The Best Way to Connect Salesforce B2B Commerce With SAP ERP

How to optimize the B2B e-commerce experience with an integrated SAP-Salesforce solution

B2B customers have a unique set of needs and wants that differentiate them from their B2C counterparts. Many applications out there have B2B interfaces or service offerings that address particular factors of this relationship. However, a true B2B solution requires a streamlined approach that integrates the right data to create the best experience for both supplier and customer.

Salesforce B2B Commerce is a powerful platform that optimizes B2B interactions. It promises to be a single source of information and interface for your B2B customers, but the only way to fulfill that promise is to connect Salesforce to your SAP ERP system — the real source of truth.

Here are some of the unique needs of B2B customers and ways these needs can be met with a fully integrated Salesforce and SAP solution.

What a B2B customer needs

Online buying is different for business buyers than it is for traditional retail customers because the tools and processes need to adhere to the types of purchases they’re making. B2B customers expect to be able to access these features and information during an e-commerce experience:

• Secure portal with unique logins for each user
• Customized experience unique to the customer’s business and buying behaviors
• Enough capacity to process large-quantity and high-value orders
• Order history, search, and rapid re-order to make common purchases easier
• Individual pricing structures and discounts based on contracts or agreements
• Multiple payment options such as credit cards and purchase orders
• Capability to schedule shipments or vary shipment location

Depending on your business and the nature of your B2B relationships, these needs will vary. However, it’s important to consider the future growth of your B2B services when developing your B2B e-commerce experience.

Salesforce B2B Commerce

Salesforce B2B Commerce meets many of the needs addressed above. The newest version is built natively on the Salesforce Lightning Platform and is connected to Salesforce CRM, so users see their customized product set and negotiated pricing as it’s entered in the system.

Salesforce B2B Commerce enables organizations to provide a customized e-commerce experience for business customers with branded sites, intuitive portals, and an easy ordering experience that provides all the nuances and complexities businesses require.

By connecting Salesforce B2B Commerce with the CRM, businesses also gain more insight into their B2B relationships. Sales and marketing teams can create funnels and pathways with segmented messaging and offers. Purchasing recommendations can be made in real-time. And customer loyalty will increase with a more personalized experience.

The need for SAP ERP Integration

The one source of customer truth for any business is not its CRM, but its ERP system, especially SAP ERP. Without this piece of the puzzle, an organization’s ability to offer B2B customers a truly seamless experience will fall short. There are several areas where integration with SAP will make all the difference:

• SAP monitors current inventory and product availability. With an integration, customers can rest assured that their orders will be complete and on time because what’s listed on the website is accurate.

• Although Salesforce B2B Commerce and CRM allows you to display customer-specific pricing and discounts, this information natively lives in SAP. Seamless SAP ERP integration will reduce the need to update and maintain information in multiple systems, which also reduces the likelihood of error – especially for enterprises with complex pricing and configuration logic.

• Customers can only see the history of orders placed through the e-commerce site. Integrating with SAP allows them to track and review order histories from all sources in real-time, enabling a better self-service experience.

• Salespeople and customer-facing employees will have a better ability to assist customers when their data comes from one true source. This gives teams the power to make better and faster decisions.

enosix Commerce

enosix Commerce is an integration solution designed to bridge the gap between Salesforce Commerce and SAP ERP so your B2B customers can have the best possible e-commerce experience with you. enosix ensures your e-commerce site’s customer and product data are always up to date. It also keeps your customers happy with real-time, customer-specific pricing, and guaranteed inventory availability.

As soon as your customers submit their shopping cart, an accurate order is created in SAP, including accurate application of your pricing rules, tax, shipping, configuration, and other business logic that exists in your ERP system. This allows for faster processing and delivery times and fewer instances of order error. enosix also gives customers the ability to see their entire order history across all channels, reducing customer service calls and interactions.

Our pre-built solution to tie Salesforce B2B Commerce and SAP together dramatically shortens development and integration cycles, which means you can have an integrated B2B e-commerce platform in a fraction of the time compared to other solutions. Dynamically pulling real-time SAP data can help you create a polished B2C experience for your B2B buyers. Schedule a demo with us today to learn more about our integration capabilities and the potential it has to transform your business.