Why do you implement a B2B eCommerce system wrong?
It seems that generally everyone knows how to implement B2B eCommerce systems. We have over 8 years of experience on this market and we have seen how popular advice and assumptions led many companies astray. Below we have compiled the most common myths, often repeated by IT companies — which are false (at least partially).
[This article comes from Divante blog]
Collect the requirements of your business
Gathering business requirements from all departments of the company seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, these people usually don’t know what their customers really need. Thus, they submit any information that comes to mind. About 40% of briefs that are conducted by Divante have contradictory, mutually exclusive requirements. Meanwhile, B2B customers already use online shopping and you can start from proposing them a system that will allow them to order in a familiar way. Start with the implementation of features known from B2C systems. Customers would voluntarily submit their requirements, which in turn you can implement to your system.
Gather customer needs
Asking customers is of course important, but their actions are much more important than their declarations. By asking, you won’t learn whether customers will actually use the system. If you start a project by asking customers about their opinion, you may get stuck on a never-ending design process. It will make the implementation longer and more complicated, increasing the risk of failure. The best solution is to run a ready-made, proven solution and listen carefully to the needs of customers. You can use tools such as online surveys, a/b tests, livechat, user tests. All of them will show you how real customers are using the system and what their needs are. Think about the reversed order — first run, then examine, develop and optimize.
Outsource IT
Typically, B2B companies are not IT companies. They believe that IT is not their core competence, so they to outsource it. However, in our experience all the most successful in B2B eCommerce develop their IT skills.Lack of IT competence disables your long-term planning, utilizing the full potential of technology and synergy. Outsourcing will allow you to create and run the application faster, but need to develop your competence at the same time. Therefore, the choice of Open Source software may be the best option. The first version of the application is built by an external contractor, bringing its know-how and transferring it to your organization. Unfortunately, it is impossible to realize such model with SaaS software, thus it’s not a good choice for companies seriously thinking about B2B eCommerce.
