eCommerce portals: What you need to know

When it comes to B2B eCommerce, the eCommerce portal is where the magic happens – whether you’re a buyer or a brand.

Here’s your quick 101 guide to: 

• What eCommerce portals are  
• How they benefit your business
• Choosing the right platform
• Brand portals vs. buyer portals

What you need to know about eCommerce portals 

An eCommerce portal is basically an online wholesale hub. Brands showcase their products and key information to sell to their B2B customers online. Buyers use their wholesale eCommerce portals (such as a buyer login for NuORDER), to browse and shop brands from around the globe. With features ranging from rich multimedia images to important integrations with ERPs for live, accurate inventory information, they’ve become an essential part of the industry.

The benefits of B2B ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS 

Having everything in one online portal has been game-changing. 

Buyers and brands are buying and selling from anywhere, 24/7. They’re reducing or eliminating human error and cutting down on paperwork and travel. And B2B eCommerce systems are accelerating the industry's transition to virtual and hybrid sales with easy 1-click shopping, true-to-life product details, remote collaboration, and payments support, such as automatically collecting payment upon shipping. 

Choosing a B2B eCommerce platform

If you are ready to make the commitment to move to a B2B eCommerce platform, look for a solution that has the best features:

1. Virtual showroom
2. 360-images 
3. Shoppable photos and videos 
4. Native payment solutions
5. Instant financing 
6. Collaborative tools (e.g. whiteboard)

Brand portals and buyer portals: key differences

NuORDER’s brand and buyer portals have a lot of features in common. They’re also standardized yet customizable, so they’re always straightforward and easy to navigate. 

Still, they differ in a few important ways...

With a brand portal, you can:

• Customize your portal’s homepage 
  It should feature similar branding to your B2C website’s homepage
• Create personalized linesheets
• Set custom prices and languages 
  For specific stores or an international chain
• Upload photos, videos, marketing campaigns, press clippings, size charts
• Share a social media feed 
  Such as your latest Instagram posts
• Create a virtual showroom
• Access in-depth data and insights 

You can use your buyer portal to:

• Access a database of brands from around the globe
• View their virtual showrooms, digital catalogs and linesheets 
• Create budgets and compare inventory to plan 
• Track changes with a history of unlimited versions

Pro Tip: Help buyers navigate your NuORDER portal with a strategically-merchandised homepage. Feature key designs from your latest collection, on-brand colors and fonts, images or videos from your latest campaign, a mood board or inspiration and a quick link to your linesheets for fast and easy shopping.

 How to use your wholesale eCommerce platform for Fall/Winter 2022 

1. Share your portal with buyers ahead of the show.
2. 1. 1. 1. Use your B2B eCommerce platform to create seasonal product stories marketed to their unique target markets and needs.
         2. Finally, invite your wholesale clients to shop your digital showroom via a personalized e-mail marketing campaign using your B2B eCommerce platform.

         NuORDER is a B2B ECommerce platform and marketplace, connecting retailers and brands and streamlining the wholesale process for virtual, hybrid and in-person market appointments. The NuORDER platform offers a seamless and collaborative way to do business with interactive and customizable solutions, easy POS payments, real-time inventory insights, comprehensive data and more for increasingly informed buying decisions, all in one convenient Ecommerce portal. Request a demo today to explore the possibilities for your wholesale business.