OMS Blog The Three Challenges Facing the B2B Wholesaler in 2017

The experts predict that the B2B eCommerce market will reach 6.7 Trillion USD by 2020. This hyper growth is posing loads of challenges to the B2B industry as a whole, and compelling them to redefine strategies in sales, inventory control, warehouse automation, customer support and marketing. Here are some of the challenges and strategies that B2B eCommerce should be working on to stay on top.MARKETINGChallenge - What to focus on?The challenge is most of the businesses don't have a clear idea on what should be focused in order to win customers. B2B will have to take a page from B2C, and cover all the bases, i.e. social media, search engine, etc. You need to be where the consumer of your products is, and you need to make it easy for them to find you.Strategy - Logic of the product, information, ROIB2B customers are desperate to know every little bit of information that can be known before making their purchase decision. Your marketing materials should be highly informative, and focused on concisely conveying to them what's their ROI on buying your product. The message must focus on saving money, saving time or making them money. PRICINGChallenge - Disparity of order volumes and pricingB2B orders can start from 100s of items and go up to several thousands of items. As order volumes go up, the pricing should stair step down in price, but in an organized fashion, and be personalized to the client value.Strategy - Provision for price negotiationHere you will need to deploy a B2B eCommerce solution that is up for providing personalized price tags, that also incorporates stair stepping price discounts based upon volume. Master System OMS ERP has this functionality built in it. PurchasingChallenge - How do you buy at the right time, right place, and right priceAn ideal B2B purchase takes into account several different variables, availability, speed to ship, quality, price etc. You must have the ability to see all this information.Strategy - Accommodate multiple rolesGo for a B2B focused eCommerce software that accommodates multiple roles and enables you to provide and limit access permission for approvals, edits and views based on roles.To Wrap it UpB2B eCommerce has its own uniqueness at every stage. From pricing to product information, marketing to vendor friendliness, every aspect of B2B eCommerce needs to be personalized and updated with time based on the ever-evolving demands. Make sure you go for a B2B eCommerce software that's smart enough to evolve and flexible enough to accommodate changes.My suggestion would be to check out Master System's OMSBy Bob Greenberg | Vice President, General Manager of Master System, Incwww.mastersystem.com