In last week’s post “Shopify for B2B eCommerce? – Part 1 of 2 “, the range of functions and the direction taken with regard to B2B eCommerce of Shopify was discussed. For the current part 2/2 it was announced that we will go one step deeper, which we do here.
As in our evaluations for customers, we shed light on Shopify in terms of:
- Product FIT functional requirements (in some classic B2B key criteria)
- Product FIT non-functional requirements
- Manufacturer’s FIT (short only)
- Cost-FIT (only for a short time)
- Customer fit (as our overall conclusion)
1. Product-FIT functional requirements (in some classic B2B key criteria)
We refer to those requirement blocks as classic B2B key criteria where there are major differences to the systems for B2C end customer shops. We detail some of them here and assess their fulfillment through Shopify Plus:
- User Administration
- Fulfilled: Central mapping of the construct with companies, locations and employees
- Limitations: There are currently in the existing frontend, where not all functionalities for managing the corresponding constructs are yet available. Here, the focus is on the trade theme announced in the Winter Edition 2024, which should be able to deal with these specific B2B requirements.
- Product variants incl. attribute filter
- Fulfilled: The tabular representation of all variants of a basic product, which is often used in B2B, can be added via “Quick Order List” via the Theme Design Mode.
- Fulfilled: With 3 variant attributes per product (with 100 values per attribute each), it is possible to define up to 2000 variants per product and should therefore be sufficient for most applications.
- Limitation: The dynamic attribute filters known from the product search are currently not offered for the filtering variants within the product detail page (PDP).
- Prices (standard, customer-specific, discounts)
- Fulfilled: Fortunately, a desired mapping with high complexity is possible: prices per product, customer-specific prices via catalogs (with the display of the cheapest price, should several catalogs apply for the customer), graduated prices including visibility in the PDP and in the shopping cart, discounts, delivery cost calculation.
- Restrictions: Pricing logics that extend across several products, e.g. graduated prices across product groups.
- Inventory & Availability
- Limitations: The classic B2B real-time query of inventory and availability information is currently possible with in-house development via the existing API or by means of an app.
- Orders (history, status)
- Fulfilled: A clear order history is offered, also with a good overview of all information about the order on the Order Detail Page.
- Limitations: The overview of orders from all channels (ERP-based), which is often required in B2B cases, requires in-house development / an app.
- Favorites & Order Lists
- Limitations: The range of functions in the area of product lists for favorites, saved shopping carts or replenishment list does not come from Shopify free of charge.
- Assisted Mode (Order on behalf)
- Fulfilled: Complete orders can be created for the customer (as a draft) via the Shopify backend and then, for example, finally completed by the customer.
- Restriction: You won’t find a front-end view for support, e.g. to view open shopping carts, modify them and close them for the customer.
- Offers
- Fulfilled: Via the draft order construct it is possible to map the B2B-specific offer order process – i.e.: Offer management with draft orders in the order history in the tab “Pending”, which becomes a normal order when closing.
- Limitations: An orientation towards this simple process flow is required, a workflow for constantly moving quotes back and forth until the final version for closing is not implemented.
- Cart & Checkout
- Fulfilled: Quick View Mini Cart is available on every page and is updated as products are added.
- Fulfilled: Clear shopping cart display of products including net prices and calculation of discounts and additional costs, comment fields, promotions/vouchers, delivery costs, separate delivery and billing addresses and various payment methods are offered.
- Restriction: Standard display of total weight, credit limits at customer level, handling of constellations for preventing a purchase (and offering an offer request) are currently still missing.
Interim conclusion functional requirements
When it comes to these purely functional B2B key criteria , Shopify Plus currently still performs weaker than we know from many well-known B2B shops and which have each been customized / further developed with a little more or less implementation effort for the customers. Shopify’s announcements, as well as Shopify’s overall development efforts regarding B2B eCommerce, promise to further close these gaps in the next 1-2 years.
2. Product FIT non-functional requirements
However, the reasons why our customers are at a dead end with their old B2B shops and want to replace them are not to be found in the functional level, but in the following non-functional reasons:
The system
- is (technologically) end-of-life at the manufacturer.
- does not correspond to the cloud strategy.
- is outdated in the frontend for the customer in terms of look & feel and mobile capability .
- does not offer any flexibility in the backend processes for the work of internal employees, as the processes are very rigidly integrated into the ERP.
- does not allow satisfactory marketing functionalities in terms of lead generation, engagement, content, etc. – but also in terms of the automation of e.g. campaigns.
- offers too few sales functionalities that are necessary for the management of the increasingly important channel (reporting, workflows, predictions).
- does not offer any profitable support from AI / AI (Artificial Intelligence), e.g. in the generation of product data, ensuring data quality, etc.
- does not provide support for dealing with other omnichannel touchpoints “on-site” as well as marketplaces.
Interim conclusion about the product FIT (functional and non-functional):
When considering these marketing and sales requirements, as well as basic flexibility in terms of data, processes, and technology, Shopify Plus for B2B eCommerce is suddenly in a much better position than after the initial evaluation of the functional requirements.
If the B2B shop is to mean more than a convenient digital ordering option for existing customers now or in the next few years, then we recommend that these requirements be given very high weight when assessing the future viability of the new solution!
3. Manufacturer’s FIT (short only)
We expect the implementation partner landscape around Shopify to develop even more. Not only smaller agencies, but also larger partners who are used to the highly complex integrations in the B2B context will jump on the Shopify bandwagon.
4. Cost-FIT (short only)
On the cost side, Shopify Plus is very well positioned compared to existing enterprise B2B eCommerce solutions on the market. This applies both to license costs (important: be sure to consider the different variants of payment provider costs) as well as to the average initial project costs and costs for further development.
5. Customer FIT (as our overall conclusion)
In summary, Shopify Plus is already in a promising place and the “downsides” are becoming fewer and fewer over time.
With detailed consideration of the relevant peripheral systems in the entire application landscape, there are already scenarios in which we can definitely recommend Shopify Plus for complex B2B shops.
At the moment, we see SMEs (in Germany = already larger companies in Switzerland) as the target group of the Shopify overall package for B2B eCommerce , which are willing to adapt their eCommerce processes a little to the software.
We wish you continued happy eCommerce!
… and if you are also facing an eCommerce evaluation or are wondering whether Shopify fits your requirements, please feel free to contact us!