6 Best Practices for Selecting a B2B eCommerce Platform


6 Best Practices for Selecting a B2B eCommerce Platform

Selecting a B2B eCommerce platform that is right for your business can be a daunting task. There’s lots to consider, from functionality to the technology it’s built on to the support you’re going to be offered. Understanding its potential impact on your organization is also important in planning for future changes and successes.

As you review your options, consider which solutions will provide faster implementation, enable a better solution for your organization, and prove easier to implement and manage. After 15 years of experience implementing B2B eCommerce solutions, Four51 has seen companies from small to mid-sized to enterprise-level basing their decision on the following 6 best practices:

1. UNDERSTAND YOUR REQUIREMENTS:

Your eCommerce requirements can be broken down into three categories:

  1. Functional: What do users need to be able to do on this platform? What does management and your internal team need to get out of this platform?
  2. Technical: What types of infrastructure options are available to you and what makes sense for your organization? Is a premise, hosted, or cloud-based solution better for you?
  3. Support: What types of resources need to be set-up internally in order for this eCommerce solution to be both implemented and then maintained on a day-to-day basis? What type of support is the solution going to offer? Is it enough? What type of solution will be quickest and easiest to implement for your organization?

2. UNDERSTAND AND ESTIMATE THE POTENTIAL GROWTH AND IMPACT:

In considering a solution that is right for you and your organization, don’t forget to consider the potential growth and impact it might inflict on what you are doing now. The eCommerce platform you select should be able to cost-effectively scale and grow with you as your business needs evolve over time.

3. CLEARLY DEFINE YOUR DESIRED USER EXPERIENCE:

It’s up to you to define the type of experience you want to provide through your eCommerce platform. Make sure that you’re considering the solution’s ability to accommodate complex purchasing rules, permissions, brand compliance, location and language, amongst other necessary elements, that will make your user experience unique. As your users continue to become more and more mobile, you’ll want to make sure it also has a responsive site design so that users have a quality experience no matter what device (desktop, mobile, or tablet) they are working on. How much customization is required and how long will it take to implement in order to get the user experience you need?

4. OUTLINE ANY NECESSARY INTEGRATION REQUIREMENTS:

Integration is an important part of the implementation of any new software or technology. You want to make sure that each application works together seamlessly so that it can improve your business processes instead of hinder them. When selecting your B2B eCommerce platform, understand how integration will be done and build requirements around what will be needed on your end. Consider things like other applications, platforms, tools and processes that will need to work with the eCommerce platform. Data exchange and quality issues will also need to be included in your planning. In addition to vendor resources, make sure your internal resources are available when you need them.

5. BUILD AN IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT PLAN:

Building an eCommerce platform selection and implementation project plan will help you stay in control of your goals, resources, timeline and budget. Make sure this is set-up before you start looking at solutions so you can select a vendor or provider that will work at the pace and budget you are looking for. Don’t forget to consider the kind of support they offer and the resources you have (both inside and outside) to help you get started.

6. MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE PRICING MODEL:

There are several pricing models to consider when choosing a cloud-based solution vs. premise or hosted solutions:

Some pricing models are user based, transaction based, or based on some other metric. The project rates are not the only aspect to be aware of. The longer the solution takes to get implemented, the larger the costs are going to be and the longer the delay will be to get your solution up and running. It is important to understand your situation and what model will be most cost-effective for your business.

Selecting a B2B eCommerce platform that is right for your business can be a big decision. Make sure you seek out a team that is willing and eager to work with you in the way you are looking for.

Click here to request the full version of our 6 Best Practices for Selecting a B2B eCommerce Platform eBook.


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Labels: Best Practices, B2B, eCommerce, eCommerce Platform