Figuring out customization wants for brand spanking new B2B ecommerce platforms might be complicated. Utilizing software comparable to Past Examine, retailers can examine information and folders of the brand new and former platforms, to assist give attention to the variations.
I just lately introduced “The way to Change Ecommerce Platforms,” an Important Expertise on-line seminar for Sensible Ecommerce. I stored the content material comparatively common for all retailers — B2C and B2B. I didn’t tackle areas that apply solely to B2B migrations. I’ll do this on this article.
Determine Customizations
B2B websites typically have customizations to satisfy the corporate’s enterprise guidelines. Listed here are widespread B2B customization wants, in my expertise.
- Pricing. Is there one product worth for all clients, or totally different costs for various clients? If totally different, can your new platform deal with this by default, or will it require customizations?
- Account varieties, customers. Do customers work together together with your website in several methods? This might embrace, for instance, gross sales reps who log in on behalf of consumers and sellers that log in and have entry to totally different instruments or assets.
- Cost strategies. Do you will have specialised cost strategies, resembling an uncommon cost gateway requirement or clients who “pay” with a purchase order order based mostly on a selected credit score restrict?
- Delivery. Do you quote delivery for merchandise over one hundred fifty kilos? Does delivery get added to the price of an order after an order is positioned?
- Taxes. Do you permit clients to add tax exemption certificates? Do you require a 3rd-celebration integration to handle your tax charges?
One option to determine your customization wants is to match your present website towards a possible new platform. For non-SaaS options, think about using Past Examine, a file-comparability software, to take a look at modifications to particular information. After you have an inventory of what was modified, determine why it was modified and decide if it’s a precedence.
Do you will have documentation on how your integrations work? Are there file codecs that may be referenced or code on your present integrations that may be studied? These could be useful reference paperwork to constructing out your necessities for a brand new platform.
Avoiding Failure
Migrating your B2B ecommerce website is a serious endeavor. To pick the correct software platform, contemplate the online wants of your group past ecommerce. Take an extended-time period strategy. I’ve addressed different migration issues at “Selecting a B2B Ecommerce Platform: Weighing the Dangers.”
In a cross-useful group of gross sales, marketing, operations, and finance, work collectively to construct a imaginative and prescient of success.
Think about it’s three months after your new ecommerce website is reside. You’re speaking to colleagues and also you mirror again on the challenge. What would you inform them? What ache factors have been resolved? What metrics have been achieved? What advantages do you anticipate to obtain out of your new website? Put all of this in writing for you and your staff.
Then, ask your staff to brainstorm what might maintain you from attaining success. What obstacles may get in your method? Have group members write these on paper, and place the notes on the wall. Decide your prime 5 potential obstacles. Assemble a plan to beat. Schedule comply with-up conferences together with your workforce to evaluate these obstacles and your progress on overcoming them.
One of many widespread setbacks to website migrations is a scarcity of assets. Define the work concerned within the undertaking and estimate how a lot time your organization might want to spend on it to get it finished. In case you are unsure, seek the advice of with others who’ve achieved this earlier than. It’s unrealistic for workers to do their present jobs and, additionally, tackle main replatforming duties.
Timeline
Arrange a check surroundings that features an occasion of your ERP and different software program that may must be built-in together with your new ecommerce platform. Import knowledge into your check system. This can be a good illustration of the go-reside course of.
Improvement duties for a brand new B2B ecommerce platform can take as much as 12 months, relying on the complexity and availability of inner assets. When you’ve got a selected date to launch the brand new website, break the undertaking into phases, or rent an outdoor improvement workforce.
