Writing your B2B eCommerce RFP Requirements? 25 Must Have Requirements Categories

Your organization’s e-commerce site is an important part of your growth strategy as a B2B organization.  It never sleeps, it is a self-service engine for your customers, and it creates a revenue stream with margins that surpass that of a physical store.

Many organizations start their e-commerce journey using a custom built or bolt on from their ERP provider.  Over time, many organizations realize that making changes, creating a unique customer experience, or providing new features to their customers is extremely difficult.

So, what do most companies do when create a new e-commerce site?  They do what they do for all new software.  Create an RFP!  However, identifying and writing your B2B eCommerce RFP requirements can be time-consuming to say the least.  To help you, here is a starter list of common RFP requirements categories to include — as well as a free template for creating B2B eCommerce RFPs of your own.

And, don’t forget to download the free B2B e-commerce RFP requirements template and get a head start on your RFP process.

25 Must Have B2B eCommerce RFP Requirements Categories

For a decade, I have helped wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors, and high tech companies build and select B2B eCommerce software.  My advice for putting together a good RFP is…

Do NOT do it!!  Do this instead.

However, I understand that RFPs are a common business practice, so I want to help you get through it as fast as possible.

Supported Business Models

Having multiple business models in the same platform can be important to a B2B business.  Support multiple business models including B2B, B2C, B2B2C in the same instance?

Site Setup

Site setup with multiple storefronts and microsites.  How are new sites setup?  Using technical resources or business tools?

Internationalization and Localization

Multi-site, multi-country, multi-language and multi-currency requirements.

Storefront Merchandising

Merchandising business tools for personalizing the product catalog experience.  Up-sell, cross-sell, automated recommendations.

General  Capabilities

General best practice capabilities that are core to an e-commerce site.  Shopping cart, login, customer dashboards, access to profiles.

Search

Search rules, parametric search, type ahead, filtering, result sets, endless vs. pagination, etc.

Navigation and Categories

Finding products by browsing through product categories, attributes, facets.  Taxonomy considerations.

Product Results and Filtering

Viewing and interacting with search and category product results with faceted navigation.

Product Catalog

Type of products supported, simple, configurable, grouped, custom, bundling, kitting, pass-through from our PIM.  Business tools to update descriptions and attributes of products and pricing.

Quoting and Configuration

Add to quote, quote to order conversion, configure to order, 3rd party integration

Personalization

Segmentation-based selling, industry segmentation and personalization

Product Availability and Fulfillment

Warehouse product availability and methods of delivery to customers

Product Pricing

Customer pricing, discount groups, customer quotes, strikeout pricing

Product Promotions

Cart and product promotions, shipping, $/% off, free gifts, etc. coupons, some promos with coupon, some without

Product Review and Q&A

Product reviews, recommendations & questions / answer

Orders

Order placement, transmission, order management, order status.

Payment

Methods of payment accepted on the site.  Credit card, on account, Purchase Order, billing cards

Customer profile

Customer profile, account settings, approval workflows, custom catalogs, custom pricing, contract terms and conditions, quotes, track orders, track returns, purchase lists.

Customer Service Reps (CSR) user experience

Assisted selling, buyer mirroring, complete order on behalf of customer

Mobile

Adaptive, responsive, SMS, app creation.

Social Commerce

Interacting, sharing, engagement and purchasing via social networks

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO descriptions, attributes, site maps, feeds, export management, scheduling, delivering

Browsers

Supported Browser types and versions

Enterprise and 3rd party Integrations

ERP, CRM, CMS, DAM, PIM, etc

System Performance

Page performance website and mobile. Time to paint

Compliance

Site compliance requirements.

How is your company approaching the RFP process?  How do you build requirements?   Let us know in the comments below.

The post Writing your B2B eCommerce RFP Requirements? 25 Must Have Requirements Categories appeared first on eCommerceandB2B.com.

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Do these 7 things before you start your B2B E-Commerce project

In honor of eBay turning 20, a brief history of the eCommerce giant.

