In B2B, products are more sophisticated, sales cycles are long, and there are many stakeholders. B2B purchases are far more complicated than B2C ones. There is less impact of buying emotion in the B2B segment as they have high expectations and well understanding of the market. How to make B2B sales easier and provide impeccable…

B2B e-commerce is complex.

In B2B, products are more sophisticated, sales cycles are long, and there are many stakeholders. B2B purchases are far more complicated than B2C ones. There is less impact of buying emotion in the B2B segment as they have high expectations and well understanding of the market. How to make B2B sales easier and provide impeccable service?- The question that is asked more often in the B2B community.

Luckily, there are plenty of B2B tools available in the market, but which one is the best tool for you and why? In this article, we’re going to discuss the best Magento B2B features to help you streamline business processes and get more sales done easily.

But before moving to that, let’s discuss Why Magento is good for your B2B business?

Is Magento Good for B2B?

According to the Forrester Wave report, modern B2B business solutions should provide their clients with simplicity, efficiency, unity, and choice. 

Things to look for when choosing a B2B e-commerce solution 

EASE OF INTEGRATIONS 

Common tools are used, and changes are applied in real-time and do not require manual refreshes to take effect. 

RELEVANT ADD-ONS 

B2B businesses should be able to combine solutions from varied providers and, thus, the transition toward microservice architecture. 

FREQUENT SAAS- BASED UPGRADES 

Continuous deployment models will ensure zero-downtime upgrades and websites that automatically scale during high traffic. 

SMOOTH BUSINESS USER EXPERIENCE 

Vendors should simplify workflows for business users and administrators without major upgrades or disruptions. 

These features enable businesses B2B  to conduct business that aligns with the company’s future goals like scaling, getting more clients, and reaching international markets. Not every e-commerce platform comes with all these business solutions.

For example, 

• Shopify has everything for small businesses; it’s not suitable for enterprises that want to expand and have customizable options for individual vendors.
• Salesforce B2B Commerce is among the leading industry player; yet, its storefront speed is the most common issue we hear all the time.

This makes us question is there any solution available that provides all the features required to grow the B2B business?

Yes. It’s Magento 2.

With Magento Commerce B2B, you get powerful features like personalized buying experiences, detailed reports, search functionality, seamless ordering, merchandising, and more. Magento 2 comes with inbuilt capabilities like ERP, CRM, and other backend systems to streamline your business. Here’s we’ve listed the Magento 2 features to help you grow your business.

9 Best Magento B2B Features 

1. Company Accounts 

In B2B, there are number of people involved with different roles and tasks. Creating corporate and individual accounts is a must in B2B business. Company Accounts allows merchants to manage the roles of individuals within the Magento 2. 

Merchants can sell B2C in Magento, but if they decide to switch to B2B niche, they can use the same platform with separate store manager accounts. Store managers can create tailor-made offers for clients. 

Benefits of Magento Company Account feature:

• Unlimited company users 
• Option to create many accounts
• Smart hierarchical access 
• Set permissions based on role,
• Store credits
• Admin management for all accounts

How to configure this feature?

For Individuals: 

Create an account from the storefront.

• Go to the storefront, and in the upper-right corner, Navigate to Create an Account > Create New Company Account. 
• Fill in the company details > Submit. 

For Merchants: 

• Go to Admin sidebar, navigate to Customers > Companies. 
• Fill in the company’s details. You can create a new one here or manage the old ones. 

2. Shared Catalogs 

With Magento 2, you can create catalogs for specific users. You can create two types of catalogs: 

A public catalog that is visible to all website visitors. And custom, which you can show to only specific users. With custom catalogs, you can create special offers and discounts to companies for your B2B business.

Benefits of Magento Shared Catalogs:

• Customize price-lists for clients 
• Easy inventory management and catalog creation 
• Include/exclude items
• Set different prices for the products 
• Apply fixed/dynamic pricing models 

How to configure this feature?

Create a new one:

• Go to the Admin sidebar and navigate to Catalog > Shared Catalogs. 
• Click Add a Shared Catalog in the upper-right corner. Here you can set types, names, descriptions, and choose tax class.

Update/Duplicate the existing one:

• Go to the Admin sidebar and navigate to Catalog > Shared Catalogs. 
• Select the one you want to clone/duplicate, then navigate to Action > General Settings.
• Choose catalog, click Duplicate and update new type, name, description, and tax class.

