Four51 Blog

B2B eCommerce solution. Comprehensive data model. Cloud-based technology. Multi-tenant SaaS. Completely customizable. 17M users worldwide. www.four51.com

[four51blog-blog]

How to Shift From Being a Brand Police to a Brand Catalyst Using B2B eCommerce

As a retail, franchise, distributed operations marketer, you know it’s easy to become known as the “Brand Police” within your organizations. This becomes an especially easy default leadership style when you’re managing marketing for an organization with numerous locations, strict brand guidelines and brand ambassadors with little to no marketing experience.

When you become the Brand Police though, you limit your organization’s marketing potential, put up barriers that create lots of inefficiencies and you disempower employees to represent your organization and spread the word. A Brand Police creates an organization where:

No one in your organization will go near the marketing department because they’re afraid of being judged.

People on your marketing team are afraid to submit a document for marketing review because they might get slapped on the wrist for using a logo from years ago.

Your franchise location owners or field marketers won’t post on social media because they want to avoid having to submit the drafted post for approval and having to wait weeks before it gets ok-ed by the many levels of branding barricades.

Marketers in the field can’t create localized marketing materials (with location specific information, deals or logos) without having to call a Support Center to request that they are custom created by someone in the corporate office who is backed up with work and can’t get to it for weeks.

With B2B eCommerce though, you can help your organization become a Brand Catalyst instead of Brand Ambassador. By moving all of your marketing materials online accessible through a central ordering hub, you create a common document repository that is available from any location and empowers even the non-marketers to start marketing.

At Four51, we’ve seen customers use OrderCloud, our cloud-based B2B eCommerce platform, to make their localized marketing materials easily accessible, empowering their field marketers to be stronger brand catalysts. Here are some of the benefits:

1.  Consolidate marketing materials online, allowing for 24/7 access:

With an order hub for your organization’s marketing materials, you bring all your brand’s tangible assets together in one place. Whether you’re asking your employees to order the marketing materials to be shipped to their location or you’re allowing them to download them from the hub to print or send themselves, a marketing order hub allows for easy browsing and accessibility from any device at any time of day. Instead of having to explain new marketing materials you’re trying to deploy to the field over a conference call or a long email no one reads, include usability instructions in the product description, further improving efficiencies.  

2.  Allow your field-based employees to develop localized marketing materials themselves:

Localized marketing is a great way to provide personalized messaging to people based on their location. In a retail, franchise or distributed operations-based business, you know that you often have deals or promotions available to specific locations only, and you don’t want your managers at locations where the deal doesn’t apply to have access to these coupons or marketing materials.

With OrderCloud, we’ve seen organizations allow location specific marketing managers to create location specific marketing materials right on their online ordering hub. Drop in location-specific logos, change addresses and contact information, and even tweak the messaging based on your location’s happenings right from the platform. Then, download, print and deploy the marketing piece immediately, without the help of the corporate office. This has saved many organizations lots of time and hassle, not to mention resources.

3.  Improve reporting capabilities without babysitting:

Instead of putting back on your Brand Police hat and bugging location owners about implementing your latest marketing campaign or changing the most up-to-date logo, you can check on how they are using your assets through the reporting capabilities of your online platform. Get immediate feedback through your platform’s reporting capabilities based on your users’ engagement with your materials. Further, you can then adjust your asset creation strategy in real-time based on how people are using the materials.

Since 56% of B2B buyers are now wanting to do business with you on their mobile device, it’s important that you make sure all aspects of your business are adapting to this new buyer behavior. By creating an online ordering hub for your marketing materials, you’ll empower your employees to be brand ambassadors, you’ll eliminate material ordering inefficiencies and you’ll ultimately save your organization money by allowing your field locations the ability to spend more time on more value-driving initiatives.

Is your marketing department more of a Brand Police or a Brand Catalyst, and what have you seen as some of the pros and cons of each approach?

[four51blog-blog]

Google’s “Mobile-Friendly” Announcement Places Importance on Mobile for B2B

Google will be changing their search ranking algorithm and marking sites "mobile friendly" starting on April 21st, 2015. The announced algorithm updates will have a “significant impact” on mobile search results worldwide. The update improves rankings for sites that provide a responsive, or mobile-friendly, experience to searchers on mobile devices, and demotes sites that do not. The mobile-friendly update only affects mobile search results (for example, searches from smartphones and tablets) not searches conducted on a desktop or laptop computer.

If you have eCommerce sites that depend on search to generate site traffic, you should be paying attention. If your site is not mobile friendly, meaning it does not adapt to smartphones and tablets, your search rankings will be negatively impacted, affecting your customer experience, sales, and bottom line.

