How do you launch a great B2B ordering portal?

 

The challenge is to create personalized experiences without adding complexity to your operations.

Deep SAP integration is the key—and the Corevist Platform includes it out of the box.

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B2B Online Ordering Portals Eliminate Friction in Customer Experience | Corevist, Inc.

No one wants to call Customer Service to place an order.

B2B buyers want to place orders and manage their accounts online.

Yet manufacturers struggle to launch successful B2B customer portals. The biggest problem is real-time integration to SAP ERP. It’s tough to pull off, and conventional B2B platforms don’t include it. Yet your customers need real-time ERP integration for personalized pricing, credit status, inventory, order status, and more.

Imagine a B2B portal with deep SAP integration included.

What if you could launch an SAP B2B portal that automatically creates a personalized experience for each user? With deep, real-time SAP integration, your customers would get everything they need to buy from you online.

  • Personalized catalogs, picklists, and pricing
  • 100% error-free B2B order placement
  • Full order and account history straight from SAP
  • Self-service invoice payments (plus payment at checkout)

A B2B Online Portal That Customers Will Actually Use | Corevist, Inc.

Welcome to Corevist’s B2B Portal Solutions.

B2B Platform for Online Ordering and Order Tracking | Corevist, Inc.

It’s your path (and your B2B ordering portal).

Every organization has a different maturity level. Some organizations are ready to dive into B2B online ordering. Others just need a customer portal for tracking orders and invoices. Some want to start there and scale up to robust online ordering capabilities when they’re ready.

You can do it all on the Corevist Platform. The key is our 3 product editions that empower you to launch, grow, and scale your digital channel on your terms (and your timeline).

Flexible starting points for B2B portals.

Define your path to digital maturity.

There’s a Corevist edition for every starting point. Begin with the
B2B online portal you need today, then expand when you’re ready.

Corevist Launch

Self-service tracking and history for orders, shipments, and invoices, PLUS customer account dashboard—all with real-time data straight from SAP.

Corevist Grow

Everything from Launch plus online ordering (including conversion of quotes to orders), simple catalogs, and price and availability checks.

Corevist Scale

Everything from Grow plus rich product content, configurable products, related products, advanced features, and 3rd-party integrations.

Ready to learn more?

The Corevist Platform meets you where you’re at today—and gives
you a guided path toward the digital sophistication you need.

 

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Why Corevist for B2B portals?


 

B2B Portals | The Corevist Difference

You won’t find the Corevist approach anywhere else.

✓ Day One Integrated. SAP integration will make or break your B2B portal. We solve that challenge with our comprehensive, prebuilt integration.

✓ Launch it tomorrow. Because we’re integrated on Day 1, we use the project period to refine your B2B portal rather than build the integration.

✓ We’ve got your back. As your long-term partner, we consult on your growth goals and help you find the best solutions to your business challenges. 

See the Corevist difference →

Manufacturers win with Corevist.

 
 

Barry Brunetto, Blount Int'l | Corevist, Inc.

“For an SAP customer looking to do a B2B portal, I wouldn’t look any further than the Corevist solution. You are not going to do it any cheaper, it’s not going to get done any quicker, and you don’t have any heavy capital investments to make. It just works.”

—Barry Brunetto, VP IT

  • 10 global B2B portals
  • 1 SAP-integrated architecture
  • 325% digital revenue growth
  • No new IT burden

Read Barry’s story →

Which B2B online portal is right for you?

B2B Ordering Platform - Corevist, Inc.

Corevist Launch: B2B online portal for tracking

Simplify your processes and delight your customers with a B2B portal for online order tracking. Customers will love the ease of self-service, which strengthens your relationship for the long haul. As customers switch to the web for all post-order tasks, you’ll reduce the burden on your customer service staff. They’ll get better work/life balance, while you receive greater transparency in business processes and reduced costs.

Once you’ve leveraged this value, you can upgrade to Corevist Grow, adding online ordering to your B2B portal. You’ll also get essential features like simple catalogs and real-time price and availability.

Explore Corevist Launch →

Corevist Grow: B2B portal for tracking + online ordering

Make every customer your best customer with easy B2B online ordering. Corevist Grow includes everything from Launch, PLUS robust order placement that creates 100% error-free orders in your SAP system. As a prebuilt B2B ordering portal, Corevist Grow doesn’t require heavy lifting like custom SAP integration or gathering tons of product content. It’s configured and ready to launch in 60 days. 

Once you’ve gotten ROI from Grow, you can upgrade your B2B ordering portal to Corevist Scale. You’ll get rich product content, configurable products, related products, advanced features, and 3rd-party integrations.

Explore Corevist Grow →

B2B Online Ordering System | Platform with SAP integration built in | Corevist, Inc.

B2B portals for online ordering - robust SAP integration - Corevist, Inc.

Corevist Scale: Sophisticated B2B Online Ordering

Corevist Scale exceeds the best of conventional B2B ordering platforms. The difference is the Agile journey you’ve taken to get there—and the powerful SAP integration that’s the foundation of your solution. No other choice offers this one-two punch of iterative transformation and flawless integration on a managed platform.

If your ultimate destination is a robust B2B online ordering portal, Corevist Scale gets you there while allowing you to learn the ropes. You get all the sophistication you need while eliminating the expense and risk of third-party SAP integration. 

Explore Corevist Scale →

Ready to launch your B2B ordering portal?

Let’s put a stake in the ground.

Schedule a consultation with a specialist, and let’s define your path forward.

Top 3 Keys to B2B Online Ordering

How do you know what to prioritize in a B2B online ordering solution?

The answer depends on your market, your products, and your customers’ needs. But certain high-level principles hold true across all verticals—especially for manufacturers.

Here are 3 questions you need to ask as you plan your B2B portal project (click to jump).

