Top 5 reasons why your B2B Business Needs an Ecommerce Website

What is B2B eCommerce?

B2B eCommerce refers to online order transactions between two businesses. Orders are processed digitally, buying efficiency is improved for wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors and other types of B2B sellers.

Types of B2B eCommerce are:

B2B2C

Wholesale

Manufacturers

Distributors

Going wholesale from being customer focused

It was not long before that B2B relationships existed on a face-to-face with more of personal interaction rather than online. Before the advent of eCommerce and digital marketing all businesses were based on a personal level with the customer. While this type of B2B relationship still exists, more companies are looking to eCommerce solutions to increase the ease and transparency when transacting with other businesses or customers. 

According to a study, B2B eCommerce growth shows an upsurge since 2015. The report also suggests that these numbers will continue to climb. With growing numbers like these, it may be time for you to consider building  an eCommerce-enabled website to catch the wave of this digital transformation in B2B commerce. It is advisable to keep up the pace according to the times. Adapting to changes in the market will help your business sustain and be ahead in the market scenario.

I agree it may be overwhelming and intimidating for business owners to find the right time and connection  to jump onto the eCommerce setup. The comfort and security of a successful offline operation keeps many potential entrants out of the B2B eCommerce marketplace. The thought of venturing out into a new game is always threatening. But the challenge here is to come out of the comfort zone and jump into the trends of the latest market. An eCommerce offering can make your business easier to discover and more accessible to a broader pool of potential customers. 

So, why create boundaries or limitations for your business when spreading out your reach can be easily accessed within the comfort of your home or office.

Here are 5 reasons that your business needs to launch eCommerce capabilities.  

1. Makes repeat orders easier and seamless

.As a preferred supplier of your current B2B customers, you’ve earned their repeat business and can count on their sales to generate income. With an online presence, why not make it easier and more seamless for them to buy from you without having to go through the same procedures each time? 

An eCommerce platform allows repeat customers to automatically purchase and re-purchase your products and services speedily, without an extra step of getting in touch with a representative. This saves time for you and your customers.

2. Beats the competitors

In all probability your biggest competitors are already on the online trend, keeping you way behind in the race. Indeed, B2B buyers are increasingly more comfortable with purchasing their products and services online. And as more “digital natives” move into roles where they are making B2B purchase decisions, B2B online shopping will become more commonplace. It is a guarantee that your eCommerce B2B website is a surefire way to future-proof your business. 

3. Data Will Help You create a differentiator 

In the times of clutter, finding a differentiator is a challenge. A new and/or improved eCommerce-enabled website can help you find new opportunities or customers easily. When you create a comprehensive B2B website, you are providing your customers with a more convenient way to research and purchase products. In return, you get a plethora of data about their preferences, what types of information leads them to buy, and more. This information can then be used to guide your marketing strategy for new business, and it can help you streamline and perfect your customer experience so that you are meeting the needs of these B2B buyers. 

For example, if you attach a robust analytics feature to your B2B eCommerce website, you can compile data to help you understand how your customers behave online, and catalog what their unique needs are. This will help you understand the needs of the customer and therefore create a unique, customised product. The saturated business market that you find yourself in may begin to thin out, since you can gain a competitive advantage through your data. 

4. Heightened Customers Expectations 

The concept of B2B ecommerce offers better management of both the suppliers and customers. Going digital means you can leverage software solutions for ecommerce business management. This will show you data about how your customers shop.

You’ll be able to use this information to create better, more personalized shopping experiences for your customers. Essentially, the whole initiative is a win-win for both parties.

Transforming your business through B2B eCommerce and digital marketing will offer your more digitally-minded customers the same type of transactions they are used to in their B2C purchases, while providing them with B2B products and services. 

5. Upgrading your website

Technology never ceases to innovate. Many older B2B websites are not equipped to handle the latest requirements. Regardless of your product offerings, potential customers might pass over your business for another if your website is outdated, lacks functionality and/or mobile-enabled.

While some of these older websites were the backbone of initial B2B processes, many are now challenging to navigate, full of cumbersome forms, and are more hassling. The cost of trying to keep these types of B2B sites up and running in today’s market far outweighs the price for creating a new eCommerce website platform. Other challenges with older sites are that they aren’t typically mobile-enabled, and they cannot support emerging touch points such as chatbots and 360-video, for example. By creating a latest eCommerce website you will be at par with the latest trends of online business. 

The common belief that online ordering is cold.

One of the best ways to make sure a customer doesn’t go to a competitor is by building a long-term, personal relationship with them. This is why so many B2B businesses are family-owned and operated by owners themselves. There’s a personal touch to being one of the family.

