How B2B E-Commerce Software Differs from Retail

While a great deal of the press about e-commerce has focused on business-to-consumer (retail) store-building (or shopping cart) programs, many business-to-business companies (B2B) have substantially different needs. All e-commerce front-ends, of course, need to make it easy for buyers to view a product catalog -- and easy for companies to maintain the catalog with frequent changes.

Retail e-commerce is particularly concerned with providing consumers shopping convenience, easy credit card payment, privacy, and security. Typically software must calculate both sales tax and shipping costs. B2B e-commerce, on the other hand, may need to accommodate:

• Purchasing contracts with special pricing for each regular customer.
• Individual website sections for larger customers.
• Reusing previous orders
• Tracking filled and partially-filled orders
• Payment via purchase order, open account, credit card, or procurement credit card
• Inventory or "in-stock" information
• Integration with both the buyer's and seller's legacy accounting and inventory systems.

The truth is, most shopping cart programs designed for retail e-commerce just don't have most of these specific features. Low-end e-commerce programs tend to allow some customization of the look and feel, but don't allow developers to get into the code to create different functionality and integration with other databases.

Larger B2B E-Commerce Software

For larger B2B businesses, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software is now available that handles traditional business needs and includes an e-commerce front-end. Others are web-only software companies that specialize in integrating with legacy company databases. Here are some, with links to some recent reviews. Prices vary from $19,000 up to the 6 figures and beyond.

Open Market Transact 5 and other business suites. http://www.openmarket.com/transact/

Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition (MSCE), http://www.microsoft.com/siteserver/commerce/ Recent review in InfoWorld.com, April 3, 2000.
http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/comparison/000403tcmicrosoft.html

IBM WebSphere http://www-4.ibm.com/software/webservers/ Recent review in InfoWorld.com, April 3, 2000.
http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/comparison/000403tcibm.html

Smith-Gardner Ecometry, http://www.smith-gardner.com/

Intershop Enfinity http://www.intershop.com/products/index.htm?callname=products_enfinity Recent review in InfoWorld.com, April 3, 2000.
http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/comparison/000403tcintershop.html

Smaller Business B2B Software

I don't know of any e-commerce software specifically designed for B2B needs, but here are three general packages that provide for several important B2B needs. (Please let me know about others you have found.)

Miva Merchant http://www.miva.com/ We reviewed Miva Merchant 1.2 in the April 15, 1999 issue of Web Commerce Today. http://www.wilsonweb.com/reviews/miva-merchant.htm Since then they have released 2.x versions that extend Miva's capability. Miva (licensed at $495 per domain) uses XML script, a kind of database programming language that allows developers the ability to write custom applications. Starbase 21 modules are modestly priced and substantially extend the capabilities of Miva Merchant. http://miva.starbase21.com/ For example Starbase 21's OrderTrk combined with Miva's ability to offer different pricing to an infinite number of classes of customers provides a powerful platform for B2B sales. DiscountTrk Pro allows volume discounts as well as buy-one-get-one-free discounts. InventoryTrk allows you to show remaining inventory or in-stock/out-of-stock signals to customers.

Open Market ShopSite http://openmarket.com/shopsite/ comes in two varieties. The SC edition runs on a number of operating systems including Linux, FreeBSD, and others, and offers a powerful shopping system for up to about 5000 products in the Pro version, reviewed in Web Commerce Today, October 15, 1999. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct3/shopsite-sc-41.cfm The Pro version allows discounts based on price thresholds, but the SC edition doesn't allow registration of customers, a critical need for many B2B applications. The TX edition was reviewed in Web Commerce Today, November 15, 1999 http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct3/shopsite-tx-41.cfm It is similar to SC, but is hosted on the powerful Open Market Transact platform, and allows registration of customers, as well as customer tracking of orders. It is possible to construct (using database uploads) different product catalogs in separate password-protected directories, one for each customer. ShopSite doesn't handle inventory tracking.

Yahoo! Store http://store.yahoo.com/ isn't really designed as a B2B platform, but a number of small B2B companies are using it. http://shopping.yahoo.com/stores/business_to_business/ Yahoo! Merchant Auctions adds auction capability to Yahoo! merchants at $29.95 monthly for an unlimited number of orders. While Yahoo! Store doesn't offer customer registration, which is essential for most B2B stores, it offers sale pricing, quantity discount pricing, customer order tracking, and exporting order files (to Access, QuickBooks, M.O.M., PC Charge, and plain text). It doesn't have an inventory tracking system, but can make certain products non-orderable. Stores can be updated via database uploads.