The digital commerce spectrum for B2B manufacturers

The portal-versus-ecommerce distinction has always been a useful starting point for B2B manufacturers. It helps simplify a crowded market and gives teams a clearer way to sort through very different types of products.

The challenge is that it works best as a starting point, not the full picture.

In practice, digital commerce for manufacturers sits on a spectrum. On one end is straightforward customer self-service: pricing, availability, reorders, invoices, shipment tracking, and basic online ordering for existing customers. On the other is a more persuasion-driven ecommerce experience built to attract, influence, and convert, with capabilities like product discovery, merchandising, content, personalization, and promotions.

Most manufacturers are not really choosing between two separate worlds. They are choosing where they want to land on that spectrum.

The self-service end: efficiency over persuasion

A helpful way to picture this is the customer service desk at Walmart.

A shopper walks up and asks a simple question: “Is this available, and what’s my price?”

That interaction isn’t about persuading someone to buy. It’s about getting a quick, reliable answer.

For many manufacturers, digital interactions look exactly like that. Customers already know what they need. They’ve negotiated pricing and have a repeat buying pattern. They aren’t looking to be marketed to. They’re looking to get a job done.

That’s what the self-service side of the spectrum supports best: making operational information and transactions instantly accessible online.

Common features include:

• Customer-specific pricing and availability
• Order and invoice lookups
• Shipment tracking and payment history
• Simplified reorder workflows and account support tools

The goal here isn’t to create a high-conversion storefront for anonymous traffic. It’s to make life easier for existing customers, dealers, and internal teams who need answers fast.

Moving toward ecommerce: selling and persuasion

As you move across the spectrum, the digital experience becomes less about service and more about persuasion.

This side focuses on helping users browse, compare, and buy. It prioritizes rich product catalogs, personalized content, merchandising, promotions, recommendations, and branded storefront design.

It’s built to attract and convert, not just transact.

Platforms at this end of the spectrum think SAP Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce, or Shopify’s B2B capabilities are optimized for digital storefronts and more complex buying journeys across new and existing customers.

But those extra layers of sophistication come with trade-offs: added cost, complexity, and long-term maintenance.

The middle ground: where many manufacturers live

Many manufacturers don’t live at either extreme. They live in the messy middle.

They want customers to place orders online, but they don’t need a consumer-style shopping journey.

They want a clean catalog and intuitive UX, but not a massive merchandising operation.

They want to reduce manual work and phone calls, but without taking on a platform that requires a full-time digital commerce team.

In this middle space, the right solution looks less like portal only or ecommerce only, and more like a hybrid: self-service access to real ERP data, reliable ordering, and enough catalog and UX polish that customers are comfortable transacting on their own.

That’s where platforms like Corevist tend to sit closer to the self-service side, but with ordering and light catalog experiences that support real digital buying behavior without over-rotating into a heavy marketing stack.

The point isn’t that one specific product is the middle. The point is that there is a middle, and for many manufacturers, that’s the most realistic place to design toward.

Ask the right question: how much persuasion?

For manufacturers evaluating options, the decision framework is simple, but powerful: how much persuasion does your business actually need?

If the answer is not much because most buyers already know what they want and value speed and accuracy, then self-service tools should take priority. The job is to help them move quickly, not to sell them on a decision they’ve effectively already made.

If the goal is to attract new buyers, influence product discovery, and create a branded, digitally driven buying experience, then moving further toward ecommerce makes sense. That’s where richer storefronts, content, and merchandising start to earn their keep.

Every inch you move along that spectrum changes what the platform must deliver and what your team has to manage in return. More persuasion usually means more content, more configuration, and more ongoing decisions about how the experience should work.

That’s why manufacturers should start not with a category label, but with the customer motion they’re trying to support. Are customers coming online to browse and be influenced, or to get answers and get work done?

For most manufacturers, the honest answer lives somewhere in the middle. And that middle is often where digital transformation has the best chance of actually sticking.

Originally published Oct 21, 2021. Refreshed and expanded June 27, 2023.

For manufacturers, B2B ecommerce strategies are as varied as the markets they serve. Every manufacturer’s distribution relationships work differently, and that has a huge impact on which strategies are appropriate at a given organization.

That said, there are several high-level strategies that we see in the manufacturing sector. Regardless of the distribution model that’s already in place, here are some common strategies that manufacturers adopt for ecommerce.  

1. Start with self-service order tracking, then upgrade to B2B ecommerce

Some manufacturers aren’t ready to launch B2B ecommerce, even if their customers desperately need it. Maybe they don’t have their product content together—or maybe they can’t figure out what internal processes will look like under a B2B ecommerce model.

Whatever the reason, some manufacturers need a gradual path to B2B ecommerce.

In this case, it’s a great strategy to start with a customer portal for order tracking, then upgrade the solution to add catalog, online ordering, and payments when you’re ready. If you can do it all on the same platform, using the same SAP integration architecture, then you’ve really got a win. (Hint: That’s the thinking behind Corevist Commerce Cloud. You can start with Order Tracking, then upgrade to B2B ecommerce when you’re ready.)

2. Onboard sales reps first, then customers

Sometimes a manufacturer needs to move customers to B2B ecommerce—even if some of those customers are a little stuck in their ways.

How can an organization overcome customer inertia?

Starting with sales reps is a great strategy. If you include your sales organization in the project from the very start, you can turn them into evangelists for B2B ecommerce. In turn, they can introduce customers to the solution and help drive adoption.

Of course, the key is to protect the interests of your reps. Some may see B2B ecommerce as a threat to their livelihood. It’s essential to define an integrated strategy in which your reps work hand-in-glove alongside B2B ecommerce to drive value for customers.

Learn more here: Case Study—Fortune 500 Manufacturer.

3. Moving existing distribution partners to B2B ecommerce

While many B2B ecommerce platform vendors push the B2C-style capabilities of their software, those features aren’t aligned with the biggest opportunity manufacturers have — their existing customers.

B2C-style solutions are designed to attract and retain customers. Yet those capabilities aren’t essential for manufacturers who have contractual relationships with their distribution partners.

If attracting new customers isn’t a priority, then what’s the point of B2B ecommerce?

Actually, B2B portals offer incredible value for manufacturers and their existing customers.

• Manufacturers can reduce their customer service workload by launching self-service portals. The key is deep ERP integration in the portal, so each customer sees accurate contract pricing, inventory, credit status and more. With costs reduced, manufacturers can invest those resources in growth initiatives — or turn them into profit.
• Existing customers get an easier customer experience when they no longer have to call or email customer service to do business. With a B2B portal that’s available 24/7 and always shows their personalized data, they can place, track and pay for orders anywhere, from any device. That’s a lot easier than legacy ordering processes.

4. Launching a new strategic distribution channel through B2B ecommerce

As the world changes, manufacturers often find they need to evolve their distribution strategies. Disruptive technologies, market trends and public health situations can force change overnight. Old distribution partners may go out of business — or if they’re acquired, the relationship may change in a way that’s not advantageous to the manufacturer.

