ustom roles and permissions were for a long time reserved for the team on the seller's side, but in the B2B sector also on the customer side, many people are responsible for making purchasing decisions. From this article, you will learn how to improve account management on the customer side.
Multiple decision-makers in the B2B sector
Who in e-commerce makes purchasing decisions? In the B2C sector, the answer is simple – the individual customer manages every step of their order: they select the products, enter the delivery address, make the payment and that's it. Unfortunately, order management is another area where the B2B sector has a bit more complicated situation.
In business-to-business sales, the customer is not a single person, but a company. Thus, a team of employees with specific competencies and powers is responsible for decisions in the purchasing process. Different people select the products, negotiate the price, estimate the demand, define the delivery warehouse, submit the credit application, or make the payment.
This situation is one of the many challenges facing B2B sellers. Should employees place an order together? Should one person representing the customer company make decisions based on the guidelines of the others? Should purchases be finalised with the help of a sales representative? None of these options will be efficient and comfortable. And yet, in e-commerce, user experience is a priority. Fortunately, there is another solution, designed with B2B customers in mind.
Multiple accounts in the admin panel
When designing online shops, custom roles and permissions are usually implemented in the admin panel. Employees on the retailer side are given access to accounts with a specific set of permissions, assigned to their role. All accounts are plugged into one administration panel to facilitate platform management. Custom roles and permissions are a standard in e-commerce, which greatly facilitates work from a back-office perspective. Today, such a solution is also available to the client-side team.
Custom roles and permissions for customers
The difficulty of coordinating the work of multiple people on the customer side has long been a challenge for effective B2B customer service. Today, business vendors can easily implement such a solution in their shops.
How does it work?
- A B2B customer, in this case, a company, registers in the online shop.
- Several separate accounts for employees can be attached to the customer account created.
- The employee accounts can have different permissions depending on the person's role in the organisation. Some can view and add products to an order, others can specify the delivery location, others can finalise payment, and so on.
- All employees have access to the data and functionality they need for their responsibilities.
- If questions arise, anyone from the client company can contact the assigned sales consultant.
How do I implement custom roles and permissions?
The function of custom roles and permissions for customers is possible for B2B vendors implementing an online shop. At Strix, we offer such a feature as a separate module when designing a sales platform from scratch or offer it as part of a B2B implementation package.
Our B2B Box package is a business solution for e-commerce, allowing you to launch sales in as little as 3 months. B2B Box offers a range of functionality tailored to the requirements of the sector, including:
- Custom roles and permissions for sellers and customers.
- Individual price lists and offers for each customer.
- Inventory management.
- Advanced product information management tool.
- Marketplace and cross-border sales support.
Work with us!
We have been implementing e-commerce projects for the B2B and B2C sectors for over 14 years. We know the pain points of business sellers and how to solve them - after all, we operate in the B2B model ourselves! If you are looking for a company to help you plan your strategy and put it into practice - write to us!