Distance selling has come a long way since Sears & Roebuck began publishing their famous product catalog in 1898. Paper catalogs had a good run, dominating for over 100 years, but eCommerce changed everything with searchable, online B2C catalogs.
Today, online catalogs are essential for all types of eCommerce sales, but B2B eCommerce products require technology that goes above and beyond what’s used in B2C catalogs. We’ll explore the unique requirements of B2B catalogs, along with the essential technology that every B2B eCommerce website should include in their online store’s catalog.
What is a B2B eCommerce Catalog?
A B2B eCommerce catalog is a complete collection of a company’s product offerings, specifically designed for business buyers. It differs from a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) catalog in a number of ways, due to the complex, multifaceted nature of B2B sales—which we’ll discuss in more detail.
A fully optimized B2B eCommerce catalog requires powerful technology, starting with a cutting-edge B2B eCommerce platform that allows for customization based on the company’s products, business model, industry, and customer requirements.
How Does a B2B eCommerce Catalog Differ from B2C?
B2B eCommerce catalogs require advanced functionality that usually isn’t necessary for the B2C market. Here are some of the unique requirements for complex B2B product catalogs.
Segmentation by industry: Many B2B eCommerce businesses sell to a variety of customers across different segments. For example, Grainger is an industrial supply company that sells to many different types of businesses: Manufacturing, healthcare, education, and more.
Advanced segmentation allows them to create a separate catalog experience and present offerings relevant to each buyer’s specific industry. That way, they don’t have to wade through products that aren’t relevant to their businesses.
In-depth product descriptions: B2B buyers often require detailed information on the products they’re researching. For example, Labconco supplies scientific equipment to laboratories, and their B2B customers often review detailed information before making decisions. As such, their product catalog includes in-depth buyer’s guides. Many companies also include videos and other content to guide buyers, stakeholders, and decision-makers who sign off on orders.
Complex integrations: B2B catalogs often integrate with other applications to better serve the business market. This includes CRM integrations, allowing sales staff to review data, buyer behavior, purchase history, and more. Armed with this data, they can provide personal attention to their customers and introduce them to products that solve their problems.
It also includes integration with ERP software, warehouse management software, and supply chain software. Each of these integrations helps B2B companies better serve their customers with everything from efficient bulk-order fulfillment to real-time updates.
Order processing and purchase options: B2B catalogs typically accommodate negotiated pricing, bulk orders, complex approval processes, and other features that are irrelevant to B2C sales. A robust B2B eCommerce platform allows you to create a customer portal where business buyers can see their negotiated pricing automatically, place bulk orders, gain approvals, track fulfillment, and more.
Keep reading to learn about some of the underlying technology that creates these benefits and how the most effective B2B eCommerce solutions make use of them.
Curious to see some examples of strong B2B eCommerce websites that do it right? Check out our post about top B2B eCommerce website examples.
Why Does My B2B eCommerce Business Need a Well-Optimized Catalog?
Optimizing your B2B eCommerce catalog will grant you a strong competitive advantage by delivering a seamless customer journey to your professional buyers. Whatever you can do to make it easier for them to understand your offerings, find the products they need, and simplify the buying process will work in your favor.
It’s an effective way to showcase your products
Effectively showcasing your products is one of your product catalog’s most essential jobs. A fully optimized B2B catalog makes it easier to showcase your products in a number of ways, including:
- Increased product visibility: A well-designed catalog displays products in effective ways, both in terms of placing product images strategically and showing alternative products to buyers.
- Effective product descriptions: A good B2B catalog displays product information clearly without distracting visitors through excess text. You can always provide links to learn more and buttons that let visitors expand text to read more in-depth descriptions.
- Personalization: Good B2B platforms can integrate with software products like Algolia to show personalized content within a user’s online catalog. This allows you to offer special deals and push specific products based on a buyer’s order history and online behavior.
Remember, product placement is key to any marketing mix because clients won’t buy something if they don’t know you sell it. A fully optimized B2B catalog gets the right products in front of eager buyers.
It offers easy search and filter functionality
Business buyers need to sort through massive catalogs to find the products they need. You can make their lives easier (and earn their loyalty) by using a platform that employs powerful search technology—allowing customers to search by SKU, product category, past orders, and more.
Some of the technologies used to optimize B2B catalog searches include:
- Full-text search engines: Full-text search engines will index your products by key data points (e.g., SKUs, keywords, product categories, and lines). Elasticsearch and Apache Solr are two full-text search engines that make this possible.
- A fully integrated database: Database integration maps different product characteristics across your database, making it easier to connect a set of keywords to a given SKU, for example.
- Cross-linking: Cross-linking connects content to specific products to boost discoverability.
- Search suggestions: Based on a user’s search and purchase history, your website can make suggestions and autocomplete fields to expedite the process.
The easier you make it for your buyers to find the products they need, the more likely they are to keep coming back.
It streamlines the B2B buying process
A study by McKinsey found that companies that work to improve their customer experience deliver a 3X return to shareholders. One way to improve the customer experience is to simplify and expedite it, making it easy to go from that initial product search to fulfillment.
