Customer Support
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12/13/2022
Returns management is an essential process for any eCommerce business. It manages customer returns, including receiving, processing, and repackaging products for resale. As eCommerce continues to grow, returns have become an increasingly important part of the logistics process for retailers. The average eCommerce return rate hovers around 20-30%, and according to a survey by Pitney Bowes, the cost of online returns can be as high as 21% of order value.
For online merchants, returns management involves finding cost-effective ways to manage the process while providing a stress-free experience for customers. To help manage returns, retailers are turning to technology solutions that can improve the returns process. These solutions can help retailers reduce the cost of returns, improve customer satisfaction, and create a better overall shopping experience.
Technology solutions for returns management include SaaS solutions that allow customers to quickly initiate returns and track the status of their returns, third-party vendors who manage the process end to end, and analytical tools that provide insights into customer behavior and help retailers prevent returns before they happen. By using technology solutions to streamline the returns process and gain insights into customer behavior, retailers can turn returns management into an opportunity to improve their bottom line.
Data on why returns happen is important
Returns are an inevitable part of eCommerce, but with a sound returns management strategy, you can design a pre-purchase and post-purchase process that will maximize the economic potential of returns.
Online merchants need to understand why people are returning products, such as if they purchased with the intent to return, the product didn't fit or work as expected, the product didn't match the description, they're returning a gift, and more. Returns management provides insights into customer behavior, allowing brands to understand their needs and preferences better. With this data, brands can create a personalized shopping experience that encourages customers to purchase items they will keep. Data can also recognize fraudulent activities and implement measures to protect your business.
Returns management gives you the power to make informed decisions that will positively impact your business. By leveraging data insights to design an optimal pre-purchase and post-purchase process, you can ensure customers have the best shopping experience while maximizing the economic potential of returns.
Building a solid returns strategy
Understanding the reasons behind returns is integral to building a proactive strategy focused on improving the pre-purchase and post-purchase processes. Brands can target online experience updates that prevent and simplify returns.
Here are two strategies that brands can implement to reduce returns:
Pre-Order Support: Product descriptions should be updated to include more missing detail and a symptom of returns for that product. Additionally, having helpful sizing charts and featured product reviews can help customers make informed decisions before they buy. Offering free and straightforward returns is also an excellent policy to have in place.
Post-Order Support: A live chat or a simplified customer support system is essential. Merchants should also consider offering alternative products to customers if their original choice needs to be revised. Live chat can be an excellent opportunity to engage customers to turn returns into opportunities for loyalty and upselling.
These recommendations are relatively simple to implement but will demonstrate to customers that an online brand is committed to their satisfaction. These updates can help build loyalty and excellent word-of-mouth referrals.
Conclusion:
Brands should use data on why people are returning products to improve the pre and post-purchase experience. This data should be analyzed regularly to improve and continuously improve the online experience for your customers. Dreaming Code can provide strategy and product solutions that can help guide you through the solution's selection, implementation, and ongoing management. Feel free to contact us to set up a consultation with us today.
To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.
To learn more about the Dreaming code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.
12/09/2022
E-commerce is a catalyst for growing a business, and Dreaming Code is a leader in helping businesses make digital transformations. As online merchants seek to grow by delivering great digital experiences, a solution must have key features to deliver personalized customer experiences, support flexible inventory and order management, and solid financial integration.
Customers want personalization, transparency, and the ability to move seamlessly between channels to buy. The benefits of the Dreaming Code solution are increased revenue, increased customer loyalty, and increased share of wallet. Here is a quick view of the key features of why customers choose our platform.
Personalized Catalogs
When deploying a B2B business, online merchants must deliver great experiences for direct buyers, resellers, and your internal sales team. Dreaming Code has prebuilt user experiences for all of these types of buyers, supports personalized catalogs, and enables dynamic pricing to allow customers to order easily and accurately. This is important because if buyers cannot access a product catalog based on their business terms and the correct pricing, they will not trust or use the digital system. This can impact buyers' confidence in the merchant and result in them not continuing to order from the system. Conversely, merchants can reduce the time and cost to get sales from the buyers and use that to focus on new growth strategies.
