The main criterion performed by the B2B platform web store, when interacting with your customers, is the presence of always up-to-date information that is so necessary for it in one place. We are convinced that if you provide a place in which he can do not only actions that interest you, and we mean to make orders, but at the same time give him something in return that will save a lot of time, the client will be very pleased and will stay with you for a long time. In order to always adhere to this criterion, we have developed a B2B store software product. The product is a regular website integrated with your 1C accounting system, but we tried to make it special and embodied in it all those functions that you use every day when working with a client. So to say made a site with brains. We will try to describe in detail the functions that can be used by your client, focused on him.
Work in the system for a client begins from the moment when the site administrator independently registered him as a user, acting in accordance with the imported from 1C directory of counterparties and sent an invitation letter to him by email. mail The client, having received such a letter, having the data for authorization, follows the link, enters the data and enters his personal personal account. Having assigned the registration function to the administrator, you do not strain the client once again. For potential new customers, we have provided on the main page of the site a simple envelope form of three fields to apply for access to a closed part of the catalog. Imagine how many you didn’t get to potential customers whom you gave the opportunity to register on the site by yourself filling out long forms and they, having thrown them in half, went to look for goods on other resources. We specifically focus on this, because we believe that in the field of b2b (and not in b2c in retail), when a whole organization wants to work with you, even if it is some kind of FLP or even physical. person, but it will be possible to buy from you all the time, it will be important to hook on a potential client with minimal data, talk with him, accredit and give a person personal access to the system. Feel the difference in level of approach.
After the client has logged in, he enters the closed part of the directory. Catalog in different cases may differ from that which is available in the public part of the site. Sometimes this may be due to the fact that the company supplier is diversified, we are now talking about holdings, where for one type of product may be some customers, and for another type, respectively, other customers. Or if you take a simpler situation, where a company may be engaged in selling for example chemistry (washing powders, detergents, etc.) and simultaneously trade in for example stationery. So in such cases, the client in the personal account sees the category of goods in the catalog is inherent only to him.
In the life of b2b sales it often happens that a supplier company has several types of cooperation agreements with a customer. Basically, this is an agreement on 100% prepayment, where the client receives a favorable price for himself and contracts for different periods of delay (it can be 7, 15, 30, 45 days, etc.), where with a shorter period the price is slightly more expensive and more long term almost like retail. These are the main ones that are everywhere, but we also encounter other contracts in our practice, for example, on terms of shipment, currency contracts, with different tax components (we mean when a customer wants to drive an order through FLP), cash, etc. The bottom line is that in the client’s personal account there is a classifier (drop-down list), where the client can rely on his opportunities and budget to choose a contract before the order, according to which it will be convenient for him to work. Accordingly, when switching such contracts, for the client automatically under his trading conditions, prices for the goods are recalculated. For example, by default, after authorization, the client has a contract for 100% prepayment and, accordingly, the price of the product is the lowest, as soon as the contract is changed, for example, for a delay, the prices will immediately change to others. Of course, the client can see such an opportunity only due to integration with 1C.
In addition to the fact that the customer sees his prices, he has access to the stocks of the supplier’s company stocks. Sometimes it is not necessary to display the exact amount of it, because sometimes the competitors themselves can be customers, and can use such information to their advantage. Well, firstly, you can not provide access to such clients, and secondly, if this is not avoided, then it is enough to display balances with restrictions. For examplу >10, >100, > 1000, where everything that is less will show the exact, that more will be just such a designation. Moreover, if the supplier’s company does not have one warehouse, but several, in such cases, the remnants of remote warehouses are centralized into a single database and the entire map is available to the customer for the balances in all warehouses. Because you will agree, there are times when it is easier to order goods from a distant warehouse than to wait for the required quantity on your own, to which the customer is tied. Yes, there may be a little overpayment due to delivery and not always, if, for example, the logistics in the supplier’s company are perfectly adjusted, but the end customer will be satisfied, you are not lucky for yourself from a long distance. With rare exceptions, orders are not earned on orders from a remote warehouse, but you will do the most sacred - satisfy the client, we regard such cases as after-sales and he will definitely return to you to buy.
If in the course of the work any questions arise or it is just necessary to consult on a particular product, in the personal account there is a function of assigning each client - a personal manager. His contact information is possible with a photo, always in sight to provide personal assistance to the client. Managers can be classified, for example, according to which category the client belongs (small wholesale, wholesale, large wholesale, retail, etc.), by regionality (central, southern, western, eastern, northern) or it’s two people for all customers, divided in half and all on this. Sure that it is psychologically easier when you know that there is a person to whom you can directly contact.
Suppose that the client has already formed an order in the basket, checked it, making sure that the quantity and price did not change and proceeded to the formulation of the conditions for delivery. On the delivery page, the client has options for selecting its method, and this can be: self-pickup, company transportation, delivery services, dropshipping or other. Each company can have its own methods, our business is only to adjust the necessary ones. If the company uses delivery services, then today we have connected five services to the B2B store using API: New Mail, Gunsel, Intime, Delivery, CAT. Through the API tool, we pull out the directory of cities where the service and its department numbers are present so that the client does not manually write this data. It is noteworthy that in front of each of the methods a pop-up window can be displayed about the conditions for each of the methods, it has become very convenient that you don’t need to remember what criteria the supplier company sets for each of them.