For pure B2B sites, search is not typically part of the strategy since those sites serve a known set of users.  But, moves like Google’s algorithm change only reinforce the fact that mobile continues to become more and more prevalent everywhere, especially in B2B commerce. Customers will come to expect this type of experience, no matter if they are buying on a B2B site or a B2C site. A recent article from Internet Retailer outlined how Olam Specialty Coffee, a B2B distributor, increased sales by 17% by introducing mobile friendly responsive design to their ecommerce site, a great example of how B2B eCommerce sites that keep up with customers’ expectations are being rewarded.  

Whether you rely on search to propel your B2C sites, or want to drive increased sales in your B2B sites by introducing mobile convenience, OrderCloud is ready to deliver for you.  OrderCloud’s built-in responsive design capability means you are mobile ready, without the need for further development or customization.  So, use the mobile momentum in the market to your advantage and begin delivering responsive sites to your customers.  You have the tools you need, and we’re here to help.   

Contact your account rep or email [email protected] if you are interested in hearing more about OrderCloud’s responsive capabilities.

[four51blog-blog]

The Benefits of a Cloud-Based B2B eCommerce Platform

There is no need to write a long, pedantic discourse on the advantages of the cloud model vs. on premise solutions (check this out if you’re interested in 3 reasons why cloud-based SaaS gives you a major advantage).  There is no point in rehashing that argument here because the writing is on the wall...SaaS is the superior model in almost every circumstance.

However there is something to call out specifically here: cloud-based SaaS provides a more inexpensive option with fewer costs in the long-term.

Other B2B eCommerce providers might argue the opposite. Below is an excerpt from  an article recently published by Internet Retailer on B2B e-commerce spending (all data in this article was mined from various Forrester reports).

“Deploying an e-commerce platform is not cheap for the larger companies covered by this report. Forrester estimates the average project costs $1 million, and 15% of implementation projects cost over $2 million. And that’s just the cost of the software: spending on implementation and maintenance services typically runs five times that of the software itself. Total U.S. spending on those services also will nearly double between 2014 and 2019, growing from $4.200 billion to $9.772 billion.”

Deploying an e-commerce solution doesn’t have to be that expensive. Can it be that expensive? Sure! You can spend as much as you want to spend. The largest of enterprises for whom cost is not a factor might choose to leverage the monolithic ‘on premise’ solutions that have dominated the marketplace for years.

These ‘on-premise’ solutions are simply more costly than even the most expensive of SaaS solutions. This is due to several expected considerations:

Pricing is generally based around a pay-per-seat model

Expensive upgrades

Lengthy and expensive implementations

Hiring an IT staff and owning/hosting your own data center

But there are other slightly less apparent cost considerations often overlooked when it comes to purchasing a premise-based solution, for example:

Higher energy costs

Server replacements as hardware ages

Required anti-virus software

Security certifications

Additional downtime, which, depending on the size of the organization can be very costly

If you do have a limited budget when it comes to B2B eCommerce, considering a cloud-based solution will likely save you money, time and resources. eCommerce doesn’t need to be that expensive if you do it right.

If you’re interested in hearing more about why deploying your e-commerce solution shouldn’t be so expensive contact us at [email protected].

[four51blog-blog]

Tech Talk: OrderCloud Spec Forms Custom Field Library

The last tech blog post was an introduction to variable product spec forms. We demonstrated how to use the variable specs to customize products in numerous ways. This time we'll take another step toward providing functionality for these products by introducing the OrderCloud-SpecForms directive library.

The library is hosted, openly, on github. It is an angular module that is comprised of several directives for customizing the input elements associated to the variable specs of your product. Specifically, they are: ocmaskfield, occasefield, octextfield, ocselectionfield, ocfilefield, ocdatefield, octimefield, cocheckboxfield. Each are prefixed with "oc" to help avoid name conflicts.

Each directive contains the html template, scope variable and any functionality required to operate and validate the values assigned to the variable specs. Generally they are self explanatory, but each are documented in the repository "readme" for specifics.

Let's briefly discuss how to use this library in your own OrderCloud Storefront application.

First, take the script file hosted in the repository and add it to your project. I recommend including it in the "lib" folder of your project, but that isn't required. Make sure to also update your index.html file with the reference to that new script file.

<script src="lib/ordercloud-specforms.js" data-group="resources"></script>

Note that the attribute data-group specifies the value resources. That is a direction to the application engine to concatenate the file into the external resources grouping and then to minify it when requested by the browser. This is important for your application performance.