Inventory and Order Management
Dreaming Code's flexible inventory and order management system helps online merchants manage their product catalogs, pricing, and availability in a more accurate and streamlined manner. With this feature, they can create a B2B storefront tailored to their buyers and offer tiered pricing for preferred customers. The system also allows for simplified SKU management for online stores that carry a large number of items. This feature ultimately provides customers with accurate catalogs, real-time pricing, and up-to-date availability. The delivery of a more personalized experience instills confidence in customers that they are getting the right product, at the correct price, and available when they need it.
ERP Integration
ERP Integration can be a vital component of a successful eCommerce business. Using an ERP agnostic platform, merchants can reduce the burden of disconnected systems. This lack of integration leads to system slowdowns, poor performance, and other errors that can impact the customer experience. With cloud-based, API-first eCommerce solutions like Dreaming Code, integration is flexible and cost-effective so in-house teams have more time to focus on critical business tasks instead of getting tied up with daily system maintenance.
Conclusion
When selecting a B2B eCommerce platform, businesses need to ensure that the solution can scale with their growth. Dreaming Code has the experience and expertise to help merchants grow their eCommerce operations and maximize sales. With a personalized experience, flexible order and inventory management, and an ERP agnostic platform, businesses can focus on scaling their business. Schedule a 30 min assessment with our solution experts to learn how Dreaming Code can help your business grow!
To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.
To learn more about the Dreaming code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.
12/06/2022
Sales & Marketing
The Dreaming Code B2C eCommerce platform enables businesses to grow using eCommerce, selling directly to consumers. Our managed platform allows owners to focus on connecting with consumers, and the Dreaming Code platform and team handle all the design, technology management, hosting, and ongoing site maintenance.
Several critical features distinguish well-designed and deployed B2C eCommerce solutions.
- Personalized experiences are essential, as customers want to feel like they're dealing with a company that cares about them as an individual.
- Social and mobile technologies are also necessary, as customers increasingly use these channels to find and research products.
- Finally, 24/7 customer support is necessary, as customers never know when they'll need assistance.
Personalized experiences matter
Consumers expect personalized experiences when it comes to eCommerce. With Dreaming Code, merchants can deliver beautiful, responsive web pages that will work on any device. This feature gives customers a great experience, regardless of their device. If customers can view a product image on their mobile device, they will likely continue the purchase. With Dreaming Code, merchants can create an excellent experience for their customers, which will keep them returning for more. The future wave of personalization in eCommerce will be the need to know your customer and curate experiences based on that information.
Social media and mobile technologies for reach and reputation
The Dreaming Code B2C eCommerce platform connects to the most popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. These platforms leverage influencers who have large followings to promote different products. They can give a brand reach to billions of consumers and generate massive demand for a product if its followers love it. A connection between eCommerce and social media platforms allows a single place for product descriptions, digital assets, and content to be optimized for mobile. Since social media is a must in B2C eCommerce, the Dreaming Code platform offers a very low-cost way to reach billions of consumers rapidly.
Always-on customer support builds trust
Customer support is vital for both online and brick-and-mortar businesses. Consumers often are demanding and expect instantaneous access to support and help. Features include appointment scheduling, live or assisted chat, and customer knowledge bases.
Automating customer engagement can help to improve customer satisfaction by providing instant access to support and help. More prominent brands have created this expectation, but smaller, more agile brands can offer the same or better service. The viral nature of responsive service can help build loyalty and new customers. For eCommerce stores, these modern and automated customer engagement solutions often lower the overall cost to serve, as it frees up staff to do other tasks and has 24/7 availability.
Conclusion
The key benefits of identifying a B2C eCommerce platform are personalization, leveraging the power of social media, and providing exceptional customer service. These three factors create user value and allow brands to focus on their consumers rather than technology. To learn how Dreaming Code can help scale your eCommerce business, schedule a 30-minute assessment with our solution experts.
To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.
To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.
