Businesses that carry out transactions between companies to increase the sale of goods and services are called B2B or Business to Business. These businesses, like many others, are increasingly using different types of online platforms, which are becoming more and more important in today’s society. Using the Magento platform for a B2B business is usually the most appropriate because of the possibilities of modifications it offers and the numerous advantages it offers.

Advantages of the development of an eCommerce with Magento

This type of platform serves both to optimize the resources of companies, and to enhance the strategies that will be used to expand or to perform better customer service.

Magento is especially indicated for B2C businesses, that is, Business to Client, but with some small modifications, you can make a B2B business work perfectly with this platform.

Shopping experience

– Layered navigation extensions can be used to filter the products.

– You can implement an advanced search engine that makes it possible to search by EAN and semantic search.

– It is also possible to adapt the design to mobile devices, which is especially useful in the case of working with commercials, so that they can show the products to customers through a tablet, for example.

The possibility of private management

– The registration restriction implies that any person can create an account but will not have access to the prices of the website until they have been validated. This is a small action that avoids that the people with whom finally they are not going away to do businesses, or even the competition, can visualize prices, offers or strategies of a company.

– This platform can also be modified so that each of the clients can see their own price range. In this way, you can make personalized offers or reach specific agreements with each client without misunderstandings or misunderstandings, since the default prices do not appear on the website.

– To enhance this private management, you can choose not to index the page in Google. This way it can not be found through the search engine but it will be useful for the clients.

Groups of prices and customers

– Different groups of classified customers can be established, for example, by their purchase volume.

– On the other hand, different ranges of prices and discounts can also be established depending on the purchase volume of each customer. The more purchase volume they make, the more economical they can be.

Management of different forms of payment

Different forms of payment can be implemented from the same website. The most requested are usually the deferred payment (30, 60 or 90 days) and bank transfers, you can choose between selecting them on the web but carry them out externally or connect directly to the bank and make the transfer at the time.

Integration with ERP

Many companies work with systems to manage their logistics. Depending on the ERP with which the company works, the integration can be done directly with an extension offered by Magento or, if it is a little-known ERP, with a customized development.

Magento as the best platform for B2B businesses

In addition to the advantages mentioned above, reference can also be made to the possibility of having multi-store and multi-warehouse, to the possibility of synchronizing catalogs and automating orders and even to the multitude of tools that it incorporates for the sales team.

If you have an online store you need many people to visit and that this traffic is qualified so that sales can be achieved. And to achieve this, SEO for online stores is essential.

15 keys to improving the SEO of an e-commerce

1. Conduct a keyword study

To achieve a good search engine positioning, a good study of keywords related to the product must be carried out. Neither can the related keywords be ignored and the terms prioritized with a significant volume of searches.

2. Study the competition.

There are tools that allow a detailed study on how to position the competition. Competitors can give clues to the steps to follow to get to climb positions in Google.

3. Start by positioning the product categories.

After the study of keywords, you must define the categories that can contribute the most traffic. In order to attract traffic, it is necessary to generate an extensive and quality description where users find relevant information about the products.

Many online stores lack this text so if we generate quality content we can stand out against the competition and our descriptions can be more useful for users who visit our website.

4. Caring for related products.

It is important that users browse the web ( reducing the bounce rate ) for this a good idea is to put on the product page, related articles that may be interesting. It is better to make a manual selection of these products.

5. Use structured data.

Facilitate the work to Google has a prize, using the structured data to indicate where is the price of the product, the name, the image, the description.

6. Encourage valuations.

Enter an online store where customers leave their opinions, positive and negative, brings confidence to the potential buyer. You must have a strategy for customers to write reviews on product listings.

7. Use the videos.

The multimedia content capture INCREASINGLY the attention of users, so you have to think to add value by entering the video within a digital marketing strategy.

8. Work the long tail.

In one sector there may be long tails with a volume of interesting searches. It is a good strategy to create subcategories with these expressions and capture traffic in this way.

9. Keep the stock of products updated.

It is a very frustrating feeling to see a product and when you want to buy discover that it is not available. To create a better user experience it is important to avoid a 404 error and perform redirects to another related product.

10. Compress the images.

The speed of loading is one of the aspects that most influence SEO for online stores. We must take care of the quality of the images and at the same time ensure that they do not have much weight. The optimization of the graphic material is key when creating an attractive and fast e-commerce for the user.

11. Do not index all the URLs.

Indexing pages that do not add value to the user consume the crawl budget and does not attract qualified traffic. For this reason, it is advisable not to index the legal notice, the contact page or the parameters that are created with internal searches.

12. Do not forget the mobile.

The use of mobile is undeniable, we must think about creating a satisfactory experience for the user, to encourage purchases from the smartphone. Mobile First must be our motto when creating our online store.

13. Customize the descriptions of the products.

The manufacturers provide a description of the products that can be read on many websites. To stand out against the competition it is advisable to personalize the descriptions and avoid duplicate content.

