Essential Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform Capabilities

Following the pandemic-related events of 2020, Salesforce B2B commerce has undergone a significant paradigm shift. The sharp rise in revenue from B2B eCommerce is a clear indication that business is set to boom online.

B2C has already seen buyers acclimatize to ecommerce purchasing and Salesforce B2B commerce is not any different. So in 2020, B2B companies used platforms like Salesforce to boost their e-commerce activity and used the time to differentiate themselves from the competitors.

This definitely brings businesses to a juncture where they need to start leveraging their B2B commerce websites and optimizing them to deliver an excellent customer experience.

Now the first question you might ask is, what features you should implement in your B2B website? Some may say that they do what the B2C stores are doing, but that is not the right answer. 

Salesforce B2B commerce is far more complicated than a B2C business and is not about one-time purchases. There are multiple levels of negotiations, not all payments come in advance, and if a deal is completed, the business often receives repeat bulk orders. 

Thus, your Salesforce B2B commerce platform needs to have particular features that can help you get through the challenges confronted when dealing with B2B customers. 

But before we get into the details of what features you must include in your Salesforce B2B commerce platform, we must also take a look at how Salesforce B2B commerce platforms are poised for success in the near future.

B2B companies can enjoy multiple benefits when carrying out complex negotiations for wholesale exchanges on their website. Though a few customers insist on interacting over the phone or email, they are slowly warming up to the idea of negotiating online. 

Complex exchanges can be carried out with ease on a website and help save time for the buyer and seller while selling more products. 

Also, if you are a new kid on the block and do not possess a platform like Salesforce to handle B2B dealings, the first step is upgrading your infrastructure.

Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform: Empowering B2B Companies to Excel in E-commerce

Welcome to the revolutionary world of Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform, where excellence in e-commerce meets the unique requirements of B2B companies. This powerful platform is designed to streamline and enhance every step of the B2B buying journey, from discovery to purchase and beyond. With its cutting-edge features and sophisticated functionalities, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform empowers businesses to seize limitless growth opportunities in the digital realm.

Understanding B2B Commerce

In today’s digital landscape, B2B (Business-to-Business) commerce plays a critical role in the success of companies. Understanding B2B commerce and its unique requirements is essential for businesses looking to thrive in the digital marketplace.

Definition and Explanation of B2B Commerce

B2B commerce refers to the transaction of goods, services, or information between businesses rather than between a business and a consumer. Unlike B2C (Business-to-Consumer) commerce, which is focused on individual consumers, B2B commerce involves selling products or services to other businesses to support their operations or resell them to end consumers.

In B2B commerce, the buying process is often more complex, involving multiple decision-makers, longer sales cycles, and higher order volumes. The transactions can range from simple purchases to more intricate negotiations and contracts, depending on the industry and specific business needs.

Importance and Unique Requirements of B2B Companies in the Digital Landscape

B2B companies hold a significant position in the digital landscape due to their crucial role in the supply chain. As intermediaries between producers and end consumers, they possess unique requirements that set them apart from B2C companies.

Firstly, B2B companies often deal with a diverse range of products, complex pricing structures, and customized pricing agreements. They require robust systems that can handle complex product catalogs, intricate pricing models, and flexible quoting processes.

Secondly, B2B transactions usually involve negotiated contracts, volume discounts, and ongoing customer-specific pricing. Efficient management of customer-specific pricing agreements, contract lifecycles, and approval workflows is essential for successful B2B operations.

Thirdly, B2B companies often have multiple customer touchpoints and need to provide personalized experiences across various channels. They require digital platforms that can integrate with existing systems, provide seamless omnichannel experiences, and facilitate self-service for their customers.

How Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform Caters Specifically to B2B Organizations

Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform is specifically designed to address the unique needs and challenges of B2B organizations in the digital era. With its robust capabilities and flexible architecture, it empowers businesses to deliver outstanding customer experiences, streamline complex sales processes, and drive growth.

By leveraging the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform, B2B companies can effectively manage complex product catalogs, optimize pricing strategies, and automate quoting processes. The platform provides extensive customization options, allowing businesses to tailor their digital storefronts to meet the specific needs of their buyers.