12/02/2022
The Dreaming Code Digital Experience Platform (DXP) allows businesses that don't need eCommerce still to have an impactful digital presence for engaging customers. Companies like medical offices, engineering firms, and others that don't have physical goods need a website to showcase their expertise and capability to embrace the digital age. The platform is a software as a Service (SaaS) and managed, meaning that it handles all of the site's design, technology management, hosting, and maintenance. It allows companies to focus on their business, not constructing and managing website technology.
Important features needed in a DXP include the ability to deliver personalized customer experiences, enable search engine optimization to help find new customers, and make it easy to update new content. The platform also automates customer engagement, allowing companies to connect more meaningfully with their prospects and customers.
Easy to manage and add new content
Dreaming Code has an easy-to-use feature that makes adding and managing website content straightforward. The platform already has simplified website page templates to help provide a robust framework for website structure and make it easy to add text, visual content, and brand design to the website. Content is essential as it is indexed by search engines so that people looking for information about a service or topic get pointed to the digital site.
Dreaming Code offers a content management system (CMS) that stores and manages all web content. It makes it easy to update and add new content ensuring the site is always fresh and engaging. Meaningful content to engage visitors helps them convert. When they connect, they now represent a potential customer and a source of revenue to grow your business. Dreaming Code offers content generation as an add-on to its platform.
Make it easy for customers to find you
The Dreaming Code platform offers a suite of features that make it easy for businesses to connect with new customers and global markets. Search technology has changed the way people seek information. One application of search is SEO, which helps companies optimize their website content and visibility in search engines. It makes it easy for potential customers to find your business and learn more about your products and services. SEO can significantly impact a brand's reach and connect with new potential customers. Dreaming Code has several included and add-on services that aid in getting your website optimized for search engines.
Simplify and automate your engagement
The Dreaming Code platform offers a range of features that make it easy for customers to connect with your company. These applications include appointment scheduling, social media, live chat, and 24/7 customer access.
When visitors want to speak to the company, they can easily connect on various channels available on the website. This feature is accessible through the site, which often means companies no longer need telephones or office hours. The benefits are that it makes the company look responsive and offers the visitor immediate access to resolve questions. It helps visitors with buying intent get 24/7 and direct access to resolve their inquiries.
Conclusion
Building a robust digital experience is vital for any brand, even if you are not directly selling products and services online. By deploying a DXP, companies can connect with their customers online, engage new markets through search, and educate visitors with great content. The right DXP partner and using a managed SaaS platform means brands can focus on running their business rather than technology. Schedule a 30 min assessment with our solution experts to learn how Dreaming Code can scale your eCommerce business.
To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.
To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.
11/29/2022
Sales & Marketing
Dropshipping is a business model in which eCommerce entrepreneurs sell products without having to carry any inventory. When a store owner receives an order from a customer, they contact the supplier, who will ship the products directly to the customer's door.
Sellers can add products from various suppliers into their shop to fuel the product offering. Dropshipping is the perfect business model for new eCommerce entrepreneurs. It's simple to set up and manage and doesn't require a significant up-front investment. Here are several dropshipping tips and challenges to apply for a successful venture.
Advantages:
Dropshipping allows merchants to focus on the growth and marketing of their products, as they do not need to worry about managing or storing inventory. Sellers need less upfront capital and a low overhead cost to start a dropshipping business. Additionally, as the merchant does not need to purchase merchandise, they have a more comprehensive product selection. Dropshipping allows merchants to be agile and try different marketing and promotion strategies to see which works best. If a merchant finds a market and audience validated, they can quickly scale their efforts to maximize their sales.
Challenges:
Merchants must be careful of their profit margins when working with a drop shipper. Dropshipping can be a more cost-effective way to sell products, but it can also come with low-profit margins. Merchants should find low-cost ways to build an audience and attract customers. Additionally, inventory issues and complexity can arise when working with multiple suppliers. Suppliers can make errors, which can magnify if there are numerous suppliers. Lastly, sellers may find that they need more customization options with suppliers. Without taking these challenges into account, merchants may face negative results.
