B2B e-commerce continues to accelerate with 77% of purchases now being made through business-oriented online stores (Posti's B2B e-commerce survey 2022). 

Compared to consumer-focused e-commerce, B2B e-commerce can encompass a variety of formats from simple online forms to extensive customer-specific ordering systems. As a business transitions to online commerce, it's essential to consider how both existing processes and those of the current customer base can adapt to e-commerce, alongside the technology.

To aid your considerations, we have outlined three modern B2B e-commerce models, their unique characteristics, and the business models they typically suit. 

Open Online Store

The open online store resembles a standard consumer e-commerce model most closely among these models. There are no immediate customer-specific contractual prices, nor is registration or customer approval necessary to make purchases.

The advantage of this e-commerce model is its familiarity: the customer experience can be crafted to be just as efficient and in line with consumer expectations.

In such a store, B2B features generally appear towards the end of the purchase process and are activated after registration. Business buyers can enter company contact details, business identification numbers, and billing information before finalizing the purchase.

In an open B2B e-commerce, the first purchase might require manual confirmation of buyer information by the seller before the delivery proceeds.

Suitability:

• For businesses that sell online to both companies and consumer customers

• For the sale of standardized and fixed-price products

• For companies selling services

• For businesses whose customer relationships are based more on sporadic individual purchases rather than repeat acquisitions

• For selling individual products or small quantities (thus negating the need for contract pricing or large volume discounts)

Closed Online Store

A closed online store always requires customer registration and the establishment of a customer relationship (often including written agreements) before the purchase process can commence.

In a closed online store, only part of the product information may be shown publicly or it may be entirely hidden behind login requirements. Prices are typically post-registration and often customer-specific. Thus, a long-standing customer making bulk purchases may see entirely different prices compared to a newly registered small business.

An e-commerce platform requiring registration balances between providing excellent service for existing customers and attracting new ones. It's challenging to acquire new customers online if only fragments of information, and no pricing details, are displayed publicly. However, existing customers easily order from a well-functioning closed online store independently, where results of price negotiations can also be easily implemented, perhaps as product group-specific discount percentages.

Existing customers can also be offered extensive product details, design files, or even 3D models, hidden behind the login.

Despite its closed nature, it remains clearly identifiable as an online store that can be implemented using ready-made e-commerce solutions (for example, with Shopify).

Suitability:

• For companies solely engaged in B2B business

• For companies selling large quantities of products

• When products are associated with a lot of technical product information, design files, availability information, and other precise data that should not be public or easily accessible to competitors

• For those requiring contract prices and customer or product group-specific discounts

• For businesses where customer relationships are established and typically long-lasting

Customer-Specific Ordering System or Online Store

The most tailored of the B2B e-commerce models. In it, the seller creates an online application through which customers can place orders in such a way that both parties' information systems receive all the necessary details about the purchase and sale. This type of ordering system is typically customized according to the product being sold and may resemble a configurator application more than a traditional online store in its interface.

The customer-specific ordering system is usually heavily integrated into the seller's other back-end systems and offers interfaces (perhaps also integration services) for the buyer's corresponding back-end systems. This mutual business system integration can bring B2B operations to a seamless whole, benefiting both parties. Orders, product inventories, and cash flow remain up-to-date across both organisations.

Such a strong system-level connection generally requires a long-standing and trusted customer relationship, for example, in subcontracting or other ongoing cooperation.

Suitability:

• For complex product or service sales where the purchased entity needs to be configured in a way that off-the-shelf e-commerce products cannot accommodate

• For long-term customer and collaboration relationships (e.g., continuous subcontracting or partial deliveries)

• In situations where seamless integration of both companies' back-end systems benefits both parties

• For e-commerce ventures seeking to maintain control over all phases of the process through a bespoke solution

P.S. And what about the technologies?

Two of these B2B e-commerce models (open online store and closed online store) can typically be implemented with ready-made e-commerce solutions like Shopify or Magento. Custom e-commerce solutions are also excellently suited for certain cases.

For customer-specific ordering systems, bespoke application development is generally the best option to achieve a good outcome. In certain industries, ready-configurators may also include features or components that can be used to build such an ordering system.

Updated 2.5.2022.