Top 20 Key Features of B2B eCommerce Platforms

With a shift from emotions to ROI and value, sales in the B2B ecosystem are fundamentally distinct from B2C. Not just the priorities, but the process, and the sales cycle typically vary. Naturally, when these sales interactions happen digitally i.e. in a B2B eCommerce marketplace platform, you would expect that the platform needs purpose-built capabilities to accommodate these industry-specific priorities.

At the same time, B2B eCommerce is still part of the larger online retail ecosystem. Users here are aware of the constantly evolving and transforming eCommerce experiences. So, B2C-like frictionless user experiences are pivotal drivers here as well. B2B eCommerce is evolving to be an amalgamation of B2C-like experiences with capabilities for B2B transactions. To succeed in this industry, catering to this requirement is pivotal.

In this blog, let’s learn about the top 20 features you need in B2B eCommerce to lead the industry.

What makes B2B eCommerce different from B2C?

To understand the features set, let’s analyze what sets B2B transactions apart i.e. what are the priorities of businesses procuring their requirements from other businesses. To get more insights, delve into the dynamics of typical B2B transactions.

1. Complexities of a sales cycle: Procurement can have a long-term impact on the business. So the buying decisions in the B2B space, typically have a larger bearing on the buyers. Moreover, the purchase amount is carefully managed to optimize investment capital. This means that buying decisions are information-driven and sales cycles are intertwined, complex, and longer.  

2. Pricing strategy: In most B2C retail use cases, the sellers don’t need to differentiate between the buyers, and hence have fixed prices. However, in B2B eCommerce transactions, the pricing strategy can be subject to the volume of the purchase order, the importance of the order, the business entity, and other factors. So, the sellers need a flexible pricing strategy. 

3. Payment terms: With a larger volume, higher value, and longer sales cycles, the payment terms are more flexible in the B2B domain. Both, the sellers and the buyers can need flexibility in the pricing to complete transactions. 

4. Business relations: With longer sales cycles and flexible payment terms, business relations are pivotal to transactions in B2B. The buyers may need to engage with the sellers at multiple instances in their buying journey. 

5. Role of services: Many B2B eCommerce platforms cater to multiple businesses in the supply chain of a product. These can include raw material suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, brand retailers, resellers, and others. Hence, the role of services in B2B eCommerce is higher to broaden the scope of the marketplace platform. 

What I need from B2B eCommerce platform?

The way users interact with each other in a B2B eCommerce marketplace platform is distinct. However, these are not the only considerations in an eCommerce business. Some key business functions of an eCommerce multi vendor business are as follows: 

• Operational efficiency: The processes need to be streamlined for higher productivity and reduced costs.
• Brand building: The business needs to invest in brand building to attract and retain customers.
• Scalability: A multi-vendor business has the potential to scale expeditiously.
• Customer engagement: Foster robust relationships with your users.
• Market expansion: Multi vendor businesses can scale, so enhancing business reach is essential.
• Decision making and growth: Digital businesses grow with a data-driven approach.
• Innovation and adaptability: To stay ahead with a competitive advantage, businesses need to be proactive in identifying change and then implementing it.

Hence, to succeed, your B2B eCommerce marketplace platform will need capabilities from a holistic perspective of eCommerce. Let’s discuss this below.

Top 20 Essential B2B eCommerce Platform Features

To support the key differentiators in how business is conducted in a B2B space, the eCommerce platform needs a purpose-built marketplace ecosystem. Thus the digital space requires pivotal functionalities that allow B2B users to interact with each other, in a way they would in the physical world. Additionally, it needs capabilities to sustain and grow the business. Let’s discuss all these B2B eCommerce platform features below:

1. Request for quote

Price negotiations are a priority approach in B2B transactions. It allows the sellers on your platform to be flexible with their pricing strategy. Moreover, buyers can also get more value from their orders and choose the most suitable seller, fostering their key competitive differentiator. A request for quote module allows the buyers to negotiate with the sellers for the price of the product before the purchase by placing a quote on the eCommerce platform.

2. Part payments option

The part payments feature is essential to streamline orders higher in value, or to accommodate scenarios where the sellers and buyers have agreed on longer timelines for the entire order to be completed. It allows the payment to be transferred from buyers in parts. This feature allows the B2B eCommerce platform to enhance its scope and offer an ecosystem for various business transactions.