Playbook:
The playbook to a successful dropshipping business is not complex and comes down to being very smart in execution. Follow these steps:
- Choose great products: When selecting products, it's essential to consider what is selling well online and in the local area. Try and find a niche to focus on, as this will make it easier to compete with other sellers.
- Source products: It's essential to find a supplier that can offer high-quality products at a reasonable price. Seek suppliers by simply searching or contacting businesses that already sell products in the target niche.
- Set up store: This can be done by creating a simple website or using a platform like Dreaming Code. When setting up a store, include clear images and descriptions of the products.
- Market products and focus on customer service: The final step is to market your products. Several ways to do this include using social media paid to advertise and email marketing. When selling products, be sure to focus on the benefits they offer to the customers.
To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.
To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.
11/22/2022
Sales & Marketing
When it comes to eCommerce, integration is vital. But what does that mean, and how can you make sure your eCommerce platform integrates successfully with your business applications?
Dreaming Code has been designed for this purpose – to provide a platform that integrates with many enterprise systems, making it easy to connect business applications as seamlessly as possible to the platform. Businesses can connect financially, logistics, supply chain, order management, fulfillment, and 3rd party shipping systems with prebuilt connectors to the Dreaming Code eCommerce solution.
Dreaming Code supports an extensive library of applications and solutions through application programming interfaces (APIs) and other native protocols. Brands can be confident their e-commerce platform will be able to integrate with existing applications.
Order Management:
Order management is about orders being received, verified, inventory confirmed, and fulfilled for customers. The most critical integration point for order management is syncing orders to inventory management, and with this reliable connection, your order automation will function smoothly.
Many organizations overlook this integration, and it causes manual processing. For the customer, it means their orders are delayed or, even worse, need to be more accurate. An unforeseen consequence of poor order management integration is the impact on customer service costs to resolve the issues associated with incorrect and delayed orders.
Fulfillment systems:
When orders get processed through a fulfillment partner, it can take a lot of the burden off of the eCommerce business and help it to run more efficiently. However, not all fulfillment partners are created equal, and it's essential to do your research before selecting one. Dreaming Code's advantage is its robust integration with most fulfillment partners and systems. This feature means merchants can quickly and easily send orders to a partner and rely on them to handle the fulfillment process. Dreaming Code has a wide variety of partners, making it easy to find a partner who can meet all a merchant's needs and has a track record of providing good customer service.
ERP integration:
ERP systems are the financial, customer management, human resources, and accounting systems that keep your business running. The Dreaming Code platform is ERP agnostic, and can easily integrate into any system, such as Dynamics, SAP, JDE, Acumatica, and Epicor, to name a few. Updating or changing your ERP to launch your eCommerce business is usually not an option, so the partner selected for eCommerce should have experience and support for a brand's existing or planned ERP. With cloud-based, API-first eCommerce solutions, integration is flexible and cost-effective, so in-house teams have more time to focus on critical business tasks instead of getting tied up with daily system maintenance.
Conclusion:
E-commerce platforms with a clear and well-documented approach to integration will signal a positive experience for an implementation. The robust and flexible integration provided by Dreaming Code ensures that eCommerce will operate as expected and that merchants can avoid unforeseen costs and delays in launching and managing their eCommerce systems. To learn more about how Dreaming Code can scale your eCommerce business, schedule a 30 min assessment with our solution experts.
To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.
To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.
11/17/2022
Sales & Marketing
Companies seeking to implement a B2B eCommerce solution understand their requirements and align with a strong partner to select a platform that best serves their digital ambitions. This article aims to help companies define their core requirements and needs. We will also outline how Dreaming Code delivers a robust SaaS B2B eCommerce platform than can fit the requirements of even the most demanding business. Launching an eCommerce platform requires brands to consider their solution requirements, deployment, experience management, inventory and fulfillment management, and seamless integration.
The right solution for your business model
First and foremost, Dreaming Code understands the importance of assessing your business, and its needs before recommending a solution. We won't recommend a platform that's "one size fits all"; instead, we will work with you to identify the specific features and functionality you need to power your B2B eCommerce. This approach ensures the platform is tailored to your particular business needs and that it will be easy to manage and use.