14. Create a blog.

A blog can bring traffic of people interested in a specific sector to your electronic commerce. Although now they will not buy, if you can get them loyal you can turn them into future buyers.

15. Study the conversion funnels.

Analyzing all available data to be able to create a conversion funnel will help to better understand the buyer persona. The analysis of these data is essential to mark an effective strategy.

These are the main aspects of SEO for online stores.

Contact our team of professionals to advise on your project and make your e-commerce success.

Although both sites are focused on customer satisfaction, create more conversions, the process of activities in both places is completely different. Thus, each process from development to integration cart theme requires a different point of view for a B2B business. The main elements that separate a B2B site from a B2C website.

a) Bulk and repeated sorting is very common in B2B business.

b) The required pricing and customer configurable product options catalog.

c) creation of offers, purchase order, invoice, more options for unfolding and other related features to be achieved.

d) In the marketing year, the section should be able to integrate merchandising functionality, integration and promote the multi-channel based client.

How to use Magento to create a better B2B site?

The main difference between B2B and B2C sites is the person who views the site. In the case of B2C, the customer sees the place and makes decisions. In the case of B2B, the viewer is usually the contact person. Normally, a structure will have more of a contact to place orders then a company account need to have more access to place orders. Can be gained more access through hiring an e-commerce Magento development company to create custom functions.

The shopping cart used on the website should be promoted enough to facilitate wholesale orders and “to make products. In this type of site, the discussion about prices begins after orders are placed, so the catalog must have a rating at a flexible price or in many cases the price details should not Be present in the catalog. Managing the directory of Magento can be customized to deliver these capabilities.

The payment gateway for a B2B business includes not only granting Net, PayPal, or other services. It is based on offline payment methods and other traditional practices. Hire Magento developers to customize settings such as credit limit and purchase order. In some places, payment services provide both offline and gateway processing of credit cards. By default, Magento has the opportunity to purchase the order, but for B2B customers usually, provide a PDF document order. Thus, the features accept PDFs as purchase orders must be implemented in the platform.

The credit limit is based on factors such as total orders, such as the company, average payment, and the frequency of the order. Thus, the possibilities for calculating the above statistical values must be implemented in the platform.

Orders must be approved by the Financial Officer or a contact the customer’s business decides. Therefore, the platform should be able to view the financial information on the front panel and send a copy of the order slip to the financial manager or any contact person authorized automatically. In case of approval or disapproval, there should be opportunities to handle the situation. The account must also have facilities to add or delete the contact permission. A designer Magento confirmed will help achieve this functionality with a simple design.

All features may not be available in the standard version of the software. There are many extensions and additions that are available on the web for users to implement to create better design Magento. There are many websites that provides Magento development service. Magento a clearer picture of the services offered by the platform design and development of the B2B business.

B2B sites should also accommodate multi-channel integration, where customers can place their orders through different channels such as phone, email and via the web portal.

Common features that can be used for both B2B and B2C sites

In addition to all the differences and uniqueness, the new features can be used in both types of e-commerce sites. They have the same purpose in both places. They are the basic requirements of B2C websites and are an important element in B2B sites as well.

a) Order and invoice history can be used in both places. In the case of B2C, customers are used to controlling and learn about their previous orders. In the case of B2B, meets the above requirements and is also used to calculate the credit limit.

b) Order status and transportation information as the carrier details, date of transfer, and product can be tracked.

c) Customer service in the form of email and chat live agent.

d) favorite items, discounts era, and recommended product wish lists

e) Product image, description downloadable manuals and data sheets, tutorials and product specifications

Magento features that make a good choice for B2B Business Development site

(a) Manages a large number of shares and categories

b) It helps to complete customer pricing, marketing, and catalog

c) payment option b2b, deliveries of planning, monitoring products, repetition and sorting options loose weight

d) Third Party Integration

e) multiple user accounts and consideration for “enterprise creation services

f) Group and configurable products availability

Generation transports customer-specific costs and tax rates

How to start the process?

The process begins by hiring a programmer or Magento development company and discussing the idea of their website. Be sure to buy all the add-on and necessary expansion for a perfect design Magento. Use more than the number of images and provide tutorials and tips to make the site more accessible. Determine the entire business process through your website and decide the sitemap of the site. It is important to choose the best company or programmer for better results. Do not be content with a cheap service because the heart of your business is in your online portal.

In this world of internet, every device wants to do business online. A good online portal increases the credibility of the company. The realization of a custom site for a B2B business requires a lot of extensions, tools, and an experienced programmer.

The end of Magento 1 support is coming soon? Yes, and even for very soon!

Originally scheduled for November 18, 2018, three years of hair after the release of Magento 2, the end date of Magento 1 has recently been officially postponed.

The Magento leaders have indeed announced that the end of support for all versions 1.x would not take place before June 2020, to give e-merchants enough time to plan their migrations Magento 2.

