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Must-Have Ecommerce
Capabilities for
Modern B2B Selling
Goodbye Clunky Systems,
Hello Modern Selling
It’s never easy to say goodbye, especially when it comes to a system that your organization has
been using for years. Even though it’s tough to break historical ties with these well-known and
adopted systems, they just aren’t going to cut it for what your customers need today.

Because many of these systems were built in-house with or were taken from an existing CMS
or ERP system, they lack the capabilities needed to serve modern customer needs.

But you probably already know this. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?

And you likely are also well aware that for B2B sellers to retain customers and survive amidst
changing industry needs, you’ll need to start looking for a modern ecommerce solution that will be
able to empower their business to make customer experience their key brand differentiator.

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What’s Driving the Shift?
External
Impact of COVID-19: The pandemic was a huge catalyst for many
B2B companies. Business as usual has stopped, but businesses
who have pivoted to a digital strategy now have the upper hand.
Changing B2B Buyers: 59% of all B2B buyers are millennials
and close to 30% of them are lead buyers for their organization.
These digital natives expect effortless e-commerce experiences,
even when making B2B purchases.
Online B2B Marketplaces: Amazon business and consolidation
in the industry make competing for market share and retain
customers even more difficult, especially for electronics,
autoparts, and general industrial industries.
Internal
Strategic Direction from C-Levels: Savvy digital leaders
understand the need and are driving digital change in
their organizations.
B2B organizations Need for Digital Transformation: Companies are maximizing
are facing pressure efficiency and gaining major competitive advantage through
from all sides to advanced technology and digital strategies. B2B Ecommerce
deliver better is a key component of this digital transformation.
experiences.
Opportunity to Compete: Since many in the industry are
lagging behind, there’s a big opportunity for companies to deliver
superior customer experiences and gain competitive edge.
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What to Look for When
Replacing a Legacy System
You know that it’s time to move on, but the question is, what do you
actually need from your next suitor?

When you’re considering solutions, you need to focus on these

4 key capabilities of a modern ecommerce system:

1 Self-Service Account Management

2 Order Management

3 Buying Experience

4 Product Content Experience

Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these elements.

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1
Self-Service Account
Management
Customers want freedom. In the increasingly independent DIY-ing,
Googling, and Pinning world, customers are accustomed to helping
themselves in order to reach a resolution. Clients not only desire but
now expect to be able to manage their account tasks on their own
without having to reach out to their account managers or customer
success reps.

When customers are able to handle simpler tasks such as setting up

their accounts, accessing contracts and invoices, and managing users,
roles, and purchasing workflows entirely through a digital channel,
or through self-service, they get the freedom they want and can use
their time to take care of more important activities.

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Self-Service Account Management in Action
Situation:
Manufacturer needs access to a manual immediately.

A 3,000 person manufacturing plant in Italy utilizes specialized sorting machinery that
they purchased five years ago. One of the key components stops working and presents a
blinking error code in the middle of the night during a 24 hour frenzy to fulfill an order.
The head engineer is confident he can fix it, but needs to know what the error code is
telling him. They can’t wait for their account manager to get back online, they need
access to a manual, fast.

Resolution:
They’re able to download through a self-service portal, without needing
to email their account manager.

Luckily, the maker of the machine utilizes self-service capabilities within their website
and the head engineer is able to quickly navigate through the site to find and download
the manual he needs, without even needing to wake up and contact the account manager.

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2
Order Management
Take a look at where your sales team spends the majority of their time.
Are they using their time to strategically build out customer relationships?
Or is the bulk of their time dedicated to inputting and managing orders?

Instead of wasting time on manual tasks, order management can be

automated and streamlined so that every step of the fulfillment process,
from placing orders to tracking shipments, is done through a digital solution.
Your sales team no longer needs to be order takers, but can have time to be
true advisors to your customers.