Second, this library may be an introduction to angular modules for you. AngularJs is built on the concept of modularity. In the Storefront reference application you can find the js/app.js file and see how that application registers the module for 451order. The second parameter is a string array of other modules that are loaded into the application context for use. In order to use the OrderCloud-SpecForms module you must include it in this location like so:

four51.app = angular.module('451order', ['ngResource', 'ngRoute', 'ngAnimate', 'ngSanitize', 'ngCookies', 'ngTouch', 'ui.validate', 'ui.mask', 'headroom', 'ui.bootstrap', 'angulartics', 'angulartics.google.analytics', 'ngAutocomplete', 'OrderCloud-SpecForms']);

Once these two actions are completed you are ready to use the library anywhere in your application code. Let's create an example of the ocdatefield. This directive will provide a calendar control for date selection. Like all of the directives you must define the variable spec the value will be assigned to by using the customfield attribute. The date directive also allows you to specify the format of the date selected. This follows the usual date formatting patterns.

<ocdatefield customfield="Variant.Specs.StartDate" format="dd-MM-yyyy"> </ocdatefield>

Lastly, let's touch on the open source aspect of this library. This is a community project. Everyone is encouraged to contribute to the library. Add new directives, or enhance the existing. Feel free to create pull requests. Follow the pattern established and we'll consider your contribution for inclusion in the library, with full credit.

If you have any questions around how to use this library in your OrderCloud storefront, please contact your Four51 Account Rep or email [email protected].

[four51blog-blog]

Dear Distributors, It's Time to Grow Your Business Without Adding Costs

Dear Distributors,

You have an opportunity.  

The B2B eCommerce industry is worth roughly $1 trillion in the U.S. alone today, according to estimates from Gartner Group and Forrester Research, Inc. This is not to mention the fact that the industry is growing at nearly 4 times the rate of B2C eCommerce as distributors like you respond to the growing demand among buyers to buy online and on-the-go.

Not only are your buyers demanding it, but soon your business is going to demand it, too. Getting your offline users online is going to benefit your business by improving retention, driving top line growth and saving money.

The retention story usually looks like this: build an electronic fence around your customer. Once they are buying online, you got ‘em, because technology is sticky. It’s a barrier to switching. And it’s a competitive advantage for you and your business. Every distributor out there has email and can take orders via email. But they can’t respond with the swiftness and accuracy that your customers demand today with email ordering forever. B2B eCommerce is vital if you are going to retain today’s buyers.

In addition to the fence, there are top line benefits. Something magical happens when you load up your new B2B eCommerce sites with the right mix of products…people buy them! This is an important message to spread to your offline users that are considering moving online. We often talk to offline users about starting with a single product line (like business cards) as a starting point, and then expanding from there until your solution becomes a true ordering hub. This helps to streamline reporting, eliminate redundant systems and gain purchasing power.

Finally, there are cost saving benefits to moving online. The appeal goes something like this: What if your CSRs didn’t have to deal with these four big operational inefficiencies?

Taking an order using phone/fax/email — slow, error prone

Responding to “Where’s my order?” calls and emails

Running reports on order activity

Selling fewer products due to capacity

By giving your CSRs the opportunity to take orders online through an easy to use B2B eCommerce platform, you’re giving them the ability to streamline their efforts and focus on activities that will provide more value to your organization at large, like more consultative selling and a more personalized approach.

Generally, when we see customers move their ordering platforms online, they experience exponential cost savings in the form of costs per order.

Another way to look at this, is if your best sales rep works with 5 clients per month, you know that adding 1 more client offline is going to create more human-intensive work for that sales rep. In general, this isn’t  a very scalable strategy if your goal is to add more than 1 new client per month in the future. If you get comfortable with the way things are now, you’re going to find yourself hiring more and more sales reps as your business grows over time. This will eat up your margins and take away from the bottom line. Adding 1 more client online, however, isn’t going to add to your reps’ human-intensive workload, and you’re going to be able to scale that growth rate much easier.

You have an opportunity to improve the course of your business and move your offline users online. If there’s anything we can do to help you do that, please email us at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Four51

[four51blog-blog]

3 Things Your Stubborn Executives Will Want to Know About Your B2B e-Commerce Decision

A recent study conducted by Forrester Research showed that 67% of North American B2B firms believe that e-commerce is fundamentally changing B2B commerce. 

But are the executives buying it?

After 15 years of working with current and potential Four51 customers, we know that the decision to move into the B2B commerce space is a big one, and one that involves leadership at every level of the organization, including the c-suite. The best way to get them on board is to prepare a well-thought out business case for moving your business operations onto an e-Commerce platform.

Here are 3 proof points to use that should get your executives excited about B2B e-Commerce:

1.  Help your executives get to know today’s B2B buyers:

It’s your job to educate your executives around the new B2B buyer. Focus on who your users are, how they order, where they spend their time, and report on issues or challenges with your current system that your buyers are facing. In most cases, B2B companies find that their users (in fact 56% of them) are spending most of their day on their mobile device and are demanding that all of their shopping experiences, including B2B, be accessible via that device. If your company doesn’t respond to this shift in buyer behavior soon, you’re going to lose those mobile buyers (56% of your buyers!).