An optimized B2B catalog improves and streamlines the customer journey through:
- Powerful filters and advanced search capabilities
- Easy access to buyer’s guides (text and sometimes video)
- Efficient checkout
- Tracking and fulfillment updates
Each of these improvements is made possible through the integration and search technology mentioned above. Your company can also benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), which will help you process data to better understand the customer journey.
What Are the Differences Between Paper Catalogs and Digital Catalogs?
Fun fact: The oldest catalog in human history was from the early Renaissance, published using a printing press in Venice in 1498 by an early bookseller.
Surprisingly, catalogs didn’t change much for the next 100 years, but today’s electronic catalogs—even the simplest B2C catalogs—are unrecognizable from the print catalogs of the past.
Online product catalogs aren’t limited by physical material or heavy production costs associated with each update. They’re also environmentally friendly, of course, and offer vast search capabilities.
All those advantages are readily apparent, but what many outside the marketing industry don’t realize is that online product catalogs offer the opportunity to collect massive amounts of data. That alone is one of the biggest benefits of a B2B eCommerce strategy.
Using AI to analyze user behavior, eCommerce companies can predict market trends, analyze their User Experience (UX), and build a strong competitive advantage.
What Are Some Must-have Features of a B2B eCommerce Catalog?
Getting the most out of your B2B eCommerce site means optimizing your product catalog, but where should you begin? What are the essential components of an online catalog? Here we explore six key B2B eCommerce features your catalog should incorporate.
ERP integration
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software provides fully integrated data on every aspect of a business, including accounting, human resources, supply chain management, and more.
One of the most amazing things about today’s online catalogs is that, through the power of APIs, they can integrate seamlessly with your product catalog. This offers management and leadership clear visibility related to product sales, logistics, forecasting, and much more.
Inventory management system integration
Product Information Management (PIM) software like Akeneo provides real-time updates for warehousing logistics data by integrating directly with your product catalog and tracking orders. This makes it easier to ensure that your warehouse is fully stocked and that customers receive their orders on time, with zero hassles.
Product tags and categories
Taxonomy is the science of categorizing things and grouping them into logical hierarchies, and it’s essential for a robust B2B eCommerce catalog to employ well-reasoned taxonomy. Grouping your product listings according to tags and categories not only makes search easier, but it also makes it easier to segment according to different vertical markets and client types.
Dynamic filters and search features
Flexible, dynamic search features allow customers to search based on different criteria. By offering a wide range of filters (such as price, manufacturer, product line, category, etc.), you will make it easier for customers to find what they need quickly.
As we mentioned above, database integration is key, along with full-text search options made possible by tools like Elasticsearch, which we mentioned above.
Flexible CMS for scalable content
Composable Content Management System (CMS) software like Contentful makes it easy to update product information within your catalog, including changing descriptions, swapping photos, updating prices, adding buyer guides, and featuring new products.
Mobile-first design
Mobile traffic makes up more than half of all internet traffic today, making mobile-first design in B2B eCommerce essential. Mobile-first design means designing eCommerce catalogs and websites to function seamlessly on iPads and phones. You may even find it helpful to build a mobile app for your business if demand is strong enough.
This list just scratches the surface of the many things you can do with a cutting-edge eCommerce website and catalog, but it covers the fundamentals. Once you’ve implemented those must-haves, you can build on them to create a powerful, user-friendly catalog that keeps customers coming back.
What Are Some Best Practices for B2B eCommerce Catalog Management?
B2B eCommerce is becoming a mature industry, and as such, experts have identified some fundamental best practices that pave the way for success when building a B2B eCommerce catalog. Following these best practices will help you overcome a number of significant B2B eCommerce challenges.
Focus on the customer experience
You’ll notice that all of these best practices center around the customer. After all, happy customers are the cornerstone of a strong business.
Think carefully about how your User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) create a pleasant experience—where users intuitively know which buttons to click to achieve their goals. Conduct user testing throughout the design and development process (and beyond), continually refining your catalog to ensure a seamless customer journey.
Include detailed product descriptions
Clear product descriptions and detailed product data make for happy B2B buyers. While detailed product descriptions are important for all eCommerce catalogs, they’re absolutely vital for B2B businesses since professional buyers tend to be more informed and more likely to research their purchases. After all, their jobs depend on it!
Add professional-quality images
Professional images are essential for building a smooth customer experience. They not only attract more buyers due to their aesthetics, but they help buyers make informed decisions.
No B2B eCommerce catalog is complete without high-quality product photos, and some products even benefit from 3D modeling and Augmented Reality (AR) tech. For example, office furniture companies can use AR to let buyers see what products will look like in their workplace.
Streamline the ordering (and re-ordering) process
Another important application of UX involves studying workflows to optimize the ordering process and automate reordering. Whatever you can do to help buyers do their jobs faster with fewer headaches, the more competitive your business will become.
Looking to optimize your B2B eCommerce catalog or website?
Over the past 24 years, Net Solutions has worked with household names like Xerox and the Harvard Business Review to build award-winning software and technology solutions—including fully optimized B2B eCommerce websites and catalogs for companies like Euro Car Parts.
If you’re looking to build or improve a B2B eCommerce catalog and capture more market share, schedule a free consultation today.
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