In honor of eBay’s 20th anniversary, Julian Carroll sent me this infographic that he created.  Full credit to Julian and SnapParcel.com.  B2B continues to grow on the eBay platform, so check it out.

The post In honor of eBay turning 20, a brief history of the eCommerce giant. appeared first on eCommerceandB2B.com.

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30+ Customer Experience Trends and Statistics for 2015 [cont’d]

Check out more trends 20 B2B E-Commerce Trends & Statistics.

Not all of these are

The Future of Customer Experience

• In just a few years 89% of businesses will compete mainly on customer experience. source
• By 2020, the customer will manage 85% of its relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. source
• By 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. source

How Marketers Think about Customer Experience Management

• 90% of customer experience decision makers say that a good experience is critical to their success. source
• 91% of organizations said they aspire to be among the customer experience leaders in their industry, yet only 37% had started a formal CXM initiative. source
• 92% of organizations that view customer experience as a differentiator offer multiple contact channels. source
• While 73% of companies with the most positive CX impact understand the link between customer experience and business results, only 35% of companies with the least positive CX impact claim the same. source
• 63% of customer experience decision-makers think the importance of the customer experience has risen. source
• Almost 62% of companies think mobile customer service is a competitive differentiator. source
• 67% of companies believe that social customer service is the most pressing short-term priority for the contact center. source
• 78% of marketers say they try to differentiate through customer experience. source

The Link Between Customer Service & Customer Experience

• Customers who encounter positive social customer care experiences are nearly 3 times more likely to recommend a brand. source
• Today’s internet consumers want their online questions to be addressed promptly; 42% expect a response within one hour. source
• 74% of survey respondents cited being “extremely frustrated” when having to contact a company multiple times for the same reason. Other sources of frustration include:
  • Being on hold for a long time when contacting the company (69%)
  • Having to repeat the same information to multiple employees or through multiple channels (66%);
  • Dealing with employees or self-help sites/systems that cannot answer my questions (64%)
  • Dealing with employees who are unfriendly or impolite (66%). source
• 68% of customers say they’ve switched service providers because of poor customer service. source
• 95% of dissatisfied customers tell others about their bad experience. source
• 71% of customers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide good service. source
• 75% of consumers think companies should make answers to all their common questions available via smartphones. source
• 82% of consumers say the number one factor that leads to a great customer service experience is having their issues resolved quickly. source
• 95% of companies fail to exceed the expectations of their customers. source
• 80% of customers say that companies do not have the context of their last conversation. source

The Link Between Social Media & Customer Experience

• 83% of those surveyed said they liked—or even loved—when a company responded to them on social. source
• 63% of millennials say they stay updated on brands through social networks. source
• 51% of millennials say social opinions influence their purchase decisions. source
• 46% of millennials “count on social media” when buying online. source
• Customers who encounter positive social customer care experiences are nearly 3 times more likely to recommend a brand. source
• 42% of people will tell their friends about a good customer experience on social; 53% will talk about a bad one. source
• 47% of Americans say Facebook is their #1 influencer of purchases. source
• Failure to respond via social channels can lead to a 15% increase in the churn rate. source
• 60% of organizations still cite marketing (not customer experience) as the main function of social channels. source

How Customer Experience Impacts a Company’s Bottom Line

• 74% of consumers have spent more due to good customer service. source
• Three out of four consumers have spent more with a business due to a history of good customer service. source
• Companies with a social care program experience a 7.5% YoY increase in customer retention – those without only see a change of 2.9%. source
• 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience, but only 1% of customers feel that vendors consistently meet their expectations. source
• When companies engage and respond to customer service requests over social media, those customers spend 20% to 40% more money with the company than other customers do. source.
• 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience. source
• U.S. brands lose approximately $41 billion each year due to poor customer service. source
• Opinions from participants in social communities influence purchasing decisions for 74% of online shoppers. source

Customer Experience & Technology

• CX executive dashboards and customer journey mapping are the two customer experience activities that had the largest increase in focus for 2014. source
• The highest marketing technology investment in 2014 was customer experience, followed by marketing operations and analytics. source
• 42% of service agents are unable to efficiently resolve customer issues due to disconnected systems, archaic user interfaces, and multiple applications. source.