Dreaming Code has a deep understanding and experience in the delivery of eCommerce solutions. We know what works and needs improvement and use this knowledge to deploy flexible and durable solutions that can handle any B2B eCommerce. Our platforms are also easy to manage, meaning that you won't need a team of experts to keep them running smoothly.
After identifying requirements, we will review the critical considerations for a client to consider when looking at B2B eCommerce platforms and outline ways that the Dreaming Code solution will deliver excellent business outcomes.
Deployment choices
Deploying a B2B eCommerce solution can be a complex process that requires careful planning and consideration. It's essential to understand your target buyer, your business model, the sophistication of your technology team, and the systems you use to run your business.
There are several options for deploying a technology solution, and each has advantages and disadvantages.
- A brand can buy an off-the-shelf product with the need to configure, support, and maintain it with their technical team or a consultant.
- They can explore several available open-source technologies but be willing to spend the money and effort to make that solution fit best into their business.
- They can subscribe to a prebuilt SaaS solution to support all the features they expect to need and require no need to buy any infrastructure.
Should a brand choose the building approach (options 1 & 2), it will usually require a considerable upfront build cost and an ongoing investment that can be significant for updates. The cost of deploying a technology solution is measured by calculating the cost to purchase, the price to configure, and the ongoing investment to add new features. However, with a SaaS product, the software is built flexibly, can be deployed rapidly, and has ongoing support and updates to ensure that the brand gets access to the latest features without having to make it themselves. Additionally, as it grows, this software can scale with the brand's business.
Brands also need to consider factors that include the company's overall budget, current company infrastructure, business model, and technical capabilities to manage and support the solution.
Dreaming Code is a feature-rich platform designed for most B2B eCommerce for deployment in weeks. It has all the essential features to run and operate a successful B2B storefront. The company has a profound roadmap of new features deployed as the market conditions and buyer requirements change. Lastly, Dreaming Code has an expert team that ensures your solution is up and running optimally without needing your staff and will grow as your business expands.
User experience (UX) is everything
User experience is a deep understanding of the solution users, what they need to accomplish, what they value, their abilities, and their limitations. The right solution also means a platform that puts personalization at the center of any customer journey. Considerations for the UX include:
- The various personas and objectives of the persona when engaging with the solution.
- The devices and networks the target buyers are using to access the online site.
- Meaningful incorporation of branding and visual elements to drive critical user journeys like the path to purchase and search.
- Clear data presentation with catalogs and menus.
- Personalization to support buyers' negotiated or expected pricing that a merchant offers based on volume and markets they serve.
Delivering a UX that can support all the dimensions and permutations requires deep research, extensive validation, and lots of iteration to provide a well-designed UX.
At Dreaming Code, we understand the importance of UX and have created a platform that is agile and robust. Our platform supports deployment across the web, desktops, and mobile devices. We have thought of delivering essential functions like product detail pages, search, and checkout. Our UX designs and templates are built for various buyers and users. We can incorporate branding and customized style sheets to ensure your business is represented the way you want it.
Seamless Integration
When it comes to eCommerce, a business's success depends on its ability to integrate its commerce platform with its core business infrastructure. These include its core financial systems (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), inventory management, and fulfillment systems. A platform that offers seamless integration allows a merchant to connect its existing systems with little to no effort, eliminating the need for custom development and reducing the time and cost to deploy a new eCommerce solution.
Deploying a platform that is not agnostic to current systems can mean businesses either need to replace their existing systems or invest significantly in building custom connections between their infrastructure systems (like ERP, CRM, and others). Without seamless integration, brands create silos between different functions, preventing them from reacting quickly to customer needs and hindering growth. Integration means that the processes you have defined to transact online can operate without manual work or intervention.
Dreaming Code understands the importance of seamless integration and has built our platform to offer prebuilt integration to the most popular ERP systems. Our platform is virtually system agnostic. We maintain strong industry partnerships with all the leading vendors of these systems to ensure our platform can connect and interact with these other software platforms. With Dreaming Code, businesses can easily connect their existing systems and get up and running with a new eCommerce platform quickly and cost-effectively.