Since its first public release launched in 2008, Magento has become the most popular e-commerce platform in the world. Between 25% and 30% of all e-commerce sites on the web use it. Globally, approximately 420,000 e-shops are Magento, but less than 20,000 use Magento 2.

These figures are due to the many difficulties and concerns related to migration. And they are perfectly grounded since Magento 2 is not just a facelift of Magento 1. Unlike previous Magento 1.x releases, version 2 is an entire rebuild of the platform from scratch, not a fix from the previous version.

As a result, thousands of e-merchants, discouraged by time and costs, are still reluctant to migrate.

Yet, from this “end of life”, no new hotfixes, security updates, and new features will be available for Magento 1. As a result, e-shops of hundreds of thousands of businesses will become vulnerable and obsolete. if they decide not to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2.

End of support is scheduled for June 2020. In 18 months. It may seem long, but in fact, it’s tomorrow. If you are still using a Magento version 1.x, it is better to start planning a migration as soon as possible so you do not get caught off guard as the deadline approaches.

And while this may seem painful and worrying in the short term, the move to Magento 2 has significant long-term benefits.

To get back to the topic, let’s take a closer look at what’s new in Magento 2 and how migration will benefit your business in the future.

BENEFITS OF MIGRATING TO MAGENTO 2

The versions of Magento 1 already have limited functionality compared to those provided with Magento 2, with significant improvements such as:

Up to 50% faster loading time.

✓ Enhanced security via multiple payment gateways.

✓ New B2B and B2C features.

✓ A responsive platform that can be used on any device.

✓ A more intuitive and user-friendly administration panel.

✓ More flexibility for custom features and easier extensions updates.

✓ A verification process requiring less customer information and fewer steps, saving time and reducing the basket abandonment rate.

✓ Improved search functions and a simplified payment process that make navigation more convenient for mobile users.

✓ Three separate databases to avoid overloading: one for products, one for payments and one for orders.

We must also realize that Magento is now focusing on the development and support of the second version, to the detriment of Magento 1. All developments, new extensions, and improvements will now be intended for Magento 2.

An e-commerce site Magento 1 will not stop working on June 20, 2020 … but it will inevitably become obsolete.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF STAYING ON MAGENTO 1?

Currently, Magento 1 sites remain secure with regularly released patches and upgrades to address vulnerabilities and issues detected on the system.

But since the end of the support will also sign the end of the release of security updates, the Magento 1 sites will be left to face any future security flaws.

Concretely, this means that all the websites that will continue to use Magento 1 can become privileged targets for:

• server attacks;
• web site attacks;
• spam attacks;
• capturing payment details.

In addition to security risks, there will also be a need to continue to manage performance issues that could result in decreased traffic, customers, and sales.

WHEN TO START A MIGRATION TO MAGENTO 2?

For the moment, staying on Magento 1 is not a problem. But with the imminent arrival of the end of support, choosing not to switch to Magento 2 carries many risks, especially from a security point of view.

According to our web agency, migration is no longer a question of whether to do it; but when should we do it?

Two e-merchants will not have the same answer to this question because there are many different factors to consider.

For example, if your Magento 1 has many problematic bugs and features, we advise you to start the migration process as soon as possible instead of continuing to invest in a platform that will eventually be abandoned,

However, if your Magento 1 site is working properly, do not bother rushing. This does not mean that you should not start preparing yourself. You can already begin to formulate a migration plan so that the big jump to Magento 2 is not done in haste!

As this is a long process, a few steps will help you to make this transition smooth:

• a check of the compatibility of your server, the requirements of the server being different for Magento 2;
• a reflection on the features to add to your e-commerce Magento 2, Magento 1 extensions being mostly incompatible with Magento 2. You can take advantage of this apparent disadvantage to reconsider the extensions currently installed on your e-shop and identify the really needed features. Note that most important extensions have already been upgraded for Magento 2;
• a reflection on the migration of your themes and templates, they can not be directly migrated to Magento 2. As a result, you will have the choice between three options: create a new theme, choose one in the Magento market or use the default Luna theme.

Do not see your Magento 2 migration as a constraint, but rather as an opportunity to rethink and improve your site.

Instead of simply transferring the current features to a Magento 2 store, take the opportunity to analyze performance and the customer experience by involving all stakeholders: marketing teams, web development team …

You can then set up a migration plan that will positively change the activity and performance of your e-commerce site.

Conclusion

As a Magento specialized web agency, we are now developing new e-shops only on Magento 2. With the end of Magento 1 support coming up, we can only recommend that you no longer create new e-shops on Magento 1.

For e-merchants with a Magento 1 site, we strongly advise you to start the migration process to the Magento 2 platform.

We are deeply convinced that the transition from your site to the Magento 2 platform is the “future” of Magento. From a technical point of view, Magento 2 is more advanced and durable than Magento 1, even with some flaws and complexity in some respects.

Inevitably, a migration is therefore the safest choice for the future of your e-commerce site and your business.