3. B2B Quotes

With (B2B) Quotes, you can add an authorized buyer, who can initiate a price quote from the shopping cart.

Admin interface lets merchants manage quote requests; they can also view communication between buyer and seller. Merchants can save views and export data.

It’s a good chance for merchants to create offers and present deals to clients. 

Benefits of Magento B2B Quote:

• Price negotiation based on offers
• Authorized users-only view
• Check the quote status 
• Contact the sales representatives directly
• Set a quote expiration date 
• Accept or reject quotes
• Calculate discounts
• Check total costs, and upscale.

How to configure this feature?

• Go to the Admin sidebar, navigate to Sales > Operations > Quotes. 
• Update the quotes and save them as a draft or send them to the buyer.

4. Quick Order 

With Magento 2 B2B Quick Order feature, customers can make a purchase within a few clicks. Customers only have to enter the product name or SKU number. The best thing about Quick order is it can also be used by guests without logging in.

Benefits of Magento Quick Order:

• Improved Customer Experience
• Fast checkouts
• Improved inventory management
• Quick Estimate calculation

How to configure this feature?

1. Go to the Admin sidebar, and navigate to Stores > Settings > Configuration.
2. On the left panel, go to the General section, select B2B Features > Enable Quick Order > Save Config. 
3. Once you enable the feature, you can see the products eligible for quick orders.

5. Minimum Order Amount 

With the Minimum Order Amount feature, you can control the minimum buying volume per user. Manage the quantity setting, include/exclude products from the minimum amount policy, and more. 

Benefits of Magento Minimum Order Amount:

• Offer free or discounted shipping 
• Increase profit margin
• Estimate your minimum revenue 

How to configure this feature?

1. Go to Admin sidebar and navigate to Stores > Settings > Configuration > Sales.
2. Expand the Minimum Order Amount section, set options you want to apply, click Enable.
3. Adjust settings for Discount amount, Minimum amount, and add Tax to total Amount.
4. Set Description, Error field, & Multi-addresses. Click Save Config. 

6. Requisition Lists 

Requisition lists are similar to wishlists; the only difference is the purchased item won’t disappear from the list. If someone is reordering the same items, these items are always added to the shopping cart, which is great because it saves time to add items automatically. With Magento 2 B2B, you can create up to 999 requisition lists.

Benefits of Magento Requisition Lists:

• Option to add frequently bought items automatically to the cart
• Save time when reordering
• Analyze purchase behavior and offer deals to increase sales

How to configure this feature?

From Customer account:

• Go to My Requisition Lists > Create New Requisition List.
• On the Requisition Lists page, click Create New Requisition List.
• Enter list’s Name and Description.
• Click Save.

From any product detail page:

• Open a product detail page, navigate to Add to Requisition List > Create New Requisition List.
• Enter list’s Name and Description.
• Click Save.  

7. Purchase Orders 

In B2B segment, not all payments are made in full. With the purchase order (PO) feature, clients can make purchases without paying in full. 

Benefits of Magento Purchase Orders:

• Improved customer relationship 
• Increased loyalty 
• Improved customer experience
• Make Payments More Flexible

How to configure this feature?

• Go to Admin sidebar > Stores > Settings > Configuration.
• Expand Sales > Payment Methods > Other Payment Methods > Purchase Order > enable.
• Name it, set minimum and maximum order amount, set applicable countries, choose sort option > Save Config.

8. Seller-Assisted Shopping 

Garner Customer Loyalty by helping your clients while completing the purchase. Assistance has to be quick and easy, and Assisted Shopping makes it possible. It includes creating orders, updating them, and managing the shopping carts.

Benefits of Magento Seller-Assisted Shopping:

• Improved customer experience
• Increased client loyalty 
• Build brand reputation

9. Business Intelligence 

Every business needs to make decisions based on data. Magento 2 Business Intelligence helps you transform your data into business metrics. Authorized users can visualize metrics and share them with employees to analyze weak points and make planned strategies to improve business.

Wrapping it up!

In this highly competitive world, you can not expand your B2B business doing everything manually. Using automation tools is the only way to grow. With Magento 2’s B2B features and robust tools, you can make data-based decisions, control and manage orders and client relations, and grow your business. 

Magento 2 B2B features will help you take your business to the next level.

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