Whatever the scenario, the need for a new distribution strategy is a powerful driver for B2B ecommerce. If you’re defining a new set of dealers or distributors who you’re going to work with, you want to provide a great ecommerce experience for them right away.

5. Selling direct to the end user through ecommerce

This strategy is really a subset of the previous, but it’s worth treating separately.

Sometimes, disruption means eliminating the middleman. For manufacturers, that can take several different forms depending on the product and market.

• Selling direct to a B2B end user (another business)
• Selling direct to the B2C consumer

In both cases, manufacturers should do their research. Bypassing the middleman can have consequences to your market share and your bottom line. Check out this post to explore the caveats and see if this strategy is right for you: Can Manufacturers Sell Direct To The Consumer Without Upsetting Distributors?  

6. Getting more value from dealer relationships through a B2B portal

Some manufacturers already have a B2B portal for dealers (or distributors) — but they’re not getting any value from it. When that’s the case, customers usually aren’t getting value from it, either.

How do you know if your portal is failing you and your customers? Look for these telltale signs.

• Customers aren’t using the portal. If they’re still calling and emailing customer service, then something’s wrong. Look at your ERP integration. Can customers see personalized pricing and inventory availability? Does the portal show real-time credit status or empower them to track their orders and invoices with live ERP data? If not, you’ve found your problem.
• Your IT team can’t keep up. If your portal depends on an integration platform sitting between it and the ERP, chances are, your IT team is fed up. This kind of architecture is incredibly difficult to maintain over the long haul as data structures evolve in different systems. Even if you aren’t managing this architecture in-house, it’s almost certainly costing you too much. Corevist clients spend 0.005% – 0.0590% of B2B ecommerce revenues maintaining their solution. You shouldn’t spend more than this if you can help it.  

Sometimes you can solve these issues with your existing B2B portal solution. However, if issues stem from a problematic ERP integration, it’s doubtful you’ll be able to fix things with the same architecture. In these cases, a solution that includes ERP integration is a better answer.

7. Launching a global B2B ecommerce program with low-effort spinoff sites

For manufacturers with multiple divisions, geographies or global brands, B2B ecommerce strategy gets more complicated. Each customer segment has unique needs — and the organization may require separate branding or experiences to support these specific markets.

That’s all well and good — but how do you integrate those experiences to the ERP without duplicating your investment? Batch-based ERP integration architecture isn’t cheap to build or maintain.

The key here is a solution with prebuilt ERP integration (like Corevist Commerce). In the case of Corevist, as long as your unique businesses all run on the same instance of SAP ERP (or different instances that are configured the same), you can leverage one instance of our architecture to run numerous spinoff sites. The different portals can have their own look and feel, language and products — but you don’t have to waste resources on duplicate SAP integrations.

8. Improving the B2B ecommerce experience for an acquired product line

We see this ecommerce strategy when a manufacturer acquires a brand or product line. Even if the brand is already sold through a B2B ecommerce channel, the existing solution may not work with the acquiring company’s landscape — particularly when it comes to ERP integration.

In many cases, the ERP integration was broken anyway. When that’s the legacy of the product line, you need to start fresh with a great B2B ecommerce experience.

Even if the product line had a great B2B ecommerce under the previous ownership, it’s rare that the existing ERP integration architecture will work with the new ERP. In these cases, a new B2B ecommerce solution that includes ERP integration is a great way to take the new product line to the next level. This can have a big impact on the ROI that you see from the acquisition, so it’s essential to nail this down.

9. Using ERP migration or consolidation to drive innovation in B2B ecommerce

This situation looks a lot like the previous one. When a business changes ERPs, everything changes.

This transition can be painful, but it usually offers opportunities for growth too.

In particular, if your ERP migration is forcing you to shut off an old B2B portal, you’ve got some important decisions to make. What should a B2B portal look like? What information should it give customers? What should it empower them to do through self-service?

The answers to these questions always come back to ERP integration architecture. Some things simply aren’t possible with a given architecture — or they’re so complex and expensive to build and maintain, they’re just not realistic.

If you’re losing your old ERP-integrated solution, then an ERP migration or consolidation is a great chance to reevaluate your approach to B2B portals and ERP integration architecture. How much was it costing you to maintain that old solution with its integration platform (and the required full-time resources)? If you launched a managed solution that includes ERP integration, how would that affect cost savings — and thus profitability?

These are essential questions to ask as you plan your migration. For more on the topic, see this post: Should We Wait For Our S/4HANA Migration To Launch Corevist Commerce? 

Whether it’s ECC or S/4HANA, your business lives in SAP ERP. If you’re going to do B2B ecommerce—and you should—then clearly, these two systems will need to share data through a reliable integration.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of SAP integration in a B2B ecommerce scenario.

• 3-system architecture (3rd party middleware solution sitting between SAP and B2B ecommerce)
• 2-system architecture (B2B ecommerce includes built-in SAP integration)

So how do you know which architecture is right for your organization?

Here are 3 key questions to ask. The answers will point you toward the right architecture.

1. Is it essential to have one system of record for all business data?

Most B2B ecommerce platforms come with their own database for customers, orders, products, and so on. Right away, this creates a potential issue if you’ve already defined all these entities in SAP ERP. Your B2B ecommerce database will always compete with SAP to be the system of record for your business data.

(Hint: A solution like Corevist Commerce Cloud avoids this problem by reading and writing SAP data directly, in real time, without storing anything in its own database.)

If your B2B ecommerce platform has its own database, and SAP is by definition another database of business information, you’ll have to place a third system (middleware) between them to replicate and synchronize data.

This comes with certain risks. Configuration changes can prevent SAP, middleware, and B2B ecommerce from synchronizing. When that happens, you’ll have to track down lost orders, not to mention triage the technology issue.

It’s much simpler to commit to using SAP, and SAP alone, as the system of record for business data. Setting an organizational policy of “no duplication” ensures that SAP is always correct in the data it shows. (Of course, to support this policy, you’ll need a B2B ecommerce platform that includes direct, real-time SAP integration—as Corevist Commerce Cloud does.)

2. Can you justify the complexity of a 3-system architecture?

While the ideal state is a 2-system architecture (no middleware), some organizations may have a strategic driver for implementing a 3-system architecture. Perhaps the C-suite has issued a mandate to use a specific platform—one that has its own database and requires a middleware integration.

Perhaps the organization wants to use highly sophisticated technologies in front-end user experience—technologies that only certain platforms offer.

Whatever the reason, any organization must carefully weigh the pros and cons of a 3-system architecture.

In some use cases, the complexity may be justified.

In others, it may be more trouble than it’s worth.  

3. Do you have the IT resources to build and maintain a 3-system architecture?

There’s no way around it: A 3-system architecture requires more resources to maintain than a 2-system architecture. SAP ERP, middleware, and B2B ecommerce each require a full-time team to upgrade and support them.

Perhaps you have these IT resources in-house. Maybe you’re prepared to outsource them.

What if neither scenario is the case?

If you don’t have available IT resources, and you can’t outsource significant resources either, then a 3-system architecture is a risky proposition. By nature, this architecture invites technical debt. You’ll need experts who can triage issues, manage upgrades, and keep all 3 systems working smoothly for years.

