(Newswire.net — August 31, 2015) — If you are not aware of Magento, and sell in a business to business environment, it may be time to make yourself acquainted with this online retail platform. Earlier this month, Magento – the eBay enterprise platform – launched its new B2B program which aims to help companies who sell to other businesses as their primary route to market make the best use of their online ordering platform.
Why Are B2B Sales Different From Selling to the General Public?
There are all kinds of businesses who offer products and services used almost exclusively by other businesses. These can range from consultancies through to people who perform recruitment or manufacture office equipment. It can also, of course, include software companies who make business solutions or productivity apps. While not all companies who operate in the B2B sphere can sell things ‘out of the box’, for instance a recruitment firm can’t let you order a data analyst or HR manager off the shelf and deliver them the next working day, many things like business software licenses or office supplies can very easily be sold in this way. However, selling them is a very different process to selling to individual customers – people are buying on behalf of their business and paying through the company, rather than picking the products they personally like best and paying with their own money.
Magento and B2B
Magento is one of the most widely used ecommerce platforms there is, and is very popular with people who run online shops. With their August 2015 B2B program, it is clear that they also want to dominate the market for stores who sell online to other businesses. At present, Magento estimates that 30% of their users are already in the B2B sphere, which is a relatively large proportion. They have used what they have learned from these customers and their data to try and create a new solution and experience that can be promoted to other B2B users looking for an environment that is really geared towards the special challenges B2B ecommerce creates.
What This Means to Users
Users of Magento who are already B2B sellers will find that Magento will be doing even more to support them as a result of the new B2B program. For companies using other platforms, or start ups who have not yet chosen one, the new Magento offering may be the selling point that lures them over to Magento’s product. The open source ecommerce marketplace is already a very competitive one, with other products like Prestashop in the mix, so it will be interesting to see whether Magento can corner the B2B market, or whether other products will also attempt to appeal to B2B online retailers in response.
If you’re a B2B retailer looking for the right ecommerce platform, it may well be worth seeing what Magento can offer, especially if you partner with a solutions company that is experienced in leveraging Magento for B2B businesses like your own.