b2b.store is a white-label eCommerce platform meaning you can brand it as your own whilst taking advantage of an off-the-shelf solution. This is a much more cost effective way of getting online than developing your own bespoke B2B eCommerce platform.
How do white label eCommerce platforms work?
White-label eCommerce platforms are ready-built systems that can save wholesalers and distributors significant cost on their B2B eCommerce software solution. Rather than the business paying a software company to develop a bespoke solution, there are now many vendors who have developed their own white-label platform or white-label shopping app that can be branded for whichever company is using it and get them selling online.
What are the benefits?
A business using the white-label service benefits from having very low, or even in some cases, zero start-up costs. Similarly, the best white-label providers will also deliver many features on an ongoing basis at no additional cost.
Another major benefit to the business who opts to use a white-label solution is that they can get their eCommerce website up and running incredibly quickly, especially when compared to having their own service built from scratch. To identify a software development company alone could easily take several months before they have even started any development work, but a white-label strategy could mean that a B2B commerce business could be trading within days or weeks, as opposed to several months or even longer.
What should I look for in a white-label provider?
A key factor to consider when choosing which white-label provider to work with is to establish what their product roadmap looks like and how they decide which features to deliver. Ask them to articulate what features they intend to deliver in the future and at what speed do new features arrive. To get a feel for how quickly the potential platform is likely to evolve in the future, ask the vendor to outline how the product has evolved in the past. Ask to see the product’s release notes (which describe the features that have been released and over what period of time) to really get a feel for the pace in which their product is developing.
b2b.store has been releasing new features every single month since launch and we have a comprehensive roadmap of new features that will be coming out over the coming months. We work closely with our customers and prospects taking on board their specific requirements and use this insight to build out the roadmap.
This closeness to customers is something that’s really important when choosing a provider. Whilst the biggest white-label providers may have the resources to deliver a rich and varied roadmap, they may not understand the diverse needs of their customer base. Similarly how much influence would a typical customer actually have if they want a feature that isn’t part of the respective product roadmap.? With b2b.store that risk is taken away as we actively want our customers feeding into the product roadmap. We hold bi-monthly roadmap meetings to ensure we deliver precisely what our customers are asking for and pride ourselves in delivering a new release every single month.
What if the white-label product doesn’t have a feature which is critical to my business, or it doesn’t feature on the roadmap anytime soon?
White-label vendors deal with this common scenario in a variety of ways. Sometimes the answer is simply to go without, meaning you may have to consider changing other aspects of your business offering to make up for the fact that the white-label offering can’t deliver precisely what you require. Other vendors will consider your request for a new requirement which may already feature on their product roadmap and be happy to accelerate the launch of that particular feature knowing that they will probably be making a customer or potential customer happy.
But sometimes the feature may not even be on the roadmap as the vendor doesn’t believe it is something that multiple customers will ultimately benefit from. In this instance, the vendor might be open to developing that feature if the customer is prepared to pay for its development, but only if the feature doesn’t compromise the vendor’s product’s ability to scale.
How does the b2b.store white-label platform work?
With b2b.store you will be given your own bespoke URL such as www.wholesaler.b2b.store which is where your customers will ultimately be able to purchase from you. You will also have the option to add your own branding to the website to make it look your own. This branding will feature in several places within the app and the app icon to ensure the customer is in no doubt as to whose service they are using. http://www.abcwholesaler.b2b.store
b2b.store works seamlessly across mobile devices and computers. Your customers can start an order on one device and finish it on another. There is also the option to upgrade to an app store version of our white-label eCommerce app which then gives you a presence in the app stores and additional functionality.
How does it work with my existing systems?
We have a number of different ways to work with your existing systems depending on your individual requirements.