Whereas an online store can seem cold in comparison, but it doesn’t have to be. Especially now that Millennials are at the forefront of many B2B buying decisions, buyers are looking for a streamlined digital purchasing experience.

With 24/7 chat technology that can turn an online chat on your store into a text on your phone, the new generation can communicate efficiently and effectively in their preferred communication channel: text, Facebook /Instagram messenger or a variety of other options.

In fact, this type of customer service is not only easy to set up, it is highly desired by customers across the board.

Increasing your speed to respond to a customer is today’s version of quality, face-to-face interactions.

What are you still waiting for? It is time to make the plunge and delve into the nuances of the market and explore new ways to expand your business.

It is time to move your business into the B2B eCommerce marketplace. Holding back could hold your company back from experiencing an entirely new group of potential buyers and stagnating business growth. Offline businesses may begin to lose their competitive advantage as they continue to rely on older methods, while new entrants and competitors fly past them with more innovative technology and eCommerce platforms. It is time to embrace the change and dive headfirst into B2B eCommerce. Expand smERP is India’s best fit solution for your eCommerce needs.

 

To know more details contact us at +91 9007026542.

Is it the right idea to have existing Accounting software integrate with advanced ERP solutions

The proverb, the more the merrier might not prove to be true for goal oriented business men, when it comes to picking the best business management solution for a company. However, for some, this could be just as valid as the battle of ERP vs CRM, HRM & Accounting softwares for picking them as a single solution or not always plays a dilemma on the minds of entrepreneurs. This is a confusion that if not addressed correctly might affect the overall business process in the long run.

Initially, you might have felt that your company wouldn’t require the service of a complete ERP solution and thus you decided to get just CRM, HRM or Accounting as a separate solution. However, after a few months, you started to realize that it is becoming cumbersome to maintain separate solutions for each department of CR, HR & Finance. It is at this juncture that you will feel the need for a fully integrated  Enterprise Resource Planning that can maintain and communicate data inter-department.

What happens when you have separate softwares to serve various departments?

For example;

Accounting softwares 

It works as a basic financial accounting system for a company that provides accounting-related information mostly helpful for the future strategy-making for the business. The accounting solution enables tracking of financial data centrally within the international system of multiple languages, organizations, currencies, charts of accounts.The solution also helps in generating general ledger, account payables & receivables of the company transaction. Also when it comes to managing the fixed asset of the enterprise the solution plays a role in maintaining acquisition, depreciation, etc.In many solutions, the functionality also includes a financial process of legal merging of assets, financial status and earning of an association that acts as if it was for a single project. Moreover, it facilitates the opportunity to strategize the commercial parameters of the enterprise. It triggers an early alert in case the influencing factor becomes hard to identify when they become cynical and complicated to analyze. Some popular Accounting softwares are Tally, Zoho, Quickbooks etc.

However, can these softwares manage your warehouse or productions or even strategy planning? The answer is No! 

Which One Is Ideal for Your Business?

Both ERP and the single solutions of CRM, HRM & Accounting has its own purpose to serve in business. But it is also essential to understand when and why you should pick one of these solutions for your company. Otherwise, you might just regret your decision in the future.

Choose complete ERP software as a standalone solution when

• You feel the need for an all-in-one solution to manage the medium to large enterprise with integrated CRM, HRM or Accounting in the same platform
• You want to reduce the cost of overall business process & optimize revenue
• Access to CR, HR & Accounting related information at one place is necessary
• You want a solution that centralizes both front- & back-office business processes
• A company need to consolidate the given information collected from the different functional human resource, customer management, financial department of the enterprise from its framework of integrated CRM, HRM, and Accounting

Choose CRM, HRM or Accounting as a standalone solution when

• You feel the need to use any single solution separately at a time to manage the small to medium-sized business with the company
• You want to enhance your sales, employee satisfaction, account management process individually
• A company wants its related information to be accessed using each individual solution of the separate module
• You are required to utilize the solution to conduct front office activities
• The company needs a collection of data from any single functional module of HR, CR or Accounting at a time.

One Perfect Solution for All Your Business Needs

It is obviously clear by now about the perks of using complete ERP against a single CRM, HRM or Accounting solution. India’s best-fit ERP solution Expand smERP  satisfies all your business requirements for the past 17 years in the most prolific way possible enabling you to activate CRM, HRM or Accounting module totally separately. Adopt Expand ERP for 360 degree business management solution which makes success in business easier to achieve.

 

To know more details contact us at +91 9007026542.

How an advanced ERP can help to improve productivity in the garment industry

The garment industry has been greatly challenged by the growth of a global market of international brands as well as E-Commerce over the last five years. It is a known saying that “Change is the only constant!” Thus the only solution is to adapt to the change and embrace the positives of the current situation.