2.  Show your executives how B2B e-Commerce helps reduce costs and eliminate order errors:

Our customers found that, before they moved to e-Commerce, most of their ordering processes were taking place over the phone via call centers and, when they spent time analyzing this process, they found that these call centers were actually costing them more than they knew. We’ve seen organizations go from a $60 per order cost to a $1 per order cost when they move their operations to e-Commerce.  That is some cost savings your executives can get behind! e-Commerce also helps reduce order errors, improves order status and confirmation, thus improving customer service and the over-arching customer experience.

3.  Focus on process improvements that are possible with B2B e-Commerce:

Executives love process improvements because improvements in process means reduction in costs and an increase in your bottom line. Help your executives out by outlining what a new buying process would look like, both for your internal operations teams and for the user, by moving your business onto a B2B e-Commerce platform. What is going to be made easy? What might be more difficult? What’s the trade-off? By moving your ordering needs online, you’ll reduce delivery times because shippers will have access to the information they need sooner; you’ll reduce errors made by your internal staff and put the onus back on the buyer themselves; and you’ll be able to provide more automated order status updates for these buyers, but also for your internal team, allowing for more accurate and timely reporting for your executives.

By using these proof points – buyer demand, cost savings, and process improvements – you’ll be able to have a well thought-out conversation with your executive team around B2B e-Commerce. Ultimately, the cost of doing nothing is going to overtake the cost of moving forward. Buyers are demanding it and if they can’t find it with you, they’re going to find it somewhere else.

If you do need help building your case, don’t forget to check out Four51’s Professional Services offerings.

[four51blog-blog]

B2B online sales are surging ahead worldwide

According to Internet Retailer, B2B online sales are surging ahead worldwide. It is forecasted that B2B online sales will grow to $6.7 trillion by 2020. 

[four51blog-blog]

How to Convince Your Stakeholders that B2B eCommerce is Right for You

Oftentimes convincing your boss or your organization’s key stakeholders that now is the time for B2B e-Commerce is the biggest hurdle for getting started. Getting everyone on the same page is no easy task. Inevitably, you'll need to justify the project to a number of different stakeholders in your business. 

To prepare for these conversations, prepare your answers to the following 5 questions:

1. Why do we need eCommerce?

The need for B2B eCommerce isn't obvious to many stakeholders. Traditional order entry methods via phone, fax and email seem like suitable solutions to many. Having a clear understanding of why you see eCommerce as a worthwhile investment is key.  

The B2B eCommerce industry is worth roughly $1 trillion in the U.S. alone, according to estimates from Gartner Group and Forrester Research, Inc.

The B2B eCommerce industry is growing at nearly 4 times the rate of the B2C eCommerce industry as manufacturers, distributors and wholesales respond to the growing demand among buyers to buy online and on-the-go.

Companies adopting B2B eCommerce are seeing reduced order rates, improved operational efficiencies, and radically reduced costs.

Starting the conversation with some industry research can help validate the need for this beyond the needs of your business.

2. What is the ROI?

Another way to gain buy-in on the need for B2B eCommerce is to show the ROI. You may be asked to provide a specific financial calculation to justify your eCommerce project. Here you'll want to focus on tangible benefits like:

Increased sales due to easier buying process, reduced order rates, and catalogs being accessed easier.

Time saved, for example the increase in productivity you’ll see amongst sales reps, and the reduction in time to complete tasks

Time and cost saved, from reduced length and number of customer service calls

Time and cost saved from reduced numbers of errors

Time saved from improved system reliability and less maintenance required for fewer problems to resolve

3. How will we measure success for the project?

It makes sense that your stakeholders are going to wonder how you’ll run this business and what sorts of data, analytics and insights they’ll gain. Intangible benefits can help fully explain the business case and further justification for your project. Once your B2B eCommerce platform is up and running, you’ll be able to pay attention to:

Increase in customer satisfaction

Ability to offer improved customer service and support

Increased usability leading to increased sales

A deeper look into user satisfaction

Improved and automated business processes that the new system supports and enables

Faster and more accurate information and access to buying data

Better forecasting

4. Does the system meet our business requirements?

Not all eCommerce platforms are built the same. You need to determine the requirements for your business and find a system that fulfills your needs. Interview your stakeholders in sales, customer service, distribution, finance and IT. They will help you determine what's important and help facilitate the vendor evaluation process. That way, when your stakeholders ask you this question, you’ll feel confident that the vendor you choose is best the best system for your requirements.  