After entering all the necessary data on the delivery, the client sends the order to you for processing by clicking on the “Checkout” button. What happens at this moment, the order is placed on the site is placed in 1C (if it is version 8) in the section “Customer Orders” i. you no longer need to duplicate all the data that the client has entered on the site again. After that, 1C itself generates an invoice for payment without the intervention of the manager and returns its statement to the site. The operation takes place so quickly that the client receives an invoice for payment right there on the thanks page for the order made. When opening an account in the form of a document in the .pdf format, the client can, how to print the document by selecting the printer in his company (for example, directly to the accounting department) or save it to his computer.
At this step, the work of the B2B store system ends, then the processes for processing this order by the manager go on. The order received from the site in this way, the remnants of goods are automatically reserved for the client and the manager can only check the order for its correctness, i.e. whether it is possible to release the order to the client, whether it has ordered the space amount, which is doubtful, after which it draws up the expenditure invoice and the goods are shipped in the warehouse.
Then we will show some of the functions that the client can use in the system, which can greatly facilitate his work with you.
The first thing I want to mention is the work with the basket. Suppose that before starting work, the client chose the contract he needed, collected the order on the list and moved to the basket. And as a result, it turns out that he did not count on the amount that the system considered him and need to either remove lower priority positions or place an order at least for a deferment. Or there may be a situation when I forgot to establish the necessary contract, and the order basket has already been formed. So in the basket there is an opportunity to replace the contract for the order for the contract that is needed, respectively, all prices for the goods are recalculated and the customer sees another price. Moreover, the client can intentionally, without choosing the contract, add the goods to the basket according to the list and, by checking the boxes for the necessary goods, can break one big order into several small ones. For example, the client takes these positions on an advance payment, and these on a deferment.
The next convenient feature for the customer is the order history. It would seem that this is just the default story for the last two months, where you can see what was ordered and in what quantity. But the client can transfer the order immediately to the basket, edit it, for example, by quantity, add a couple of positions using the search field, delete unnecessary ones and the order will be ready for shipment. We believe that in the field of b2b where the customers of the supplier’s company as a whole always order the same thing, this function has become very convenient. You do not need to work according to the catalog, search through the search field, when all this is in history, because the delivery data in this case is automatically filled. Thus, the procedure for placing an order can be brought to a couple of mouse clicks.
I would also like to add in the basket that in the life of a customer, sometimes orders can be formed for several days and while there is a willingness to make it, the proper quantity of goods in the warehouse may no longer be. Or, for example, you have a condition that when ordering goods for a certain amount, delivery by the client is not paid. In such cases, and even in other cases, the customer can reserve the goods in advance by clicking the “Reserve” button in the basket and then you can not worry that the goods will remain with the customer for a certain time. The reserve of balances takes place on the 1C side, by default, for a period of 1 week, after which, if the client has not completed the clearance, the system can return the goods back to the presence of warehouse balances. Terms of the reserve can be set individually.
One of the most successful solutions that was achieved in the B2B store, it takes a few seconds, and sometimes even less than 1 second, to form a product offer for a client from partner warehouses (warehouses of your manufacturers or other suppliers). ". Of course, such cases are considered in each case individually, because the connection of such a module, where the offer is formed without price lists, depends not only on yourself, but also on the software component that your supplier can provide. But you only imagine that in this case the client along with the assortment of your warehouse can not only see the assortment of your supplier, where you give it out as your own, but you can also order this product. Of course, the module takes into account your mark-up with the price from the manufacturer and forms the final offer for the client. Using such a module, you greatly expand the proposed range of goods and replace this function instead of the manager, who in turn will have enough time to do this.
And finally, the last function that I would like to show here is the integration of the client’s personal account with the assortment of their warehouse, already on their side or online store through the API tool. What is the API is left link on the Internet for more information. In the meantime, we say that the use of such a tool by the client is our competitive advantage. What is it actually about, that the client, if he has a personal code (API Token), which the personal manager can provide upon request, can integrate his personal account in which he works to buy goods from you, for example, with 1C account system yourself in the enterprise. And in this way, in 1C along with the assortment of his warehouse, the client receives a delivery on arrival with an assortment of his supplier, such a mechanism is very convenient for purchases and if there is some processing in 1C, the client can place an order while in his 1C account system at the same time in the personal account of the supplier’s company. Such is a kind of bundle 1C supplier with 1C client through the site. So how much, you can deeply customize the business process depends on you. It may simply be the issuance of an assortment with the prices of the client, or it may even be possible to order him. Another option is when a supplier company works with online stores; in such cases, the client’s personal account is integrated with its online store, it sets certain settings and margins, and goods and prices are issued online to the end user. With such integration, great opportunities open up for the supplier’s company. Take, for example, one of the latest examples, when you have set up such a bundle that your customer, ordering goods on your website from 1C - without knowing it, orders it directly from the manufacturer. Yes, certain settings are being made, by volume, by delivery (for example, you can set up delivery so that the goods go to the customer immediately bypassing you, not putting it on arrival - this method is called dropshipping, we consider this a future that is not far off but now is not about that) and other conditions. Of course, such settings are made for special clients, to whom there is a big credit of trust, but there are such cases.
The functions that your client can use in his personal account are presented in this section not all, the rest of it can be found in the next “Document flow” block. Summing up, we can say that we tried to embody in our decision all those business processes that you use every day at work, and sometimes they tell us that they embodied even more than they imagined. We are sure that B2B store does not significantly change your business processes in the company, but aims to simplify them.