3. Hide product prices

To further aid the sellers on your platform to be agile with their pricing, the platform can have the option of hiding prices. However, it is advisable to keep this option as a switchable option from the Admin. You can plan and execute which option works best for your B2B eCommerce platform.

4. Minimum order quantity

Large volume orders form the core of many sellers’ strategies in a B2B marketplace. For them, all operations like pricing, sales, and shipping are tailored towards selling products in larger quantities. Hence, B2B marketplaces should offer a feature allowing such sellers to lock offered products to a minimum per transaction. The Minimum Order Quantity feature in a B2B eCommerce marketplace allows the sellers to achieve this objective.

5. Bulk order discounts

This is another must-have feature that allows sellers to encourage high-volume sales by giving out discounts on bulk orders. It allows the sellers to drive in more sales and the buyers to get more value by purchasing products in higher quantities. Moreover, the marketplace itself benefits from higher sales and thereby higher revenue.

6. Custom invoicing

The nature of orders in B2B is complex and can involve flexible payment terms and other details, the generated invoices need to be equally customizable. A B2B marketplace platform should offer the option to customize the generated invoices that cater to various scenarios like the part payment options. Hence custom invoicing is an important feature of B2B eCommerce

7. Multiple payment options

The key to effortless transactions is offering the buyers multiple payment options via secure channels. These options can include payment mentors like bank transfers, eWallets, cards, and even pay-on-order options. These help in easing and streamlining payments on the platform, enhancing the chances of conversions.

8. Detailed product listing

Since order values tend to reach higher, and have a generally more long-term bearing, B2B eCommerce users need accurate and detailed information about the products they are about to purchase. For this reason, an extensively capable product description catalog is a much-needed B2B eCommerce platform feature. Allow your sellers to post complete information

9. Downloadable documents

In various instances, B2B products can come with detailed certifications, instructions, or user manuals, that are key to the sale of these products. For instance, the B2B Pharma industry products are sold with due certifications. To aid the sale of such products, a B2B eCommerce platform should offer downloadable digital documentation along with the product listings.

10. Provide services and products

As discussed above, B2B eCommerce platforms can connect various businesses in the supply chain of products. It can cater to the movement of raw materials to semi-finished products, to finished products for retailing. All businesses in this supply chain can offer products, services, or both. Allow the buyers on your platform to checkout with services along with the products, or buy services separately from other sellers.

11. Robust shipping ecosystem

Efficient shipping is the backbone of eCommerce, the B2B space is no different. The B2B platform should first provide the Admin with ways to customize shipping rules on the system for the users. Next, the sellers should have multiple options for shipping. Additionally, in B2B, shipping is complex, the sellers themselves should have the option to provide shipping to buyers. To add to the shipping settings, a B2B marketplace benefits greatly from business API integration like Shipstation which fosters fulfillment options.

12. Tax management

In a country like the US, VAT (tax rates) can vary from one state to another. In such scenarios, automated taxation is required. Moreover, the tax rates can also vary for various product categories. Additionally, while countries like the US have VAT, many countries have a GST tax structure. The B2B eCommerce platform solution should account for all of these variables. Moreover, integration with third-party solutions like Avalara also aid in automating and streamlining tax-related processes.

13. Multiple revenue Streams

In B2B marketplaces product margins can be lesser. So multiple revenue streams give the option of earning higher revenue. Typically these are product commissions, subscription plans, and monetized advertisements. Additionally, subscription plans will also allow you to offer bundled services to the sellers on the marketplace platform. Hence multiple revenue generation capabilities is one of the top B2B eCommerce platform features.

14. Scalable system

The revenue from B2B eCommerce are much higher than even though B2C platforms outnumber their B2B counterparts. This means that business transactions for B2B eCommerce platforms are much higher. Hence scalability is a key feature for B2B eCommerce platforms. They should offer sustained high performance under heavy load, giving the users a satisfactory experience on the platform. Scalability is essential feature of B2B platform for business success.

15. Assigning sub admins with controlled access

B2B eCommerce businesses tend to scale. Since they are operating in a niche market segment, they can scale across geographies, reaching a wider user base. Managing such a platform can require efforts from a team of Admins and not just a single individual. So the Admin of the B2B marketplace admin should be able to assign Sub-admin duties to other users on the platform. However, the complete authority on the system can be restricted to the main admin only, who is in charge of operations on the platform. As per his discretion, responsibilities can be divided further.