If you don’t have dedicated resources who can handle this, you’ll want to look at a 2-system architecture. When your B2B ecommerce platform includes prebuilt, configurable SAP integration, you reduce the cost and complexity of B2B ecommerce—all while maintaining SAP as the system of record. That’s the thinking behind Corevist Commerce Cloud.

A recent webinar from SAP Insider offers a comprehensive checklist of key tasks for launching S/4HANA. The webinar breaks the process down into 3 phases—“Ready, Set, Go, and Win”—and gives details on each phase. It’s a fantastic resource for anyone facing an S/4HANA implementation.

In fact, this framework offers a great way to understand how B2B ecommerce fits into a smart S/4HANA implementation. Believe it or not, it usually makes the most sense to implement B2B ecommerce alongside S/4HANA.

So what’s the checklist of B2B ecommerce tasks that you should execute as part of your S/4HANA implementation?

Here’s our take, aligned to the Ready, Set, Go, and Win phases from the SAP Insider webinar.

Ready phase

As the webinar explains, there’s one big decision to be made in the Ready phase. Arguably, it’s the biggest decision for the entire S/4HANA project.

Here’s the question: Will you implement S/4HANA as a brownfield solution or a greenfield solution?

In other words, are you taking your existing ECC processes and configurations and replicating them in S/4HANA? Or are you starting from scratch, taking the opportunity to design (or redesign) your business processes from the ground up?

As you can see, it’s a huge question with huge implications. It will definitely impact B2B ecommerce from perspectives of technology, operations, and strategy.

In the Ready phase, you also want to map the value of S/4HANA to different parts of the organization. The new ERP will affect everyone from Operations to Finance, and it’s essential to build consensus across multiple stakeholders on the value of S/4HANA.

As you can imagine, there’s value to be mapped in B2B ecommerce too. You’ll want to bake all this into your Ready phase.

Here’s what that looks like.

Ready phase – B2B ecommerce checklist

• Consider any existing business processes that might create an unnecessary obstacle to ERP-integrated B2B ecommerce. Depending on how central these processes are, they may help dictate whether you should implement S/4HANA as a replication of your ECC environment, or whether you should implement it from the ground up.
• Consider how the value of B2B ecommerce, integrated to S/4HANA, maps to different stakeholders within the organization—and build a business case for B2B ecommerce that explains the value to each stakeholder. Read more here: Get Buy-In For B2B Ecommerce.
• Consider whether you want a B2B ecommerce platform that includes S/4HANA integration, or whether you want to use a third-party connector to synchronize the two systems. The question isn’t trivial. A solution that includes prebuilt integration will save your IT team from taking on additional responsibility and technical debt, while a third-party connector will create more work for IT (and more potential for technical debt).

Set phase

For the Set phase, SAP Insider’s webinar recommends getting the right expertise in place to make the S/4HANA migration a success.

We couldn’t agree more. This is the time to line up the resources you’ll need to make a flawless transition to S/4HANA. (It’s also the time to engage the partner who will provide B2B ecommerce that’s integrated to your new S/4 environment.)

In the Set phase, if you’re taking the brownfield approach, you’ll also want to make decisions about any processes that are changing. Now is the time to decide what those new processes will look like. Not only will these decisions impact operations and S/4HANA configuration, but they’ll also impact your integrated B2B ecommerce solution. (This is one of the biggest reasons we recommend implementing S/4HANA and B2B ecommerce in parallel.)

Set phase – B2B ecommerce checklist

• Assemble a list of potential B2B ecommerce providers and vet them. For each provider, consider whether they offer a solution that includes prebuilt S/4HANA integration—or whether you’ll need a third-party connector to share data with S/4. Also consider whether the provider offers managed solutions, as this approach offers a seamless path that doesn’t create more work for IT.
• Finalize your map of business process changes. Ensure your B2B ecommerce partner can support all processes (both new and old) in your integrated B2B ecommerce solution.

Go phase

In the Go phase, it’s time to get boots on the ground building, testing, and ultimately launching S/4HANA. If you’ve done your homework in the previous phases, the Go phase shouldn’t hold too many surprises (though you can still expect a few).

In the Go phase, one thing you’ll want to get right is the order of operations. Depending on your requirements, some portions of the project will have to come before others. This is especially true of B2B ecommerce configurations. You don’t want to save your B2B ecommerce integration to S/4HANA for the end of the project. The two systems need to be configured and tested in parallel to ensure seamless operation after launch.

Go phase – B2B ecommerce checklist

• Ensure your B2B ecommerce provider is equipped to implement and test your integration to S/4HANA from Day 1. Doing so requires a B2B ecommerce platform that includes prebuilt, configurable integration for S/4HANA, which is what we offer here at Corevist. This will ensure that you don’t lose any time aligning things that should’ve been aligned from the start.
• Consolidate testing operations so that S/4HANA and B2B ecommerce are tested in parallel as much as possible. This will flush out issues faster, minimize duplicate testing, and conserve resources.

Win phase

If you’ve done everything right, the Win phase—when you go live and settle into life on the new system—will provide you with a single source of truth for all business data. This will streamline your operations, protect IT from a ballooning workload, and ensure your customers get transparency when doing business with you.

We can’t overemphasize how important it is to make S/4HANA your single source of truth—and keep it that way. 

What good would it be to launch S/4HANA, to invest millions in clean business processes and data, only to tack on B2B ecommerce that creates its own duplicate logic and data? Right away, you’ve got technical debt and additional IT work to keep those two systems synchronized. If data governance problems reach the front-end user experience of your B2B ecommerce store, they can affect your customer experience—and ultimately, your relationships with customers.

That’s why it’s essential to get everything right before the Win phase. Do that, and you’ll have a true win on your hands, as B2B ecommerce and S/4HANA work hand-in-glove.

Win phase – B2B ecommerce checklist

• Arrive at a mutual decision, between IT, operations, and the business, that it’s time to go live with S/4HANA and your new B2B ecommerce solution. It’s essential to get all three parties to sign off because S/4 and B2B ecommerce touch all parts of the organization.
• Define KPIs for the integrated GoLive. What are you looking to get out of B2B ecommerce? Is it increased sales, or perhaps a reduced cost of serving customers? (Hint: Corevist Commerce is designed to achieve both.) Define these KPIs and align all stakeholders around them.
• Set your sights on the next B2B ecommerce rollout. Believe it or not, B2B ecommerce can’t stay static. Customer demands are always evolving, and smart organizations stay ahead of these trends so they can go on delighting customers. With the right platform, you can continue to roll out new features and functionality without significant heavy lifting. (This is the thinking behind Corevist Commerce, which is a managed, cloud-hosted B2B ecommerce platform that includes S/4HANA integration.)

The takeaway: Bundle B2B ecommerce with S/4 as early in the project as possible

The sooner you add B2B ecommerce to your S/4 project, the better. When B2B ecommerce gets in on the ground floor of S/4HANA, you ensure that your new ERP is configured exactly as needed for modern business processes and modern B2B ecommerce. This saves you from the costly process of backtracking and fixing things that weren’t done with B2B ecommerce in mind. It’s why we recommend implementing S/4 and B2B ecommerce in parallel.

