What DTC Brands Need To Know About Wholesale and B2B Commerce

An interview with ecommerce leader Clare Kelly, who has run ecommerce stores for multiple brands and has a track record developing and implementing B2B ecommerce strategy.

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Tl;dr

• Why DTC brands should embrace B2B commerce
• Fundamental differences between B2C and B2B commerce
• Key ecommerce platform features and tools B2B commerce teams need to understand

Discussion notes

1. Let’s start with the key question: why should DTC brands take B2B commerce seriously, when many are used to offline selling and have processes in place for account management and placing orders?
2. There has been a change in the past few years with more young B2B buyers who are digital first: how is this changing what B2B buyers expect from their suppliers from a digital POV? 
3. Often the B2B ecommerce experience is a basic login portal that is functional for ordering but has a limited UX design and little wider ecommerce functionality: to what extent are you seeing B2B buyers wanting a more B2C like online shopping experience?
4. Now let’s dive into ecommerce platform functionality and what DTC teams need to research and understand for the following areas, in the context of key features B2B customers expect:
   1. Business account structures and user roles/permissions
   2. Online self-service via MyAccount and other tools
   3. Quotations
   4. Payment methods and credit limits
5. Let’s break down the operational challenges, as fulfilling wholesale/B2B brings new considerations that DTC retailers won’t be used to – what impact does B2B have on this side of the business, what could catch DTC brands out?
6. What’s your take on the commercial model, as pricing and margins can vary significantly from B2C: what is different and how should this impact strategy?
7. You’ve worked with different platforms and we worked on a project where BigCommerce was selected as the leading B2B2C platform for an SME: what has impressed you about BC and what’s your take on the evolution of their B2B Edition?
8. When we did the analysis, Shopify was considerably behind for B2B. Although it’s still not comparable they’ve caught up and released more features for wholesale. Where do you see Shopify now sitting in the B2B commerce vendor space? What type of business is it suitable for?
9. And finally, let’s cover change management: what are the key internal changes ecommerce teams need to plan for when launching a B2B model, for example with Customer Services?

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