Furthermore, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform integrates seamlessly with Salesforce CRM, enabling a unified view of customer data and improved sales collaboration. Sales teams can efficiently manage accounts, track customer interactions, and deliver personalized experiences throughout the customer journey.

In summary, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform empowers B2B organizations to thrive in the digital landscape by providing them with the tools, flexibility, and scalability they need to succeed. With its robust capabilities and seamless integration with Salesforce CRM, it is a game-changer for businesses looking to drive growth and enhance customer experiences.

Salesforce: A Leader in CRM

Salesforce is a renowned Customer Relationship Management (CRM) provider that has established itself as a leader in the industry. With its powerful CRM platform, Salesforce helps businesses build and maintain strong relationships with their customers.

CRM plays a crucial role in driving sales and revenue growth. It allows businesses to gather and analyze customer data, track sales interactions, and streamline the sales process. By having a comprehensive view of their customers, businesses can make data-driven decisions, identify opportunities, and tailor their strategies to meet customer needs effectively.

What sets Salesforce apart is its integration with the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform. This integration enables businesses to deliver enhanced customer experiences and achieve improved business outcomes. The Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform seamlessly integrates with Salesforce CRM, allowing businesses to provide personalized product recommendations, offer real-time inventory information, and streamline the purchasing process.

Through the integration of the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform with Salesforce CRM, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their customers and deliver personalized experiences at every touchpoint. This integration also enables businesses to automate processes, improve efficiency, and empower their sales teams with valuable insights.

Key Capabilities of Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform

4.1 Commerce and Catalog Management

With Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform, businesses have the power to effortlessly manage and showcase their product catalog. The platform offers a wide range of capabilities to ensure a seamless commerce experience.

• Flexible Pricing: Businesses can easily set and adjust prices based on various factors, such as customer segments or promotions.
• Inventory Management: The platform enables businesses to efficiently track and manage product availability, ensuring accurate stock levels at all times.
• Product Variations: The Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform supports product variations, allowing businesses to offer different options, such as size or color, within the same product listing.

4.2 Order Management and Fulfillment

Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform streamlines the entire order management process, making it easier for businesses to handle and fulfill customer orders.

• Efficient Order Management: The platform provides tools and features to automate and streamline order processing, reducing manual effort and ensuring a smooth workflow.
• Order Tracking: Businesses can easily track and monitor orders, allowing them to provide accurate updates to customers and enhance transparency and trust.
• Streamlined Fulfillment Processes: The Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform offers capabilities to optimize fulfillment operations, ensuring timely and efficient delivery of products.

4.3 Omnichannel Commerce Experience

Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform empowers businesses to deliver consistent and personalized commerce experiences across various channels.

• Multi-Channel Integration: The platform seamlessly integrates with web, mobile, social media, and offline touchpoints, enabling businesses to reach customers wherever they are.
• Consistent Branding: With the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform, businesses can maintain consistent branding across different channels, ensuring a cohesive and memorable customer experience.

4.4 Seamless E-commerce Integration

Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform plays a pivotal role in enabling businesses to establish a strong online presence and drive sales and revenue growth.

• Online Selling: The platform provides the necessary tools and features for businesses to sell their products and services online, reaching a wider audience and driving e-commerce success.
• Focused on E-commerce: Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform is specifically designed to meet the unique needs and challenges of e-commerce businesses, ensuring a seamless and tailored experience for both buyers and sellers.

4.5 Analytics and Reporting for Business Insights

Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform offers robust analytical and reporting capabilities, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions for sustainable growth.

• Analytical Insights: The platform provides in-depth analytics, allowing businesses to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, sales performance, and overall business trends.
• Reporting Capabilities: Businesses can generate comprehensive reports to track key metrics, measure success, and identify opportunities for improvement.

The Role of Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform in Digital Transformation

As businesses continue to navigate the digital landscape, the role of Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform in facilitating digital transformation cannot be overstated. This comprehensive platform empowers businesses to embrace the digital age and leverage technological advancements to their advantage.

The Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform offers a range of tools and capabilities that enable businesses to establish and enhance their online presence. Through the platform, businesses can create intuitive and user-friendly websites that cater to the needs of their B2B customers. With its robust content management system, businesses can easily update and manage their online content, ensuring that relevant information is readily available to their customers.

Additionally, the platform’s powerful analytics and reporting features provide businesses with valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. By harnessing this data, businesses can optimize their online strategies, improve customer engagement, and drive sales. The platform also facilitates seamless integration with third-party systems and applications, allowing businesses to leverage existing technologies and streamline their operations.

Furthermore, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform enables businesses to deliver personalized and tailored experiences to their customers. With features like product recommendations and dynamic pricing, businesses can cater to the unique needs and preferences of each customer. This level of personalization enhances customer satisfaction, fosters loyalty, and ultimately drives business growth.

In summary, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform plays a critical role in enabling businesses to undergo digital transformation. With its robust tools and capabilities, businesses can establish a strong online presence, optimize their operations, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Embracing the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform is a strategic move that positions businesses at the forefront of the digital revolution and empowers them to thrive in the digital era.

Enhancing Customer Experience with Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform

When it comes to enhancing the customer experience, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform stands out as a game-changer. This platform offers a range of features and capabilities that can transform the way businesses interact with their customers.

One critical aspect of the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform is its ability to provide personalized product recommendations. By analyzing customer data and behavior, the platform can suggest relevant products and services, making the shopping experience more tailored to each individual customer.

Moreover, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform ensures a seamless ordering process, eliminating any hassle or frustration that customers may encounter. With intuitive navigation and user-friendly interfaces, customers can easily find what they need and complete their purchases efficiently.

Furthermore, the platform is fully optimized for mobile devices. In today’s digital age, more and more customers are using their smartphones and tablets for online shopping. With the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform, businesses can offer a responsive and mobile-friendly experience, allowing customers to browse and buy products on any device, at any time.

In summary, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform revolutionizes the customer experience by offering personalized recommendations, seamless ordering processes, and mobile optimization. With these features, businesses can provide a superior shopping experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

How Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform Drives Sales and Revenue Growth

When it comes to driving sales and revenue growth for B2B organizations, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform is the ultimate solution. This powerful platform is specifically designed to enhance sales processes and generate maximum revenue for businesses.

One of the key features of the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform is its focus on lead generation. With advanced lead generation capabilities, businesses can effortlessly attract qualified leads and convert them into paying customers. This not only increases sales but also expands the customer base, resulting in significant revenue growth.

In addition to lead generation, the platform offers a comprehensive pipeline management system. This allows businesses to effectively manage their sales pipeline, track progress, and identify potential bottlenecks. With clear visibility into the sales pipeline, organizations can make informed decisions and take proactive measures to optimize sales performance, ultimately driving revenue growth.

Furthermore, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform provides robust analytics capabilities, enabling businesses to gain valuable insights into their sales performance. Through advanced analytics and reporting features, organizations can identify trends, spot opportunities, and address any areas that require improvement. By leveraging these insights, businesses can refine their sales strategies and tactics, leading to increased sales and revenue.

Overall, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform serves as a powerful tool for driving sales and revenue growth. Its focus on lead generation, pipeline management, and analytics empowers B2B organizations to optimize their sales processes, attract more customers, and maximize revenue generation. With this platform at their disposal, businesses can unlock their full sales potential and achieve sustainable growth.

Top Features That a Salesforce B2B Commerce Solution Needs

1. Self-Service

B2B clients like to be in control of their purchases. Enabling the self-service option beats the need to reorder via phone and allows them to have more authority over their purchases. 

By incorporating Salesforce Commerce into your business, you can have different options on your website, such as

• ‘Search for Items’ Bar
• Citing Requests
• Placing Requests
• Rapid Reordering
• Tracking Orders 
• Tracking Request Status 
• Access to Knowledge Base

Focus on finding the perfect balance between automation and human interaction and on saving time for buyers and sellers. 