For some organizations, B2B ecommerce is the impossible dream. How do you get from phone, fax, and email orders to a world-class B2B ecommerce experience?

It gets even more challenging if you have complex business rules in your SAP ERP system.

Here at Corevist, we routinely help SAP companies move from no self-service to world-class B2B ecommerce that’s integrated to SAP. The key is recognizing where you’re at today—and charting an incremental course to get to your end goal.

What should that end-goal be?

Our clients choose to cover the entire customer journey with self-service capabilities.

Here are the 3 phases of B2B ecommerce maturity—PLUS what you can do at each phase to advance toward that end goal.

1. React

If you don’t offer any form of digital self-service, then you’re in the React phase of your journey to B2B ecommerce maturity. Any time customers need to inquire about a product, place or track an order, or look up an invoice, they have to work with a customer service representative.

When compared to peer organizations with sophisticated self-service capabilities, your company may be “hard to do business with.” You could say your customer experience hasn’t kept pace with the B2C world.

This may manifest in low customer satisfaction—or even customer attrition. When viewed from this perspective, the lack of self-service is actually a liability for the organization.

Believe it or not, lots of mid-market manufacturers are in this place. Historically, they haven’t needed self-service capabilities for customers. It’s only in recent years that B2B buyer expectations have shifted to demanding digital self-service.

Next steps

If you’re in the React phase, you should focus on incremental improvement while also laying the foundation for larger transformation. You can do this with a platform like Corevist Commerce, which allows you to launch with foundational capabilities for customer self-service, then upgrade to full-featured B2B ecommerce on the same platform when you’re ready.

In the React phase, here are the best areas to start making incremental improvements.

• Automate your handling of sales orders with Corevist BuyBot (so customers can continue to use existing workflows, but you reduce your customer service burden)
• Offer self-service tracking for orders, shipments, and invoices with a B2B customer portal (like Corevist Launch)

2. Improve

In the Improve phase, you have some form of self-service for B2B customers. You may have a customer portal that shows them real-time tracking information for orders, shipments, and invoices. Maybe you’ve automated email orders and started to reap the benefits in efficiency gains.

At this point, you may not be the most advanced B2B ecommerce organization, but your customer experience is on par with the competition. You’re not lagging, but you’re also not leading. Now you can move from remedial improvements to thinking about driving revenue growth.

Next steps

If you’ve given customers self-service tracking capabilities, and you’re realizing those efficiency gains, then it’s time to set your sights on the next target. The end-goal is still to cover the entire customer journey with self-service. Now that customers can manage their accounts online, it’s time to introduce online ordering.

• Provide self-service order placement by SKU or CSV upload within your B2B customer portal. (This is easy to do when you upgrade from Corevist Launch to Corevist Grow.)
• Make sure every customer will get the right SKU purchasing permissions, plus the right pricing and real-time inventory, straight from your SAP ERP system. (Corevist Grow does all this automatically. The solution will only accept orders that match your SAP business rules for that customer and those products. If there are issues, Corevist Grow provides intelligent error messaging so the user can fix the order.)
• DON’T add online ordering through a different platform than the one that provides self-service tracking. You want everything on one platform, managed by one provider, and integrated to SAP ERP in real time.

3. Transform

Once you have online ordering in place, the sky’s the limit on an extensible platform like Corevist. You can take your customer experience from good to great—and even become a leader in your industry.

That’s what the Transform phase is all about. You have core infrastructure in place, with self-service tracking and online ordering capabilities firmly established on an SAP-integrated platform. With this essential foundation laid, you can add value that most of your competitors can’t provide.

Next steps

The Transform phase typically looks different for every organization. Unique relationships with customers, unique ordering processes, and highly differentiated products all call for unique approaches to creating an excellent customer experience. Here are some typical next steps that we see organizations take at this stage.  

• Add a product catalog with rich content for easy browsing and product education. All customers benefit from self-service browsing—even EDI customers, who no longer have to send an EDI 832 to request a catalog with their personalized pricing. Product catalogs are available in Corevist Scale, and they display the same personalized inventory and pricing information that customers get in other parts of the Corevist application. As usual, this data comes straight from your SAP ERP system in real time.
• Add self-service invoice payments. With real-time credit status and the ability to pay online, customers get total transparency—and you put them in the driver’s seat. Believe it or not, digital payment processes can cut up to 6 days from your payment cycle. Digital processes are also easier and less confusing for customers.
• Add configurable products. If your organization offers configurable products, then it’s a huge win to enable self-service configuration within your catalog experience. This gives customers complete control, and it eliminates costly back-and-forth communication with reps. If your solution only accepts legitimate product configurations, as Corevist does, then you’ve got an airtight approach to selling these products online.

The gist: Take the next small step in your journey

Too many B2B ecommerce platforms require a giant, “Big Bang” transformation. They force you to build out and launch all kinds of sophisticated functionality in the first rollout.

For organizations in the React phase, that’s simply too much to take on. A project of that scope and complexity is more likely to get bogged down and overrun its budget.

Here at Corevist, we think it’s wiser to take one small step at a time. Our platform is built to facilitate this type of smart, iterative journey. It’s how our client Emmerson Packaging reduced customer service burden by 97%—and how they’re now looking to add online ordering to their portal.

For SAP companies, one thing looms on the horizon: migrating from ECC to S/4HANA. This is a huge undertaking, and it requires the full attention of the IT department.

If you’re looking to replace a legacy ecommerce solution (or launch your first one), it may be challenging to determine which project comes first.

Should you digitize your commerce before your S/4HANA migration, or afterward?

Short answer: You should digitize your commerce yesterday.

The good news is that Corevist’s front end UI (and built-in SAP integration) easily follow you from ECC to S/4HANA.

Here are the benefits you get when you implement now.

1. You give customers the experience they need today

Here’s an alarming statistic: 85% of B2B buyers will abandon a supplier with a lackluster digital experience.

If you’re planning to wait until you’ve implemented S/4HANA to launch B2B ecommerce, that’s bad news.
B2B ecommerce was important before the pandemic, but the legacy of COVID only makes it more critical. As B2B buyers face ongoing supply chain disruption, long backorder periods, and economic uncertainty, they’re looking for suppliers who make life easier—not harder.

Here’s what customers need in B2B ecommerce:

• Real-time product availability
• Real-time, personalized pricing
• Online ordering that honors their personalized pricing
• Self-service access to order status, history, and tracking
• Self-service access to invoice history
• Real-time credit status
• Ability to pay off invoices online
• And more

If you can’t offer this value today, you may be hard to do business with. If your competitors already offer great experiences, waiting 9-18 months to address this issue could affect your customer relationships.

2. You make your organization even more customer-centric

Because your S/4HANA implementation touches every part of the organization, it comes with a certain risk. It can get everyone focused on internal problems—to the degree that your customer experience suffers.

In the digital age, your organization must be customer-centric. And the sooner you get B2B ecommerce in place, the sooner your digital business can align all stakeholders around the customer.

