Magento has long since served as an incredibly powerful contender amongst a sea of other CMS offerings. Over WooCommerce, it offers unparalleled scalability; as compared to Drupal, it provides a far friendlier, yet equally as powerful, interface; when it comes to Joomla, it outperforms in terms of features, plugins and ease of extendibility. All of which is, of course, coupled with Magento’s ability to seamlessly slot in with other third party players (such as FedEx, UPS and a range of ERPs).

Yet it seems that despite its rapid evolvement and a recent study identifying Magento as the market leader when it comes to the competitive world of e-commerce (aheadWorks), we may well have seen nothing yet, as the following three features promise much for those seeking to bolster their bottom lines in the current online trading world.

1. Price groups – different customers, different pricing models

The Business-to-Business world is nothing like the realm of consumers when it comes to online shopping – the complexity of catering to what may be thousands of varying client accounts can mean that things get seriously complicated, incredibly quickly. Thankfully Magento has the answer for many of the issues that such trading throws up – including the critical need to create varying pricing levels.
Do you need to set up structured pricing for set customer groups? Magento has got you covered. Want to provide tiered pricing, and encourage your business clients to spend more in order to secure a better price? That’s all there ready for you, too. And what about offering broad, across the board discounts for certain customer groups? Yup – you guessed, that’s already to go as well. It’s even capable of dynamically changing the pricing according to the order frequency – doing away with the need for staff involvement, and potential for human error, as employees wrestle with when a customer last ordered and what discount may then be applied.

2. Super quick ordering – time saved, even for the most complex of orders

When Magento announced its long awaited and much anticipated Enterprise eCommerce solution, the tech world listened intently. Amongst the tsunami of proposed benefits for B2B customers came something that seemed to really stand out: the ability to order at scale, intuitively, easily. It was a simple concept, yet one that for too long had been unfulfilled by other contenders.
For B2B traders, this now means a truly seamless and super quick shopping experience for end users, streamlining previously time-consuming bulk orders and making what may be a million pound order as quick, painless and as smooth as the ordering of a £5 T-shirt on a consumer retail site.

3. ERP connectivity – business processes, unified

Data drives business growth – it’s the stuff of critical insight into the decisions that are going to drive revenue.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is an essential tool in harnessing data from an array of business areas, ultimately making the critical link between product planning and development, manufacturing, sales and marketing.

We mentioned the power of Magento’s third party integration in our introduction – and this element of Magento’s CMS prowess may be no better demonstrated than when we talk of ERP. Magento makes for the perfect partner when coupled up with the likes of big ERP players such as Microsoft Dynamics AX, SAP and, NetSuite, as well as IBM AS400, JD Edwards, Personify, Eclipse, Infor and Full Circle.

Choosing to tap into the power of ERP in the automated, intuitive way that only Magento is capable of, delivers a glittering array of benefits, including:

  • Increased self-serve ability – with empowered business customers who can tap into real-time data – checking stock, viewing order status and tracking their critical shipments.
  • A dive in the cost of managing inventory – as web sales information mingles with inventory systems, you can move full steam ahead with planning your stock purchases, without the need to wait for cumbersome and untimely reports.
  • Better insight and more robust financial reporting, which instantly serve up core business documents such as Balance Sheet, P/L Statement, Trial Balance, Cash Flow – all of which are only achievable when your backend systems slot in alongside your online ecommerce solution.

These three features are but the beginning of the story when it comes to all that Magento can achieve for your B2B company – beyond which lies an array of other, often just as critical and cutting-edge, features. To truly appreciate the possibilities of Magento – as they directly relate to the ways in which you do business – get in touch.