B2B eCommerce for the Office & IT Supplies Industry

Increase sales and customer loyalty with rapid ordering, advanced spend management controls and integration with your customers' finance systems

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Increase sales and customer loyalty with a B2B eCommerce platform for the office & IT supplies industry

In markets such as the office and IT supplies industry where there is little differentiation when selling items such as paper, stationary and ink, and consumers are typically price sensitive, it is important to provide consumers with added value. This is arguably one of the main reasons that the industry has embraced B2B eCommerce. According to Technavio, it is the growth in online sales of B2B office supplies and stationery which has been instrumental in driving the overall growth of the market, with further growth forecast to be a CAGR of almost 3% during 2020-2024.

Trusted by leading suppliers of office and IT products, we understand the industry specific challenges and we have built the necessary functionality into the TrueCommerce B2B eCommerce platform.

Increase order values with quantity based pricing

A common pricing strategy in the office supplies industry is where price reductions are provided for purchases of larger quantities. Not only does this increase revenue and profitability, it delivers better value to your customers and can help improve customer loyalty. In the TrueCommerce B2B platform you can quickly and easily apply quantity breaks across all your accounts or you can target them at a customer level based on previous purchases.

Make ordering easy for your larger customers with support for complex account hierarchies

Due to the extra complexities that exist when purchases are made for multiple departments and locations, a structured account hierarchy which can be managed online is a compelling and cost saving feature for blue chip or multi-national corporations. Empower your larger customers to allocate purchases to specific departments, regional offices, cost centres or ship to addresses.

Connect your B2B storefront to your back office system

Connect your eCommerce website to your accounting, warehouse management or order processing systems to improve efficiencies and remove the need for rekeying, whilst increasing visibility across your business. The TrueCommerce B2B eCommerce platform has comprehensive integration capabilities with a powerful framework which allows rapid integration with business systems including SAP, Sage, Microsoft & Oracle.

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B2B eCommerce Integration
“TrueCommerce are a key partner to our growth plans and work with us collaboratively when it comes to winning new business and improving our customers experience online. There are a number of features in the platform that help us lead by example in the office sector and coupled with our punchout capabilities and quick turnaround we have become a that business that is easy to trade with.”Paul Hutchings
Head of Business Systems
Commercial Group

Reduce administration for you and your customers with Punchout

Punchout functionality is key if you sell (or plan to sell) to large organisations who have their own eprocurement solutions such as Oracle, SAP or Ariba. Such companies typically require their suppliers to implement Punchout technology in their B2B eCommerce software solution to seamlessly link it to to their third party procurement system. Doing so enables your customers to browse and add products on your website but complete the purchase via their procurement system.

Providing this feature will on average provide your customer with a 10% saving which is covered by the cost savings in administration.

Increase the speed of ordering and reduce returns with product compatibility functionality

In sectors such as office and IT supplies it is really important for buyers to know that the product they are purchasing is compatible with a certain make/model (for example, is the ink cartridge compatible with the printer). With the TrueCommerce B2B eCommerce software solution, products can quickly and easily be linked to enable the customer to check compatibility of the item or apply a filter to only see the items that are applicable to the particular make/model. This speeds up the ordering process for your customers and drastically reduces the amount of incorrectly ordered items and return requests you receive.

Simplify shipping with carriage handling functionality

The variation of products which are sold in the IT and office supplies industry vary dramatically from small items such as pens and pencils through to large pieces of office furniture or IT equipment. The calculation of delivery services and charges based on the customer’s order can therefore be a complex task. The TrueCommerce B2B eCommerce solution simplifies the process with a wide range of options which are specified by parameters including login, customer location, items in the order, item specific surcharges, weight, volume and insurance.

Eliminate offline authorisation processes for your customers

Offline authorisation processes involving paperwork are notoriously complex and inefficient. Empower your customers to increase the efficiency of purchases without losing control. With the TrueCommerce B2B eCommerce platform, offline authorisation processes are replaced with authority to buy and spend limits that can be set across buyers, departments and locations as well as having the ability to setup multiple levels of sign off approval.

Cater for offline customers with PDF contract catalogues

Not all of your customers’ staff will have access to online ordering, for example, construction sites or factory floors, but will still require information about the products that are available for re-order. The TrueCommerce B2B platform enables you to quickly and easily generate a PDF catalogue of the core contract items on a customer’s account which can be readily emailed or printed and shared. This saves your marketing team from performing the task, ensures the catalogue is always up to date and facilitates easier specification and ordering within your customer’s business.

A single platform for all your B2B orders

TrueCommerce enables you to capture all of your B2B orders on one single platform, increasing efficiency and visibility across your supply chain.

Whilst, our B2B eCommerce solution is ideal for your smaller customers that do not use EDI, if your clients include large corporations, it is likely you need to trade with them via electronic data interchange (EDI). As well as our market-leading EDI solution, we also have a PDF order processing solution ensuring you have a range of solutions for trading with all your customers regardless of their size or technical capabilities.

All of your customers’ orders, regardless of how they are received, are converted into a standard digital format and sent to your business system for processing.

The office supplies eCommerce platform

Here are some reasons why leading companies in the industry have chosen TrueCommerce as their office and IT supplies eCommerce platform provider:

– All orders can be captured though a single office supplies B2B web platform

– All channels to market and supply chain data can be unified on one platform through one connection to one provider

– Our global trading partner network makes it quick and easy to connect to the entire supply chain

– Our office supplies eCommerce platform is recognised and trusted by leading manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers across the globe