The solution for the sustenance of the manufacturers in the garment industry has been researched and tested.  It is to meet the updated operations, enhancing supply-chain and distribution to meet customer demand. A best-fit
Apparel ERP is used on a greater scale to get detailed data of orders online, form query responses, effective control and plan and schedule orders accurately. 

ERP is used in the apparel industry for a garment manufacturing process, design, material checking, shipping, and distribution. A fashion ERP provides a centralized database of all the business processes. 

Managing an apparel industry without an ERP Software is close to a disaster. An ERP software for manufacturers in the Apparel industry helps the organization anticipate user demand patterns, wishlists, and clients requirements. As per the latest research of the Apparel Business and ERP Software Industry market provides a comprehensive assessment of the key factors driving the industry growth. It also lists out the existing challenges and opportunities crucial to business expansion in the future.  It provides an economically wide database to enhance business management and boasts a dedicated section for considering leading players. So, the impact of the pandemic is covered too.

Why Does The Fashion Industry Need a Apparel Management Software?

Market dynamics shift on a daily basis, heightening rivalry among clothing brands to attract more customers. Consumers are more drawn to a wide range of options. As a result, if they go shopping, they will look for exclusive deals and schemes. Apparel management software allows you to control costs and losses by organizing inventory. Based on the sales data, you can categorize the least and most common products. It will help you make better choices such as placing new orders, introducing discount plans, and so on.

Apparel software is suitable for large, medium, as well as small apparel brands that want to upgrade their operations and grow fast in the lifestyle market. You get a comprehensive, cost-effective, and adaptable software solution tailored to your company’s requirements. When all on your premises are connected, you will be able to retain more customers. It will allow you to respond to customer inquiries more effectively, increasing your growth revenues.

Top reasons to adopt an Apparel ERP software

A best fit ERP software in the apparel industry offers businesses several benefits in monitoring operations, helping the organizations to plan effectively and work on a unified, seamless platform for greater operational efficiency.

Planning Inventory Management

It lets the business comprehend the basic ideas of cost while maintaining the right mix of merchandise across the organization. Monitoring the state of stock/inventory of the Organization gives a proper picture of the status of the raw material and makes planning and management easier.

Improves Production Planning

With an advanced ERP software,  organizations can draw the best and most cost-effective schedule in planning and control of production.

Increases Accessibility

Digital transformation has made it necessary for key personnel to have access to reports and information 24/7, remotely, from any authorized device.

Enhances Time Management

To fulfil the purchase orders quickly while allocating the right person the right work, ERP software makes it possible. It helps in reducing errors, redundant data entry and other problematic activities. With an ERP software, real-time tracking and reporting of resources at the warehouse, shop floor, procurement, shipment is also possible.

A Hub of Multiple Functions

The dashboard offers a complete view of every department or operation which includes Production, Supply Chain Planning, RCCP, QC, Warehouse Management, Finance, HR, Sales, Marketing, Shop Floor Control.

Accuracy

ERP facilitates prompt decision making, productivity and improves the connection between vendors, customers, and coworkers by offering the correct information to the authorized users who work from anywhere in the world.

Enables inter -Department Collaboration

ERP software for the apparel industry includes a plethora of features. The main benefit of this integrated platform is that it allows employees from any department to use the same system, making data entry, editing, accessing, and transferring information much easier and faster. Thus it promotes better networking and communication among team members and departments, allowing for uninterrupted services during operational hours.

Streamlines business operations

When important business data is spread across multiple platforms, it is difficult to access when needed. As a result, apparel companies frequently find ERP systems useful in consolidating data into a single platform and retrieving information in a common usable format much easier. Furthermore, an apparel ERP system enables role-based permissions, allowing  control  information employees have access to and grant permission only to the appropriate personnel.

Indian Textile Industry is one of the largest industries in India. It is the second largest in terms of providing employment opportunities to more than 35 million people in the country. It contributes to 7% of industrial output in terms of value, 2% of India’s GDP and to 15% of the country’s export earnings. It is quite overwhelming to realize that your textile company contributes to this statistics, knowing how arduous it is to manage a large manufacturing company. To make your business processing simpler, adopt our cutting edge ERP Solution on cloud and let the software manage your business processings.

Expand smERP has integrated solutions for the unique needs of the apparel industry. What is unique to this industry is that the item produced has to be made in different sizes, styles and colors. Apart from Inventory Management and Supply Chain Management, apparel retailers and manufactures have to look after the  Inventory System which looks after the style, size and color of an item. We are well equipped to handle such unique features of the manufacturing of garment industry and take your business to the next level.

 

To know more details contact us at +91 9007026542.