The right partner
When choosing a technology partner for your B2B eCommerce project, there are a few essential things to remember.
The partner you select has to have a high level of experience in eCommerce and digital transformation. At Dreaming Code, we have over 75 years of combined experience in these areas, and we've worked with businesses in various industries and markets. This experience allows us to bring a wealth of knowledge and insight to your project and ensures that we can help you achieve your goals.
Next, choosing a partner who values a strong team of talented professionals is essential. At Dreaming Code, we only hire the best designers, engineers, project managers, and other professionals. This team is dedicated to ensuring your brand's success and providing you with the best possible eCommerce experience.
Finally, it's crucial to choose a partner with a reliable, secure, and resilient platform. Dreaming Code's platform is one of the most advanced and reliable in the industry, and our team is dedicated to ensuring that your brand's eCommerce site is always up and running. We have offices around the globe, so we can provide coverage 24/7/365 with our Radical Support. When you partner with us, you can be confident that you're working with a team of experts dedicated to your success. We'll help you configure the right eCommerce platform and provide you with the support you need to achieve your goals.
Conclusion
When seeking to make the transition to eCommerce, it is vital to find a partner that understands your specific needs and has a robust, secure platform that is highly configurable. Dreaming Code's B2B eCommerce platform provides just that: it integrates seamlessly into your company and is supported by a team of always-available experts. This comprehensive offering can help brands launch and grow their eCommerce storefronts rapidly and successfully.
To learn more about how we can help your business, schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts today.
To learn more about the Dreaming Code eCommerce platform visit: http://dreamingcode.com.
11/15/2022
Sales & Marketing
Most business-to-business (B2B) companies see the need to embrace the new digital reality allowing their customers, resellers, partners, and vendors to interact with them online using a user-friendly and well-designed platform. B2B eCommerce is the transaction of goods or services between businesses through online orders. B2B eCommerce businesses cater not to consumers but to other businesses. While investing in a B2B online solution can be a game-changer for a business, setting your deployment up for success is centered around several key considerations. Companies should consider moving to B2B eCommerce to increase sales, get wider visibility, make transactions easier, and lower costs. Moving to B2B eCommerce can significantly drive ROI and will produce many long-term benefits that create value for your business. Some important considerations for a company making the switch to B2B eCommerce are:
- Deployment strategy
- Personalization
- Order management
- Fulfillment
- ERP integration.
By understanding these key concepts, a company can make a smooth transition to B2B eCommerce and reap the many rewards it has to offer.
How to derive ROI
B2B eCommerce is an opportunity for businesses to drive profitable sales by handling customers digitally. Additionally, it can free up businesses' operations and sales teams to focus on other ways to create value like optimizing processes or opening new markets. Buyers may not use the platform to its full potential if the digital experience is not optimized for them. Choosing the wrong platform or having a solution that does not align with the target market can be detrimental to ROI and increase the overall cost of the solution. To maximize ROI, businesses should select easy to deploy out of the box platforms, understand how to build personalized experiences, have strong operational capabilities, and have solid integration to their enterprise systems. By focusing on the following considerations, businesses can have the opportunity to achieve ROI and attain long-term durable value. Expect a simple deployment strategy. The cloud has become increasingly popular in recent years, as it offers many advantages over traditional software deployment models.
One of the biggest advantages of the cloud is that it can reduce start-up costs at a large scale and provide ongoing updates. This is because cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) solution providers can provide a feature-rich, customizable solution that can be deployed rapidly. Another advantage of the cloud is that providers continually add new features, capabilities, and integration points, making it easy to fit into a company's existing and future infrastructure. This allows for greater flexibility in deployment and features, as well as a predictable cost model that can be easily scaled to support a company's growing business.
For B2B buyers, the cloud offers several advantages, including a full-featured customer experience that can be optimized for most transactions. This can have a big impact on a company's bottom line, as it can save time and money on customer support.