1. Do we need to differentiate our B2B portal user experience?

2. Do B2B customers need personalized experiences in the portal?

3. Do you have the internal resources to support B2B online ordering?

4. FAQs

 

1. Do we need to differentiate our B2B portal user experience?

This question gets at the heart of your place in the market. Typically, answers to this question fall along a spectrum.

At one end, you’ve got customers who are going to order from you regardless of whether your B2B portal provides a B2C-style user experience. These customers might have a contractual relationship with you, or your product might be so unique and specialized, they don’t have many options. Differentiating from the competition based on a unique user experience in your B2B portal isn’t so important.

At the other end, you might be selling in markets that are much more competitive. Price, availability, and ease of online discovery may be the primary factors governing success. In this case, your B2B ordering portal may need to provide a unique, memorable user experience as a competitive factor.

2. Do B2B customers need personalized experiences in the portal?

You could say that transactions are generic in B2C. Discounts and coupons aside, you offer one price to all consumers. If you show product availability, you’re not showing different quantities to different customers.

The world of B2B online platforms is different.

Customers may have unique contract pricing for every product they’re allowed to buy. Along those lines, some customers may be blocked from purchasing certain SKUs. Even inventory availability may vary for different customers if you use ATP (available-to-promise) calculations to spread product around your most valuable accounts.

And let’s not forget credit status. Depending on your credit terms, you may need to block a B2B customer from ordering in the portal if their account balance is too large.

If you need this type of personalization in B2B online ordering, then you’ll need a comprehensive ERP integration. That’s what the Corevist Platform provides for organizations that run on SAP ERP.

3. Do you have the internal resources to support B2B online ordering?

This question has limited scope if your B2B portal doesn’t require ERP integration. However, most online ordering portals do require that integration. Without it, your customers won’t get the personalized experience they need to place orders online. (See #2 above.)

Yet ERP integration is incredibly challenging when it comes to online ordering. Because B2B transactions are so complex, you need a comprehensive integration that touches all parts of the buyer journey. That architecture is difficult to build and maintain if you’re relying on an integration platform sitting between the ERP and the B2B portal.

This is why the Corevist Platform exists. Our B2B ordering platform includes prebuilt integration for SAP ERP—and we manage the entire solution for you, including that integration. This empowers you to compete online while focusing on your core business.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a B2B ordering portal require ERP integration?
The answer depends on your needs. Wholesalers and distributors may not need as deep an integration if customers don’t have unique business rules (for example, the merchant offers the same pricing and inventory data to every customer). In these scenarios, a simple, B2C-style platform and architecture is often adequate. However, manufacturers typically need much deeper ERP integration in their B2B ordering portals. Typically, each customer has unique business rules governing pricing, SKU permissions, inventory/ATP availability, and more, all of which require an ERP integration that’s “always on” and up-to-date. In these scenarios, a B2B portal which includes ERP integration is often a better fit, as it avoids the cost and risk of middleware-based integration architecture.
How do you get personalized pricing in a B2B portal?
If your B2B customers have negotiated contract pricing for different SKUs, you should choose a B2B ordering platform that includes prebuilt ERP integration. This will give each customer their personalized pricing in the B2B web portal with the simplest possible backend architecture.
How do you get personalized inventory in a B2B portal?
If you need to show your B2B customers unique inventory quantities (for example, via ATP rules), you should choose a B2B online ordering solution which includes prebuilt ERP integration. This ensures that each customer gets their unique inventory availability in the B2B web portal with a minimum of backend complexity.
Do B2B portals show order history from all channels?
Without comprehensive ERP integration, a B2B portal solution typically shows only orders from the web portal. Some B2B portal solutions, like all editions of the Corevist Platform, automatically show orders from all channels (e.g. EDI, phone, fax, email, and web). In the case of Corevist, any order in SAP will display in the web portal, as long as the user has permissions to view that order.
What is B2B online shopping?
B2B online shopping, also called B2B eCommerce, refers to business-to-business purchases of goods and services over the web. B2B eCommerce takes many forms, including Amazon-style browsing experiences, B2B order entry portals, and B2B account management portals. Many companies combine all of these into a flexible, scalable solution.
How do I start an online B2B business?
First, ask yourself: Do I already have customers who are ordering via phone, fax, and email? If you do, then the primary task is to launch a B2B ordering portal and incentivize your existing customers to use it rather than calling or emailing. If you don’t already have B2B customers, the challenge is much greater. You need to understand the problems which your target businesses face, develop an offering which meets their needs better than anything currently available, and choose a B2B web ordering solution which allows you to sell this offering easily online.
What is a B2B ordering platform?
A B2B ordering platform is a software solution which allows manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers to sell their products online. Also known as B2B eCommerce, a B2B ordering platform may look and feel like a B2C eCommerce solution, but it typically requires complex business logic behind the scenes to enforce things like customer-specific contract pricing, personalized inventory availability, personalized catalogs, real-time credit status, and more. This complex business logic usually lives in the ERP system. Ideally, the B2B ordering platform should include an ERP integration which brings these business rules to the web with minimal technical support required.
How can I sell B2B online?
There are 7 keys to successful online B2B selling: 1. Have a great product/market fit. 2. Communicate it with a simple value proposition. 3. Offer personalized pricing. 4. Provide photos, videos, and product descriptions. 5. Encourage customers to leave reviews for social proof. 6. Provide a fast, seamless web experience. 7. Use ERP integration to ensure an error-free checkout process.
What is the best B2B ordering platform?
The best B2B ordering platform looks different for every business. Distributors and wholesalers typically need a more B2C-style shopping experience, while manufacturers prioritize deep ERP integration to enforce customer-specific business rules and prevent order errors. For more information, check out our in-depth B2B eCommerce Platform Comparison chart.