B2B eCommerce platforms: Save time and money going digital [2022]

There is no doubt that B2B eCommerce is the next frontier of eCommerce. With an estimated value of US$12.2 trillion, the global B2B eCommerce market is over six-time more valuable than the B2C market.

Furthermore, a digital B2B eCommerce solution or platform can save your business a lot of trouble.

They can:

• Reduce errors in order management
• Boost sales and help retain customers
• Save your company time and money by eliminating redundant work. 

If your business or company works with B2B sales or wholesale, a well-designed B2B eCommerce platform is a must-have!

In this blog post we will explain: 

• How B2B eCommerce platforms can help your business save time and money.

If you’re asking yourself – ‘what is a B2B platform’? – it might be a good idea to read this post before you go on.

Let’s get started!

How to save time and money with B2B eCommerce platforms

When running a business, time and money are the main limiting factors. There are only so many hours in a day, and most businesses can not afford to just throw money at problems they don’t have time to solve.

That’s why, if you are running a business, you should always look for ways to optimize and save time. And when you save time, in most cases, you end up saving money as well (remember, time is money).

One of the best ways for a B2B and wholesale business to save time and money is by digitizing their sales. Going from manual to digital will save your business countless hours of redundant, tedious work.

One of the main drivers behind this effect is integration. 

We are gonna go a bit more into details about integrations below, and how they can automate processes for your company. Then follows some estimates on how much time you can actually save and suggestions on how to best make use of the time saved. Lastly, we’ve listed some of the many other benefits that you expect to see if you take your B2B and wholesale sales digital.

Integrations – The gems of eCommerce software

Integrations are by far the most efficient way to automate tedious processes and align the systems across your company. 

If you’ve ever tried to keep several platforms updated manually, you know the hassle. It doesn’t take many days/weeks before the process becomes too tedious and the platforms are out of sync.

Using integrations, you’ll be able to keep all your platforms updated and in sync. No need for additional work or several manual updates in each system.

Examples of time-saving integrations with B2B eCommerce platforms:

• Transfer all new orders to your accounting system (QuickBooks, Xero, E-Conomic)
• Update your stock levels across your commerce and inventory platforms
• Automate fulfilment processes by creating new shipments whenever an order is completed
• Send user information to your CRM system (or even a basic spreadsheet) based on your own rules and conditions. This could be new orders, customers that have ordered specific items, customers with a similar profile
• Import products from B2C shop systems like Shopify and WooCommerce (or vice versa!). That way, you make sure that your product offering is always consistent in terms of SKUs and content

The list is endless and with Turis Pro you get 2000+ integration options straight out of the box. All of which can be set up and customized with no code required. Then it’s all about your creativity in terms of optimizing current processes and finding new ways to make your company fully updated.

So, how much time and money do B2B eCommerce solutions actually save?

When we talk about cost-saving specifically, there are two main things to look for:

• Time (and thereby money) saved in resources related to manual processing of wholesale orders
• Time that was previously spent on order processing has been re-allocated and is positively contributing to the business in other areas

The time you or your employees can save on manual and time-consuming tasks varies depending on the size of your business. Moreover, it depends on the specific setup and processes you have implemented for your wholesale orders. Lastly, product complexity can add to the time spent on manual processing/handling as well.

Generally, we see companies spending anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours handling a single order. And that’s a confirmed order. 

You can easily double the amount of time spent if the buyer has modifications to the order, or if the employee finds out too late that some products were not in stock after all.

Making use of saved time

A great way to make use of this saved time is to find underserved areas of your business or activities that simply have been neglected due to lack of time.

One area that we do see improve a lot for the brands and companies that implement Turis, is that the data insights they now receive on their wholesale accounts can be leveraged to activate a lot of older accounts. 

These are accounts that have been inactive due to a lack of attention or simply the ability to serve them as a result of onboarding new (and in many cases bigger/more complex) accounts.

Benefits of B2B eCommerce platforms

Saving time and money is not the only benefit of B2B eCommerce platforms. 

With a B2B eCommerce platform, it is not only about ‘saving‘, but it is also about ‘gaining‘. Below we have listed some of the most common ‘gains’ that tend to be quite general across industries:

• More orders
• More frequent orders
• Increased order volume
• Faster adoption of new products
• Increased order efficiency (due to always-updated inventory data)
• Better customer retention, as you’ll be able to serve your customers more efficiently. This will give them an experience they’ll want to return to.

And these are just a few examples of some of the gains and benefits we see from companies that implement Turis. 

In reality, there are a lot more. Depending on your business, you might experience the same or even completely different ones that will impact your business in a positive way.

What’s common for most of the gains and benefits is that they outweigh the costs of going digital. So this means that the gains are even larger than the savings. At Turis we don’t believe that companies and brands should digitize their wholesale just to save time alone. Going digital should be a natural part of following technological trends as they become available for your business. Thanks to these trends, it has never been this easy to convert to an online B2B eCommerce.

Companies focused on wholesale should look at the endless list of benefits stemming from B2B eCommerce platforms like Turis. All of which contribute positively to the efficiency, competitiveness, and profitability of their company. And last, but not least, secures the digital future of their business.

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