{"id":6069,"date":"2023-07-27T13:49:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T13:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digicommercegroup.com\/insights\/?p=6069"},"modified":"2023-07-27T14:02:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T14:02:13","slug":"scaling-your-b2b-digital-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digicommercegroup.com\/insights\/scaling-your-b2b-digital-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaling Your B2B Digital Commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to our new \u201cScaling B2B eCommerce\u201d series published with our partner at\u00a0UltraCommerce<\/strong>. We will be covering how B2B businesses of all sizes can plan, launch and manage eCommerce storefronts and infrastructure that will support their businesses today, but also in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to success for any eCommerce platform implementation as part of a digital commerce initiative rests on the support that the platform can adapt and scale into the rest of the business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These challenges of scale begin to appear slowly over time as the business changes to meet new business realities. We\u2019ve quickly moved from a single digital channel into multiple online, in-person, and hybrid options. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowhere are the challenges felt more, especially recently, to the business than in the development and support of new sales channels. Before describing solutions and reviewing options to ensure that a digital platform can support sales channel scale, let\u2019s define what a sales channel means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our definition \u2013 is a \u201cstorefront<\/a><\/strong>\u201d where a customer can purchase your company’s products online or in person whether you are charging the customer for that product or not. Traditionally sales channel types would include websites, retail stores but also tradeshows, apps, and now marketplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting New Sales Channels<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan we even open another sales channel?\u201d Starting at Step 1, is your existing provider even able to support another sales channel? Secondly, can all systems allow or support a new sales channel within a new platform or existing infrastructure? Many SaaS commerce providers and legacy plugin-based commerce systems require another \u201caccount\u201d to support scaling to new sales channels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costs to support new channels<\/strong>
With several integration options for sales and investment, what does the monthly SaaS\/service bill look like when adding another site or sales channel to an existing platform? If considering a move to a new provider, we recommend considering getting two different pricing structures \u2013 (1) showing your current environment and (2) details on an estimated sales channel environment \u2013 2 B2B storefronts\/websites, marketplace, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Workaround Trap<\/strong>
Urgent deadlines and the rush to get a new digital sales channel live can seem impossible without a workaround or hacked solution. \u201cLet\u2019s just sign up and get something live quickly\u201d can sound like a rapid fix, however, as time goes by, the cost to re-platform that \u201cquick win\u201d grows significantly. Be careful of any quick launch digital storefronts that inhibit flexibility in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Platform To Rule Them All<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know it wasn\u2019t the right way, but we had to get it done\u201d – Moving the business into new markets too quickly without planning leads to integration challenges but also opens up the risk of data duplication across systems where there is a separate database with account information, order history and product information for each storefront. How can you move quickly, but maintain connections to a single record system?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Challenges:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who Owns What<\/strong>
Account, product, and order data are likely to change daily and as a result,  your team is going to want to designate a single system to \u201cown\u201d that data. There may be several different sales channels requesting product pricing or account information, where “should” those storefronts be asking for data from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integration Warning<\/strong>
Be worried if your team isn\u2019t spending time doing integration planning and development. Oftentimes, building the integrations will take as much time as building a storefront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sync Data When You Have To<\/strong>
Ideally, you can keep things simple and leave ownership in as few systems and platforms as possible. When you cannot operate multiple sales channels through a single platform, you risk having overlapping, duplicate or out-of-date data in multiple systems. For example, will all sales channels pull the same product price, item descriptions, and images from the same system? It sounds simple, but as channels scale, the gaps or delays caused by failing syncs begin to cost the business more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scaling Channel Order Management<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Scaling your business with new storefronts, marketplaces and other sales channels is an opportunity to grow, but may also cause significant order management<\/a><\/strong> challenges. Delivery, fulfillment, and inventory weaknesses are exposed more when you have multiple storefronts connecting to those systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scaling
Scaling B2B eCommerce: With a Successful Order Management System<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Key Challenges:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n