If you are selling consumer packaged goods, offering your product online to consumers is indispensable. Plenty of platforms such as Shopify, Woocommerce or Squarespace offer solutions to quickly build an e-commerce website to sell directly to end consumers. However, selling products online to other businesses while you are already managing a direct-to-consumer platform is much less common practice, especially for small and medium businesses.
In this article, we will discuss the challenges of selling B2B online and present one popular solution: Cin7.
Challenges of selling B2B online
The process and the logistics of selling online to other businesses can be very different to their B2C counterparts. Here are some of the challenges faced:
The decision making process is longer and more complicated: the relationship between seller and buyer is typically established for the long term and often requires the exchange of information not typically available to the public
Confusion over pricing, discounts and payment methods
Managing the B2B ecommerce platform: it can be very time consuming, especially if it is not integrated with your current platforms and Inventory Management System (if you have one)
Why choose Cin7 for selling to your B2B customers
B2B ecommerce is the new frontier in ecommerce. With more and more Direct-To-Consumer brands extending their offering to other businesses, there's a huge opportunity to increase your revenues and/or automate your current business by giving your wholesale accounts access to an online platform : no more orders over the phone or email!
"... giving your wholesale accounts access to an online platform: no more orders over the phone or email!"
But it's not as easy as just putting an ecommerce site up on the web and waiting for business to come rolling in. You also need a system that can manage invoices, payments, inventory management and more without getting overwhelmed.
That's where Cin7 comes in. It's built from the ground up to handle all of those tasks so you don't have to worry about them when running a B2B ecommerce store. Its B2B ecommerce module is fully integrated into its inventory management system and it connects to Xero and Quickbooks: you have control of your overall inventory and of your finances.
Features of Cin7 and of its B2B module
Features and benefits of Cin7 in regards to your overall business and B2B
Here is an overview of the main features offered by Cin7:
Procurement: facilitates efficient supplier management, purchase order creation, and tracking, ensuring that inventory levels meet demand without excess.
Production: supports bill of materials management, assemblies or disassemblies, production scheduling, and workflow tracking. It enables businesses to efficiently manage their manufacturing operations from raw materials to finished goods.
Inventory management: get an overview of your entire inventory in one place and manage it across sales channel
Product listings: list your products on the B2B eCommerce module and show SRP and wholesale prices.
Order management: see all your orders from your Direct-to-Consumer website, your B2B website or manual, in one place.
Multi-channel integrations: integrate with popular ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, Woocommerce, BigCommerce or channels such as Amazon, Ebay, Walmart …
Offline and online B2B sales: capture your B2B sales manually or acquire and sales to wholesale customers directly online via the B2B ecommerce module (more on this in the next section)
Customizable reporting: get reporting for procurement, sale, inventory, finances or production.
Accounting integration to Xero or Quickbooks: your inventory, sales and COGS flows straight into those platforms. If you wonder how to get setup to track your financials results for tax and management purposes, we invite you to read this post.
The features and benefits of the B2B ecommerce module of Cin7
The B2B ecommerce module of Cin7 is relatively easy to set-up and offers the following core features:
Password protected access to the website
Branded and customizable website interface
Tailored price
Minimum order quantity per product
Minimum and maximum order value
Centralized inventory management
Online payment via Stripe, Quickbooks Online Payments, Paypal ...
Display of Suggested Retail Price and Wholesale Price
Tracking of online traffic and of abandoned cart
Creation of B2B promotional code
Example of how Cin7 and its ecommerce module can fit within your supply chain and financial set-up
When you should absolutely consider Cin7 to operate your business
If you have checked multiple items on the list above, you should definitely consider Cin7 to launch your B2B Ecommerce business.
You manage the manufacturing of your products for raw materials to finished goods.
You sell consumer packaged goods online to individuals on a major online platform such Shopify, Squarespace, Woocommerce and wish to extend your offering to wholesale customers.
You sell your products to small independent retailers and/or e-commerce players such as Amazon, Etsy or Walmart.
You use Xero or Quickbooks for your bookkeeping and accounting.
When Cin7 might not be a good option for your company
Cost Sensitivity: If a company has a limited budget, Cin7 might be considered too expensive, especially for startups or small businesses that do not require advanced features.
Low Complexity Needs: Businesses with very simple inventory and order management needs might find Cin7 overly complex. Companies that only need basic stock level tracking and order processing may benefit more from simpler, less expensive software.
Industry-Specific Needs: Companies in specialized industries might require specific features that Cin7 does not offer.
Integration Limitations: While Cin7 integrates with many third-party applications, some businesses may use niche software for which Cin7 does not have native support.
Pricing
When this article was published, the standard pricing offered was $599 (USD) per month for the Pro version of Cin7 Core which includes the B2B module.
If you want to implement Cin7 Core and to take full advantage of all the bells and whistles it has to offer (including selling online to your wholesale customers), we can help you implement it and leverage all its capabilities. Contact us at info@olariconsulting.com or by sending a message from this page. Thank you.
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