B2B businesses and sales are growing rapidly. It is transforming the economic development of many countries. It is creating new jobs and businesses, and most importantly, it is creating value for the businesses. B2B startups and tech companies are growing faster than ever before. It is creating opportunities for millions of people.
A B2B portal is composed of web services, APIs, and websites. It provides you with high-quality content, such as videos, articles, maps, and even a person’s real-time voice communication for your business to flourish.
It is generally a service provided by a commercial entity to be used by its customers. The businesses are entitled to outsource their services for a fee and can use it to gain a competitive edge over their competitors. It is also used in marketing, education, and many different merchants.
Top Compelling Features in a B2B Portal
Password-protected access
B2B business portals are preferred with password-protected access. This is mainly because of security reasons. Firstly, it can help you differentiate yourself from competitors because you have a more secure way to access your customers. It allows authorised customers to be given access to the portal.
Secondly, it is easier for you to keep track of your customers as you can quickly see who has accessed your portal and who has not. Finally, competitors can’t access your information. Thus, you can keep your potential customers happy and keep your competition honest.
Flexible payment options
Flexible payment options are critical for B2B business portals. Payment options also impact the customer experience, as they allow the user to choose between different payment methods.
They allow for direct interaction between the sales team and the merchant. In many cases, this leads to a more personalised experience for both parties and more efficient marketing. Payment options may include online, mobile phone, or online with a credit card.
Re-order option
The re-ordering option in a B2B portal is an important feature that allows for your portal’s more efficient and logical organisation. The re-order option should display all the recent orders plus a function to order the same items as a new order. There should also be a function to include new products and new re-order.
Flexibility in terms of the number of orders
The specific characteristics of the B2B business portal provide a high degree of flexibility in terms of the number of orders the portal can process, and this flexibility allows the portal to accommodate large volumes of orders.
For example, the portal can process orders for a single order of up to 100,000 to 300,000 orders per hour. It can also process orders in a linear way; that is, it can handle 100 orders per second with a tolerance of +/- 10,000 orders per minute. The B2B business portal must have a quantisation of order quantities.
Content management systems
Merchants are bound to offer enough information for the buyers to make informed decisions. Basic information includes product descriptions, marketing sheets, videos, audios and testimonials. Enhanced clarity in the provision of advantages of the product and lucid explanations of the pain points are also considered essential.
Thus, a B2B portal must provide excellent content management features to have complete control over the content and its layout. Marketing and merchandising must be made easy with enriched communication.
Now that you know about the essential features, look for vendors who provide all the services mentioned above. Make sure you list out all the required elements in the RFP (Request for Proposal) form.