This is especially true if your B2B ecommerce solution includes prebuilt, configurable SAP integration, as Corevist does. This integration eliminates the gap between your internal processes and the customer, which pushes your organization to become more customer-centric.

3. You reap the benefits of digital business now

By nature, B2B ecommerce drives digital revenue.

With product catalogs, recommended products, and the ease of ordering (and reordering), B2B ecommerce helps companies realize more revenue than they can through channels like phone, fax, and email.

But B2B ecommerce ROI doesn’t end with revenue.

In fact, B2B ecommerce creates all kinds of cost savings by eliminating manual customer service work.

What’s more, B2B ecommerce drives more value from all channels. Consider the EDI customer who checks pricing and availability in B2B ecommerce, then places a larger order than originally planned through EDI. The sale gets logged as EDI, but B2B ecommerce played an invisible “assist” role.

This “dark impact” of B2B ecommerce can be quite significant. Read more here: The True Measure Of Success In B2B Ecommerce.

The takeaway: Digitize… yesterday!

If your B2B ecommerce experience leaves something to be desired—or if you don’t have B2B ecommerce—then there’s no reason to wait. You can launch Corevist now with an integration to ECC, and we can easily transfer your integration to S/4HANA when the time is right. This is how Corevist empowers you to delight customers today, while also future-proofing your digital business.

SAP’s recent CX Live event, in New York, offered an in-depth perspective on the question of composable commerce. Gartner speaks highly of this architecture, while Forrester’s 2023 Commerce Predictions report offers caveats about composable commerce.

What does all this mean for B2B companies running SAP?

Here are 5 takeaways.

1. Composable commerce isn’t for everyone

For organizations that can justify the investment, composable commerce offers certain benefits. However, companies can achieve many of the same benefits through modular, agile approaches as well.

That said, here are the primary benefits of composable:

• Modularized, rather than monolithic architecture.
• Flexible and extensible. You can swap parts out as your needs change without affecting the core, which avoids vendor lock-in.
• Highly flexible approach to front-end user experience.

Composable also comes with some caveats:

• Only digitally mature organizations are equipped to win with composable.
• This approach requires experienced, expensive developers. You could say it doesn’t come with an instruction manual. 
• The ability to build something doesn’t mean you need it.
• You’ll have to manage multiple vendors and maintain critical “connective tissue.” This is the opposite of vendor lock-in, but it’s still a problem.

As you can see, composable commerce may be the right choice for digitally mature organizations that 1) have a large, robust IT team prepared to support a complex architecture, and 2) have a strategic imperative to purchase and support such a complex and expensive solution. (More on that strategic perspective in #4 below.)

2. Industry analysts are split on composable commerce

Gartner took a firm stand on composable in their 2020 whitepaper, Composable Commerce Must Be Adopted for the Future of Applications. They summed up their perspective this way:

Application leaders responsible for digital commerce should prepare for a “composable” approach using packaged business capabilities to move toward future-proof digital commerce experiences.

Compare that to Forrester’s 2023 Commerce Predictions report (Oct 2022), which takes an opposing stance:

One-third of digital businesses will regret playing “software company”… In 2023, a third of digital businesses will abandon or restructure midstream projects that prove too complex to execute or maintain. Some digital businesses are overcorrecting as they abandon proprietary and legacy tech to embrace the most custom and flexible — but massively complex — commerce tech ecosystems. From custom user interfaces (UIs) to innumerable integrations, these systems require firms to orchestrate — and maintain — every aspect of their tech ecosystem. In their second and third years, new implementations will fail, and custom UIs will crumble from post-launch neglect. Digital businesses will pivot to reengage with commerce solutions that balance ecosystem management, business user experiences, and Function-First Tech Buying enablement.

If we read between the lines here, it seems the industry is confronting the fact that composable comes at great cost. 

So what does that mean for SAP companies who’ve already invested heavily in their ERP?

Let’s look at SAP’s perspective on composable. 

3. SAP recommends modular, agile approaches that are “composable-ready”

Riad Hijal, Global Head of Marketing and Solutions at SAP Commerce, recently posted on LinkedIn about Forrester’s 2023 Commerce Predictions. He summarized his perspective by saying, “Seems like pragmatic composability (as opposed to dogmatic composability) is starting to take hold.”

This aligns with SAP’s perspective at CX Live New York. At the event, SAP shared a view of commerce that’s unified on a single platform, agile, modular, and “composable-ready.”

Likewise, in SAP’S whitepaper Achieving Agility In Digital Commerce, the company recommends caution when considering fully composable architectures:

Many terms are generating a lot of buzz in today’s commerce landscape. From “fully composable” to “headless”; from “microservices-based” to “API-first”, the technology itself often takes center stage instead of what the technology can do for the business.

The technology, in and of itself, is like the ingredients for a recipe; it requires a cook to bring it to life. In the case of platforms with fully composable architectures, the ingredients are microservices, APIs, and packaged business capabilities; it requires skilled technical resources to connect the dozens of components together to form a functioning digital commerce system.

SAP offers a wise perspective here. Rather than focusing on technology for its own sake, SAP companies should look at what the technology can do for the business. 

Which means…

4. Composable only makes sense if you have a strategic imperative to reinvent the wheel

In our experience, B2B organizations tend to fall into two camps when it comes to IT resources:

• Huge conglomerates doing >$5B in annual revenue. These companies have plenty of IT resources available to build and support custom architectures.
• Midmarket companies with constrained IT resources. These companies depend on SAP ERP for all business data and logic, and their IT teams are already at capacity maintaining SAP ERP.

The first group can afford to launch composable solutions. These companies may have strategic priorities that require a highly custom user interface or best-of-breed components from different providers. With significant IT resources on hand, these organizations can afford the expertise required to stitch these components together (and keep them stitched together).

On the other hand, midmarket companies should think twice about composable commerce. If IT already has their hands full maintaining SAP ERP, then the organization will need to add significantly more IT resources to stitch that composable architecture together (and keep it stitched together).

The question is whether that move makes sense.

Should midmarket B2B companies look at composable commerce?

For organizations that still rely on phone, fax, and email to interact with customers, composable commerce may be more trouble than it’s worth. These companies tend to do better when they focus on incremental changes in customer experience—for example, starting with a portal for order tracking, then enabling B2B ecommerce capabilities on the same platform.

Architecture is also a crucial consideration for these companies. If IT has their hands full maintaining SAP ERP, then the commerce solution should leverage that complexity, rather than adding to it. This means a comprehensive, packaged integration to SAP ERP is essential.

The other challenge here is minimizing the number of vendors involved in a commerce solution. By nature, composable commerce forces the merchant to dialogue with a wide range of vendors whose software is stitched together. Other than the merchant, there’s no one to act as the referee between these systems or triage issues when they arise.

5. Evaluate your appetite for complexity

It all boils down to this: Composable commerce requires coordination between multiple software vendors. It also requires significant IT expertise to build and maintain integrations between these systems. Composable commerce doesn’t come with an instruction manual, which leaves the merchant carrying the load from a technology perspective. 

