Magento for B2B Ecommerce: A Match Made in Heaven

Traditionally, self-service was reserved for B2C customers, while B2B clients had to get in touch with a sales representative for literally everything, including a quote request for a product or a service. 

But recently the tide has turned: the B2B Buying Process 2019 Report by Sapio Research and Sana Commerce determined that at least a third of B2B decision-makers would opt for a vendor offering online ordering, payment, and order tracking. This proves that self-servicing capabilities can become a vital competitive advantage for a B2B retailer. 

Magento offers a solid set of features for enterprise self-maintenance that are bound to satisfy your customers’ need for independence.

Price negotiation is an inseparable part of business-to-business retail, especially if you are a wholesaler. Within the B2B ecommerce environment, though, it’s easy to get dragged into endless email chains and messages discussing quotes.

Magento allows streamlining the quoting experience for merchants and buyers alike. The customer chooses a product from the catalog and requests a quote right from their shopping cart. The seller reviews the quote and sends a response, either accepting the quote or naming their price. Merchants are also allowed to push forward the quote expiration date, thus creating a sense of urgency and avoiding drawn-out negotiations.

This exchange goes on until both parties settle on the price or quit altogether. All negotiation activities are automatically logged, so the participants can review the history of their interactions anytime.

Receiving repeat orders is a common practice for B2B providers with an established client base and long-term partnerships. Reordering is a simple yet rather boring process, so Magento’s feature for streamlining recurring purchases is very likely to catch your customers’ fancy.

Magento requisition lists are similar to your ordinary ecommerce wishlists, but on steroids. A company admin or other entitled representative can compile a list of items for reorder and then press the “Order” button to get them all shipped whenever needed. A customer can have up to 999 lists in their account and group them for better management and tracking into categories like ‘monthly purchases’ or ‘weekly stock-ups’.

In Magento, each B2B customer can set up an individual corporate account. The account dashboard provides instant access to the customer’s business activity records, from quotes, orders, and payment history to requisition lists and available credit. This allows responsible parties to always be in control of their corporate performance.  

The customer account roles are not limited to admins only. Instead, corporate customers can choose to create multiple users for all the employees involved in procurement or requiring access to particular business metrics related to the B2B merchant. While customers’ admins hold the power of super users, each team member can be assigned their individual limited sets of rights and permissions.

Technological infrastructure is another focal point for B2B leaders. According to the Forrester research commissioned by Magento Commerce, the majority of business owners name reliability, high performance, and completeness as the most sought-after aspects when choosing their ecommerce solutions, and Magento 2 ticks all these—and even more—boxes.

Due to its solid and secure architecture as well as inherent stability, scalability and efficiency, Magento is an excellent choice for a B2B business. What is more, Magento developers constantly work on their platform, improving its capacity with cutting-edge functionality.

Here are the three significant Magento B2B capabilities that are bound to make a difference for business-to-business ecommerce merchants.

A lively B2B marketplace cannot go without continuous changes: prices are modified, products are added, catalogs are created, new price rules are set up, and such. Consequently, each data modification should be followed by instant reindexing. However, frequent reindexing puts a considerable strain on the store resources and slows down page loading for actively browsing customers.

Magento 2 employs the background reindexing method that allows your store to remain accessible and function without lagging. Beyond that, Magento also allows store owners to schedule reindexing for the least busy hours in order to minimize the strain on the servers.

As versatile as Magento B2B is, on its own it will be insufficient for supporting your entire ecommerce ecosystem. So, most likely, you will need to utilize additional tools to run your store, such as ERP and PIM systems, marketing automation and accounting solutions, to name but a few. The Magento API provides for the smooth integration of all the essential services into your store, allowing you to create a consolidated infrastructure and eliminate workflow-hindering data silos. 

Fraud can be rightfully called the greatest threat to online companies’ well-being, as this inflicts not only financial but also reputational losses. There are a great many actions you could take in order not to fall victim to cybercriminal schemes, and choosing an ecommerce platform with strong security measures is among the staples. 

Magento 2 comes with the out-of-the-box integration with Signifyd, a proven fraud protection application. Signifyd automatically reviews each order for suspicious details and rejects fraudulent purchases. The app also guarantees to reimburse a criminal chargeback if the system failed to detect it.

In case you wish to employ a different fraud protection instrument, you can choose to connect your B2B with any solution that works for you—Magento flawlessly integrates with all major security tools. 

Magento 2 offers a solid technological stack that will cater to the needs of a B2B enterprise of any size and industry. At the same time, Magento customization allows businesses to modify both the storefront and back-office functionality and deliver a unique ecommerce experience. Beyond that, Magento is highly suitable for integrations and extensions, allowing owners to tailor their stores to specific needs without developing all the required features from scratch.

On the other hand, Magento is justly known as a rather complex solution with a steep learning curve for store admins and developers alike, so it’s a common practice for emerging B2B owners to turn to reliable ecommerce development partners for initial guidance. In the end, the outstanding results they can achieve with Magento compensate for additional investments.