2. Product Data and Catalogs

Make sure that you have excellent pictures and product descriptions on your B2B website. Work toward making the listing self-explanatory so that buyers are not left with any product-related questions when they visit your website.

Maintain a precise catalog for buyers to search for and order products conveniently. Moreover, provides descriptive product data to enhance user experience and improve the chances of conversions. 

3. Customer-Specific Pricing

B2B businesses usually offer different prices to their customers. You must have a feature that helps you structure the prices on your website. In addition, you will need to have specific discounted prices for different customer groups.

You should be able to regularly update prices for all your products and look for integration at bulk import pricing. You can also limit a range of products to very specific customer groups to make your job easier.

4. Inventory Management

If your customer places an order only to be informed that the items are not available, you will lose them forever. It will cause more problems for your organization, and your brand value will deteriorate.

Stay on top of your inventory on product pages and always inform your customers about the exact quantity you have in stock.

5. Mobile Responsiveness

Customers are now using multiple devices to shop online. So you must invest in creating a mobile responsive website optimized for different devices. 

Spend some time researching which devices your customers usually use and what features you can offer on the respective devices.

6. Rapid Reordering

Incorporate a feature that allows your clients to reorder products rapidly using a mass request structure or SKU. Also, add the option to manage the amount of each line to expedite the checkout process. 

7. Flexible Ordering Options

Make the ordering process more straightforward by simplifying the tedious task of organizing the checkout processes with in-built features. Move toward real-time dynamic pricing and offer volume-based discounts to regular customers.

Keep a minimum ordering value to keep your net revenues on the positive side and make up for it with excellent customer service that offers automatic renewals and one-click replacements.

8. Customer Service

Change is often slow, and many B2B customers still see e-commerce as a potential risk. You must prove to them that your website is an asset and not a liability. Strengthen your customer relationships by keeping the service support representatives available when needed.

Let the reps sign in when customers need support beyond the standard procedure. In case a customer is skeptical about purchasing via your website, support reps can answer the customer’s questions related to stocks, samples, and pricing.

9. Price on Request

Some products are beyond standard pricing structures and can only be sold upon request. Your website should support such listings and enable customers to submit their requests if they are interested in them.

As we’ve explored throughout this content series, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform offers numerous benefits and functionalities that can significantly transform businesses in the digital economy.

• First and foremost, the platform enables businesses to provide personalized experiences to their customers. Through advanced data analytics and customer segmentation, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies and offerings to meet the unique needs and preferences of each customer. This level of personalization not only increases customer satisfaction but also enhances customer loyalty and retention.
• Furthermore, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform empowers businesses to maximize customer lifetime value. With built-in upsell and cross-sell capabilities, businesses can effectively identify additional sales opportunities and recommend relevant products or services to their existing customers. By nurturing long-term customer relationships, businesses can increase their revenue streams and achieve sustainable growth.
• Lastly, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform is instrumental in driving overall growth for businesses. With its robust features for managing orders, inventory, and logistics, businesses can streamline their operations and ensure efficient fulfillment of customer demands. In addition, the platform’s integration with other Salesforce solutions, such as CRM and marketing automation, enables businesses to achieve a seamless end-to-end customer journey and optimize their sales and marketing efforts.

In conclusion, the Salesforce B2B Commerce Platform is a powerful tool that enables businesses to provide personalized experiences, maximize customer lifetime value, and drive overall growth. By harnessing the capabilities of this platform, businesses can thrive in the digital age and stay ahead of the competition.

Now you have a clear idea about where to focus your efforts and what to expect from your B2B e-commerce solution. 

Take care of your client’s expectations, and they will take care of your revenue. Make sure you hold their hand across all touchpoints and continuously strive toward improving your business’s efficiency. 

Let’s start working together on developing your B2B e-commerce website. We help you incorporate the features mentioned above and more as we move closer to achieving your B2B e-commerce website’s desired goals. 

Our Salesforce B2B Commerce expertise will significantly improve your key e-commerce parameters and will help you gain more conversions, boost revenue, and yield a positive return on your investment. 

To know more about Salesforce Commerce Cloud development services, get in touch with our team today!