In contrast, agile, modular commerce approaches typically rely on a prebuilt, extensible core. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and you keep your vendor count low.

Different organizations will have different preferences here, but the key is to evaluate your appetite for complexity. Are you prepared to do it all and build your own unique commerce architecture? Or will your business perform better with a trusted advisor managing a modular, integrated commerce platform?

There’s a big shift underway in manufacturing customer service. When it comes to routine inquiries about pricing, orders, and invoices, some customers are tired of phone, fax, and email interaction. They want self-service, which usually means a B2B portal.

But when customers need human help, they really need it.

So where does digital fit in? And how do you provide human help where it’s needed without driving up the cost of serving customers?

Here are 5 keys to a great customer service program in manufacturing.

1. Map your customer service channels (and plan to provide the same data in all)

What channels do you offer for customers to interact with you or get information? You’ll want to make sure your customer service strategy covers them all and provides the same transparent information in every channel. This erases fear and doubt in the customer’s mind and builds trust in your brand.

Typically, manufacturers connect with customers in a variety of ways:

• Direct interaction with a sales/customer service rep (phone, fax, or email)
• Direct interaction with a rep at a trade show or event
• Direct interaction through an in-person sales meeting or onsite customer service call
• Communication through EDI (inventory checks, pricing checks, order placement, etc.)
• Self-service interaction through a B2B portal or eCommerce solution

As you can see, there are many ways your customers can communicate with you. The key is to ensure that they get the same information in every channel.

Which leads us to our next point.

2. Establish SAP ERP as the system of record for all customer service information

If you’re going to provide a consistent cross-channel experience, then you need to decide which system is your “one true truth” for all customer service information.

For manufacturers, the system of record is usually SAP ERP.

The ERP is the backbone of your business. It often predates newer systems, and it’s the home for all business rules, customer information, transactions, and product data.

Whether customer service happens via phone, EDI, face-to-face interaction, or a self-service portal, the customer ultimately needs access to real-time ERP data. This is what your reps provide via phone or email.

Hint: Your self-service B2B portal needs to provide the same real-time access to ERP data. Keep this in mind when we get to #4 below.

3. Redefine your “human help” use cases in customer service

As Hiver reports in their Customer Service Benchmark Report, 60% of companies deliver support across 3 or more channels. The top 3 are phone, email, and chat.

What’s more, 76% of companies are extending support outside of traditional business hours.

This is concerning. Overworked reps are more likely to look for another job. Even if you extend hours by hiring more bodies, it’s a very expensive way to provide customer service.

Believe it or not, customers want a better way, too. Consider these stats:

• 85% of B2B buyers will switch suppliers if your digital channel can’t keep up with their expectations (Avionos B2B Buyer Report)
• 44% of millennials would rather not interact with a rep at all (Gartner Future Of Sales Report)

Granted, there are times when customers absolutely need human help. If an entire shipment of product turns out to be defective, customers need to talk to a highly-skilled rep who can resolve the situation with empathy and proactive care.

But what about things like routine order tracking, or a quick check of product availability before placing an EDI order?

These everyday inquiries are perfect candidates for self-service. When you give customers a B2B portal where they can answer simple questions on their own, you’ll free up your reps to work on more proactive tasks that build customer relationships.

So which tasks and inquiries should you move to self-service?

Let’s look at these in detail.

4. Provide full self-service capabilities for routine inquiries and tasks

If you’re going to free up your customer service reps for higher-value tasks, you’ll need to define the full list of interactions that you’re moving to self-service.

Here are the inquiries and processes that we recommend covering in a B2B portal.

Product inquiries

• Quick check of personalized contract pricing
• Quick check of inventory levels (including personalized ATP quantities)
• Quick check of replacement SKUs (for discontinued products)
• Learning about related products
• Learning about consumable products that support a major product
• Quick download of documentation, spec sheets, comparison sheets, and user manuals associated with a product

Order placement

• Building an order in the eCommerce cart that automatically conforms to relevant ERP business rules (pricing, product permissions, correct quantity rounding, RDD, EDD)
• Receiving intelligent error messages to help fix an order that doesn’t conform to the relevant business rules
• Creation of quote requests (and conversion of quotes to orders)
• 100% error-free order posting from the B2B portal to the ERP
• Quick reorder of a previous order
• Quick CSV upload and conversion to an order in the eCommerce cart
• Order confirmation email(s) automatically sent to the right address
• Order-related documents immediately available for download

Order tracking and follow-up

• Review of full order history from all channels (phone, fax, email, EDI, B2B portal/eCommerce)
• Quick inquiry about order status
• Quick inquiry about line-item status
• Quick check of shipment status
• Quick review of carrier-provided tracking number, status, and estimated delivery date
• Quick download of order confirmation documents
• Quick download of associated POs and invoices

Invoice management and payment

• Quick check of invoice status
• Quick check of credit status
• Review of open items and invoices associated with orders from all channels (phone, fax, email, EDI, B2B portal/eCommerce)
• Quick download of all relevant accounting documents
• Selecting and paying off invoices online (via ACH, credit card, etc.)

5. Communicate this shift strategically with customers

Generally speaking, customers fall into two camps when it comes to self-service.

Some customers have wanted self-service for years. They’ll be thrilled that you’re becoming “easier to do business with.” (Market research, like the stats we shared above, suggests that most customers will fall into this group.)

However, some customers may resist adopting self-service. Perhaps they’ve used existing processes for many years, or they generally struggle with learning new digital workflows. For whatever reason, a few customers may avoid self-service options.

The key here is to communicate your new self-service options strategically. Most customers will find a B2B portal incredibly valuable, so you want to make sure everyone learns about the power that the portal offers. Reassure customers that reps are still available for direct contact—you’re simply adding a new, highly convenient option to the mix. 

For more on incentivizing customers to adopt the portal, see this post: If You Build A B2B Portal, Will They Come?

The takeaway: Cover all your customers’ needs

If we could leave you with one thing, it’s this: There’s no silver bullet for customer service in manufacturing.

Some customers will prefer self-service for all but the most difficult tasks. Others will want a reassuring human voice, even for routine inquiries.

When you add self-service to your mix of customer service channels, you empower the majority of customers to get routine information the way they want it—on their terms. The key is to choose a B2B portal platform that comes with prebuilt SAP ERP integration, so your project doesn’t get bogged down in complex, expensive customizations. 

That’s why the Corevist Platform includes prebuilt SAP integration that covers the entire buying journey in B2B.

First published Oct 22, 2019. Revised Sept 6, 2022. 

Manufacturers struggle to define best practices in B2B eCommerce. There’s plenty of digital ink spilled on the topic, but most of it covers the needs of distributors, wholesalers and retailers who are trying to get into B2B. Those scenarios are vastly different from the challenges that manufacturers face.

So what best practices should manufacturers follow in B2B eCommerce? How can you cut through the noise and address the most important aspects of selling to your channel partners?