5. Does the system integrate with the rest of our business processes and systems?

To realize the value of your eCommerce system, it needs to be integrated with the way your company transacts business and the systems it uses to operate. eCommerce can create problems rather than solve them if the entire order-to-cash and delivery processes aren't streamlined from front to back. Be sure to work closely with your IT and business systems stakeholders to choose a system that can be tightly integrated with your sales, distribution and accounting systems.

Preparing a business case for your B2B eCommerce platform may seem like a big task. But after talking with a vendor that’s right for you, the answers to these questions should fall into place.

What other hard questions have your stakeholders asked about your decision to move to eCommerce?

[four51blog-blog]

4 Things to Consider Before Internationalizing your B2B eCommerce Strategy

Thomas Friedman said that “we are entering an era of creative destruction on steroids.” Since the world has become a flat playing field, all competitors have an equal opportunity. 

As online eCommerce grows, global expansion and internationalization are becoming top priorities. But before jumping in, there's a lot to consider and plan for to prepare your business for the expansion.

When deciding whether or not your organization is ready to internationalize, be sure and consider these 4 questions:

1. What are your goals and priorities?

Clearly defining your goals and priorities is important for any growth or expansion project within your organization. Be sure that everyone on your eCommerce team is on the same page as far as your goals go - from the marketing team to your IT resources. Goals around global expansion often including:

Creating brand awareness and harnessing market insight

Supporting an omni-channel sales system / enhancing their brick and mortar presence

Driving brand consistency

2. Where will you go? Which regions and markets present the best opportunity for your business?

When deciding where to grow your business, there’s a lot to consider. Which countries or regions will be a good investment? Which countries or regions offer the best opportunity as far as the products or services you sell? A 2013 Global Retail eCmmerce Index scored China, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and South Korea as the top 5 candidates for global investment, based on a combination of factors including online market size, consumer behavior, growth potential and infrastructure. The top candidates for global investment might be the best places for your organization to go, or you might be interested in the underdogs - it all depends on your strategy.

3.  Do you have the right resources in place?

It’s important to decide who from your organization will be handling the Internationalization process before getting started. Make sure you account for workflow across sites for all of the following:

Multi-lingual, Multi-cultural knowledge: Things like language and cultural knowledge are important, especially when you consider things like customer service and communication. Who will answer calls for orders being processed in your new locations around the world? Who will be able to communicate to the new users about releases or new sales materials in multiple languages?

Logistics and Fulfillment operations: You’ll want to weigh whether it makes sense to set up warehousing facilities in the new region, or just ship things internationally. Sometimes cross-border shipping can take weeks. But maintenance, management, and staffing of an international warehouse can be very costly.

4.  What questions should I ask when selecting an eCommerce solution that will support my plans for Global Expansion and Internationalization?

Does the current eCommerce Platform support global delivery and hosting? What about localization?

Can existing catalog and product content be easily translated on the site?

How will the current platform handle multiple currencies and country-specific pricing?

There's a lot to consider when thinking about internationalizing your business and Four51 is here to help. Contact [email protected] to get your specific questions answered.

If you've already internationalized your business, what's been the most tricky part?

[four51blog-blog]

How B2B eCommerce reduces costs and automates sales and marketing operations

In B2B, eCommerce is not just about customer facing catalogs and automated financial transactions. While those are important pieces of a B2B strategy, there are many other operational benefits that companies can obtain through the use of today’s modern B2B platforms when it comes to sales, marketing and company specific programming.

Marketing Operations

From a marketing operations standpoint, B2B eCommerce is a key solution to marketers operational challenges. Whether it’s enforcing a consistent brand message and story across all distribution channels or its developing a world class customer experience, today’s B2B eCommerce can help. Marketers use it to deliver marketing content to downstream go-to-market channels of all shapes and sizes. This content is customized or co-branded by the distribution partner providing brand compliance and consistency to the marketing department, while simultaneously providing convenience and control to the sales channel. The end result is less time spent by both parties managing internal transactions and more time spent on developing strategic efforts to grow the business and the bottom line.

Sales Operations

In sales operations, B2B eCommerce can be used to manage vendor data, manage the sale of multiple brands or product lines, and even clean-up IT infrastructure issues in regards to reporting and managing sales. Modern B2B platforms can also handle the complexities of supporting multiple branded catalogs and unique customer experiences under a single administrative console. Through built-in branding tools, permissions and approval rule configurations, these individual catalogs can be tailored to meet the specific needs of complex customers and still provide the advantages of a single administrative environment. In addition, automated tasks like routine order confirmation, status updates, shipment tracking, and automated supplier routing reduce the amount of time sales people have to spend on non-strategic activities.

