Why is Magento a global leader in B2B e-commerce according to Gartner?

B2B is a great opportunity for the e-com world

According to a Forrester survey, 93% of B2B customers prefer to shop online before visiting a brick-and-mortar store. Yet there are still many B2B companies in the market that do not sell online and have not entered the digital transformation. Business models are changing and B2B retailers and customers prefer digital pathways.

In the field of e-commerce, the B2B sector was behind B2C, mainly in terms of the use of new technologies. Many wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors have only had websites to present their goods so far, which is currently completely inadequate. The global pandemic has greatly accelerated and increased the need for these companies to select and implement an e-commerce platform.

However, choosing the right platform, including the right e-commerce system, is a challenge. Therefore, I will mention here a few points that need to be kept in mind. It must meet the requirements that will be essential for your business and the achievement of goals:

• Scalability
  Possibility to shop anywhere and anytime. B2B purchases are cyclical. Delays are a threat to business. Therefore, the B2B e-commerce platform must, regardless of the circumstances, time of day, or heavy loads (sales peaks), allow for uninterrupted shopping.
  
• Customer experience
  B2B customers have experience with advanced B2C systems, and therefore expect B2B e-shops to have the same high standard and features. The ability to provide customers with B2B purchasing experience at a remarkably high level, which corresponds to the quality of B2C sales channels, is a guarantee of success.
• Features
  An extensive, configurable set of features that you implement according to your needs, processes, and requirements or the needs of your buyers. Magento offers 5,000+ ready-to-use features that save time and money and make business easier. For foreign clients, it is necessary to consider currency and tax differences, Geoblocking ordinance, etc.
  For example Order Approval Workflows is an essential feature, more in the image below.

Magento omnichannel opens new sales channels and enables rapid product launches. It has many sales support features, allows relevant and personalized referrals, and cross-sell or upsell. It meets the needs of the market and customers.

Magento’s advanced analytics enable initial personalization of the offering right from the customer’s B2B contact with the sales platform based on an automatically recognized location, language, and currency.

What other features and benefits does Magento offer?

• Quality presentation and the possibility of comparing products
  Your users need to be able to assess products. The form of the table, with the possibility of sorting products according to the content of columns, allows easy comparison of selected functions of many products, which is common practice in B2B. You get this type of presentation thanks to the native features of the Magento platform, which allows the end customer to switch from the traditional B2C view to the table view of product categories, configurable by the system administrator.
•  B2B and B2C customers in one system
  Flexible customer group policy is another feature of Magento. Thanks to this, it is possible to effectively manage B2B and B2C customers and present them with separate prices and product categorization. It is common practice to allow free access to the B2C offer for B2C retail customers and the need to log in for B2B customers to obtain their B2B layouts and functions – all for easy identification.
• Customer groups
  Magento offers the possibility of customer segmentation. This feature, available in the Magento version, facilitates advanced and dynamic promotion policies based on customer behaviour and purchase history.
• Seamless integration with ERP systems
  All B2B vendors have their ERP system for tracking inventory, orders, etc. The possibility of ERP integration guarantees a seamless sales process. Magento is ready for integration with any ERP system using an API.

•  Simplified order processing and invoicing
  The flexibility of order management. View order history from A-Z. Ability to completely customize the status of the order fulfilment process depending on your specific business needs and B2B practices. Magento offers all this, including the cash register process with a lower number of steps for placing an order.
• Multilevel pricing system
  Possibility of price gradation for different customer groups. The system also offers the possibility of negotiating price conditions and preparing individual offers for the client.
• Responsive design and mobile experience
  Thanks to its flexible interface and architecture, Magento is one of the best e-commerce platforms in the context of RWD. B2B customers expect the same mobile shopping experience as in the B2C sector. That is what Magento can provide.
• Managing administrator privileges
  Magento allows you to manage access rights to the Access Control List (ACL), which allows store employees to access only selected functionalities. Accesses are managed in groups or individually, also at the level of individual stores.
• Add to cart based on SKU
  B2B customers can quickly add products to their cart by entering the product SKU without visiting the product pages. This helps handle large orders and makes it easier for customers to import them, for example through printed product catalogue SKUs.

Read about other features on our blog.

In a nutshell

Magento is a scalable and omnichannel platform, suitable for B2B. The system simplifies your life, allows you to monitor the behaviour of your customers, flexible management of pricing and discount policies, easy ERP integration, and much more. With Magento, you will simplify your processes, speed up, and expand your business. And with a wealth of ready-to-use features and reasonable development costs, you minimize TCO and Time-To-Market.

You will have everything under control and thanks to that you will have the space to build relationships with your customers and your image in the market.