Here’s our take (click to jump):

1. Know your GTM strategy (and get picky with your chosen solution)

What’s the primary purpose of your B2B eCommerce initiative? At a high level, there are two options:

• Attract and retain new customers (who WON’T get personalized pricing, availability, etc. through unique contract terms)
• Create a better experience for existing contract customers (and increase their spend with you)

These two purposes aren’t mutually exclusive. However, it’s best practices to choose one as your primary purpose.

Why?

Because of the challenge of SAP ERP integration. In a nutshell, attracting and retaining new customers typically requires a unique branded user experience. If customers aren’t negotiating contract terms with you, but rather creating an online account through self-service, then you won’t offer the customer personalized pricing, payment terms, or availability. All transactions look the same from a logical perspective, which makes the SAP integration requirements less complex.

On the other hand, if you’re primarily creating a better experience for existing customers (and incentivizing them to spend more), and if each existing customer has unique pricing and availability rules, then your SAP integration requirements are far more complex. Likewise, a unique user experience isn’t as important since the customer is already contractually obligated to buy from you.

Generally speaking, approaches to B2B eCommerce divide along this line. In one category, you have the “B2C lookalike” solutions that are intended to attract and retain new customers. In the other category, you have the “industrial B2B” solutions that offer deep SAP integration for personalization. These solutions tend to be login-protected, with a templatized look and feel. (This is the approach we take with the Corevist Platform.)

2. Define your B2B eCommerce revenue target

As we’ve written elsewhere, there’s one question that will define your B2B eCommerce success: What percentage of your overall revenue do you want to come through B2B eCommerce?

That’s a powerful question.

It’s a best practice to ask this question in two contexts:

• What percentage of existing revenue do you want to transition to B2B eCommerce? In this case, a few corollary questions arise naturally. What percentage of existing customers do you want to adopt B2B eCommerce? How are you going to turn them into dedicated B2B eCommerce users?
• What percentage of future new revenue do you want to flow through B2B eCommerce? Other questions naturally follow this one: How will you use B2B eCommerce to differentiate yourself from the competition? Where are your future customers doing business now? What benefits are they getting from your B2B eCommerce competitors? What are their pain points in doing business with your competitors?

Obviously, you don’t have to choose between these two—in fact, a smart plan will ask (and answer) both questions. You should strive not only to transition existing business to ecommerce, but also to take new market share from competitors who are lagging behind you in online customer experience. An intelligent B2B eCommerce plan will empower you to do both (possibly in successive phases).

3. Choose your B2B eCommerce management model

This is a fundamental question, and it doesn’t get much play from B2B eCommerce solution providers: Who’s on the hook for your B2B eCommerce infrastructure as a whole?

This question has far-reaching implications for the life of your B2B eCommerce business, and it’s a best practice to answer it carefully. Because enterprise-class ecommerce is a system of systems, someone has to own that system—the larger infrastructure of which the B2B eCommerce platform is just one piece.

If you source your B2B eCommerce solution from one vendor and your SAP integration from another, you’ve got a system of systems without an owner. That leaves your in-house IT team or another third party with the responsibility for the overall B2B eCommerce infrastructure.

That works fine for some organizations. Others can’t justify it.

(Hint: We built Corevist Commerce to solve this problem. It’s a fully managed solution for manufacturers who don’t want to worry about their B2B ecommerce infrastructure in-house. We offer the platform, the implementation & integration, ongoing support—and we help you grow the business—and 1/3 of Corevist clients have no in-house IT resources dedicated to supporting our platform.)

4. Get smart about scaling up without adding headcount

How do you implement best practices in B2B eCommerce in this tough labor market?

The deeper you go into B2B eCommerce, the more you’ll be tempted to increase the complexity of your operation. While some increase in complexity is unavoidable, manufacturers should think carefully about B2B eCommerce architectures that will drive up costs alongside revenue.

There are two culprits here:

• Choosing an unmanaged B2B eCommerce solution. If you commit to supporting your solution in-house, you won’t be able to leverage the economies of scale that a managed provider achieves.

• Choosing a solution that doesn’t include SAP integration. Without that prebuilt integration, you’ll be forced to increase headcount as you roll out B2B eCommerce to additional geographies and brands. Learn more here: Growing A B2B Channel Without Adding Headcount.

5. Look for economies of scale that can serve all your global divisions and brands

Here’s another talking point that isn’t getting enough play. If you have multiple divisions or brands that need B2B eCommerce, it just doesn’t make sense to force each division to pursue their own solution.

Why? Because the first two B2B eCommerce best practices we mentioned depend on real-time SAP integration.

And if your SAP system is centralized or templatized across all your divisions or brands, then you’re not leveraging available economies of scale if you force each division to go their own way and build their own integration.

In fact, if that’s the case, each division will make large, duplicate investments in one-off integrations between SAP and B2B eCommerce. This will hurt your bottom line now, but also in the future, as each division’s B2B eCommerce solution will have its own technical quirks requiring the attention of a dedicated team.

Corevist Commerce is different. Our solution is built on a real-time, configurable SAP integration that’s ready for reuse in any and all B2B storefronts. Because our implementation is as templatized as your SAP system(s), Corevist allows you to scale your global ecommerce business fast.

Here’s what that looks like for a sample project with 10 global storefronts:

6. Define which B2B eCommerce features you need (and which you don’t)

Don’t overlook this B2B eCommerce best practice.

For manufacturers, B2B eCommerce features (like real-time inventory, personalized pricing, and full account history) usually require deep integration to SAP ERP.

Why? Because SAP ERP defines all business data and logic. If you’ve already invested in your ERP as the system of record for these things, the most efficient way to offer them in B2B eCommerce is to provide a real-time integration to SAP.

That’s why manufacturers who need comprehensive B2B eCommerce features should choose an SAP-integrated solution.

7. Get each customer’s pricing right in B2B eCommerce

Showing correct pricing to each dealer or distributor is an essential best practice in B2B eCommerce, particularly since manufacturers often have contract pricing negotiated with each customer. If B2B eCommerce shows inaccurate pricing (or—even worse—no pricing at all), your buyers will be forced to pick up the phone or send an email.

If that happens day-in and day-out, the B2B eCommerce portal has essentially become useless to them. If they can’t see an accurate price, they can’t very well place an order.

Since all pricing rules are defined in SAP, we believe it’s best to bring those rules to the B2B eCommerce store through real-time SAP integration. That way, every logged-in user sees their personalized price—including any quantity discounts that are defined in SAP.

What’s the alternative? You could maintain all your pricing rules separately, in the B2B eCommerce solution and in middleware that passes data back and forth. But that will require ongoing data maintenance in 3 places (SAP, middleware, and B2B eCommerce). At scale, that’s cost-prohibitive—plus it introduces data integrity risks.

This is why we built Corevist Commerce to function as a real-time window into your SAP system. Because your SAP business rules function in real time within the Corevist portal, your customers get the same pricing interaction in Corevist that they would get if they called customer service.

8. Offer real-time inventory/ATP personalized by customer account

If customers can call customer service to get real-time inventory availability, you need to provide that information in B2B eCommerce. If you don’t, you’ll introduce a friction point in the self-service buying process.

The only way you can show real-time inventory data is with real-time integration to SAP ERP. (By the way, Corevist includes this out of the box).