Custom Solutions and the Cloud

Leading edge B2B eCommerce platforms are built as Software as a Service (SaaS), meaning they are delivered natively from the cloud and require no licenses, hardware, or management and can be instantly deployed. Some of those platforms, like OrderCloud from Four51 have extended their SaaS capabilities to let you build custom eCommerce applications using their platform. With these platforms, you can start with a pre-built set of business objects and a REST API that allows you to very quickly and cost-effectively build your own cloud-based applications in at a fraction of the time and expense normally required. For example, your operations may require a call center application to front-end order entry with a specific workflow, or your sales organization may need an application that allows field reps to pull together customized proposals on-the-go, and instantly send them off to customers to help expedite the sales process.

Reducing costs and automating Sales and Marketing operations can be done through B2B cloud-based eCommerce platforms with an extensive set of capabilities and a REST API to effectively solve these challenges across the organization. Take advantage of the dramatic cost savings opportunities available on the go-to-market sides of your businesses by getting creative with your platform today!

REQUEST ACCESS to our demo site to see how OrderCloud’s responsive platform could help make your site stronger.

[four51blog-blog]

Tech Talk: Intro to OrderCloud Spec Forms

The Four51 OrderCloud solution introduces the concept of products with configurable options, we'll call them variable products. These products can be used to drive any number of solutions: Configure Price Quote, Customizable Variable Documents and Variable Specs. The default functionality is robust, and frequently the only necessary step. However, there are times that creating additional functionality around these forms is required. Let's take a look at that process and touch on some of the capabilities:

AngularJS

AngularJs is the single page application framework used in the reference applications of OrderCloud. The customizable points within the administrative interface are designed for this framework. So, when you are in the app and click into the "OrderCloud 2.0 tab" within a product template you are actually altering a "view" defined in the Angular routing table. When your user navigates to the product, this custom view will be loaded onto the screen.

Spec Forms 

The first major point is the $scope variable that defined the product, or in this case, more specifically the "Variant". The Variant is the data model of the product and contains all the specifications that drive the customizable variations. The specific spec objects belong to the "Variant.Specs" object collection within the app. Those objects are displayed for input through a custom directive library which enhance the data input through enhanced data input controls. For example, if you wanted the user to have a calendar to select a date you could use the "customdatefield" directive.

Building Additional Functionality into the Spec Form

Angular revolves around the concept of "two way binding". Meaning that any model value bound to the UI will be maintained between the view and the controller. In the case of our spec form, we're accessing the "Value" property of the spec object to leverage this two way binding capability. Let's take a look at an example of how this works:

function SpecController($scope) { $scope.Variant.Specs.Name.Value = “My Name”; });

<section class="specform-default" ng-controller='SpecController'>

Notice the attribute added to the section element named ng-controller. This is defining the controller that will be associated with the view. Within the same view is the SpecController function that matches the attribute definition. We inject the $scope object by adding it as a function parameter, and we have full access to all the objects loaded into the $scope. One of which is the "Variant" object that represents the product we want to customize for ordering.

In the example, I'm simply setting the value of the Name spec. You would see that value set in the input control exposed in the UI.

Capabilities to hook into events exist and expose more capabilities. The most common of which would be to react to the change event of a spec value. Here is a simple example of how that can be accomplished:

function SpecController($scope) { $scope.$watch(‘Variant.Specs.Name.Value’, function(value) { if (!value) return; // only respond if the value is set Variant.Specs.Title.Value = value; // example of setting the value of another spec during this change event. }); }

The key point of this example is the usage of the $watch function exposed on $scope by the Angular framework. The $watch function is the data change event, and the function parameter (in this case named "value") is the new value that was changed.

This is only the introduction to spec forms. The capabilities are nearly limitless, and we'll continue to examine them as they relate to OrderCloud.

What capabilities are you interested in learning more about? Let us know below.

[four51blog-blog]

B2B Buyers Demand Mobile-Optimized Content

56% of the buyers buying from B2B e-Commerce sites frequently use mobile phones to view those sites.

It's not enough for manufacturers and distributors to just sell their products online anymore, a mobile friendly experience and responsive design is expected, according to a survey and article released by Internet Retailer today.

To make sure your site is mobile friendly, follow these 2 quick steps:

First, make sure that your site is responsive. We've all been on our phones, browsing the web, only to try to utilize a website that is not optimized for mobile. Trying to zoom in or click on buttons tinier than our fingers creates a frustrating experience, to say the least.

A responsive site has content that adapts to the size of your browser (desktop, mobile, or tablet for example), and it is managed by one interface, instead of having both a desktop and a mobile site to manage. To test for this, go to your webpage on your desktop and change the size of your browser like this html.goodies shows us:

[If you want to see how a responsive site works using this trick, pull up www.four51.com on your browser and move the frame in and out like the .gif above.]

