Magento Commerce is the enterprise version of the Magento 2 ecommerce platform. It comes bundled with a large number of features that merchants can and should take full advantage of. In this series of articles our team of Magento 2 developers are going to deep dive into each of these features. This article focuses on the B2B package and will explain each of its features and how they can be used to benefit your online business.
Company Accounts
In B2B Commerce, accounts do not work in the same way as B2C. This is because you’re selling to companies rather than individual customers. Some B2B businesses require that customers or companies apply for an account before allowing them to purchase. Magento aims to serve this requirement in their Commerce version by adding the company accounts feature to their B2B package.
Company accounts require a user to submit an application on the frontend of the website. This application will contain all of their company details. Once a user submits their application, their account will not be instantly created. Instead an application will be sent for review by an admin user. That admin user would then review the application and activate that company account if the user meets the businesses criteria. If the account is rejected then the user is notified of this decision. This feature allows the merchant to control which businesses can and can’t purchase goods from their store.
Customer Account Roles And Permissions
In some cases B2B customers can have teams of buyers, accountants etc. that need to access the company account. Magento aims to meet this requirement in their B2B package by incorporating advanced customer account roles and permissions. This feature works alongside their company accounts feature.
A company account in Magento can be managed by the user who submitted the application. That user can then create additional customer accounts and assign them to their own company. They can then assign specific roles and permissions to those customer accounts. This will restrict the actions that those accounts can take on your site. For example, you could have an account for a junior buyer that allows them to login and only add products to the basket but not actually place the order. You could then create a separate account for a senior buyer. The senior buyer could then login, review the orders created by their colleague and place the order.
Negotiable Quotes
Otherwise known as quote management. This powerful feature allows customers to put together an order and apply to the seller for a quote. This allows the seller to review the order and propose changes in order to give the buyer a better deal. The feature provides the ability for the buyer and the seller to communicate through the website to come to an agreement on the price of the order. Emails will be sent by the website whenever a response is submitted by either party. As soon as the buyer is happy with the quote, they can then login to the website and place the order as they normally would.
Requisition Lists
Is a B2B term for customer wish lists. The Magento B2B package allows your customers to create up to 99 requisition lists. These lists of products can then be converted to orders at the click of a button. A customer can also transfer items between lists. A company admin user can also set permissions on associated users to allow them to create, update or purchase a requisition list.
Quick Order
B2B customers will often come to your website and know exactly what they want to order. They will have a spreadsheet containing a list of SKUs along with the quantities that they want to purchase. Forcing them to search for each product individually and add it to their basket can be a very time consuming task.
Magento B2B aims to resolve this problem with its Quick Order feature. Quick order enables your customers to quickly create large orders through an easy-to-use interface. They can quickly enter each SKU individually with auto complete or upload a CSV file containing their order. This makes it much more convenient for your customers to place large orders on your website.
Shared Catalogs
Is an extremely powerful feature that merchants can use as part of the Magento Commerce B2B package. Shared catalogs allow you to set which categories, products and promotions a customer or group of customers can view when they are logged into your website. This allows you to completely personalise your customers user experience on your website.
You are also able to set different discounts and prices for products in each shared catalog. This allows you to be extremely flexible with your pricing and tailor it to each individual customer.
Payment On Account
Do you offer credit terms to some of your customers? Then this feature is just for you. Payment On Account allows you to set and manage credit limits for each company that is signed up to your website. This means that a customer can checkout using the credit on their account and you can invoice them at a later date applying the appropriate payment terms. In the world of B2B commerce this is a great feature to make it easier for your customers to purchase goods from you.
Final Word
If you’re a B2B business looking to sell online, then Magento Commerce is a great platform for you to use. It gives you all of the features you need to start selling to your customers. Here at Foundation Commerce our team of certified Magento 2 developers work with a number of B2B merchants to help them provide the ultimate online service. We come on board as your partner, giving you the technical foundation you need to build your business. Reach out to us today to find out more about the service we provide and how we can help your online business succeed.