Revolutionize Your B2B Business on BigCommerce

Streamlining your data management

The technologies covered in Calashock’s blog leading into this piece all share one thing in common: their goal is to optimize your product data to improve customer experience. Basically, this is from initial search to discover all the way to shipping. In B2B, with hundreds of SKUs, it is essential to have your single source of truth of product data, or a centralized hub, to leverage that data across your systems and any sales channels you’re currently leveraging. Therefore, managing large volumes of complex product data across multiple channels can be overwhelming. By integrating a PIM system as part of your BigCommerce tech stack, you gain the ability to centralize and consolidate all your product information in one place.

Here, we’ll look at a few ways you can optimize your tech stack by streamlining your data management and build on what our great partners over at Calashock touched on in Part 1 of this series.

1. Getting started

According to Gartner, by 2024, 15% of B2B organizations will use digital commerce platforms to support both customers and sales reps in all sales activities. Once you’ve decided on the best software for each facet of your business that best suits your needs, you may be asking:

‘What now?’

For each technology you bring on board, you have to understand who will be using the technologies on a day-to-day basis. Typically, this individual has been involved in the selection process of the technology as well. When you bring on the right team members for selection, you make this team member feel empowered and excited about bringing on a new technology. 

This is usually a very important aspect of implementation, especially when working with a full-service provider. 

While you may now have the right technologies for your business, you need a way to have them interact with your BigCommerce instance as seamlessly as possible.  

A common practice to enhance your BigCommerce use is through working together with a specialist agency such as Calashock to work out which technology partners are the right fit for your business and how they will integrate with each other (i.e. a PIM or WMS). 

BigCommerce specialists like Calashock can help you measure the cost of not purchasing a certain technology and tell you exactly what team members should be involved in each purchase. In addition, they walk with you through the buying process to consider how you’re going to conduct business as usual while the integrations are being put in place. 

In fact, one of the reasons we maintain a strong partnership with them is because of our ability to streamline and centralize data throughout these transformations – acting as a source of truth for the rest of your BigCommerce tech stack.

2. The benefits of streamlined data management

Siloed test environments

As mentioned above, one of the most important focuses of a digital transformation is not messing with business as usual. For instance, you can’t pause your commerce just to bring on a new technology. Such a method would render the purchase counterproductive. Instead, choose technologies that offer siloed test environments. This way, you can experiment at zero cost to your business before implementation.

In essence, Pimberly PIM/DAM offers this very feature when brought into any BigCommerce tech stack.

Superior online experiences

Using a PIM in unison with a DX for your BigCommerce instance will make you stand out from the crowd. Basically, you have unprecedented flexibility if you practice headless commerce and utilize the best-in-class in each facet of business. So, this is not only in what you can present to potential customers but how it is presented as well. 

Streamlined processes

When you integrate your tech stack, you enable your team to focus more time and resources on wider business objectives. For example, these objectives can include increasing revenue and ensuring compliance and accuracy of your products across all channels. Overall, it doesn’t matter how complex the product is.

Faster ROI

Quality product data coupled with a sleek eCommerce platform opens the door to lots of opportunities. Meaning, you can truly grow and scale your eCommerce operations. Your tech partners, such as BigCommerce and Pimberly, are here to help you get the most out of your tech stack. In turn, make the most out of this relationship to leverage the most potential you can.

3. What is B2B BigCommerce edition?

BigCommerce has introduced the B2B version of their platform, aimed at manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.  

The platform is specifically designed to meet the unique needs of B2B merchants. As a matter of fact, the technology provides a platform and ecosystem which enables merchants to curate the tech stack they need to optimize their business processes. 

The flexibility offered by this edition of BigCommerce is ideal for scalability and continued digital transformation. For example, easily manage multiple storefronts and bring on hundreds of thousands of SKUs. Consequently, this is made possible through automation and AI provided by the PIM in your current tech stack. 

Custom Pricing and Quoting

B2B businesses often negotiate custom pricing agreements with their customers. BigCommerce B2B Edition allows businesses to set up customer-specific pricing, volume-based pricing, contract pricing, and other flexible pricing structures. Additionally, it enables the generation of custom quotes and streamlined quoting workflows.

Account Management

B2B transactions often involve multiple individuals within an organization, each with different roles and permissions. Now, there is technology to support managing customer accounts, assigning user roles and permissions, and setting up hierarchical buyer structures. 

Self-Service tools

Buyers in the B2B landscape increasingly prefer self-service options that enable them to access account information, place orders, track shipments, and manage their transactions independently. In effect, gain a personalized dashboard, view order history, and seamlessly generate quick order forms. 

Integrations

B2B businesses often rely on, say, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to manage their back-end operations. As a result, BigCommerce B2B Edition seamlessly integrates with leading ERP systems (and the ones listed in Part 1), enabling automated data synchronization, real-time inventory updates, streamlined order processing, and a cohesive customer experience across multiple platforms. 

4. Who are we?

Who is Calashock?

The go-to BigCommerce, B2B specialists.

Their expert team able to help merchants identify pain points and the bring together the right set of solutions to create a tailored system. In turn, they build beautiful, intuitive websites but also help upgrade/transform the back-office system by introducing best-in-class solutions, reducing manual processes etc. 

Who is Pimberly?

Pimberly is an innovative, cloud-based SaaS PIM (Product Information Management), DAM (Digital Asset Management), and Workflow platform for all your product data and digital assets. It’s designed to handle unlimited numbers of SKUs, data feeds, and channels for leading brands and businesses. 

Relevant reads

  1. Podcast: Unleashing your B2B eCommerce Website with BigCommerce B2B Edition
  2. Podcast: Optimizing Inventory Management and Forecasting
  3. Podcast: Why Every Merchant Should Have a Shipping Strategy