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 Corevist Commerce includes it out of the box.

▶ Watch Demo Video

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 portals without SAP integration are dead on arrival. That’s why our platform includes deep integration to SAP, right out of the box.

Our solutions are flexible and scalable, ready to meet the needs of your dealers and distributors. But they’re also great for internal users like sales, customer service, or anyone who interacts with customer account data.

Whatever your use case, our platform adapts to the way you do business, interacting with your SAP data and logic in real time.

Ready to learn more?

Check out the Corevist Commerce demo video.

 

▶ Watch Demo Video

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.

 
 

Jean Marie Genicot | Blount, International | Corevist, Inc.

“The solution is easy and quick to implement, with a great integration with SAP. The Corevist team provides great support and engagement on projects.”

—Jean-Marie Genicot, European IS Manager

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

Read the case study →

Do you need B2B online ordering?

 

You can start with the features you need today, then scale up when you’re ready.

Corevist Order Tracking

For customers and customer service reps

 
Account management capabilities:

✓ Order status for all orders in SAP

✓ Order status for all orders

✓ Shipment status and notifications

✓ Tracking numbers

✓ Order confirmation from SAP

✓ Month-end statement

✓ View open items

✓ View open invoices

✓ User account privileges

✓ Multiple user roles

✓ Multiple ship-to/sold-to relationships supported

✓ Real-time credit status

✓ Dynamic reports pulled from SAP in real time

Payment capabilities:

[OPT] Pay off invoices online thru any modern payment method

 

Explore Order Tracking →

Cart

Corevist Commerce

For customers, sales, and customer service reps

 
Account management capabilities:
 
Everything included in Corevist Order Tracking, PLUS:
 

Payment capabilities:

[OPT] Pay off invoices online thru any modern payment method

[OPT] Pay for order at checkout

B2B eCommerce capabilities:

✓ Rich media for products

✓ Personalized catalog for browsing

✓ Product comparison, reviews, and search

✓ Real-time personalized pricing from SAP

✓ Real-time personalized ATP (inventory) from SAP

✓ Personalized discounts and promotions

✓ Order placement with SAP business rules enforced

✓ Multiple ship-to/sold-to relationships supported

[OPT] Email OrderBot posting email orders to SAP

[OPT] Interactive product configurator

[OPT] Exploded parts diagrams

 

Explore Corevist Commerce →

Don’t neglect SAP integration.

It can make or break your project. Without personalized contract pricing, inventory, and more, customers can’t complete transactions online or manage their accounts. At scale, this will threaten the viability of your B2B ordering portal.  

To nail your customer experience, you’ll need deep integration to SAP. Yet that burden is so complex, only career experts can do it well–people who live and breathe SAP. 

That’s us. We work with SAP alone, and our prebuilt, SAP-certified integration makes complex problems simple. 
 

Explore our deep SAP integration →

All Corevist solutions include prebuilt, real-time SAP integration | Corevist, Inc.

Ready to launch your B2B portal?

 

Schedule a demo and see what Corevist can do for your business.

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 Corevist Commerce 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 Corevist Commerce 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 customer portal solutions, like Corevist, 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.