Are you a manufacturer? It's time to bring your business to the next level. Prepare for a digital transformation, adapt to new marketing tools, and embrace B2B eCommerce platforms and professional inventory management systems. Scale your B2B business, open for new markets and reach your customers directly. You will need the right software for this. This article will show you the most important ones - here's the start.
You're a manufacturer - why should you go online?
Because that's where your customers are. Yes, also wholesale ones. If you still rely on traditional methods like phone, e-mail - or even fax! - you risk losing customer loyalty as preferences lean more towards digital experiences.
According to The Manufacturing & E-Commerce Benchmark Report's 2021 data, 42% of those who have invested in their eCommerce sites and digital solutions have observed improved customer relationships.
This shift is reflected in revenue generation as well, with over half of manufacturers reporting that online sales channels contribute significantly to their overall revenue.
As the B2B customer world revolves around the online realm, it's crucial for manufacturers to follow suit. Statistics indicate that 75% of B2B product purchases are made through online transactions, and one in three buyers would select a vendor solely based on their ability to offer seamless online order placement, payment, tracking, and return processes.
In Tandemite we think that numbers often say it all. We believe that you already know that digital transformation itself is needed. That is why in the rest of the article, we will focus on the software you need to do this right and beat your competition.
B2B eCommerce platform - reach all your customers with an online store
B2B eCommerce platforms are getting more and more popular. Having an eCommerce store while focusing on wholesale customers helps you boost sales and reach further than before. Multiple currencies, customer segmentation, and user-friendly interface… that's what you're looking for and that is why we limited our list of the best B2B eCommerce platforms.
Below you'll find the technology we trust so much, that we've built partnerships around them. Enjoy!
Shopware
Shopware is a cutting-edge, user-friendly, and highly adaptable eCommerce software that has been fuelling the success of more than 100,000 B2B and B2C businesses across the globe.
Shopware stands out from other online store tools with its advanced API system, providing excellent integration opportunities with external systems. As your business expands, Shopware makes it easy to add new, personalized modules and plugins to your online store, ensuring a seamless and scalable growth experience.
Shopware is a great choice because:
- B2B-Specific Features: Shopware offers specialized features tailored for B2B sales, such as custom pricing, customer-specific catalogues, and flexible payment options.
- Flexible Customization: Shopware provides a high degree of customization, allowing businesses to create unique and branded online stores that reflect their B2B brand identity.
- Scalability: Shopware is highly scalable, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes.
- Multichannel Capabilities: Shopware supports multichannel selling, allowing businesses to reach B2B buyers across various platforms and devices.
- Robust Security: Shopware prioritizes security and data protection, ensuring a secure environment for B2B transactions.
- Customer Support: Shopware offers dedicated customer support, helping businesses navigate the platform effectively and ensuring a smooth B2B eCommerce implementation.
Shopware's B2B-specific features, customization options essential features, scalability, multichannel capabilities, order management efficiency, and security measures, make it an excellent solution for businesses looking to thrive in B2B sales.
Read more about Tandemite & Shopware cooperation ;)
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a leading cloud-based eCommerce platform designed to help businesses build and manage online stores. It's an open SaaS platform that presents limitless opportunities for growth, development, and innovation in the eCommerce industry.
What we admire about BigCommerce is its efficiency, open architecture, and a wide array of applications and integrations, along with its corporate-class functionalities.
BigCommerce is a great choice because:
- SEO support: Boost website traffic with URL synchronization, automatic redirections, and effective search utilities.
- All-in-one marketing: Easily create marketing campaigns, promotions, discount codes, and vouchers with built-in tools.
- Security: BigCommerce holds PCI DSS Level 1 certification, ensuring the highest standards of user account and payment details protection.
- Mobile-Optimized Experience: With an increasing number of B2B buyers using mobile devices, BigCommerce ensures a responsive and mobile-friendly shopping experience.
- Analytics and Reporting: BigCommerce provides in-depth analytics and reporting tools, enabling businesses to gain valuable insights into customer behaviour and purchase patterns.
BigCommerce is a powerful and user-friendly eCommerce platform that caters to the specific needs of B2B sales.
Read more about BigCommerce & Tandemite cooperation ;)
Magento Commerce for B2B
Magento is a highly popular platform for online stores, globally appreciated by users. It offers two versions: Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce with a paid licence.
Magento is a great choice because:
- Dynamic development: Enables selling online in multiple markets through various channels.
- Unlimited sales: Supports selling any products, including digital and virtual items.
- Endless expandability: Highly flexible system easily adapted to individual business needs.
- Additional features: Offers a wide range of free and paid modules to enhance functionality.
- B2B-Specific Features: Magento Commerce offers a wide range of B2B-specific features, including custom pricing, negotiated quotes, tiered pricing, and buyer-specific catalogues.