Personalize the buyer experience
When building an eCommerce solution for business-to-consumer (B2C), the actual consumer is the only buyer type that the experience needs to engage. A B2B eCommerce solution can personalize the experience for different buyer types and should be available on multiple channels including desktop, tablet, and mobile, therefore it should be responsive and compatible with different platforms. To get the most value from a B2B eCommerce experience, companies need to design it for direct buyers, salespeople, and resellers who will transact on the digital channel. Each buyer type has different needs and how they purchase from a company can be very different. Typical buyer types for B2B include:
- Direct buyers who need an end-to-end shopping experience that might need a dynamic search and catalog.
- Internal salespeople who use an easy-to-use order entry and purchase journey to maximize interaction with a customer on the road.
- Resellers and partners often require custom catalogs, dynamic pricing, and fulfillment options.
Order management simplified
Being an online merchant means your target audience is all over the globe and you can offer endless variety of products to them. It increases the profit, but it also introduces the complexity of dealing with multiple vendors, thousands of SKU codes, and complex back-office processes.
An integrated order management solution can save a lot of time and money for a merchant. It can automate many of the processes that a brand would otherwise have to do manually like show inventory, accept orders and process a transaction. This can free up time and resources so that a brand can focus on other areas of its business.
An integrated order management solution helps to keep track of inventory and to know when they need to replenish products. This can be a huge assist for a brand, especially if they sell products that are in high demand.
It can also help a brand to avoid mistakes that can occur when manually entering orders. This is a benefit especially if they sell products that are drop-shipped or have multiple vendors. Integrated order management is a requirement for today's global merchants to maximize revenue and control their costs to operate.
Robust fulfillment capabilities
Fulfillment is an important process as B2B products are typically larger and shipped directly to a business, so the buyer has enough inventory. During the purchase and post-purchase process, it's important for accuracy as it involves compliance like tax rules, product restrictions, SKU codes, shipping labels, and invoicing details. If any of the details are wrong or missed this can cause delays and extra processing time for both parties. Once orders are received there are post-purchase considerations including reverse logistics and financial reconciliation.
B2B electronic data interchange (EDI) is a solution that creates value by managing transactions between trading partners. This is important because it ensures that information flows accurately and is easily verified. The result for the customer is that their transaction is managed automatically and efficiently to ensure orders are accurate and within expectations. This lower cost provides a better experience for the customer.
Seamless integration to ERP
ERP integration is a crucial component of any eCommerce solution. Integrating ERP and eCommerce enables the automation of sales orders, inventory, and customer details between systems. Ultimately, this is the key to achieving accurate and efficient experiences for customers and employees.
ERP integration has many benefits for customers, including:
- Accurate and efficient eCommerce experiences for both customers and employees
- Less time to operate the business
- Reduced cost of doing business
Conclusion Deploying the right B2B eCommerce solution can have rapid ROI, help drive new revenue streams and reduce the cost of doing business. To get these, merchants must focus on the described considerations to deploy a robust, flexible, and easy-to-support solution.
When considering B2B eCommerce merchants need to contemplate:
- What is the optimal deployment strategy?
- Who will use the system and what is a personalized experience for them?
- Order management is complicated and understanding how customers will order and transact is critical.
- Fulfillment is complicated today, and automation is required to make this work well.
- Integration to ERP allows merchants to complete transactions in a reliable and scalable manner.
Companies should consider moving to B2B eCommerce to increase sales, get broader visibility, make transactions simple, and lower costs.
Schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts to help you understand how these considerations can provide the right solution.
02/05/2021
The graphic above illustrates the five fastest growing and declining retail brands, based on market value, from 2019-2020. While some of these placements might come as a surprise, here are some factors that have led to each company's rise or fall.
Amazon
The company has invested heavily in India, where eCommerce currently lags behind the world average. Currently, only 1.6% of retail sales within the world's second most populated country come from eCommerce, significantly lower than the world average. With the eCommerce sector projected to increase by $200 billion by 2026, Amazon's investment is already starting to take shape.
