analyst must be taken into account in a reliable way. In addition, the service of the store without a thorough analysis is almost impossible, and surely extremely difficult. That is why many analytical tools are available on Magento Business Intelligence.

Your website’s back-end must be personalized to your own needs and the front-end should be personalized to your customers. Considering how unique every B2B transaction is, it is in your best interest that contractors can use catalogs and ordering options tailored to their needs.

David Kostusev, the editor of the American Forbes, lists four techniques that help create a successful B2B platform:

· Create a personality of your company, that is, the form of your typical (ideal) client. Specify its features and needs. Thanks to this, you will understand what is expected.

· Unify all communication channels with the client. So that at every stage of the transaction he knows what to expect.

· Start from scratch to help you analyze your progress, but after developing your services, continue to analyze all possible data.

· Improve yourself online as well as offline. You’ll see effects when more network traffic from search engines appears on your site.

Remember that a customer who receives a personalized and a well thought-out service is a satisfied customer. And if he is satisfied, he will definitely stay with you.

In running a B2B trading platform, it must be taken into account that transactions will take place on a much larger scale than in the case of B2C transactions. Therefore, it is worth taking care of the following two things:

Minimum order limits method will help you filter customers who only look for opportunities and sell a large number of goods faster. When running a B2B platform, you will be operating on large orders on the agenda. You must discover what kind of limits suits you best and which suits your business type. Match your findings to the previously created persona.

By offering discounts on large orders, you create strong price competition on the market and increase the chance to gain loyal and regular customers. It will also help you get rid of unsuccessful products or make room for newer versions.

For example, your customer initially wanted to order 10 pieces of a given product at a normal price. However, you offer a discount of 20 pieces. This can convince the contractor to expand the order in order to increase its sales.

This is a typical B2B strategy in e-Commerce. However, you can develop your own tactics based on the discounts of the old version products or sale of the end of the series.

Did you find out which solutions to use? If you do your homework and take care of your B2B platform, you will certainly achieve the expected success.