There may be many wholesale eCommerce platforms to choose from, but they differ wildly in terms of features, services, and support. Read this guide to understand why B2B eCommerce is an industry must-have for in-person and online sales, the top features of the best platforms, and the caliber of support to expect for the best service for your business.
Why You Need a B2B Wholesale eCommerce Platform
Times have changed. Digital tools have become a mainstay in our everyday lives – both personally and professionally, and the wholesale business isn’t an exception. There are benefits to digital wholesale – the right digital tools help us reduce errors, streamline operations, collaborate more effectively remotely and across teams, and share key information and rich visual assets to support face-to-face meetings and virtual appointments alike – whether during key market weeks, in-person and virtual trade shows or for in-season orders throughout the year.
Find a wholesale eCommerce solution that will streamline your wholesale process to add efficiencies to in-person selling or for simple sales online. Look for a platform that integrates with your front and back-end systems so it will sync seamlessly and in real-time; this will give you access to clear inventory insights and powerful data. The best platforms are also easy to use, for everyone: you, employees, sales reps, retail store buyers, and influencers (some savvy brands use these systems for gifting programs). Find an intuitive solution with drag-and-drop features to make it simple to rearrange content and update photos, videos, and text.
Like your website, your wholesale eCommerce presence is a vital digital hub. Buyers can visit any time of day, from anywhere around the world to browse or shop your collections, access sizing information, view collection and brand videos, check out your latest press, review delivery dates, colorways, and more. This is the new reality of the wholesale business. Not having a B2B platform to complement in-person and online sales can mean unintentionally make things more difficult for buyers and lead to missed opportunities and lost time.
Finally, B2B eCommerce enhances the professionalism of your brand. It shows buyers that you understand the new era of wholesale, its automated processes simplify operations for everyone involved, and it provides you with many opportunities to help buyers save time. Your wholesale eCommerce portal can be accessed anywhere, any time, and from any type of device (mobile, tablet, or desktop)
The Best Wholesale eCommerce Features for Your Business
High-Quality Multimedia Content
Find a wholesale eCommerce supplier with a rich media offering that supports high-quality images and videos. You should be able to clearly show your products in a digital format while making it easy to discern key details, colors, fit, close-ups, and perspectives from all around; the goal is to bring your products to life in the digital realm. Also, look for special image offerings; for example, NuORDER has shoppable tags so buyers can click on your brand videos to shop. Besides images for your virtual showroom, line sheets, digital catalogs, custom lists, and an ever-changing homepage, you’ll need the ability to produce visually-rich emails in your platform to send performance-tracking campaigns to your wholesale clients.
Visual Assortments
Your B2B eCommerce platform should offer visual assortment tools for your business and for buyers. This allows you to create custom, personalized lists to offer specific assortments to specific retailers, such as assortments handpicked for their target markets or exclusives and limited edition items; find a platform with a great whiteboard tool for merchandising too. Meanwhile, buyers should be able to use such tools to visualize their intended buys before placing orders. This will ensure they’ve covered everything they want from your brand and that their orders are cohesive and effective for in-store or eCommerce visual merchandising– also consider a wholesale eCommerce platform with rich organization options: category, color, and delivery date. Anything you can do to help buyers confirm their needs and serve to improve your relationships can even lead to higher sales.
Easy Orders
The best wholesale eCommerce suppliers make it easy for buyers to order– a non-negotiable in this era of global relationships and frequent in-season buys. Buyers should be able to log into your portal and place buys easily and on their own to encourage higher sales and save time for everyone involved. The best platforms also let buyers log back in to track shipments and easily reorder products. Time-consuming, error-prone processes are also removed including manual paperwork and handwritten orders. A great platform can also help you prevent unfillable orders and erroneous pricing, thanks to real-time inventory updates and back-end integration.
Rich Data and Insights
According to the NuORDER survey report, “The Art of Personalized Selling”, 69% of brands use data to improve wholesale pitches and boost sales. Find a wholesale eCommerce platform that will help you sell smarter and faster to increase revenue, improve operations and strengthen your relationships with wholesale partners. Expect access to tools and data that will help you improve sell-through rates, create better-targeted assortments for retailers, hone your future offerings and identify potential new wholesale customers.
Secure, Direct Payments
Forget about third-party payments. Choose a wholesale eCommerce platform with its own secure wholesale payments system to accept credit card payments, offer multiple payment terms, and get paid faster. For instance, NuORDER offers direct payments and provides buyers with secure digital wallets to store their credit cards. Brands can choose to offer flexible payment terms, simple split payments, and instant payment collection upon shipping.
A Place for Discovery and Collaboration
Your eCommerce platform should also be a place for discovery. For example, NuORDER Marketplace offers smart filters and curated destinations to help buyers discover new brands to carry in their stores. Choose a B2B platform that promotes your business with increased visibility.
Your wholesale eCommerce platform should also make it easier to work collaboratively with buyers. Buyers should be able to preview your collections before your market appointments, tools like digital notes and whiteboard should add clarity, speed, and accuracy to in-person and virtual appointments and buyers should be able to purchase easily whenever they want – whether to reorder best-selling products or to place a small first-time order to give your brand a try.
Customer Service
Finally, you need a wholesale eCommerce platform you can trust. Look for a company that offers full-service onboarding and training, information resources and guides, and 24/7 support via email, phone, and chat. The best companies will also provide you with a dedicated success manager, training and certification for your new staff, and support for such specifics as data integration.
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 payments, real-time inventory insights, comprehensive data, and more for increasingly informed buying decisions.