Lululemon
In addition to excellent management, Lululemon has found success in its' "buy online, pickup in store" shopping option. Customers are allowed to combine the convenience of shopping from home, while not having to wait for shipping, as orders are ready within an hour of purchase. This model has become very popular and gets customers in their doors, exemplifying an innovative eCommerce solution.
Costco
According to The Motley Fool, "Costco is starting to deliver on the e-commerce side of the business, showing a 17.9% increase in e-commerce revenue over the 6-month period ending March 1. To help the e-commerce growth along, Costco acquired Innovel Solutions in mid-March for $1 billion. Innovel is a logistics company that specializes in storage, transport, and delivery of "big and bulky" items.
Innovel states that the company can reach "90% of the U.S. and Puerto Rico." This enables Costco to more easily deliver large items to customers, which enhances the opportunities for it to sell bulky merchandise. As the United States and Puerto Rico make up 547 of Costco's 786 warehouses in operation, Costco's large item delivery reaches 70% of the customer base."
Under Armour
Under Armour is getting severely outcompeted by Nike and Adidas, both domestically and abroad. The biggest reason for their decline, however, is their difficulties within the direct to consumer online (DTC) space, where sales grew a mere 1% last year. By comparison, Nike's DTC revenues grew 17% in Q4 2019 alone. The race for DTC revenue is on in the sportsware sector, and Under Armour is struggling mightily.
Walgreens
Forbes writes that the Walgreens, "Retail segment, which includes the company's retail sales of prescription drugs, and consumer healthcare products, saw sales decline from $40 billion in 2016 to $39 billion in 2019, and it will likely decline to less than $38 billion in 2022". Similarly to the rest of the decliners, retail sales are down and the company must look to eCommerce in order to stabilize and grow going forward.
01/10/2021
In an age where Instagram influencers, TikTok personalities, and Youtube bloggers are among the world's most famous celebrities, advertising is constantly evolving to maximize reach. A recent trend in the incubation stages in the U.S. is interactive, live advertising and shopping. This form of advertising has influencers promote and use products on a live feed, interacting with viewers by answering comments and often giving away samples. For the same reasons that Twitch streamers and Youtubers are able to sell merchandise and subscriptions, live advertising has been relatively effective at reaching and selling to a target audience.
Already a large market in China, where live advertising has been responsible for over $65 billion USD in revenue to date, Amazon launched its live platform in November 2019. Influencers are encouraged to apply, where they are accepted or declined based on social media followers and engagement rates. These influencers are live for up to 8 hours a day, where they work for a small base salary plus commission for products sold their live streams.
While not a mainstream promotional method yet in the U.S., live advertising has seen impressive results overseas and offers a relatively inexpensive method to reach a segmented audience.
Already a large market in China, where live advertising has been responsible for over $65 billion USD in revenue to date, Amazon launched its live platform in November 2019. Influencers are encouraged to apply, where they are accepted or declined based on social media followers and engagement rates. These influencers are live for up to 8 hours a day, where they work for a small base salary plus commission for products sold their live streams.
While not a mainstream promotional method yet in the U.S., live advertising has seen impressive results overseas and offers a relatively inexpensive method to reach a segmented audience.
12/30/2020
1. Ecommerce sales have grown 40.3% from 2019-2020 in the U.S.
2. 2020 Ecommerce sales are projected to be $839B in the U.S.
3. Ecommerce sales have accounted for 21% of U.S. retail sales.
4. In 2020, Ecommerce sales have surpassed 2025 projections from 2019.
5. Dropshipping has become the biggest ecommerce trend of 2020.
6. Major companies such as Amazon and Walmart have relied on dropshipping to cut overhead.
7. Free shipping is become widely expected by consumers.
12/23/2020
2020 will be remembered as a memorable year for many reasons. However, among other things, 2020 has been the year of eCommerce. During the pandemic, eCommerce sales and activity have skyrocketed to levels ahead of 5-year projections. As the new year approaches, here are some website aspects to differentiate in the increasingly-mainstream ecommerce world.
