Modern B2B Commerce is Modular EDA Commerce

As business processes moved online, enterprises required solutions that could get them to market quicker. Businesses needed commerce capabilities with scalability and flexibility that would allow them to roll out new products, and a new user experience in a matter of days instead of months, or expand to new markets in a matter of months instead of years.

Legacy software solutions can’t keep up with modern digital needs. Some businesses are hesitant to adopt modern solutions due to outdated apprehensions about re-platforming projects. Enterprises are faced with a choice, they have to scramble to mount new technologies, or re-platform and work with the risks associated with choosing the wrong e-commerce.

Insufficient Performance - There are several things that can lead to performance problems, including a database that is not capable of coping with growth or the failure to deal with upgrades due to the number of customizations made to the platform. These issues cause a poor customer experience for buyers. It can also create added work for customer service and sales employees who must spend time looking for and reentering lost or missed orders, or handling costly mistakes.

Staying Competitive - For any company to stay competitive, it's now more important than ever to modernize its sales channels with innovative solutions.  Utilizing an outdated platform will result in limited capabilities, features, and functionalities, making it tough to differentiate from competitors and by providing the best customer experience across all channels. 

Growing Tech Debt  - Choosing the wrong commerce system has a wide range of costs connected with it that many B2B enterprises overlook. An organization might save on the front end by choosing the wrong out-of-the-box solution. But, in a few months or years, when the platform can't support the numerous customizations, the company's growth, the business will be paying and maintaining a system as it loses its value. Pouring money into a system that doesn’t support them, or paying for a new platform that better supports their business - in the present. 

Older technologies can be detrimental to enterprises at several different points. Staying with outdated versions can result in businesses not being able to access a number of features, limitations on usage, or main concerns later on if the technology cannot adjust to changes in the marketplace.

Modern commerce is modular EDA commerce. Businesses need the flexibility to add, replace, or remove key components today and in the future. To stay competitive and grow market share, businesses need a commerce solution that grows with them, able to meet their changing needs. Composable commerce enables you to innovate, streamline, and improve your customer experience. 

Conduct a Proof of Value - For organizations currently running on a monolithic commerce platform, a move to composable architecture may be a paradigm shift in how they plan for and roll out new commerce features and capabilities. Through experience, we’ve found that companies that conduct a “proof of value” that addresses important advanced use cases have the most accurate understanding of what they need to accomplish their goals.  

To help you build your proof of value, below you’ll find a handful of considerations related to your commerce requirements. Think about whether each of these features is required now, or if there will be a need in the future:

Products:

• Separation of products by catalogs or custom visibility rules based on buyer or user

• Any enrichment efforts based on market or channel

• Product availability, variability, and configuration 

Pricing:

• Pricing variability per buyer or group

• Markup management relative to cost and source systems

• Promotional pricing

• Pricing requirements related to product variations

Inventory:

• Where and how is inventory managed?

• Is inventory reserved or allocated to different buyers?

• Are backorders allowed for products?

Shipping and fulfillment:

• Existing relationships with shipping accounts (e.g. UPS, FedEx, DHL)

• Considerations relative to buyer geographies

• Outside of shipping, any other types of fulfillment, such as in-store pickup

A POV can greatly help your business remain innovative and competitive, as it's a more efficient approach than the traditional RFP model. A POV takes away the highest possible risks and costs associated with a complete change because it consists of proving concrete benefits and gives you a way to rapidly assess the impact and usefulness of the changes.

viax offers a free no-obligation POV so that clients can be certain that solutions meet their specific growth goals. We believe it’s our responsibility to provide irrefutable evidence that aligns with your specific business goals. Schedule a consultation with me using my calendar to learn how a viax POV can benefit your business. 

With a viax POV, you can be certain. Schedule a call with a viax specialist today to learn how viax can help your business grow.