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21 Articles

Efficient Product Categorization in B2B e-Commerce Leveraging ERP Integration

by DVP 0 Comments

Shelters CategoryDon’t underestimate the power of organization. Just like in life where being tidy projects the image of being put together and confident, this applies to e-Commerce. The information architecture of your B2B e-Commerce webstore, essentially your categories and subcategories, helps make it relevant to customers. It succinctly defines what you offer and customers can browse and understand at a glance what they can expect from you. There is more than one way to categorize your e-Commerce website that will achieve that ideal balance of straightforward, helpful, and customer-centric. We need to consider our customers and how they may approach shopping to categorize effectively.

Effective categorization in B2B e-Commerce means staying organized but finding new fresh ways to present your catalog. This is especially useful if you consistently add new products and updates. Inject a little creativity to move older products instead of relying on the standard “Sale” category.

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The One-Time Shopper – How to Keep Them Coming Back

by DVP 1 Comment

Shopping IncentiveUnderstanding your customer is an important part of e-Commerce success. In tailoring your sales approach, however, there has to be a balance. We need to be flexible enough to accommodate the variety of shoppers that will come across our webshop; we want to attract as many customers as possible. We should also be strict enough in coming up with our content design and messaging. A surefire way to fail is to try and please everybody. Take an honest look at what who the audience is, both existing and potential, and create a compelling content and sales strategy accordingly.

As an e-Commerce solution provider for Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV, we look not only to our clients for inspiration but their end customers. We want to build solutions that work for both. In this article, we’re going to focus on the One Time Shoppers.

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Ways to Improve Customer Webshop Experience When Timing isn’t Right

by DVP 0 Comments

Temp Out of StockGetting e-Commerce sales can be tricky because you have your own timeline while your customers have theirs. They operate on their motivations with varying states of urgency. Suffice to say, the timing isn’t always right. For the customer, the reasons could range from not the ideal price and insufficient content and research. On the business side, it generally means you are in between items (not currently in stock for seasonal reasons or just out of stock of a popular item). The e-Commerce industry moves quickly and having some strategies in place to mitigate the “bad timing” situation can go a long way to smooth out what might be negative situations for customers.

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A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place

by DVP 0 Comments

Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV-Related Concerns and How it Affects E-Commerce

organized area

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.

 

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Changing Business Landscape for B2B e-Commerce

by DVP 0 Comments

Businessman JumpUnderstanding 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:

WEBSITE | REQUEST A DEMO | VIDEO BITES | JOIN A WEBINAR

Business vector created by dooder – www.freepik.com

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Multiple Applications for a Product Configurator for MS Dynamics NAV

by DVP 0 Comments

step2 Configurator automotiveConfigurator is an add-on that can make a lot of sense for your e-Commerce website. Learn more about what Product Configurator does and the benefits you can gain. This blog post will address some practical applications to give you some inspiration.

We know that you understand your business and your industry on a deep level. We also realize that you need to have specific modifications to your webshop to meet those needs. A webshop solution that is open to these customizations will run more efficiently and will be able to anticipate growth and expansion much easier. Whatever your situation, we’ll try our darndest to make it work for you and your company.

Here are some ways you can make Nav-to-Net™ Configurator work for you:

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Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Nav-to-Net™

by DVP 0 Comments

upgrading technology for best resultsCustomers 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?

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Delighting the Customer vs Decreasing Problems in B2B eCommerce

by DVP 0 Comments

Shopping OnlineAs individuals or businesses, we all look to improve. In e-Commerce, this could mean making business processes more efficient or improving customer experience in various ways, from simplifying product search to providing even more relevant information. However, sometimes efforts to improve could be taken for granted by the customer; the more above and beyond customer expectations we go, the more it becomes the new standard. While improving by adding more features and options to the online shopping experience to meet high expectations is something we should always do, decreasing problems may have a bigger and longer lasting impact.

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Build It and They Will Come…or Will They?

by DVP 0 Comments

ID-100195305Did you know that “Build it and they will come” is one of the most misquoted movie lines?

This quote is from the movie “Field of Dreams” and should actually be: “If you build it, he will come”. This quote is often used to describe a certain mentality regarding dreams and achieving an incredible feat. It’s an approach that says “if we create this one really great thing, good things will automatically follow.” Instead of building baseball diamonds in a cornfield, however, we’re building webshops.

In e-Commerce, there is sometimes a set-it-and-forget-it notion where building a website to sell stuff is good enough. Just get it done and watch the customers roll in with credit cards in hand.

This could not be farther from the truth.

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