Must-Have Features to build a successful Magento B2B store

Top 6 Features to set up a Successful Magento B2B store

Do you know that a whopping 74% of B2B buyers prefer to make their purchases from online stores instead of sales executives and ¾’s of B2B firms have already upgraded to eCommerce platforms?

The eCommerce world has observed a phenomenal growth in Business to Business vertical in the past few years.

Forrester predicts that the net worth of the B2B industry will reach $1.1 trillion by the end of the year 2019, unlike B2C industry where estimated worth will be $480 billion.

The increasing prospects for B2B deals call for a relevant Magento store loaded with all the essential features. In this crowded marketplace, it becomes essential for every B2B store owner to meet the demands of the customers to carve a special niche for him and stay ahead of the competitors.

Although, it is difficult to prototype B2B business models because of their unique technical requirements yet, there are some key features that can sort out every B2B store. Read on to know to these key features that every B2B store must-have.

1. Trade log in with gated access

The first thing a B2B portal needs is a trade customer dedicated login page. Magento B2B portals are allowed with limited access and every new account requires approval.

Both the customer and admin receive automatic notifications upon any kind of processing or change.

2. Bulk order options and discounts

B2B shopping is all about bulk orders. There should be a bulk ordering form to save your customers from the tedious task of going through each product and selecting them. The form page should automatically redirect the customers to the checkout page.

Customers can add their products in the customised order tables of Magento B2B suite. It saves them from the effort of going from page to page in order to check the products. It becomes easier for them to filter the products and check them in a single matrix. Previewing, configuring and adjusting the number of products was never this easy. The card gets updated in real-time to match the specific configurations.

This is how it makes the trade simpler.

3. Upload orders using CSV files

This feature makes sure to convert your hectic B2B experience into an easier one. The feature makes the process of ordering hassle-free by allowing the customers to skip product browsing. The customers don’t need to fill their carts and their products can be directly added to dashboards. It will speed up the process of bulk purchasing.

There are CSV spreadsheets that will help in speeding up ordering workflow as well.

In turn, customers will save lots of their time.

4. Set Credit Limits

Credit limits are the most important feature if you want to save up on your customers. The feature allows making purchases in exchange of offline payment methods like cheques, money orders, purchase orders or wire transfers.

The website can decide upon the credit limit amount on the basis of the Company and its purchasing method.

The credit limit keeps updating automatically once the limit is set. It can be reset every 30-day.

5. Customer Specific Pricing

The merchants running B2B portals need to create flexible customer groups. These groups can accommodate different rate options within them. This system allows you to set both customer-specific prices and volume-based prices.

Apart from this, you can also set different prices for a specific region. You can even set more specialisations as per your requirement.

Creating a group allows you to specify a particular payment or shipping method for a group or account.

6. Advanced Checkout

The larger quantity or orders make B2B checkout a complicated process. You definitely need an appropriate check out system to serve the needs of the customers. Your web development company in London should be able to facilitate with such a checkout system that can reduce your cart abandonment cases.

Along with being streamlined, it should be able to accommodate the following factors as well:

• There should be an integration of platforms like FedEx or USP so that the customers can transfer their shipping charges directly to their delivery partner’s accounts.
• The checkout process should provide them with information related to their previous orders and amounts as well.
• It should allow them to pay for their orders via different methods like credit cards, trade of credit etc.
• It should allow the customer to repeat the order easily without selecting each product individually.

7. Real-time inventory updates

This is a must-have feature for B2B portals to provide their customers with the most accurate information about the products. If the customer finds out the unavailability of the products only after the completion of his order, he will end up losing his trust in your brand. On the other hand, you will also lose your potential customer in the process.

Having a clear picture of your real-time inventory will help you in streamlining the operations to run your business model efficiently.

Takeaway: It is impossible to establish a successful B2B eCommerce platform in UK overnight. You need the right platform that can provide your customers with the most advanced features so that your business can stand out in the crowd of competitors. Added functionalities are a guarantee of customer satisfaction.

The features of B2B portals are hard to define as such. You need to install and configure the updates to learn how to use it and take actual benefits from them.