Insights / Perspective / Omnichannel platform architecture
PerspectiveB2B portals: ordering the way customers want
Business buyers expect the convenience of consumer shopping, with their own prices and terms. A good B2B portal delivers both, and connects straight into the back office.
The person who orders replacement parts for a factory, stock for a chain of pharmacies or supplies for a construction site also shops online at home. In the evening, they reorder household goods in two taps and track delivery to the minute. In the morning, they phone a supplier, wait on hold, read out part numbers and receive an emailed confirmation hours later.
That contrast shapes expectations. Business customers now want the convenience of consumer shopping, but with the prices, terms and complexity that business relationships involve. Suppliers that offer both win loyalty and lower their cost to serve. Those that offer a generic web shop with business prices bolted on usually find their customers keep phoning.
Why B2B is not consumer ecommerce with a login
Many first attempts at a B2B portal start from a consumer platform. Products are listed with a single price, customers add items to a basket and pay by card. It looks modern, but it misses how business buying works.
Business customers often have negotiated prices that differ by account, volume or contract. They buy on credit, against purchase order numbers, within approval limits set by their own organisation. They reorder the same items repeatedly, often in large quantities, and may know products by their own internal codes rather than yours. Several people in one customer may place orders, each with different permissions. A portal that ignores these realities will be used for browsing and abandoned for ordering.
Show them their prices and terms
The single most important feature of a B2B portal is that a customer sees their own prices the moment they sign in. Not list price with a discount applied at invoice. Their contract price, calculated the same way your ERP calculates it.
Alongside price, show the commercial picture that matters to a buyer: available credit, payment terms, outstanding invoices and delivery schedules. Give access to past orders, invoices and proofs of delivery, so finance teams on the customer side can answer their own questions without calling yours.
- Customer-specific and volume-based pricing, drawn from the same rules as the ERP.
- Credit limit, available balance and payment terms visible on every order.
- Order history, invoices and delivery notes available to download.
- Purchase order numbers and cost centres captured at checkout.
- Multiple users per account, with roles and approval limits.
Make reordering effortless
Most B2B orders are repeat orders. A portal that makes customers search for each product again every time is slower than a phone call. Offer quick ways to buy what they bought before: reorder from history, saved lists for regular orders, and fast entry by product code or the customer’s own reference.
For larger customers, allow uploading an order from a spreadsheet, and consider integration with their procurement systems where volumes justify it. Show stock availability and expected delivery dates as items are added, so buyers can plan without a follow-up call.
Search deserves particular care. Trade buyers often search by part number, partial codes or technical attributes. Search that only understands marketing descriptions will frustrate them quickly.
Connect it to the back office
A portal that produces an email for someone to re-key into the ERP has moved the work, not removed it. Orders should flow directly into the order management or ERP system, priced and validated. Stock availability should come back from the same system in near real time. Invoices, credit notes and delivery confirmations should appear in the portal automatically once issued.
This is where most of the effort in a B2B portal lies, and where most of the value comes from. Pricing logic, in particular, should be calculated once, in the ERP, and shown in the portal, rather than rebuilt in a second system that will inevitably drift. ERP-native portals, such as those available for SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Odoo, can simplify this. Standalone B2B commerce platforms offer richer buyer features but need careful integration.
The re-keying test
Follow one portal order from submission to invoice. Count every time a person types information that already exists somewhere else. Each one is a source of delay and error, and a target for integration.
Bring the sales team with you
Sales teams sometimes see a portal as a threat. If customers order online, what is the account manager for? In practice, a good portal frees sales people from order taking, so they can spend time on new business, larger opportunities and service. Many organisations credit online orders to the account manager, which removes the conflict entirely.
Involve sales early. They know which customers will adopt first, what frustrates buyers today and which features will matter. Their encouragement, more than any marketing campaign, determines how quickly customers move online.
Our account managers were worried at first. Six months later they were the portal’s biggest advocates, because they had stopped spending their mornings typing in orders.
Commercial director, industrial distribution client
A sensible way to begin
Start with a group of regular customers who already order frequently and would value speed. Give them their prices, their order history and fast reordering, connected directly to your ERP. Measure the share of their orders that move online, the reduction in order errors and the time saved in customer service. Use what you learn to extend the portal to the next group of customers, adding features only where they demonstrably remove friction.
Source: Intelliversal analysis.
