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Integration with third parties is big news in B2B ecommerce. That is because it has huge advantages. One of the best forms of integration is with suppliers. Your B2B ecommerce business should depend on robust supply chains, real-time market intelligence and analytics. Supplier integration brings these key ingredients together to give a B2B ecommerce website the edge.
Ecommerce experts often talk about ‘not all supply chains being created equal’. If you want your website to perform better, it needs to be part of an online ecosystem that is integrated with suppliers. Why? Supplier integration makes a B2B ecommerce website more agile. It improves a website’s visibility by keeping it competitive and flexible.
The four steps below explain the levels of supplier integration and how they impact B2B ecommerce websites.
Reactive supply chain management is considered poor practice. In a fast-paced market, online sales demand more than limited integration. This is because limited or no integration increases the likelihood of poor co-ordination. Mistakes can be made – especially if your website does not benefit from real-time data. This can significantly impact the customer experience and reduce your ability to remain competitive.
Do you know if your catalogue is showing items that are out of stock, no longer available or have limited availability? How do your customers feel when you sell them something you can’t supply? Poor customer experiences are the quickest way to lose sales and damage your brand’s reputation.
What about your prices? Do they reflect current market intelligence? Is your B2B website offering value for money? Are your profit margins being squeezed by lack of real-time data?
Integrating internal processes with suppliers has benefits. It will give you some idea of how shopping trends are influencing products and prices. It will also help you better manage supply chain risks. It won’t put your business ahead of competitors, though. This is because the best-performing B2B ecommerce websites take integration to a much higher level. This gives them a distinct advantage because it maximises their potential to increase sales and market share.
Integrating with a network of suppliers will give your B2B ecommerce business greater visibility. This is because your website will benefit from data sharing that can influence your inventory and pricing. Your business will be more coordinated, competitive and flexible. As well as giving your website an advantage, this level of integration will help you maintain supply chains and better manage risks. However, it will not offer everything you need to deliver the exceptional customer service consumers and professional buyers now demand.
Considered the gold standard, your B2B ecommerce website needs to embrace dynamic supplier integration to reap maximum rewards. By fully integrating your website with suppliers, you can benefit from much greater flexibility and improve the customer experience. You will be able to automatically update prices and show stock availability. This mitigates purchase errors.
What’s more, real-time data will make your website more competitive and much, much more visible. It will help you to monitor buying trends, supplier profiles and manage risks.
Want to know more about levels of supplier integration? We are Comgem, the UK’s market-leading B2B ecommerce website developer. Visit our website or, for a no obligation chat, call 01656 330 360.