But automation is not only helpful to sales teams! Efficient order management
also helps buyers expedite their own buying process through features such
as contract pricing and bulk and repeat ordering. Making the process easier
and faster for buyers means that they spend less time trying to figure out
how to place an order and more time doing job-critical tasks.

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Order Management in Action
Situation:
Retailer wastes time placing the same order over and over again.

A large pet supply retailer in Australia puts in monthly orders with their manufacturer.
Even though the head purchaser places the same order month after month, she has to go
through the process of finding all the items she needs and add them one-by-one, since there
is no easy way to automate the task.

Resolution:
The head purchaser is able to accelerate the purchasing process with
reordering.

The manufacturer upgraded their ecommerce site to include reordering capabilities.

This means that the head purchaser is able to easily see past orders, and now with a few
simple clicks, she can place the same order again instead of needing to repeat the same
process over and over every month.

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3
Buying Experience
If order management is how customers place and receive their orders, then buying
experience is everything before they get to that point.

B2B purchasing experiences are already complicated as is. Unique requirements,

multiple stakeholders, tailored contracts.

And, this experience is often made even more difficult with complicated systems and
poor user experience.

B2B customers are looking to streamline their buying process to find the products they
need in order to checkout quickly so that they can carry on with the rest of their tasks.

To simplify the entire experience, sellers must consider how to:

Deliver personalized experiences to customers based on their unique

business requirements and contracts

Tailor information and catalogs according to contracts, regions,

and available products

Simplify search so that customers can easily see what products are available

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Buying Experience in Action
Situation:
Manufacturer has difficulty displaying regional content and catalogs to
the correct distributor.

Though this machinery manufacturer serves over 50 distributors in North America,

they offer unique products only available to specific regions. But they’ve never had an
efficient way of displaying what products are actually available to which distributors,
making it very challenging for these distributors to know what they can actually purchase.

Resolution:
Buying experience is personalized by account and region.

With a modern ecommerce site, the manufacturer is now able to offer their distributors
a personalized experience that will dynamically display products and content relevant
to their region and account.

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4
Product Content Experience
Ultimately, customers are most concerned about making the correct purchases.
Their job depends on it.

Sellers can help their customers make the right purchases by providing
detailed and helpful product content on the same platform that they
purchase on. Content, such as advanced documentation, datasheets, videos,
manuals, and compatibility information, will help inform customers before
they make the transaction.

Providing a better product content experience reassures the customer of

the purchase made, but also builds trust and transparency with customers.

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Product Content Experience in Action
Situation:
Customers unable to identify the correct product to buy to meet their needs.

Historically, when customers requested more information on their products, this auto
parts supplier would send catalogs and additional information either through email or mail.
However, not only were these materials overly lengthy, they did not provide helpful imagery or
descriptions for customers to easily identify what part they needed to purchase. After spending
an excessive amount of time trying to figure out which parts they actually need, these frustrated
customers would give up and call their account managers for help.

Resolution:
Buying process is accelerated by educating customers on the right products.

The supplier invested in a modern ecommerce platform that was able to provide a richer
product content experience. Now when customers view products, they also are able to
access a 360-degree view of the product, watch videos and tutorials, navigate through
interactive diagrams, and download PDFs - all on the same purchasing platform.

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Launching Your Modern
ECommerce Platform
Make your goodbye easier by moving to a solution that will be able
to meet your buyers needs. Before you bid adieu, first learn about
these 7 best practices for B2B ecommerce success, plus advice on
how to choose the correct technology to support each best practice.

Start of Something New ›

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Liferay makes software that helps companies create digital
experiences on web, mobile and connected devices. Our platform is
open source, which makes it more reliable, innovative and secure.
We try to leave a positive mark on the world through business
and technology. Hundreds of organizations in financial services,
healthcare, government, insurance, retail, manufacturing and
multiple other industries use Liferay. Visit us at liferay.com.

© 2021 Liferay, Inc. All rights reserved.

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