Companies are increasingly seeing the benefits of creating an effective e-Commerce channel to streamline their sales order processes, making it easier for both B2B and B2C clients to manage their purchases. However, operating a successful website is not solely about the selling aspect; some companies seek more effective ways to reach out and connect with their customers. Companies will have other elements within their businesses to manage and promote like stock alerts, quotation forms, exhibitions or events which require registration or business account management processes to help expand their customer base. This is where Submission Form Manager comes in. When ERP integration with this e-Commerce tool is leveraged, it can make some of those complex business processes a breeze. Read More
6 Must-Haves for Every E-Commerce Business
When you want to be everything to everyone, you end up confusing your customers. This stems from a lack of focus, direction, and overall brand identity. This is why choosing a solution with features that are tailored to your needs is important. It should enhance what you already do and help you do it even better. Everyone has different priorities for various business situations. An e-Commerce solution should be an extension of your business; you shouldn’t subject yourself to something cookie cutter when your business is unique. Your e-Commerce solution should have features that help you emphasize your values and what makes your business special, be it your unique brand and design, efficiency in delivery and service, or your awesome product lines and expertise. This blog post will help you make sense of the many features and benefits offered in e-Commerce solutions today. Whatever your business priorities are in e-Commerce, here’s what you need to look for in an ERP (Dynamics NAV Business Central) integrated e-commerce solution. Read More
Integrating Your ERP and B2B e-Commerce
For a B2B company, its ERP is like its lifeblood. An ERP like Microsoft Dynamics NAV Business Central is the choice for many medium-sized companies because of its flexibility and management features. This is why it makes sense to integrate your B2B e-Commerce solution with your existing NAV Business Central, leveraging your existing investment. With an integrated solution like Nav-to-Net™, complex business processes and interactions are streamlined while being user-friendly and adaptable to numerous situations. The business complexities are handled in the back-end while the front-end webshop is a balance of form and function, customized to meet your customer and industry needs. An integrated solution helps you deliver better customer experience and service. Read More
The (E-Commerce) Integration Epiphany
“What happens to me when I’m provoked is that I get tongue-tied and my mind goes blank. Then I spend all night tossing and turning trying to figure out what I should have said.”
Here’s a quote by Kathleen Kelly, Meg Ryan’s character from popular 90’s romantic comedy, You’ve Got Mail. And it perfectly depicts the anxiety caused by the disconnect of what should have happened and what actually happened (or didn’t happen). This can be applied to the integration issue in B2B e-Commerce. Read More
Everything You Need to Know About ECommerce Configurator for MS Dynamics Business Central NAV
A product configurator can be a game-changer when it comes to your webshop, adding a new dimension to personalization and customer experience. There are lots of business benefits to be gained, especially when it’s integrated with your webshop and Dynamics Business Central. Consider these two scenarios in eCommerce that can be elevated with a product configurator.
Scenario 1: Your customer approaches your webshop with a vague idea of what they want. Your product offerings are separated into categories to make for easy browsing. Your customers can even search for what they want by keywords. These are all good ways to get your customers to explore your webshop and develop interest. However, a Configurator can offer an in-depth look into your webshop and match their desires and motivations with the right products while providing valuable context into the purchasing decision. When they interact with a product configurator, they are guided step by step into defining their wants and needs and educating themselves on the products, features, and how it matches them. Read More
A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place
Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV-Related Concerns and How it Affects E-Commerce
Organization makes sense of things.
As a company that deals exclusively with Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV (formerly Navision) and e-Commerce, we strive to understand our customer’s concerns and struggles so we can address them with our solution. Managing a successful e-Commerce website depends on several factors. We talked about web content management, including files and images in a previous post which you can read here. That blog post primarily deals with the storage of files and information and how to format it easily. In this article, we’ll talk about organizing your product catalog into categories.
When there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place, you can operate much more effectively and efficiently.
Changing Business Landscape for B2B e-Commerce
Understanding the trends in business and technology in both B2B and B2C e-Commerce can help us to craft better strategies and more valuable experiences for everyone. E-Commerce is becoming increasingly common and expected for B2B as they desire to grow. As a result, ERP and e-Commerce platforms have to continually evolve for companies to stay competitive. Some trends that have emerged are the growing presence of millennials, advanced technology (in the form of automated personalization, B2B-specific features, ease of use, improved integration, just to name a few), and blending B2C e-Commerce characteristics with a traditionally B2B-style webshop.
Customer expectations are at an all-time high, especially in the B2B sector. With more customer demands, there is an increased need for those in B2B e-Commerce to evaluate the trends and adopt more customer-centric approaches. B2C has taken great strides in user experience and B2B companies would do well to use some of those elements to propel themselves forward. Customers have grown accustomed to the ease and convenience that some B2C webshops offer and find themselves wanting the same in B2B websites.
What lessons from B2C can we apply to B2B?
Some of the most important takeaways from B2C e-Commerce is their ability to understand their customers and their behavior, anticipating their needs, and adapting quickly to trends and patterns. One of the ways B2C is doing this right now is embracing the “millennial” culture. Millennials have had an impact on the retail and e-Commerce model as they spend plenty of time online and use social media while shifting easily to brick and mortar if need be. They’re resourceful when it comes to looking for deals and expect a lot from digital and brick and mortar shopping experiences.
