B2B Customer Portal: What is It, Benefits and Examples

Business-to-business (B2B) gateways are online platforms that allow organisations and businesses to communicate with one another in a digital space. They often include e-commerce features, self-service activities, and communication tools for managing connections among partners, vendors, dealers, and clients.

B2B customer portals provide numerous benefits, including higher efficiency, lower operational expenses, enhanced communication, a greater customer (business) experience, and the chance to reach a larger network of potential business partners. 

Such online platforms are especially beneficial in sectors with complex supply chains and high transaction volumes. We will briefly discuss B2B portals better to read the whole article to know more about these platforms. 

Key Features of B2B Customer Portals

Helping another business operate efficiently and generate revenue is the end goal of the B2B customer portal. Some of the essential features of this B2B customer portal are:

1. User Authentication and Access Control

B2B customer portal platforms have a secure access system that provides restrictions for unauthorised access to valuable business information and data. By providing multiple or single-user authentication with view, no-view, edit, and full authority access control, businesses can perform safe and secure practices.  

2. Product and Service Information

Business can maintain their product and services in a single platform where customers can easily check a detailed catalogue of any service or product, allowing businesses to manage them as per their respective requirements.

3. Order Management

With real-time tracking and order management features, businesses can browse through their inventory stock, place orders, and restock a required product easily.

4. Communication Tools

Alerts, notifications, and messaging tools enable better communication between both buyer and seller, resolving product-related issues and other queries in real time.

5. Analytics and Reporting

Using reporting and analytics tools, businesses can analyse their activities, such as visitors, purchasing patterns, trends, and other metrics.

Benefits of Implementing B2B Customer Portals

B2B customer portals have a significant role in maintaining multiple business(customer) relationships and providing a better user experience in a single platform. Here are the benefits of a B2B customer portal:

1. Enhanced Customer Experience

Features like self-servicing allow customers to perform and access their desired product or information, promoting a customer-preferred approach. Hence, this self-service portal enhances customer experience.

2. Streamlined Communication

The help of a centralised platform where businesses can connect with their client. Providing real-time customer support efficiently and effectively and resolving issues and queries easily.

3. Improved Order Efficiency

By maintaining a digital catalogue of the products with complete descriptions, specifications, and related information, businesses can meet their buyer request and requirements in advance, which helps to improve order efficiency. 

4. Data-driven Decision Making

With the help of data insight and analytic tools, businesses can analyse sales, order requests, purchasing patterns, and other key indicators, enabling them to make a data-driven approach to decision-making. 

5. Increased Customer Loyalty and Retention

When you can provide advance required requests and requirements of the customer, providing real-time customer support, then it creates a positive user experience that results in customer loyalty and retention.  

Examples of Successful B2B Customer Portals

With streamlined communication, real-time support, and better customer experience, more and more businesses are in service with such platforms. Some of the successful B2B customer portals are: 

1. Salesforce Customer Portal: It is one of the trusted customer relationship management (CRM) platforms with a self-service experience feature where customers can access information and accomplish a variety of work or tasks without the assistance of a support representative.
2. SAP Customer Portal: It helps companies with ERP (Enterprise resource planning) software for businesses where traditional business models can benefit from centralised data management, resulting in improved customer experience and efficient business workflow.
3. Oracle Customer Portal: Provides digital customer service tools that enable businesses to manage agent-assisted and self-service processes, allowing customers to find answers on their own or communicate directly with agents via live online chat, screen-sharing, video calls, or messaging platforms.
4. Magento B2B Portal: Magento is an e-commerce platform based on open-source technology that gives business owners access and authority to the design, content, and functioning of their respective web-based store or online shop.
5. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce: Dynamics 365 is a suite of smart business apps that enable you to run your whole organisation and achieve better results through predicting and with the help of (artificial intelligence) AI-powered data and analytics.

Considerations for Implementing B2B Customer Portals

Traditional businesses rely on the decentralised system, which has low work rate efficiency and needs to separate employees for dedicated customer support. This is  why your business needs to implement B2B customer portals and practice:

1. Integration with Existing Systems: Traditional or modern business models can integrate the B2B customer portals, which helps enhance customer service, streamline operations, or boost revenue. 
2. Security and Data Privacy: Provides high-security features to protect, access, manage, and control user accounts and customers’ financial transactions.
3. Scalability: You can scale your business remotely, provide an excellent user experience with customer support, and resolve issues in real-time without hiring a support representative, giving the business an advantage in both an efficient workflow and cost-effective operation.
4. User Training and Support: With the self-service feature, customers can easily get used to Self-service alternatives, individualised encounters, and providing 24/7 convenience access and high-quality support for customer queries.  
5. Customisation and Flexibility: Enables businesses and customers to customise their profiles and accounts according to their goals or needs while giving flexibility from the comfort of their mobile devices or remote locations. Also, it is easy to track inventory and order management.

Case Studies of customer portal with example

Ubuy is an online store that implemented a B2B e-commerce portal for their businesses to buy, operate, and sell products. They wanted to expand their supplier’s directory and also give easy access to users with their suppliers. 

Their goal is to use the portal for effective product order management, purchasing, invoices, and payment bills by maintaining smooth communication service between buyer and seller with better commerce solutions

Now, with the use of the customer portal, their customer can log in to a personalised account with secure protection, and review product catalogues from the various distributors. This allows them to choose and make a purchase, and also able to contact suppliers for their respective queries and questions.

“The two biggest pros of using this portal are the cost savings associated with streamlined purchasing processes and access to a large product directory,” said Khan.

Now, if your business also wants to use the portal to increase customer retention, enhance user experience, and provide 24/7 customer service or support by saving high costs. You need to implement Customer portal service in your business.

Future Trends in B2B Customer Portals

When the world is advancing technology with digitalisation, B2B customer portals are also are also developing.

1. Emerging Technologies: Unified communication or Multiple support channels for customer support enable growth in business revenue and, in the future, digital channels like email, live chat, instant messaging, mobile apps, SMS, Social media platforms, and Self-serve tools to achieve a high customer personalised support system.
2. Personalisation and AI Integration: FAQs and AI chatbots can provide solutions to standard customer service through text-based and voice-recognition channels. Personalisation helps customer retention.
3. Mobile Accessibility: For high mobile-based users, there are definitely multiple device support channels that emphasise mobile accessibility priority.
4. Integration with E-commerce Platforms: More e-commerce businesses are already implementing B2B portals for self-service and user-centric support systems. In the future, this tends to increase highly with integration with e-commerce platforms.

These future trends should be noted and will help to make your business scale easily and efficiently.

Conclusion

Customer demands quality customer support with the help of client portals; business can easily upgrade their support system to a personalised support system where customer can quickly resolve their queries and receive solutions in real-time. Expanding remote service effectively and cost-effectively way.

Increasing business revenue with an improved rate of customer retention, quality user experience, and cost-effective approach to resolving customer issues quickly.

So, business of all sizes can scale their business effectively with this B2B digital customer portal service.