How to Build a Successful Wholesale Website

Digitization is not just an idea or a concept of making everyday life easier; it’s a necessity–especially in the post-pandemic era. In fact, COVID has served as a catalyst for B2B businesses, with many expanding or moving  their operations online.

And in today’s landscape, modern wholesale businesses invest in their B2B eCommerce websites to grow and stay competitive. According to a survey by McKinsey & Company, in 2022, more than 2/3 of buyers preferred digital self-service or remote human interactions when ordering and reordering.

Building a robust wholesale  website is no small feat as it needs to support and serve efficiently the specific requirements and complexities of each business. This article explores key elements and steps towards building a successful B2B eCommerce website.

Laying the groundwork for a great B2B eCommerce website

Great wholesale websites are like Rome: not built in a day. Below are two vital things you need to consider before getting started.

Understand your market and audience

B2B buyers make decisions based on logic, data, and research. What’s more, according to Gartner, B2B buying involves several steps, making it complex, unpredictable, and nonlinear. In other words, a good B2B website should be geared towards your audience.

Before you start building your wholesale website and dive into the technical aspects this entails, it’s important to understand your market and the specific needs of your customers. Specifically, dig deep into:

• Reviewing your existing customers to discover common trends and characteristics
• Understanding their pain points and challenges and how your products and services can solve them
• Looking into their purchasing behaviors, including mapping out their customer journey and reviewing their buying habits and cycles
• Defining your brand value and the competitive advantages that make you unique in your vertical
• Analyzing market-related intricacies and see how your competition addresses them

Choose the right platform for your business

Once you’ve finished your market and audience research, it’s time to look for a B2B eCommerce platform to start building your website.

Selecting the right eCommerce platform is foundational at this point for many reasons. A good platform ensures scalability for your website, allowing your business to grow without performance issues. It should also offer room for customization to meet specific customer requirements (e.g., private products, custom pricing). Additionally, a modern platform integrates seamlessly with existing business systems (e.g., payment systems), is secure,  and provides a user-friendly experience to customers.

The checklist here is simple: First, shortlist potential vendors. Then, review and evaluate each platform’s offering based on your unique needs and requirements. You can also take the platform for a test drive by signing up for a free trial or see how it can serve your business goals by requesting a demo and having a rep walk you through its features and functionalities.

Key features of a successful wholesale website

1. User-friendly navigation and experience

An online buying experience should be as natural and visceral as shopping in a brick-and-mortar store; otherwise, it can be confusing and off-putting to busy B2B buyers, from the more traditional Gen-Xers to the more tech-savvy Millennials and Zoomers.

In this respect, you should create a wholesale website that is modern, sleek, and easy to navigate. A simple and good experience for B2B customers typically includes the following:

• Intuitive menu with clear and well-defined product categories and subcategories. Just imagine how frustrating it would be to walk into your favorite store and have aisles without clear categorization or shelves filled with products accidentally placed next to one another.
• Responsive design optimized for tablet and mobile. Why is this important? 60% of B2B buyers state that mobile has played a significant role in a recent purchase.
• Search functionalities. Users can find what they’re looking for faster and easily access products. Think about implementing advanced features using filters by materials or SKU numbers.
• Personalized suggestions. Customers can discover products on your B2B storefront based on their purchase history and needs. Apart from making the buying experience easier, you’ll give buyers what they really want.
• Quick ordering and reordering. Give customers the ability to access their order history and place full or partial reorders with a few clicks.
• Loading speed. Fast loading times significantly affect the overall user experience and reduce bounce rate. Also, research indicates that even a one-second delay in page load time can impact user satisfaction.

2. Detailed product information

The B2B customer journey has changed significantly in recent years, with 75% of B2B buyers stating that they prefer a rep-free sales experience. As a result, crafting quality product descriptions is more crucial than ever to give customers all the information they need without contacting you or your sales reps. Plus, good product listings help build strong, trusting relationships with buyers, minimizing doubts about your offering.

So, what makes a top-notch product description? Start with high-quality images and videos that showcase multiple angles and include zoom features. Create detailed descriptions–these should cover extensive product specs, like brand, material, dimensions, and relevant documentation. And, of course, clearly list pricing information and availability status. Also, offering the option to download your product catalog directly from your B2B store is a huge plus. Moreover, you can enable live product feeds on your wholesale website to inform customers about stock levels and create a superior buying experience.

3. Streamlined ordering process

An effortless and intuitive ordering process goes hand-in-hand with a successful B2B eCommerce website. The idea is to simplify ordering for your busy customers. Think of functionalities that are useful and aim at making life easier and saving time for B2B buyers, like:

• Bulk ordering, crucial in wholesale purchasing, to enable buyers to order large quantities
• Quick order and reorder features to let customers rapidly place orders
• Order tracking to provide real-time status and shipping updates
• Suggested products so customers can easily find products that are relevant or useful to them
• Multiple payment options, making the checkout process simple and secure for customers and letting them choose and save their preferred methods (e.g., credit limit, bank transfer, credit card)

In addition to specific features, connecting your B2B website with your ERP, CRM,  and accounting tools can help you up your efficiency game when it comes to order management. Picture breezing through controlling inventory levels, processing orders, maintaining customer relationships, and invoicing buyers. Ultimately, through these integrations, you can improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

4. Personalized user experience

Creating tailored experiences is essential for a good B2B eCommerce website. An Accenture study recently revealed that 73% of B2B buyers want a personalized B2C-like experience when shopping online.

Personalization in B2B eCommerce goes beyond the product recommendations we mentioned earlier. Consider allowing customers to register for your B2B store and manage roles and permissions for them. This approach provides flexibility and better control over purchases, especially since buying decisions often involve multiple people.

For example, imagine a coffeehouse chain with multiple store locations. You can create accounts for the executive team at headquarters and the managers at each store. Each store manager can log in to view their order history, favorite products, and preferred payment methods. Meanwhile, the executive team can access information across all stores, including order volumes and purchasing patterns. Depending on the company’s setup, these users may also provide final approval for orders submitted by each store’s manager.

Other personalized features may include customer-specific pricing based on special agreements, order volumes, or region. Additionally, you can grant exclusive access to discounts, special product categories, or brands for specific customers or buyer groups.

5. Security features and communication channels

Adding security features to your wholesale website is paramount to ensure strong customer relations and compliance with industry regulations. This entails a variety of features such as using SSL certificates to protect sensitive information through data encryption, adhering to data protection regulations, like GDPR, for the regions your business is active in, implementing age gates, if necessary for your product offering (e.g., vapes), and following payment card industry (PCI) regulations to secure customer payments.

Also, remember to add a contact form to your website or link to your social media pages. It will make it easy for potential and existing customers to reach out to you and make them feel connected and engaged with your business.

Final words

A successful B2B eCommerce website involves a strategic approach that combines understanding your market, choosing the right platform, and focusing on creating an unforgettable user experience. Use our tips to build a wholesale website that meets your business needs, delights your customers, and distinguishes you from the competition.

Finally, remember that building a B2B website is not a one-off deal. Regularly updating your website based on customer feedback and evolving market trends is a must to ensure continuing success.

Sign up for a free trial with B2B Wave and see how you can create an amazing online B2B store while maximizing efficiency for your business with our robust platform.