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Is your b2b business ready for a surge in growth? With pandemic restrictions lifting, businesses need to be prepared for the challenges demand can bring, as well as the welcome boost.

b2b sector growth in 2021 is anticipated to be 1.4% year-on-year in the UK with 70% of firms positive for their prospects over the next 12 months, according to research from American Express.

Whether you’re a wholesaler, manufacturer or supplier, an eCommerce website is the future and it’s essential for growth. Make sure your b2b eCommerce platform is up to the job with our handy b2b checklist:

1. Offer an Online Catalogue of Products.

Enabling your customers to easily access a detailed and comprehensive catalogue of products often results in them finding items they have never purchased before. For most, such an online catalogue is a big improvement on printed brochures, spread sheets or advice from time-pushed reps and leads to larger orders and greater product experimentation.

2. Display Accurate Inventory Positions.

Make sure your eCommerce platform integrates in real time with business and accounting systems to display accurate inventory positions to potential buyers. This means that buyers are not placing orders for products that are out of stock – so your staff are not wasting their time managing and fulfilling back orders.

3. Offer more than an ‘Out of Stock’ Message.

A lot of businesses are currently experiencing supply chain disruption but it doesn’t need to damage your customer relationships. Notify web visitors when items are back in stock by allowing them to enter an email address on the product page. You could also offer an alternative product and manage expectations by adding information on when an item will be available.

4. Remind Customers of Partially Filled Orders.

People can get distracted whilst shopping online. Make sure you remind customers of their order with an automatic notification of a partially filled out order.

5. Personalise Self-Service.

Make sure your trade portal provides your customers with a slick personalised ordering process. The ability to personalise offers, promotions, prices and payment terms can help to up-sell and cross-sell products, encourage product trial and increase basket size – which all adds up to more revenue.

6. Move away from Manual Processes.

A modern eCommerce platform should mean that human involvement is massively reduced. Still finding that your sales team are having to manually handle orders and deal with customer frustrations from badly communicated out of stock items or pricing? It’s likely that your eCommerce website needs modernising.

What’s your roadmap for lockdown lifting?

A state-of-the-art b2b integrated eCommerce platform can open up a world of new marketing opportunities that help to build revenue and margin. With GOb2b you get tight integration of an eCommerce platform with accounting systems such as Sage and Pegasus. You can rely on the automated sales processes of an integrated eCommerce platform to deliver 24/7 service, whether staff and customers are working from their offices or from home.