Get more out of your B2B webshop with integrations
Online stores are no longer just for B2C companies. Today, many B2B buyers expect to be able to order (or reorder) without having to call the company. In fact, 75% of B2B buyers (according to a Gartner study) prefer a rep-free sales experience.
When your customers expect to be able to shop easily and efficiently – and preferably without contacting a salesperson – it is no longer enough to offer a login-protected order form. There is a need to create a good online sales experience, where user-friendliness, accessible information and self-service are in focus..
A good B2B online store should make it easy for both new and existing customers to find the right products, see current prices, and place orders without unnecessary steps or touchpoints. The easier it is to shop with you, the more likely customers are to return – and to recommend you to others.
A modern B2B webshop is therefore not just an additional sales channel, but a central tool for strengthening the customer experience, automating workflows and creating business value.
B2B buyers want to buy themselves
Many B2B companies still rely on manual orders, emails and calls from customers who need reorders or prices. It’s a slow process and it’s a challenge for both sellers and buyers. A report from Deloitte shows that 48% of buyers have challenges getting accurate pricing information – and 84% believe it takes too long to get information from suppliers. These may be just some of the reasons why B2B buyers prefer to shop online.
Additionally, studies showthat 97% of buyers have researched a supplier’s website before interacting with the company. The same studies show that 85% of buyers have largely determined their requirements before contacting a sellerr.
All of this shows that it is important for B2B companies to have an online platform where potential customers can find information and possibly also order online.
In other words: a well-designed webshop is no longer a nice-to-have – it is something that customers expect. It should be easy to use, have correct data and feel professional. A B2B webshop gives your customers self-service, easy access to previous orders and accurate prices 24/7. This increases customer satisfaction and frees up time in the sales department to focus on the customers who need personal advice.
Strengthen your B2B webshop with integrations
To get the most out of your B2B webshop, and to optimize your workflows and minimize duplication of work, your webshop should be integrated with your other business-critical IT systems, such as ERP and PIM. Through this type of integration, you avoid double entry, errors and delayed updates.
ERP integration for B2B webshop
An ERP integration makes it possible to synchronize your B2B webshop with business-critical data from the ERP system, such as inventory status, customer-specific prices, discounts and order history. This means that customers always see the right information – and you avoid manual, time-consuming updates.
When the webshop and ERP talk to each other, it is no longer necessary to manually enter orders into the ERP system. This reduces the risk of errors, saves time and minimizes the need for duplication of work. At the same time, it becomes easier to offer personalized customer experiences because you can display customer-specific conditions, products and prices directly in the webshop.
PIM integration for B2B webshop
Product information doesn’t just have to be accurate – it also has to be complete, inspiring and accessible across channels. If you’re working with many variants, technical details and language versions, maintaining product data quickly becomes complex.
If you have a PIM system, you have also centralized your product data in one place. This means you only have one place to maintain your product data – especially if you have integrated the PIM system with your other IT systems, such as your B2B webshop.
That is precisely why we have developed PIMpilot. PIMpilot integrates your PIM with your other platforms, including your webshop, and ensures that product data is always enriched, structured and ready to use – regardless of channel.
Make your webshop intelligent with data & insights
An integrated webshop not only creates better workflows – it also opens up much better insight into customer behavior and needs. When data from webshop, ERP and CRM is combined, you get a solid basis for decision-making:
- What do customers buy – and when?
- What is being reordered?
- Where does dropout occur?
This knowledge can be used for everything from up-selling campaigns and personalized content to strategic decisions about assortment and pricing. It allows you to act proactively – and strengthen both revenue and customer experience.
Use data to personalize the customer experience
When the webshop is connected to ERP, PIM and possibly CRM, you have a strong data platform that makes it possible to personalize the customer experience - without necessarily involving advanced AI.
For example, you can:
- Customize product displays based on past purchases
- Show relevant campaigns depending on the customer's segment or industry
- Provide quick access to previous orders and reorders
- Offer customer-specific assortments and prices
Many of these features have been possible for a long time – but become much easier to implement and maintain when data flows freely between systems. It’s not the technology itself that creates value – it’s how you use it.
It's about understanding your customers' needs – and giving them an experience that matches. Personalized experiences increase both customer loyalty and conversion rates because customers feel that you understand their business and make it easy to shop.
Get the full overview with BI and data platforms
Data from webshop, ERP and PIM can (with the right integrations) be collected in a common data base, e.g. in a Data Warehouse. From here you can use Business Intelligence tools to analyze and visualize business-critical knowledge.
For example, it can be:
- Buying behavior and trends
- Popular products and seasonal fluctuations
- Products with high cart abandonment rates
- Average order values and customer lifetime value
With a common data base, you don't have to pull manual reports from different systems. Instead, you get one overall overview that you can use to make faster and better decisions – in sales, purchasing and strategic management.
At the same time, you strengthen your ability to continuously adapt the webshop. You can act proactively on data and optimize the selection, the user experience and your internal processes.
We help you get even more out of your B2B webshop
Whether you are looking to build a new B2B webshop from scratch or want to optimize and integrate your existing one, we can help. At itpilot, we have extensive experience with both system integrations and the development of e-commerce solutions in e.g. Magento, WooCommerce og PrestaShop - and we always adapt our solutions to your needs and goals.
We are not tied to specific platforms, but always work based on what creates the most value for you. And we are with you all the way – from initial analysis to finished solution and further development.
Contact us for a non-binding conversation about how we can help you with a B2B webshop that is connected to your business. Call us on +45 87 25 07 87 or fill out the contact form.
