You can support all the stages in your business to business (B2B) ecommerce sales process, from order creation to customer delivery, with an order management system (OMS).
You will have a single, centralized system for managing orders from all your online and offline sales channels.
The ordering process
Traditionally, your sales team might enter an order from your customer in an order management application, your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or even add it to a spreadsheet.
Once the order is placed, an order confirmation will be sent to your customer and the products will be reserved and allocated. When your warehouse receives the order, it will be picked, packed and shipped or a back order will be created for any out of stock items.
Once despatched, your customer will be advised and the delivery will be made. You might also include order tracking, returns, exchanges and refunds in your process.
Each manual step slows things down and can introduce errors that lead to delays or time-consuming and costly returns and refunds.
Cloudfy has been designed from the outset to meet the needs of B2B ecommerce, so it isn’t surprising that it includes out-of-the-box OMS features for your business that can automate processes to improve accuracy, efficiency and customer satisfaction.
BUILT-IN B2B ORDER MANAGEMENT
Easy ordering – it’s likely that the majority of your B2B buyers and decision-makers are millennials who have grown up using the internet and a wide range of digital devices. When they are making business-related purchases, they expect a streamlined B2B order management process as a minimum. Without this, up to three quarters of them will swap to suppliers that offer a more consumer-like purchasing experience.
While it’s recognized that B2B buying is more complex than most online retail sales, simplicity, speed and consistency are still priorities. To improve your operational efficiency and customer service you will want to make the best use of technology such as cXML, punchout or electronic data interchange (EDI) alongside best practice ordering workflows.
Invoicing – when orders are placed online you can streamline the ordering process and increase satisfaction by allowing your customers to view, print, and pay invoices straightaway. This will improve your cashflow and speed up delivery.
With Cloudfy’s invoice payment portal and integration with your ERP system, your customers can place their wholesale orders using an easy-to-use dashboard and can see related documents and account balances in near real-time.
Order tracking – when you store your customer’s order status in your ERP system it can see it in their online portal. Alternatively, you can integrate pick-up and delivery services such as Fedex or UPS with a third party tool like ShipperHQ at checkout. Your customers will then receive accurate, real-time delivery estimates while address validation helps to reduce manual errors and cut down the cost of failed delivery attempts.
Multi-level authorization (MLA) – the B2B ordering process is increasingly complex and can often involve seven or more people, each with a different role to play in the decision. You can simplify purchasing for your customers by allowing them to complete their whole purchase approval process within your B2B ecommerce site.
You can provide individual logins for buyers and anyone else who needs to be involved. Their order will only be confirmed when all the required approvals from their organization have been provided. Everyone in their workflow will be able to see payments that are waiting for approval and orders of different values can be directed to different people if necessary.
Order details can be reviewed before confirmation and questions can be sent back to the buyer before the order is finalized. If your buyer is in a hurry, or someone in the workflow isn’t available, it’s easy to redirect the approval to someone else and the whole process can be reviewed in easy-to-use reports.
Integrated OMS
If you need a more comprehensive OMS, Cloudfy’s powerful application programming interface (API) can be used to make all the order data you need available in your customer portal.
You can accurately manage backorders, replenish stocks efficiently, and have a clear picture of orders across multiple channels and warehouses.
For example, Cloudfy has teamed up with the leading operations platform, Brightpearl, for powerful B2B and direct to consumer (D2C) ecommerce functionality. You can streamline all your back office processes with your B2B ecommerce storefront from order management and stock replenishment to retail accounting, and warehouse management.
Alternatively, there’s comprehensive pre-built NetSuite ERP integration for your wholesale ecommerce operations. You can provide your customers with real-time access to product selections, inventory, pricing, and their order history.
Your customers will value the flexibility of online self-service and your team can spend more time delivering value-added services and expert advice.
Work with experts
Cloudfy is a leading B2B ecommerce platform for manufacturing, distribution, wholesale and service businesses worldwide. Our software as a service (SaaS) solution means you can launch your new site quickly and fully integrate orders, pricing, product and stock data with a range of leading ERP, warehouse and accounting back office systems.
Speak to one of our experts to find out more about OMS functionality for your B2B ecommerce operation.