16. Reports and analytics

In the current age of the internet, buyers are armed with a wealth of information, courtesy of the internet. Hence buyer journeys have become complex. Online B2B businesses need to look out for buying patterns to succeed. Here, insights from reporting and analytics form the bedrock of prudent business decisions. Such decisions lay the foundation of a data-driven robust strategy, leading to success.

17. Advanced search

Details matter greatly in the B2B space. They should get to the desired product quickly and efficiently, enhancing the overall user experience on the B2B eCommerce platform. To foster satisfying buying experiences on the platform, give the buyers advanced search capabilities. This improves the buying experience to a great extent, enhancing conversions on the platform. Hence it’s a key feature in B2B eCommerce platforms to consider.

18. Buyer-seller direct communication

As discussed above, buyer-seller relations are important in B2B business relations. Here communication plays an important part in fostering this communication. Moreover, with business activities like price negotiations also in the mix, communication is integral to any B2B transactional relationship. Make sure you add direct communication channels via chat or messaging on the platform.

19. Dedicated user panels

In a B2B eCommerce platform, all three participants i.e. the Admin, the sellers, and the buyers have their operational requirements, and business interests from the platform. To foster efficiency and effectiveness, make sure you provide all of these participants with their dedicated user panel. Each of these users should be able to log in to their profile and manage their participation in the eCommerce platform directly from their dedicated user panel. This is one of the best features of B2B eCommerce platform. Each of these gets the following benefits:

• Admin gets full control over the operations with a unified panel.
• Sellers get a centralized panel to control sales. 
• Buyers get much-needed self-service capabilities to drive procurement needs. 

20. Multi-currency & multi-language support

Allow your B2B platform to scale undeterred and operate internationally. For such requirements, you must cross the barrier of varying language and currency. B2B eCommerce multi-language and multi-currency features allow your business to operate across borders.

How to launch a B2B eCommerce platform with best B2B features

In this blog, we discussed some of the key features in B2B platforms. These can lay the groundwork for your business to achieve its objectives. The next big question though, is how to launch a B2B eCommerce platform that has all these features. There are two ways in which to proceed.

1. Custom develop a B2B eCommerce platform: The first approach is to make a list of your requirements and get the eCommerce platform developed from scratch. This means that beyond these features, you will need to precisely find out what to include in the platform. Then a team will develop that platform from scratch, taking up both time and resources. 

2. Use a turnkey solution: The next approach is to use an off-the-shelf solution that can help you build an eCommerce marketplace platform. This is both faster and more cost-efficient. The challenge here is to find a solution with pre-included B2B-specific features. However, with Yo!Kart B2B, you have a multi vendor marketplace platform solution, tailormade for B2B users. It has a list of B2B features, that are included by default in the system making it a turnkey solution―ready to use―to build an online multi-vendor marketplace. Let’s discuss this below. 

Yo!Kart B2B: Feature packed B2B multi vendor marketplace platform solution

Yo!Kart B2B is a leading B2B multi vendor marketplace platform solution. The vision behind developing this solution has been to provide a wide range of entrepreneurs/SMBs/enterprises with a robust solution to succeed in the competitive eCommerce sector. Since the cornerstone of such success is purpose-built features, Yo!Kart B2B has been developed to offer a wide range of capabilities that foster accelerated growth and market impact. Moreover, the solution offers the following: 

• Self-hosted with the freedom to own the solution, choose a server, and leverage user data. 
• Versatile and suited for businesses of varying sizes. 
• Highly efficient and intuitive UI/UX. 
• Comes with a comprehensive range of in-built features and modules. 
• Comes pre-integrated with business APIs and 20+ payment gateways. 
• License for use in one-time payment packages. 
• Up to one year of free tech support and other bundled services. 

Wrapping Up

The B2B eCommerce sector is evolving and progressing. Businesses are more ready to source their procurement via online marketplaces. However, aligned with the technological development of the tech space, these businesses now expect modern, capable, and efficient experiences via online marketplace portals.

A suite of platform capabilities meets these expectations. Hence, focusing on launching a platform with key features in B2B platforms can give your business a critical competitive advantage right from the start.