Understanding the Customer
As a society, we’re becoming more tech-savvy, becoming proficient with smartphones, tablets, and apps – we also have the desire to take the business online and out and about. Customers can now make purchases anywhere with their device of choice. Salespeople are learning to adapt to the mobilization trend by using technology that allows them to access relevant information online or through centralized systems out in the field. Taking a cue from B2C regarding this mobile trend, we recognize the need for feature-rich e-Commerce solutions with comprehensive content management. For B2B e-Commerce, this means that sales tools and vital customer data will be easily available to sales agents in the field. Nav-to-Net™ is built with Responsive Design to address the mobile trend in the e-Commerce industry.
Customers Have New Habits
In this day and age, we have developed technology-oriented working habits as well as some unique consumer habits, especially when online. We browse a little more freely with the plethora of options and resources at our fingertips, we use social media, and we revel in the freedom online shopping gives us. In e-Commerce, there is overall demand for ease and convenience, no matter what kind of device we choose to use. Lots of factors that play into how these habits came about, but it can be boiled down to this; customers want simplicity. It’s really as simple as wanting what they want, how and when they want it. It’s up to us as an e-Commerce business to anticipate those needs and create solutions that meet or even exceed those needs.
Technology is Key with Simplifying
Understanding the differences between the complexities of B2B and B2C and identifying gaps and areas that can stand some modification is important. The one thing in common is that customers always want things to be quick, easy, and painless. It may be hard to think of simplicity in a B2B environment when there are so many components to manage. While B2C can seem comparatively simpler being “click and buy”, it’s worth remembering that each situation comes with its own unique intricacies. The goal of today’s e-Commerce technology is to simplify and optimize all business processes including item management, order taking, checkout processes, and more, no matter the industry.
B2B has several parts that need to be addressed; this could include dealers, suppliers, vendors, and a variety of business processes that sometimes differ depending on the account, customer, or even country. The focus of B2B e-Commerce is building valuable long term business relationships with clients while selling a large amount of inventory. The decision process is also a lot more complicated for a typical B2B customer. The goal of e-Commerce technology is to make the complexity of B2B simple, even amidst the many core features, functionalities, and processes you require to run your e-Commerce business smoothly and efficiently.
Customized e-Commerce solutions integrated with your Microsoft Dynamics NAV is key. Nav-to-Net™ B2B is an integrated e-Commerce suite that combines all business elements and your webshop so you will operate efficiently. Take advantage of B2B-specific features like custom product lists and online sales quotes just to name a few! Click below for more information:
Help us help you, webstore marketing and e-commerce managers!
E-Commerce Marketing Manager Resource
A UI developer colleague of mine said something recently that made me pause. “New graduates focussed in online marketing are coming into this environment with a challenging bias,” she said. “It’s like how graphic artists are biased toward Photoshop because that’s what they learned on. But the marketing bias is worse since these bright, young entrants have been focused on Word Press, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Google, which are platforms more than tools.”
It made me wonder, how do I explain the importance of tight integration with a back-end system and the role e-commerce can play in developing better, context-sensitive, more accurate sales?
To be fair, fresh-faced marketing graduates understand how important it is to take advantage of as many new online promotion mechanisms as possible. They know that the possibilities are endless and today’s Facebook could (though unlikely) become yesterday’s MySpace. It must be very hard to keep up with the evolution of online marketing.
4 Reasons That Can Stall B2B Ecommerce Order Conversions On Your Webstore
What happens when you run into obstacles?
No one wants to think about negative things; the focus always tends to be on the positive. But if you don’t fix the negative, you will never move forward. Bad things do happen to many e-Commerce websites and companies. Instead of being a downer, we view this is an opportunity to be even more prepared and aware, which can save you a lot of trouble down the road. Impressions online can be made in an instant and it can be difficult to change from negative to positive, especially with no salesperson there to answer questions for them. In the age of e-Commerce, we must be ready and always put our best foot forward. Read More
Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Nav-to-Net™
Customers are demanding more from their e-Commerce experience. Their preference for a more dynamic and engaging online shopping experience could mean decreased sales for your business if you’re not keeping up. B2B and B2C businesses choose e-Commerce to evolve and to maintain a competitive edge, but it is short-sighted to “set it and forget it”. E-Commerce is an ongoing investment that requires upkeep and maintenance to ensure optimal performance at all times. An e-Commerce platform can be seen as a business’ most hardworking salesperson, present for taking orders 24/7 and with all the appropriate content required to convert prospects into loyal customers.
Having powerful search functions, coupon management, and smooth checkout processes, among other e-Commerce features, add a lot of value to a webshop and make it pleasant to use. However, the overall experience of the website relies on a strong foundation. The core of how an e-Commerce website operates is in NAV Business Central, the unique business processes already in place, and how we can leverage it with the right solution.
Is it time for an upgrade for NAV? If so, what about your Nav-to-Net™ website? Read More