The Link Between Customer Experience & Customer Behavior

• Over half of all customer interactions happen during a multi-event, multi-channel journey. source
• It takes 12 positive customer experiences to make up for one negative experience. source
• 83% of online shoppers need support to complete a purchase. source
• More than two-thirds of 2,000 consumers who encountered a customer service or customer experience issue on a brand’s website left the site or visited a competitor. source

The post 30+ Customer Experience Trends and Statistics for 2015 [cont’d] appeared first on eCommerceandB2B.com.

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Do B2B Buyers really need an Amazon like experience?

Attend a B2B conference or pull up any B2B e-commerce blog these days and you will hear everyone talking about how B2B Buyers expect an Amazon like experience on your B2B site.   The basic tenet is that Buyers have expectations from at-home experiences that they bring to a B2B site.  The main point is that B2B organizations should work to meet those basic expectations.  Some call this the Consumerization of B2B.  Got it.

Here is the question at hand.  Do B2B buyers expect or even want a B2Bish B2C e-commerce experience?

Do B2B customers really want to look through a product catalog, read reviews, click and buy products online or in mobile – even if it is a great customer experience?  Some probably do, but is that the majority position in B2B?

When Buyers Bring Consumer Expectations to B2B

When buyers bring expectations from at-home experiences to your site, they do not bring them as one-off features.  B2B buyers bring their expectations collectively as a memory.  Sometimes as a reflex.  What does that mean?  It means that your site should follow basic usability best practices.  Your site should look and function like other sites.  If you have a products link, you should have robust information on your products and allow them to buy easily.  Your site should probably not look like it was developed in the late 90s.  You know who you are.  Common sense.

So should you have an online catalog with a great customer experience?  Yes, absolutely.  Should you fix your search on your site?  Of course (see this article on why you should fix it).  I just think we kind of miss the point when we try to create a B2Bish B2C experience.

B2B Buyers care about two things.

1. Doing their job in the easiest way possible
2. Getting credit for getting their job done in the best way possible.

It comes down to efficiency and ego.  I have written extensively about this topic.

If not consumerization, then what?

I think we should take this consumerization thing a little less literal.  Don’t just wrap B2B functionality in a B2C experience.  Buyers come with expectations that the experience is going to be easy and intuitive.  So make it easy and intuitive.

Then, figure out how to make the B2B buyers job as easy as possible.

An example.

Through interviewing customers and buyers, a B2B company recently realized that the Quick Order was going to be the primary way their customers order products.  So they made it the baddest, raddest, best, and easiest quick order on the planet.  They allow for excel uploads and have type ahead in the quick order box to make auto-complete easy even when typing.  They are considering employing machine learning to help buyers fill their cart.  They made a fantastic experience – one that met all the expectations of their customers – and an online catalog was nowhere to be seen.

So, what does that look like for your customers and buyers?

Maybe the home page should just be a search box and quick order.  But if that doesn’t help your customer do their job easier, do something different.

Here’s the crazy thing.  Even Amazon is not creating Amazon like experiences or their B2B customers.  Just like everything else they do they are focused on removing friction that exists between the customer and ownership of their product.  They don’t believe that has any preconceived notions about what the experience should be.  Will it be good?  Oh, yeah it will be fantastic.

Use Customer Journey Mapping

Just don’t this buy into this Consumerization of B2B thing by making a consumer site that has a few B2B features.  Take a really hard look at your customers and how they do their job.  One of the best ways I have seen to do that is through Journey Mapping.  Journey Mapping will show you where your customers interactions with you are painful and where you can improve the experience for your customer online and offline.

The post Do B2B Buyers really need an Amazon like experience? appeared first on eCommerceandB2B.com.

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