If your images get chopped off, or you see horizontal scrolling, your site is not responsive, meaning you just lost your mobile buyer. It’s time to either upgrade or switch e-Commerce platforms to ensure you are retaining those users and maintaining your bottom line. Four51's OrderCloud offers an easy to administer responsive design that allows you to create a multi-channel, multi-product, multi-user, multi-branded experience that'll look good on any device. 

Second, to ensure a good experience for buyers who are using their mobile device, make sure that your product and category content and descriptions are short, skimm-able, and include catchy graphics - great things that will catch your mobile buyers' and researchers' eyes while they are on the go.

Make sure your B2B e-Commerce experience is strong by utilizing a mobile-friendly, responsive design that is easy to manage on your end, and easy to maneuver on their end.

Request access to our demo site to see how OrderCloud's responsive platform could help make your site stronger.

[four51blog-blog]

12 Questions Every B2B eCommerce Manager Should Ask About Their Supplier

Your business is growing nicely, you have great marketing, great sales, great customer service, and a great value proposition for your customers. Everything seems to be going perfectly.

But then your supplier lets you down.  

Maybe they aren’t automated, or they can’t integrate with your accounting or marketing automation system. It’s possible they don’t serve the part of the country (or even a different country) one of your customers wants to expand to. Or in your expansion to a new location, you’re noticing a different level of quality.

Fortunately, this situation is avoidable. There may not be “perfect” suppliers out there, but there are ones that make sense for you and your business’ needs.

Here are 12 questions to ask yourself when evaluating the best supplier for your business’ future needs:

1.  The obvious questions to ask when selecting a supplier:

How do they price the products you are interested in?

How do they do quality control?

How do they handle delivery and shipping?

If the answers to these questions are in line with what you are interested in, you’re going to see:

Higher margins

Lower returns

Happier customers

2.  The not so obvious questions to ask when selecting a supplier:

What does their geographic coverage look like?

How many locations do they have, and do those locations match up with where you want to grow?

What kinds of capabilities do they have at each location?

What are their shipping costs and which shippers do they use?

Do they have any kind of creative services that would suit your needs?

If the answers to these questions are in line with what you are interested in, you’re going to see:

Reduced delivery times

Reduced shipping costs

Creative in line with production capabilities

Happier customers

3.  Hidden Supplier Traits you might not know you need:

Are they fully automated?

Are they compatible with your systems?

How do they handle the following:

Receiving orders

Order input

Closing orders

Sending tracking information

How is their financial strength?

If the answers to these questions are in line with what you are interested in, you’re going to see:

Reduced errors

Reduced turnaround times

Reduced burden on your customer services reps

Happier customers

Have these conversations with your suppliers and they’ll get a better sense of your business goals and envisioned future. Ensuring your supplier will accommodate your desires for future growth in the ecommerce space is important and we’re ready to work with you to make that happen.

If you and your supplier are interested in making your order management process less expensive, easier to manage, and more reliable, email [email protected].

[four51blog-blog]

Why your CMO should be in Charge of your B2B eCommerce Strategy

Historically, a company's IT department has taken charge of the company's B2B eCommerce strategy - everything from it's implementation to its integration to the strategy around what products should be sold on the site, where, to whom, and how. With the rise of content marketing and the importance of having your end user's behavior at the forefront of your strategy, marketing departments are slowly becoming an increasingly important part of their companies' B2B eCommerce development strategies.

As the younger generation of buyers rises to the ranks, even B2B companies are finding they need to adjust their product marketing strategies to appease the B2C-like shopping behaviors of these buyers. According to Internet Retailer, 83% of B2B survey respondents in a recent survey reported seeing a supplier's web site as the most popular channel for conducting research before a purchase. But on the other end of things, only 37% of procurement managers at those B2B companies were satisfied with the current level of information on B2B eCommerce sites. 

There's a big gap here in the work being done internally to support the purchasing needs of buyers.

That's where the Marketing team can step in.

As marketing departments' budgets continue to grow in 2015, put some onus on them to develop a strong marketing strategy and customer experience for your B2B eCommerce solution. If you're looking for a place to start, make sure your marketing strategy (and thus your eCommerce solution) includes these 2 simple improvements in 2015:

1. Search: 

Everyone knows how important a strong search marketing strategy is in B2C eCommerce.  But what about B2B? According to Internet Retailer, 77% of B2B buyers begin their product search on Google. Because they are shopping around more than ever, it's important to adjust your strategy accordingly to meet them where they are at. Take advantage of SEO best practices to improve your search rankings. Start by updating your product descriptions, URLs (create a custom URL for your business, for example), and pages. Make sure they include key words that your audience might be searching for when doing product comparisons. 