In the SAP world, real-time inventory comes in two flavors:

• • Displaying the full inventory quantity to all logged-in customers.
  • Showing a personalized ATP (available to promise) quantity which your SAP system calculates for each customer.

Either way, whether you show customers total raw inventory or an ATP quantity, you should look for a B2B eCommerce solution that displays that data in real time. If you use personalized inventory (ATP) calculations, it’s best to find a B2B eCommerce solution that can show that personalized data.

9. Make sure your B2B solution supports order approval workflows (if you need them)

If there are multiple decision-makers involved in your buyers’ purchasing process, then your B2B eCommerce solution needs to account for that (and support role-based privileges).

For example, say there are 3 types of users working for your customers. They’re differentiated by their privileges as it relates to orders:

• Level 1—Can build orders but can’t see pricing or place orders.
• Level 2—Can build orders AND place them, but can’t see pricing.
• Level 3—Can build orders, place orders, AND see full pricing.

We see use cases like this when the manufacturer needs to protect the personalized pricing which they offer each customer. In high-turnover fields, where workers change jobs frequently, it’s best to hide pricing from the first two levels of worker, since they may take that knowledge with them to the next job.

Manufacturers should look for B2B eCommerce solutions that support role-based privileges. (Hint: Corevist supports this out of the box.)

10. Get your sales team on board from the start

As we’ve reported, Forrester claims that the #1 way to kill B2B eCommerce is not to incentivize sales reps to use it.

That makes sense. Out of all your employees, your sales reps are (hopefully) the most in tune with customer needs. They’re the ideal people to sell B2B eCommerce to your customers.

To do that, though, you’ll need to incorporate the concerns of Sales into your B2B eCommerce plan from the very beginning. That way, you include them in your B2B eCommerce transition and ensure you don’t alienate them.

11. Give customers a voice in the B2B eCommerce project

This is a challenging best practice. If B2B eCommerce is going to work for your customers, then you need their feedback from the very beginning. You need to show them a working version of the B2B eCommerce solution, integrated to SAP, and ask them one simple question: Why can’t we put this software into production today?

This is the methodology we use here at Corevist. Across a series of focus groups, we show the live Corevist solution to your real users and get their feedback. In collaboration with you, we use that feedback to configure Corevist Commerce for launch. It’s our way of “failing early” alongside you—making your GoLive a success.

There’s one important note here. You can’t run your project with this methodology if you save SAP integration for the end. You need a real, working SAP integration on Day 1—or you can’t show customers a realistic software demo. That’s one of many reasons that Corevist includes prebuilt, configurable SAP integration.

B2B marketplaces are experiencing skyrocketing growth. As DigitalCommerce360 reports, marketplace sales are projected to grow 130.1% in 2022, to $130 billion—up from $56.5 billion in 2021.

Clearly, B2B marketplaces are here to stay.

But what do they mean for manufacturers? Should you sell your products on Amazon Business or Alibaba? If so, how?

Here are 5 questions to ask as you define your relationship to B2B marketplaces.

1. How commoditized are your products?

Think of commoditization on a spectrum. At one end, you have highly commoditized products like nuts and bolts, raw lumber, or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). There’s minimal difference between the offerings of competitors, and pricing and availability are the only ways to differentiate yourself.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have highly specialized products like industrial sensing equipment, hospital beds, or custom packaging for products. You differentiate with sophisticated features that support specialized applications. 

At a high level, the less commoditized a product is, the less it’s a good fit for a B2B marketplace. Configurable attributes, federal regulation, and longer, guided sales cycles all contribute to the complexity of selling highly specialized products. Every market is different, but it’s worth considering how the simplicity of B2B marketplace selling maps to your sales cycle and the needs of your customers.

To put it simply, will anyone ever buy a federally regulated industrial machine for $1 million on Amazon Business? Probably not.

But the screws, hoses, and lubricant that keep that machine running? Those are great candidates for selling on a B2B marketplace.

2. How much control do you need over the transaction?

Simply put, B2B marketplaces force you to give up control. The tradeoff is more exposure through sophisticated search algorithms—which you definitely want if your products are more commoditized.

However, in all cases, it’s worth considering how a B2B marketplace takes control of your transactions:

• You may lose visibility into customer identity
• You may lose control of the customer conversation
• The B2B marketplace, rather than your company, builds brand equity with the customer
• You lose control of margin
• You lose control of product recommendations

That last point is particularly concerning. If the B2B marketplace doesn’t have your product in stock, their algorithms will gladly show similar products from other manufacturers. The B2B marketplace doesn’t particularly care which product they sell—even if the user came looking for your specific, branded product. The marketplace just wants to capture and fulfill that demand.

Maybe that loss of control is worth it because you need marketplace visibility. Maybe it’s not a fit for your products. The key is to know your market, your value proposition, and what you stand to gain (or lose).

See this post for more: Amazon Business, Or Private B2B Web Shop?

3. How comfortable are you selling through a “frenemy?”

As you can see, B2B marketplaces may function as “frenemies” for manufacturers. They’re friends because they make it easy to put your products in front of their audience, they handle the sale on your behalf, and they may even provide fulfillment.

However, when it comes to cutting you out of the customer relationship (and potentially swapping out your products), they don’t look like a friend.

Selling on a B2B marketplace will require you to hold these two things in tension. Only you can decide if the tension makes sense for your customers and your business.

4. Are resellers already selling your products on a B2B marketplace?

In 2020, Corevist conducted a webinar with Brian Beck, noted Amazon Business expert. To prepare for the webinar and gather information, we ran a survey among Corevist clients that turned up some startling facts. (Go check out the webinar for details on demographic information.)

In a nutshell:

66% of our clients said yes, resellers were already selling their products on Amazon Business.

74% said they didn’t know who all of these resellers were.

If you have authorized resellers distributing your products on a B2B marketplace, that’s one thing. But unauthorized resellers may be a problem. Your marketplace strategy will need to account for reseller relationships, both authorized and unauthorized. 

5. Are you prepared to redefine (or disrupt) your relationships with distributors?

In essence, selling on a B2B marketplace often means selling direct (in the sense that your traditional distribution partners aren’t part of the transaction).

If your end customer is a business, that business now has the opportunity to buy “directly” from you on the B2B marketplace. They don’t need your distributor anymore.

For some organizations, it makes sense to cut out the middleman. For others, this is not a step to take lightly, especially if you need your distribution partners to achieve full market penetration.

If selling on a B2B marketplace will disrupt your relationships with distributors, you need to consider that move carefully.

Read more here: Can Manufacturers Sell Direct Without Upsetting Distributors?

The takeaway: Don’t lose control of customer relationships 

Some organizations will need a B2B marketplace strategy, while others will choose to stay away. But all manufacturers need one thing: a digital channel in which they work directly with their B2B dealers and distributors, maintaining full control of customer service, branding, transactions, product recommendations, and so on. 

Historically, these interactions with known customers have happened over phone, fax, and email. But in today’s digital climate, B2B buyers want self-service. That means a branded B2B portal or eCommerce store—and that’s what Corevist Commerce Cloud is all about.