In today’s world, it’s important to not only meet the standard that customers require but to go above and beyond to bring convenience at their fingertips. Buyers no longer have the time to spend in calling queues to find out when their delivery should be arriving, they need that information with just the click of a button.
This means that if you’re not providing your eCommerce customers with the information and access they need from a customer portal, then you’re getting left behind. Industry giants like Amazon have truly changed the game by showing the eCommerce world that no contact is needed with a customer in order to make a sale, you simply need to make every step of the process convenient and easy.
If you haven’t taken a page out of Amazon’s book quite yet, then it’s about time you try it. Upgrading your eCommerce store with an eCommerce integrated customer portal is exactly what you need to accelerate your business growth. Here’s exactly why you need an eCommerce integrated customer portal.
What Is A Customer Portal On A B2B eCommerce Website?
A customer portal is a space on an eCommerce website where customers can engage in self-service activities, and find out personal information pertaining to their orders. It allows customers or buyers to find all the information they need with just the click of a button, rather than having to call or email customer service and wait for a reply.
Why You Need A Customer Portal
There are many reasons that your B2B eCommerce business needs a customer portal. Here are the top six reasons you should invest in an eCommerce integrated customer portal that will save you time and money.
- It’s a sales tool that grows your market reach 24/7
One of the main benefits to having an eCommerce integrated customer portal is the ability to connect with your customers 24/7. Buyers can access all the product and delivery information is just a few clicks away. This means that your business is making sales while you sleep, and opens you up to a global audience.
This global audience also requires much less contact, as all your communication can be automated. This gives you more time to focus on other tasks like masterminding new product ideas.
- Convenient management of orders
Having an eCommerce integrated customer portal allows you to easily manage orders from the very beginning. Making sales used to mean having many phone calls, emails, or in-person meet-ups, but that is no longer necessary with the help of a customer portal.
Customers or buyers can now browse your online catalog, add the desired items to their cart, make an online payment, and schedule delivery all through the customer portal. Once the payment has been received, they will also be able to see their order details and track their order through the customer portal. This means fewer customer service resources have to be spent on staying in touch with the buyer and keeping them up to date, as they will have all that information right at their fingertips.
It’s this kind of convenience that keeps customer satisfaction where it should be.
- Streamlined admin system
Ecommerce integrated customer portals give buyers access to all the information they need right at their fingertips. Customer portals integrate with back-end administration to ensure that all information is up-to-date. This way, when a client needs information all they need to do is log into the customer portal. This means they don’t need to get in touch with a customer service representative, saving them valuable time.
This streamlined admin system is not only convenient for the buyer, but it’s also great for your business too. With the customer portal in place, this information can be accessed at any time and from any device, and automation can be set up so that less manual effort is required. These are some automations that could be integrated with your customer portal:
- Invoice referencing
- Cross-checking payments
- Sending notifications to customers late with payments
- Personalized customer experience
Buyers love to have a personalized experience, and once you have gathered enough information about your buyer and their habits and interests, customizing the customer portal becomes easy.
You can set up your customer portal to suggest certain purchases, or to send them a notification when their next order should be placed (based on past actions). You can even allow them to reorder purchases already made.
It’s this kind of seamless experience that keeps buyers coming back because they start to feel that they are working with a company that understands them and their needs.
- Reduces churn rate
Once customers start seeing the personalized experience that they can have with you while using the customer portal provided, they don’t want to switch things up and move to your competitor.
If you can provide the opportunity for customers to solve their own problems in an easy way through your easy-to-use customer portal, you start to build both trust and loyalty with your customer. This reduces your churn rate and prevents customers from going elsewhere for the product that you provide.
- Speed Up the Sales Cycle
If you have an effective strategy for your customer portal, sales cycles start to speed up because buyers have access to the products that interest them most right at their fingertips. Once you know your customer’s habits, automated systems can make relevant suggestions for future purchases. This speeds up the sales cycle tenfold and means that it becomes harder for customers to move to competitors (because you already know what they want and need).
commercebuild eCommerce Integrated Customer Portal
commercebuild’s B2B customer portal makes sales a breeze for both you and your customers. Allowing you to spend less time on admin tasks, and more time doing what you love. This is what you can expect from Commercebuild’s B2B customer portal:
- It puts the power into your customer’s hands with 24/7/365 online access to accurate order and account management from anywhere.
- It seamlessly integrates with Sage X3, Sage 300 and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP software.
- It allows customers the ability to manage and pay invoices, and download all order information, including shipping status and order tracking.
- Make online payments easier on your customers and your business by giving them instant access to their account details, payment information, and order activity.
- Shorten the order-to-cash process with a highly secure self-service hub for your customers and buyers to pay and manage invoices.
- Cross-promotion capabilities allow you to sell and cross-sell the right item, at the right price to the right customer—without human intervention.
- No admin fees mean that all features are included out-of-the-box at the same price so you can save valuable time and money on licensing.
- 360-degree view give you and your customers a consolidated real-time view of orders and updates across all channels
Why Your eCommerce Store Needs An Integrated Customer Portal
Having an eCommerce integrated customer portal is no longer optional. Customers and buyers don’t just want convenience, they demand it, and with the B2B eCommerce industry expanding at the speed of light, your website needs to get with the program or risk being left behind. If your business is using Sage 300, Sage X3 or Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERPs, commercebuild can build a ERP-driven B2B and B2C eCommerce webstore or Customer Portal.
If you would like to test commercebuild’s eCommerce integrated B2B customer portal, feel free to get a demo. We have seen our customers get incredible ROI from our customer portal, so calculate just how much you will be saving each and every year. The figures will astonish you!
About commercebuild
commercebuild is the missing piece in transforming your ERP data into a truly personalized eCommerce experience. Flexible and frictionless, our turnkey eCommerce solution delivers 24/7 revenue opportunities to you and your customers. Quick to deploy and easy-to-use, we eliminate the need for middleware between the storefront and ERP data to enable seamless online buying and selling.
Our solutions can be live in 30-days and offer complete eCommerce capabilities at a price B2B and B2C businesses can afford.
Drive revenue growth for you, and your customers, while enjoying rapid ROI for both. Go head-to-head with the online retail giants of the world, and win. Experience a solution that integrates with your ERP data and provides automagical cross-sell and upsell opportunities to every customer on your site.
At the height of ecommerce growth, commercebuild offers scalable, reliable, and robust eCommerce solutions for everyone.
If your business is using Sage 300, Sage X3 or Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ERPs, commercebuild can build a ERP-driven B2B and B2C eCommerce webstore or Customer Portal.