The release of Magento 2.1 has brought with it robust features for B2B eCommerce – and just in time, the B2B online retail global market is expected to reach $1 trillion in the next few years, according to Internet Retailer. There is a reason enterprise B2B businesses like Burger King and Shutterfly run their business-to-business eCommerce operations on Magento. Features like recurring orders, multiple warehouse inventory tracking, account permissions, and group pricing build into the system make simple B2B selling uncomplicated.

But in a trillion-dollar market – there is competition as well as opportunity. One of the most enticing features of the open-source Magento platform is that there are thousands of add-ons and extensions to improve the customer buying experience and increase conversion. One has to be careful in the massive Magento Extension space – not all extensions are created equal. Finding a partner that manages a suite of their own proprietary Magento extensions will help simplify installation and continuous support. Within our FastTrack to Magento 2 solution – we have included 19 Magento-certified modules to improve the customer experience. Here are the top 5 to increase B2B sales:

1. B2B Request for Quote Module

The B2B Request for Quote module builds upon and optimizes the Magento features for business-to-business sales. Clients can master permissions for their team to enable or disable access to quote requests, set purchase amount caps, and place orders from approved RFQs. Clients can also request pricing quotes, and admins can approve, decline or modify the request in the back-end. Having a unified portal for RFQs directly on your website cuts down on confusing external communications, and streamlines the approval process for quotes – cutting down on the time to complete the buying cycle.

2. B2B Sub Accounts Module

Letting your business buyers empower their internal teams cuts down on back-and-forth communication on unsecured channels and gets the right capabilities into the hands of the right people. Permissions and tiers of sub accounts eliminates confusion about quote acceptance and modification by providing an electronic record of all changes, and by whom they were made. When more junior employees can purchase or request quotes, it frees up time for most senior employees to simply accept their work – the purchase can then be made directly from the approved quote the sub account user made.

3. Canada Post Integration

Selling internationally is an end-goal for many domestic U.S. retailers – and Canada is an obvious first foray into becoming a global company. The Canada Post Module automatically allows for Canadian customers to choose shipping options from the most widely used shipping company in Canada, Canada Post. This extension can e xpand the reach of your store internationally and open up a brand new market of customers. With the average Canadian spending $51 a week on online purchases, this market is lucrative. The Canada Post Extension enables your website to support Canadian shipping with no interruption or downtime. 

4. Legacy Orders Module

 Data loss and downtime are main C-level concerns when transitioning to a new business platform, the Legacy Orders Module can alleviate some of the stress that comes with migrating by ensuring customer order data and history is preserved and accessible to both customer and website owner. The module keeps a record of archived customer orders, quantities, shipping data and item number/SKU imported from any eCommerce platform or system in CSV format. All of your important customer data can be instantly migrated to Magento 2.1 from Magento 1.x, or from another eCommerce platform to Magento 2.

When customers can see a history of their orders, what quantity they purchased, and what other items they purchased, repeat buyers may increase. This feature is especially important for business-to-business buyers who may need to access order histories for re-purchase or their internal records.

5. Authorize.Net CIM Module

 Business-to-business buying is still making the shift from paper and phone calls to online commerce. Ensuring that your buyers’ finance departments have everything they need to process, report and manage financial transactions will increase the likelihood of winning loyal B2B customers. The Authorice.Net CIM extension allows your company to expand on the payment methods, billing methods and credit card options in the Magento cart through an integration with Authorize.net.

Once integrated, customers with accounts will see robust features like void transaction, re-order, saved credit card information, online refund status and preferred currency. In the back-end, admins will be able to download customer order data and securely view financial data as an option in the Magento Menu.

More business-to-business optimized features: 

• Customers can pay by credit card and the module will save customer’s credit card data securely using tokenization.
• Support for “authorize” and “authorize and capture” payment actions.
• Support for multiple currency types.
• Accepts all major credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, Discover, JCB, Diners.
• Online refunds with automatic credit memo.
• Manage customer’s credit card data, addition and removal, in the Admin Panel.
• Allow customers to manage their Credit Card data on front-end.
• Save Credit Card data at point-of-purchase.
• Easy re-orders with no customer contact necessary.
• Capture and void transactions.
• Use saved credit card information for Automated Recurring Billing (ARB).

Interested in integrating any of these modules into your Magento 2 site?