Big Business and Magento

When it comes to big-ticket B2B brands, things tend to get a bit more complicated than simple B2C exchanges.

On time, quality delivery, is no longer just a good add-on. Instead, it becomes crucial to business functionality- let alone success. The end consumer here being another business, needs to know that your business is reliable enough for them to work with you. Even a small delay on your part, not only tarnishes the image of your own business, but can be extremely bad for your consumer- who depends on you to deliver your best.

Understandably, the situation only becomes more serious when we talk about big-ticket B2B brands, where a small mix up in things can lead to huge financial damages on either side.

Tackling the Problem

With that said, the next question becomes simple.

How does one keep these problems from arising?

For starters, ensure that your operations are efficient, and everyone is doing their work on time. Engage with the client to figure out what their concerns may be and remedy the problems before the become a work hazard. But most importantly, focus on building an effective business strategy.

Strategizing for Success

What do we mean by this?

It’s quite simple really.

Ensure your business model is optimized for success.

One way to do this, in our opinion, would be by looking at the things which affect the core of your business. Say, for instance, the platform on which you are running your e-commerce store front.

Things to Look Out For

Working with the right platform can make or break your success as a B2B brand.

At first, this statement might come as a bit of a shock. How could picking one platform over the other possibly have such dire consequences?

Yes. It doesn’t look like that- at first.

But… when one looks at the details, you can really tell how even a small difference between the features being offered by two different platform hosts can have drastically different consequences.

Take the idea of staying unique and distinguishable for instance. While platforms such as Shopify are extremely user-friendly, they do not allow you to hold your claim to uniqueness for long. The themes offered by it, for instance, are more similar rather than being unique and different. Which means that while Shopify may work perfectly well for a small or medium business which is just starting to enter the market, it does not work for a big ticket B2B brand that needs to ensure greater brand visibility- something which is a make-or-break factor.

So, what does work for a B2B brand?

Features Offered by Magento

While it’s true that different platforms offer a different, unique set of features, in this article, we will be looking at how Magento, specifically, is especially geared towards making B2B businesses stand out and work at their absolute best.

1. Increased Customization
   Magento may require specialized knowledge. And it may require having at least some basic knowledge about programming for you to start using it as a platform. But all of this can be extremely useful for big ticket brands which need more customization and personalization options than their small enterprise counterparts do.
   Going open source with B2B commerce can be really helpful.
   For starters, it means having a community to work with while developing, and really being able to integrate into the market from the get-go. Then again, it also means more technical things such as being able to include add-ons and extensions of your choice. Integrating third party APIs that are based off of consumer preferences, rather than just adding a fixed set of APIs means that your store becomes more interactive and engaging for your customers. Customer engagement is something Magento is very particular about. And knowing what features to add, and what to remove can become even easier when you start using its specialized B2B Analytics framework, or Magento Business Intelligence.
2. Mobile Friendliness
   The truth is, the modern-day world prefers working on the go. This means that if a platform allows your customers to engage with you via their mobile devices, rather than simply through their computers, your business efficacy is going to increase significantly.
   In other words, mobile friendliness is a unique selling proposition and must be used as such.
   Magento allows this to happen conveniently with its Progressive Web Apps (PWA) studios. The software designed specifically for this purpose, not only creates engaging customer experiences, but also boosts mobile conversion rates.
3. Better Shipping and Inventory Management
   Like we said earlier, B2B consumers depend on you. Which is why there cannot be unexpected delays in product procurement for them. That is, your delivery schedules need to be perfectly synchronized, and your inventory needs to be proactively managed.
   Magento helps in this regard by allowing for automated order fulfilment from multiple locations, offering advanced carrier selection, and finally, by integrating with fast, scalable shipping platforms powered through Temando.
4. Reducing Sales Funnel Progression Time
   Consumers will not spend hours trying to figure out how to make a small purchase on your store. In fact, the best user experience is one where the buyer can make swift purchases.
   Magento enables this with its advanced analytical functions which allow developers to create lists of ‘most highly sold’ products. This, coupled with the newly incorporated support for purchases made via credit instead of restricting transactions to PayPal only, allow greater customer engagement, since the demographics of companies which can make purchases via your store increases tremendously.
5. Advanced Account Configurations
   Magento 2.3.4 allows multiple users to be assigned to the same account, and access to these accounts can then be distributed by people with greater access.
   This feature therefore not only allows for better workflow smoothness, but also allows companies to conduct two types of businesses from the same site.
6. Self Service Tools
   From the newly introduced Page Builder which offers greater personalization to being able to include extensions, etc. as per requirement, makes the use of self-service tools very frequent when it comes to Magento as a platform.
   Greater self-service options mean more control for the business. Thus, rather than letting the platform dictate the business outlook, B2B brands can take control of how they appear, and also of how and when they should make changes to their outlook.

Wrap Up

All of these additional features and tools therefore set Magento higher up in our preference list for B2B e-commerce than any other platform out there.