How to Grow Revenue with Your B2B Platform

This article originally appeared on Outside

For most brands, a wholesale e-commerce platform is an essential component of running their B2B channel. It's the best way to manage seasons, handle orders, empower reps, and build relationships with retailers. And this is how many brands approach their B2B platform - like a series of tools.

But, a modern B2B platform does so much more. Smart brands are harnessing the power of their B2B to directly benefit their top and bottom lines, and improve their revenue.

Grow Your Top Line

There are two ways a B2B platform should be helping you grow your top line: Enabling you to sell more products, and adding doors.

Sell More With Modern Tools

A good B2B will combine both content and commerce features seamlessly, so that retailers can get educated and build smarter orders, wherever they are in the platform.

Content experiences (like Envoy B2B's Showroom) should be the primary landing spot for retailers when they log in. It's a digital destination for content education, promotions, your brand story, and anything else you need to communicate to your retailers.

These destinations are crucial because retailers sell more of what they know. Engaging retailers with compelling educational content and product knowledge creates brand evangelists on the show floor. That directly translates to growing your sales and increasing your top line.

You can also increase your revenue by adopting a B2B with tools to run targeted campaigns right inside the platform.

You'll need a B2B that delivers solid insights and activity data in addition to campaigning tools. These analytics are what you'll use to build assortment-based campaigns that can be tailored to specific retailer needs, and delivered to as many retailers as needed.

These campaigns, in tandem with your educational content, create opportunities for retailers to immediately capitalize on and convert content from their digital experiences into an order. That means your B2B is smoothing out the path from initial engagement to order submissions, and taking the burden of building that order "by hand" off the retailer. The combination of education and campaign assortments shortens the time to order placement, and eliminates multiple points of failure in the order process. This means more revenue in your top line.

Here's a critical piece of how the right B2B can grow your top line. Make sure buyers can self-serve inside your platform.

First, retailers need access to real-time inventory data. This is not a given in every B2B platform, so make sure you choose one that has this functionality. Second, deliver detailed product images, visualization tools, as well as access to order status. Finally, make sure the entire platform is 100% shoppable so retailers can build orders from anywhere inside your B2B platform.

If your B2B is delivering all these features, then retailers are fully equipped to handle ordering on their own, 24/7.

More Doors

The second way your B2B can increase your top line is by enabling your brand with tools that make it easier to get more retailers into the platform, and creating a relationship with your brand.

You want a B2B that gets rid of the typical barriers that keep new retailers from easily checking out your brand. That means a platform that allows potential new retailers access to interactive experiences, catalogs, and the ability to connect with reps - without having to go through the process of registering, getting permissions, and setting up an account.

The idea is to onboard accounts and get them in the platform quickly and easily, with the option to make it more official once they're building that first order. More accounts means more revenue for your top line.

Shrink Your Bottom Line

On the flipside of the revenue coin we've got your bottom line. A modern B2B will have a positive impact here through efficiency and by reducing the time to receive payment.

Standardize It

Too many brands are losing revenue by dedicating endless hours to hand-keying in orders. It's inefficient, prone to errors, and takes far too long.

Modern B2B systems provide an easy online ordering experience right inside the platform which is the same for every account. That standardized experience cuts down on time spent for your team, and reduces errors dramatically. And that's immediately better for a brand's bottom line.

Moving Past Terms

The payment options inside your B2B platform can also improve your revenue by reducing your bottom line. It's risky to carry unreliable accounts or add new ones outside of term agreements.

That's why it's important you have a pay now function in your brand's B2B.

This enables you to be flexible and sell to different types of customers, while reducing the risk on your future catalog. Unstable accounts can even be moved into a solution involving immediate payment for orders, preserving the relationship while keeping your bottom line low.

Improve Your Revenue with a Better B2B

Despite the challenges of the last few years, many retailers are reporting tremendous growth right now. Brick and mortar is more important than ever. Your brand needs to tap into this moment and build strong relationships with your retailers. But, more importantly, you need to build these relationships with smart digital tools that provide more than just logistics and functionality, but actively grow your revenue.

Want to learn more about how Envoy B2B can make that happen? Get in touch to learn more.

Envoy B2B is a wholesale content and e-commerce platform for your entire team. Our tools and services are designed to help you create dynamic content, increase your speed of sale, and bring you closer to your retailers. Envoy B2B provides the technology you need to empower your team and support your retail channel. Envoy currently works with great clients like Ducati, Lems footwear, Howler Brothers, Gogglesoc, Green Lines, Keds, Merrell, Hush Puppies, Cat Footwear, Chaco, Saucony, Oofos, Topo Designs, Joules, and more.

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