Planning to adopt a B2B e-commerce platform? These 6 steps will help you take the complexity away from the process by streamlining your thought process.

2. Introduction
© 2015 i95dev
Let us begin with the following trivia –
“Global e-commerce marketplace Alibaba.com handles billions of dollars a year in
transactions, increasingly acting as a bridge between mainland China, North America,
Europe, and the rest of the world.”
• B2B companies today also can provide its audience a scalable, convenient,
feature-rich, and self-service e-commerce platform that can help them reduce
costs, increase sales, and improve customer experience.
• However, a lot of that rides on the choice of the B2B e-commerce platform – the
e-commerce platform must meet the needs of the brand including CMS, security,
and more while evolving and growing with the changing needs of the business.
• Let us discuss parameters that you must consider before selecting your e-
commerce platform.

3. Tips to select the right B2B platform
1) Get your business perspective right
Prepare a business case – assess your revenue model, identify your conversion rate, average order value,
and customer lifetime value and work out the ROI expectations. The exercise will help you clearly
articulate your expectations from the e-commerce store, prioritize them, and identify how soon you can
recover your investment (if it is even worth the effort).
2) Identify your B2C and B2B E-commerce requirements
Pay attention to the customer experience you want to provide, product merchandising (product images,
descriptions, etc.), custom pricing, marketing & promotions, loyalty, and others.
Read – Differences between B2B and B2C eCommerce
Analyze your current sales process and identify the critical elements in the workflow (do you require
approvals from someone to confirm orders, how are sales representatives associated with the order,
what are your payment terms, how do you accept payments, and more).
Prepare a list features you desire and bucket them under must have features, should have features,
could have features and won’t have features.
Read – Features Unique to the World of B2B eCommerce

4. Tips to select the right B2B platform
3) Pay Attention to your unique requirements
Most e-commerce platforms have a standard set of features and they might not be an exact fit for your
requirements. Identify the requirements unique to your business and organization; do not limit yourself
just to the features but extend your analysis to identify your workflows and processes.
Identifying your unique requirements will help you then work with your vendor to customize the e-
commerce platform to accommodate them. At i95Dev, we mandate our clients to go through a discovery
phase to identify and unearth these unique requirements. Which, if not identified, can seriously limit the
adoption and benefits of the e-commerce store.
4) Build expectations
Identify the important stakeholders who will get impacted because of this, involve them in all the phases
of your project, and get their buy-in; this is very important if you want to minimize resistance and to
realize the ROI you set out to achieve.
Read- Adoption Challenges with B2B E-commerce, and steps to mitigate this in, Tips for Successful B2B E-
commerce Adoption.

5. Tips to select the right B2B platform
5) Think beyond Ecommerce – Consider the End-to-End Process
• Your e-commerce does not work in isolation; e-commerce is only one part of the story. After you
take orders on your e-commerce store
• You have to fulfill those orders and based on your setup this will act as an input to your ERP system,
order management system, your warehouse management system, inventory management system,
your purchase department, your manufacturing team, and others.
• You have to ensure that your accounting system/ department is informed about the payment terms
and sales commissions then accounts have to be reconciled.
• Keep customer and sales representatives informed about the order fulfillment status, shipment
status (shipping tracking number), etc.
• If you maintain a CRM you have to also ensure that all the required data is then entered into your
CRM to keep your customer representatives informed and drive effective marketing campaigns.
• Usually, businesses have systems and processes already in place to take care of this. With e-
commerce adding to the complexity, you should consider integrating e-commerce with the systems
involved to automate these communications eliminating the costly and error-prone manual process.
Also Read – Omni-Channel Experience – The Key to B2B eCommerce Success

6. Tips to select the right B2B platform
6) Do your due diligence while selecting a partner and give implementation its due attention
• With the rising popularity and adoption of B2B e-commerce, the number of partners offering B2B
commerce services has also gone up. This makes life both easy and difficult for you because you now
have more choice. While each partner enlists a unique list of capabilities, the catch lies in choosing
the right vendor who can meet your requirements in your budget. Revisit your requirements with
the partner and try to assess their approach, expertise and experience.
• Often, at this stage, businesses will find themselves maintaining the balance between their
requirements and budget.
• Remember, this is a long-term investment for your businesses and your ROI calculations (step 1) will
play an important role in helping you maintain that balance.
Also Read – 10 Mistakes to Avoid in B2B Ecommerce

7. Selecting a B2B e-commerce platform can be a challenge (a time-consuming process) but an exercise
worth the effort. Moreover, the complexity associated with the process can be eased by following a
systematic approach, right attitude of the stakeholders involved, and a good partner.
At i95Dev, we understand this very well and have successfully worked with clients across industries.
We work on Magento, the leading e-commerce platform, and have developed a number of advanced
B2B modules to further enhance the platform. We are also the leaders in e-commerce, ERP, POS,
CRM, and online marketplaces integration.
If you any B2B needs, the i95Dev experts will be happy to help. You can contact us here.
Conclusion

8. For more information
Visit : www.i95Dev.com
E-mail : info@i95Dev.com
Maryland : 3 Bethesda, Metro Center, Suite 700 Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Ph: (301) 760.7499
New York : 1430 Broadway, 7th Floor New York, NY 10018. Ph: (646) 259.3662
Texas : 5646 Milton, Suite 100, Dallas, Texas 75206. Ph: (214) 396-2121
Australia : Sydney, NSW – 2145, Ph: (02) 8015 5446
Thank You