B2B E-Commerce Solutions Empower Wholesale Distributors

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1 SAP Thought Leadership Paper Wholesale Distribution B2B E-Commerce Solutions Empower Wholesale Distributors Achieve Interaction Excellence with Outstanding Online Experiences and High-Quality Digital Content

2 Table of Contents 4 Trends: Transformations in B2B E-Commerce 5 B2B E-Commerce Challenges and Opportunities 6 Delivering Effective B2B E-Commerce 7 Realizing the Benefits of B2B E-Commerce 8 Solutions from SAP Can Help 2 / 8

3 E-commerce solutions enable wholesale distributors like you to give customers and partners the functionality they demand. You can streamline operations, improve interactions, and increase customer satisfaction. You can boost revenues and offer an online experience like that of the business-to-consumer world for greater convenience across channels. You can also integrate multichannel processes for maximum consistency, control, and business value, and deliver a first-class user experience from product search to delivery. 3 / 8

4 Trends: Transformations in B2B E-Commerce Online and mobile technologies have brought seismic changes in the business-to-consumer (B2C) world, and these changes are increasingly affecting business-to-business (B2B) commerce in the wholesale distribution industry. B2B customers are demanding what retail customers are now accustomed to Web-based, self-service tools that they can use to research products, make purchases, and get various services from a desktop, laptop, or mobile device. And they want access to these tools and functionality from any location, at any time. This consumerization of IT can improve productivity, revenues, and customer relations and create attendant challenges as organizations struggle to keep information current and in sync. A MOVE TO ONLINE CHANNELS A tide change in wholesale distribution is taking place as the marketplace shifts from offline to online channels. More product research is being done online, and the interactive buying experience is driving down the use of other historically reliable channels such as print catalogs. Just as this shift radically changed things for retailers and consumers, it s altering how distri butors interact with prospects and customers, sell goods and services, and drive customer satisfaction and retention. By removing barriers and boundaries, B2B e-commerce lets distributors grow their business through new channels and approaches. For example, geographical location is no longer as restrictive. Online commerce is enabling distributors to expand to new markets and connect with new customers and suppliers. There s no time to waste. Distributors that don t offer the kind of e-commerce functionality customers are looking for risk falling farther behind competitors and losing market share to more technologically savvy rivals. Distributors need to give customers a retail-like experience with Web-based, self-service tools for researching and buying products from any device. 4 / 8

5 B2B E-Commerce Challenges and Opportunities E-commerce offers distributors nearly limitless opportunities for growth and revenues. It means that companies can find new customers, markets, products, and partners but so can the competition. And successful e-commerce is a moving target in a dynamic and challenging environment of evolving customer demands and technologies. SUPPORT FOR MULTIPLE CHANNELS AND COMPLEX PROCESSES Distributors need to deliver a retail-like shopping experience to customers, with sophisticated usability, personalization, and shopping and searching functionality. But B2B processes and transactions are complex. It can be difficult for customers to find and purchase the exact products they need, and order processing and fulfillment operations don t always go smoothly. For effective e-commerce, distributors need to support multiple channels, business models, and markets, and manage an extended ecosystem of suppliers and partners. But data maintenance processes, multiple supplier catalogs, inventory levels, contracts, customer information, content, and orders are often spread across multiple and disparate systems compromising the timeliness and accuracy of critical data. Product content can be extremely detailed, messaging can lack cross-channel uniformity, and it s difficult to address customer product and pricing requests in a timely fashion. Generating product and promotional content has traditionally been labor intensive and error prone, with uncoordinated workflows for creation and approval processes and long launch cycles. Without a hierarchically structured catalog, it s difficult to display products and manage product information online. And lacking a unified view of data and processes for products, customers, suppliers, and orders means that brand and product messaging is inconsistent. Customer service and satisfaction suffer, and marketing and sales opportunities for more profitable relationships are lost. What s more, many companies are saddled with rigid and aging data infrastructures that are unable to adapt to new business requirements without extensive IT intervention. Data is often managed in piecemeal fashion with spreadsheets and disconnected applications, resulting in a lack of flexibility and business agility. 5 / 8