- Robust API and Integrations: Magento Commerce offers a comprehensive API that enables seamless integration with various business systems, including ERP, CRM, and PIM.
Magento B2B-specific features, scalability, customization options, advanced order management, account roles, API and integration capabilities, multichannel selling, and strong community support.
Product Information Management (PIM)
What is PIM?
Product Information Management (PIM) is a strategic approach to efficiently manage and enhance product information and associated digital assets across various departments. The main goal of PIM is to create an engaging product experience and facilitate successful product selling across multiple sales and marketing channels.
Through a PIM solution, businesses can efficiently collaborate on enriching product information, such as descriptions, specifications, images, videos, and other digital assets. This collaborative approach ensures that the product data is always up-to-date, relevant, and presented uniformly across all channels, be it marketing materials, sales documentation, or eCommerce platforms.
Why do you need PIM in your digital transformation?
In today's competitive digital landscape, delivering engaging product experiences is key to success, whether in B2B or B2C. But managing product information can be challenging, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. That's where PIM comes in!
PIM is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of handling product data. It allows teams to collaborate efficiently, get products ready for sale faster, and maintain consistency across channels.
By adopting a PIM strategy, businesses can accelerate workflows, improve data quality, seize market opportunities, and deliver personalized customer experiences.
Why Pimcore?
Pimcore has made its mark in the market for over a decade, reaching businesses in 56 countries.
Pimcore serves as a user-friendly, easily configurable platform for efficiently managing and utilizing company data. By implementing Pimcore, businesses can introduce new products to the market swiftly and streamline the entire process.
Pimcore is the ultimate PIM solution for your business! As an official partner of Pimcore, Tandemite trusts their platform for several reasons:
- Centralized Data Access: Pimcore allows you to collect and manage all product information in one place, making it quickly accessible.
- Multimedia Content Control: Manage your digital data, including photos, graphics, videos, and audio files, effortlessly using the system.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Utilize Pimcore tools to catalogue customer data, personalize sales offers, and automate marketing processes, improving customer experience management.
- Seamless Integration: Pimcore's stable API facilitates easy integration with external systems, enabling the addition of new features.
- Scalability and Multichannel Support: Manage multiple domains and integrate various databases simultaneously with Pimcore, ensuring scalability and support for multiple sales channels.
- Extensive Product Management: Pimcore allows aggregation and efficient management of thousands of products from your product range.
With a strong track record, Pimcore is a reliable solution trusted by businesses worldwide.
Take a look at our Pimcore implementation for the warehouse rental company!
Digital Experience Platform (DXP)
What is DXP?
A DXP is an all-in-one solution that helps businesses deliver engaging and personalized digital experiences across various channels. It integrates content management, omnichannel delivery, personalization, analytics, and commerce tools. With a DXP, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction, increase efficiency, and make data-driven decisions, ultimately driving growth and success in the digital world.
What's great, Pimcore DXP is precisely what will suit most businesses great.
Why do you need DXP in your B2B online business?
- Seamless Customer Experience: Deliver unified and personalized journeys for B2B buyers.
- Personalization: Tailor content and recommendations to meet specific B2B requirements.
- Omnichannel Presence: Maintain a cohesive brand experience across various digital channels.
- Efficient Content Management: Streamline content creation and distribution for engaging B2B buyers.
- Data-Driven Insights: Utilize analytics to optimize marketing and product strategies.
- Efficient Operations: Centralize tools and processes to enhance operational efficiency.
- Scalability and Adaptability: Grow and adapt to changing B2B business needs.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
ERP allows businesses to efficiently manage and automate critical operations, including finance, human resources, inventory, warehouse management supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and customer relationship management.
B2B businesses should implement ERP for the following reasons:
- Data integration: Enables seamless data flow, ensuring consistency and data-driven decision-making.
- Enhanced visibility: Provides a comprehensive view of operations, identifying areas for improvement.
- Inventory management: Real-time data on stock levels improves inventory control.
- Regulatory compliance: Built-in features help meet industry regulations and reporting requirements.
- Business insights: Generates real-time reports for informed decision-making and strategic planning.
ERP integration is a great addition to the eCommerce platform and Pimcore solutions.
Summary
Above, we presented the fundamental software for B2B. We would rather not bore you with a typical software list, which would only confuse you. We gave you what, we believe, is a base for digital success. As you see, the B2B eCommerce platform combined with Pimcore is a great solution worth implementing. Wholesale eCommerce is the future for scaling your business, reaching more customers (in many countries at once) and increasing sales.
But that's not the only way. You can implement solely PIM, without any from the B2B eCommerce platforms. Or maybe DXP? The choice is yours, but you're not alone.
If you're ready for the digital revolution, simply contact us. We will help you with everything; step by step!