Starting an online store and building an eCommerce business is significant for every brand.
That is why building your eCommerce store the correct way is so crucial. Selecting the right eCommerce platform is one of the most important decisions of your eCommerce journey.
The eCommerce platform you choose handles your business’s website, marketing, sales, and operations. So it is essential to select the right B2B eCommerce platform for your business.
Today, we will discuss some vital things to remember while picking the best eCommerce platform. These things will help you to choose the best B2B eCommerce platform for your business, helping it grow substantially.
Table of Contents
Things to Keep in Mind While Picking the Best eCommerce Platform
Hosting and Ownership
Since the eCommerce market is rising, businesses are quickly establishing their online presence. Most businesses with little to no tech expertise prefer using SaaS eCommerce platforms. These platforms have a faster market go-to time compared to traditional SaaS platforms.
The updates, security, hosting, and other software management tasks are taken care of by the SaaS eCommerce platform. By paying a monthly or annual fee, businesses own the eCommerce store.
It is vital to clear the hosting and ownership details with your eCommerce platform so that you don’t get into any conflict in the future.
Cost
Many eCommerce platforms are advertising low rates for deploying websites. These low rates cover an entry-level website for your business.
You, as a business, should understand that there’s a big difference between just a website and a fully functional website. Your eCommerce store should be convenient for both you and the customers.
Make a comprehensive list of the features and integrations you want in your online store. Discuss the overall cost of deployment and ownership of the store. Do not leave the costing discussions for the feature and ask for the cost of deployment, management, license, and contract details.
Vendor Experience and Expertise
You can choose the best eCommerce platform but fail to grow just because your chosen platform doesn’t have the experience and expertise in your field. It often happens in the B2B eCommerce sphere as most businesses follow the herd mentality and choose the popular eCommerce platform
Analyze the type of products you will sell online and then choose an eCommerce platform with good experience in that particular sector. Their knowledge and expertise will help your eCommerce store grow rapidly and overcome many challenges.
Take VARStreet, for example; they have been providing B2B eCommerce software for office supplies for many years. Because of their experience and expertise, they can help many B2B eCommerce businesses grow in no time.
Integrations with Other Tools
Even a small eCommerce business uses many tools like sales quoting software, CRM, sales and logistics tools, analytics tools, etc. Hence, the eCommerce platform should provide seamless integration with all your tools. Your eCommerce platform should provide some good business tools along with third-party integrations.
Focus on UI and UX
UI and UX are two crucial elements of any website or online store. In most cases, they are so important that they decide whether a customer will revisit your online store. Your eCommerce platform should provide you with good website customization options.
The site should be SEO-friendly and compatible with mobile devices. Apart from UI, User Experience(UX) is also an integral part of a website. Users should have a seamless shopping experience from your online store. Make sure to find an eCommerce platform that prioritizes both UI and UX.
Scope for Scalability
The ultimate goal for any business is growth, and if you provide quality services and products to your customers, nothing will stop your business from growing. However, your eCommerce platform should be competent to handle the growth.
Choose a platform that can be scaled as the influx of customers grows. Always look for platforms that are known to handle loads efficiently and can be scaled for big bandwidths. Selecting an eCommerce platform is tedious, and you can’t repeat it every time you have an influx of customers.
Ability to Personalize
One big issue with SaaS platforms is that they are generally built on the same codebase. That is why everyone has the same technology.
In a competitive market sphere where many VARs are selling the same products, you can’t afford to have the same site as other VARs. So it is vital to find a B2B eCommerce platform for VARs that can personalize the eCommerce platform.
VARStreet is an eCommerce platform that offers many different templates to choose from. Using the templates, you can design an online store perfect for you and personalize your eCommerce store.
Security
Security is a big concern for modern customers as all eCommerce stores require customers to provide their names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. The modern-day consumer wants better control over their data, and they see the security of your website. The eCommerce platform’s responsibility is to provide good security protocols to keep the customer data and eCommerce store safe from bad actors.
Payment Options
Customers prefer having many payment options, which is only possible if your eCommerce platform integrates with all the major payment gateways. While it may sound simple, not all eCommerce platforms have integrations with major payment gateways. Customers prefer using eWallets like Apple Pay, Venmo, Samsung Pay, etc. Just make sure to get an eCommerce platform that provides maximum payment options.
Customer Review System
To grow your business, you need more customers, and more customers are easily attracted by legitimate reviews of the products you provide. There is no better marketing than reviews and testimonials.
Find a B2B eCommerce platform that provides built-in customer review systems or third-party integrations allowing customer ratings and reviews. Ratings and reviews help build credibility for the site and the products you sell. This significantly helps in customer retention.
Closing Thoughts
Selecting the right eCommerce platform is tedious and vital at the same time. Make sure you meditate on all the above-mentioned points before choosing a B2B eCommerce platform for your business. Finding an eCommerce platform with good hosting, security features, and expertise in the field is always good. They should be able to provide integrations for your business tools and have a good focus on the UI and UX of the online store.
If you are planning to start your B2B eCommerce journey, reach out to VARStreet to get expert advice on starting a successful B2B eCommerce store for VARs.