6 Delivering Effective B2B E-Commerce E-commerce solutions based on B2C best practices can help distributors leveraging a B2B channel to streamline business operations, identify and reach new customer segments, increase conversion rates and sales, and seize market opportunities. Leading e-commerce solutions enable B2B transaction management and support and integrate multiple channels. They optimize processes and interactions across touch points from online stores to mobile devices for a holistic customer experience. With top solutions, you can better manage an extended ecosystem of suppliers and partners. You can cost-effectively serve new markets and customer segments that were traditionally impractical to support, and develop more direct customer and partner relationships. And the solutions automate labor-intensive operations reducing operational costs and limiting manual intervention that can introduce errors. Self-service for routine processes and tasks such as searching, reordering, and checking order and invoice histories gives customers the interaction convenience they want. Customers can interact with distributors whenever and however they like, with functionality for online ordering and order replenishment. Advanced search and navigation and cross- and up-selling tools help customers find what they need quickly and easily. They can access order details, check their account history, and manage their profiles. Plus, self-service frees sales reps to focus on revenue-generating activities for improved sales effectiveness while improving customer satisfaction. For effective e-commerce, distributors must support multiple channels, business models, and markets and a large ecosystem of suppliers and partners. 6 / 8

7 Realizing the Benefits of B2B E-Commerce E-commerce solutions enable you to provide a consistent experience across channels. Multichannel commerce functionality improves your existing processes for more effective sales and support. Standardizing and automating processes while supporting customization let you serve a larger number of trading partners without increasing account management resources. Segmentation and targeting, personalization, recommendation, and complex promotions functionality increase your marketing effectiveness and customer profitability and speed sales cycles. And by representing complex and specialized products accurately and effectively across channels and devices, you can shorten sales cycles, reduce return rates, and minimize customer support issues. The solutions support various business models and complicated customer and partner relationships. Integrated relationship workflows accommodate variables such as different terms and conditions, prices, product catalogs, promotions, and sibling products. Sophisticated account management lets you view orders placed across channels, check order status, maintain authorized delivery addresses, and approve orders automatically. Robust reporting and analytics functionality enable you to track key performance indicators and identify areas for improvement. Distributors know how important after-sales processes are. Top B2B sales solutions support a range of fulfillment activities and integrate with purchasing, chargeback management, warehouse management, and financial management processes. E-commerce solutions based on B2C best practices can help distributors streamline operations, reach new customer segments, and increase sales. 7 / 8

8 Solutions from SAP Can Help MANAGING AND UNIFYING CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS The SAP hybris B2B Commerce solution supports and unifies the management of multiple business models, channels, and markets, and automates sales administration processes. It provides a single platform to enable both operational and interaction excellence improving efficiency and driving customer satisfaction and profitable growth. With the solution, distributors can manage and unify customer interactions and transactions across products, brands, geographies, and communications channels and make it easier for customers to find, learn about, and purchase products. The solution delivers a retail-like personalized online experience, content, and navigation, including customized catalogs, prices, and offers, while maintaining content consistency across channels. STREAMLINING AND AUTOMATING PROCESSES SAP hybris B2B Commerce streamlines and automates order management and fulfillment processes and provides powerful customer selfservice functionality. It simplifies data exchange with external systems, and it supports demanding high-volume transaction requirements with best-in-class scalability, flexibility, and performance. With its integrated Web content management module, SAP hybris B2B Commerce consolidates and centralizes the management of multiple data domains on a single platform. The solution enables a single view of data across multiple brands, channels, and business models for product content consistency and increased sales process efficiency. Its extensibility and flexibility let you adapt rapidly to changing conditions and opportunities. Better data quality improves reporting and sharpens visibility into product performance, customer activity, and profitability. An intuitive user interface enables faster product setup, efficient mass data editing, and content enrichment with digital assets. Integrated workflow functionality coordinates organizational collaboration for better control and distribution of content across channels, and multilingual functionality supports global initiatives. LEARN MORE For more information on B2B e-commerce solutions, contact your local SAP representative or visit us on the Web at 8 / 8 CMP28756 (14/02)

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