Data Management Processes in B2B E-Commerce

When implementing a B2B E-Commerce website for the first time, many brands are surprised to learn just how much work is needed to implement the new processes required to support data accuracy.  After all, a brand that’s successful enough to need a site has been selling to customers for a while, right?  And if you’ve already implemented a B2B site, you should have most of the data you need for B2B…right?

B2B E-Commerce is famous for showing holes in data management, as well as ERP and IT Road Maps, marketing initiatives, and Sales Programs, just to name a few areas..  In short, your brand must bring a new set of deliverables into your business calendar, which will require investment, planning, and collaboration to meet.  So, what do you need to do, to optimize your success?

First, when implementing a B2B e-commerce site for the first time, ensure you properly identify and include all impacted stakeholders at the outset.  Some examples include representatives from Wholesale Marketing, Digital Creative, Product Catalog, Planning, Customer Service, Product, Master Data, ERP support, EDI/XML/API support, middleware, Credit, and payment processing.  Each of these teams will have deliverables associated with your implementation.

Next, think about your product development and go-to-market processes and how these interweave with your B2B website launch.  What data and product assets need to be available, when, to facilitate an on-time launch?  Seasonal brands often find that their desired B2B site launch timing will impact their Go-To-Market calendar.  This is because the needed data and assets must be made available with enough lead time before the launch to support feed generation, along with a full audit and correction of missing or incorrect elements.  Once you begin to understand the needed timing, you can adjust your GTM calendar to support it.

You’ll also want to develop a testing process for data being returned to your ERP from the B2B site.  This could include test orders to ensure all the products are correctly set up for order entry, tracking orders from the site through middleware into the ERP, and looking at API data call and return performance.  Some of these tests might only be conducted during site implementation, and others may need to be conducted regularly.

If your B2B site includes merchandising or digital catalog functionality, you’ll want to test the output to ensure product sortation, organization, technologies, and other assets are correctly presented.  If you’ll allow payment via your site you’ll want to test tokenization via your payment processor, and discuss whether to include Credit information on the site for various customer accounts.  You’ll want to cover the order management process with Customer Service to ensure orders are arriving with all of the needed information elements.

As you can see, the data landscape associated with B2B E-Commerce is complex and has wide-ranging impacts to your business processes.  It’s important to consider these risks and changes in your implementation, as early as possible.  Early consideration can help you choose a solution that meets your requirements, examine your data and business processes to plan needed changes, and ensure the best possible environment for users at go-live.