Business to business transactions involve one business selling services or products to another business instead a business selling directly to a consumer. For example, let’s say that a book publisher called Books-R-Us purchases the raw materials to create their books from another business called Paper Maker, this is a business to business sell. Now for a transaction to qualify as a B2B ecommerce transaction, your business will work with exchanging electronic business documents with the end result being to conduct commerce. Now say your company falls into this category, you do online sales and you only sale to other businesses, what should you look for in your transactions with other businesses? In addition to needing to be a great planner and very organized, your distributing company should keep in mind things like the benefits of what you do, the order sizes that you will be receiving and the potential for partial delivery needs.
Benefits of B2B Distribution
You will meet many people and get to know a lot of other companies while you work. Marketing is a huge factor, because you want other businesses to rely on yours to come through with their distribution needs. Established businesses will rely on you as another established business to fulfill your end of the B2B transaction. Since you will be working in ecommerce, this will give you the chance to have interactions and build relationships with so many different people, all from the comfort of your office if you like! So let’s discuss the benefits of the business. First off, you will be dealing with instant purchases. The business coming to you will not have to drive over and hand you a check while they sign papers, they can simply seal the deal with a few key strokes on the computer. As an added benefit, they will have the option to set up an account for ease with future transactions. Secondly, because all of your B2B transactions are online, companies will have access to making a purchase around the clock!
B2B order size
Due to the fact that a lot of small transactions will occur between your company and the business that you are distributing to, your B2B ecommerce company will probably be very high volume. Of course, this is a good thing so make sure your company is ready for the high demand. Also keep in mind that you want your buyer-to-be to see all the products or services that you offer and be able to order as much as they need. If you are selling a product, having high resolution images that other businesses can see and quickly flip through may turn out to be very beneficial.
Partial Delivery needs for B2B orders
Sometimes, a business may only need a partial amount of products delivered at a time and the distribution company must be able to accommodate that. This goes back to the fact that your business must be diligent in keeping all records and being very organized. There are many software options to help you keep track of inventory, delivery days, and delivery portions, so that may be something you decide that your company will benefit from. You will be dealing with contracts, so if a business has a contract for 500 windshields a months and in October they prefer 250 every other week, your business needs to be organized and flexible enough to keep track and make that happen.
B2B vs B2C
Business to Business is a lot different than Business to Consumer in a lot of ways. Although B2C is a lot of first come, first served, B2B is more about negotiating and managing contracts. There are a lot of benefits to establishing and successfully running a B2B ecommerce and it can be highly lucrative. You will be making connections with people, potentially from all over the globe, and creating business partners. You will never have to deal with consumers, but rather people already in the business who know what they are talking about and doing. You will learn to trust in other businesses and gain their trust as well. A B2B ecommerce will deal with the raw materials that will be put together to make a product that will be sold to the consumer, you are just the top part of the pyramid.