2. Product Content: 

Boost your ability to sell your B2B buyers on your products by improving the content on your eCommerce platform. Enhance your product content by considering any of the following:

Embed videos into product descriptions to increase engagement and understanding of your products.

Incorporate comments or rating capabilities to boost user reviews.

Create specialized product page templates that make it easier for buyers to make a decision about the products they are considering.

Integrate a Help Desk widget that allows your buyers to ask questions and get answers instantaneously, decreasing the time it takes for them to make a purchase.

If your marketing team isn't already engaged in your B2B eCommerce strategy, it's time to get them involved. Their involvement and understanding of your consumers' behaviors and needs will help improve the type of site you run, and the amount of revenue you bring in this year.

For more inspiration on how to improve your eCommerce site, request a copy of our "Top 10 Favorite OrderCloud Features" Infographic.

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[four51blog-blog]

3 Ways Data Can Help Improve Your B2B Customer Experience

According to eMarketer, 7 in 10 marketing execs plan to increase reliance on data analytics for decision making. Data is beginning a bigger and bigger part of companies’ business strategies and initiatives as its become more readily available.

Analyzing your websites’ analytics and data has become easier than ever. Four51’s OrderCloud™, for example, integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics allowing users to stay up on their sites’ happenings at all times. And there’s a lot you can do with the information these analytics provide you with. Understanding your site traffic, unique versus returning visitors, their behavior as they flow through your site, and how they get to your site all affect how you forecast for and run your B2B eCommerce business. You can use this information to predict changing customer behavior on your site and respond accordingly.

[Flickr photo by web_Savvy]

But what else can you use this data for, especially as you think about ways to improve your customers’ experience and keep them coming back for more? If you want to take your data and analytics to the next level, here are 3 ways you can use the insights from your data to improve your B2B customers’ experience:

1.  Dig for Ways to Improve your Relationship with your Customers:

Pay attention to your power users. Power users are those individuals who come back to your site more than other users--especially in B2B eCommerce, these are the most important customers for your business. Along with their frequent visits, they are probably also influencing others within their organization (and others!) to check out your storefront. Use this information to your benefit by rewarding these Power Users. Send them a discount, a free product, or a promo code for free shipping (choose the reward based on their activity on your site) to thank them. 

You could also considering creating a B2B commerce site that would help facilitate a loyalty program. Reward your power users by giving them access to a digital library of rewards that they can access as they rack up points from recurring purchases, for example. These types of interactions will leave your users feeling appreciated. They won’t expect it and they will tell people about it, boosting your site’s clout even more!

2.  Product Recommendations:

Based off of products specific users are viewing on your site, you can make recommendations for other products you think would interest them. This can be done in a variety of ways: send personalized recommendations to power users or set up a “Products Like This” feature on your site (see our demo site for an example) to showcase other products you think the users would like based on what they are shopping for. Show customers that you are watching, listening and trying to make their shopping experience better and easier.

3.  Behavior Response Plan:

Pay attention to your customers’ behavior on the site and you’ll start to develop strategies that will keep them on your site longer, get them buying more, and leave them feeling more satisfied than they would otherwise. For example, if you notice that more and more users are leaving their carts abandoned, set-up an automatic email for these users’ letting them know what they left in their cart.  

By looking at customer data over time, you can learn a lot about them and think of many other customer experience enhancements like these. Use this information in the right way and you’ll find that you can create solid, valuable relationships with customers, and ultimately boost your bottom line because of it!

What other ways have you used data to improve your customers’ B2B shopping experience?

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Your Top 10 Favorite OrderCloud Features

When it comes to B2B eCommerce, customer experience is just as important as it is in B2C eCommerce. Making sure your customers and users have a great experience on your platform is only going to keep them coming back and placing more and more orders.

OrderCloud features lots of solutions that will improve your users' experience and ultimately improve your bottom line.

Based on popular demand and usage on your OrderCloud platforms, we've compiled a list of our Top 10 Most Popular OrderCloud features. To kick-off the year with your customers and users at top of mind, take a look at this infographic and think about making some updates to your eCommerce experience:

Want to check out the other 8 OrderCloud Features showcased in this infographic?

Download the Infographic

[four51blog-blog]

What B2C can teach B2B about eCommerce

"Almost nine out of 10 (88%) of B2B buyers would prefer to shop online, but most B2B suppliers offer little or nothing to let them," according to an e-commerce study. "And 94 percent of B2B buyers wanted suppliers to make their Web sites more like B2C Web sites."

Are you set-up to support these complex customer needs?

Read more on your customers' expecations for their B2B buying experience over on Forbes.com.