Pre-built integrations by commercetools empower manufacturers to expedite time to value for digital commerce initiatives.
As the B2B manufacturing industry rapidly embraces digital commerce, with 66% of manufacturers planning to invest in customer portals this year — up from 50% compared to the previous year — it’s evident that there’s a heightened emphasis on expediting time to value for eCommerce.
With pre-composed solutions, such as commercetools Foundry Blueprint for B2B Manufacturing, it’s now possible to speed up implementation and results like never before. This solution leverages the power of multiple commercetools products, including commercetools Connect, an integration framework with easily pluggable, performant and reliable connectors that speak to the needs and use cases of B2B manufacturing.
Let’s explore how speeding up best-of-breed integrations can help the B2B manufacturing sector increase efficiency and improve customer experiences across four main use cases.
Use case #1: Enabling efficient order management and fulfillment processes
Manual and outdated order processing systems have long plagued numerous B2B manufacturers with errors and delays in fulfillment. While integrating an OMS (order management system) is clearly the solution to automate order management and fulfillment, plugging such a solution into an eCommerce system hasn’t always been straightforward.
Using connectors for fulfillment powered by commercetools Connect is a game-changer: For instance, the instant-use integration with fulfillmenttools can be launched in only one week using a pre-built connector that already works seamlessly with commercetools. What’s more, Connect solves common B2B challenges by providing strategies and best practices for order management, inventory and logistics.
With this integration, B2B manufacturers can export Orders and Catalogs to external fulfillment centers or warehouses keeping stock levels in sync across all systems. Plus, businesses can keep buyers updated with their order status and logistics information in real-time.
Use case #2: Boosting product discovery and easy access to information
Still today, product discovery remains an Achilles’ heel for the B2B sector. In fact, 61% of sellers lost sales because their site search wasn’t good enough.
For B2B manufacturers, integrating a best-of-breed search and product discovery solution is the right approach to help buyers find the specific products they need with ease. One such pre-built integration is Algolia, which provides advanced search and discovery capabilities through custom code. Most importantly, the pre-built integration with Algolia features robust API and customizable features that can be tailored to fit the unique needs of manufacturers.
As a result, manufacturers can make the buyer experience easier with access to detailed product information without incurring typical integration issues, such as a lack of compatibility between systems. With a pre-built integration that can be customized to business needs, manufacturers unlock speed and performance at the same time.
Use case #3: Simplifying global compliance and taxation
Businesses expanding to new markets frequently grapple with the challenges of global trade compliance and taxation. By leveraging a third-party tax calculation service with a pre-built integration that works seamlessly with commercetools, you can automate the tax compliance process with confidence as you can adjust to local tax regulations worldwide. One such pre-built integration is Avalara through commercetools Connect.
Use case #4: Integrating with ERP and CPQ systems
Integrating a commerce solution with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) systems is often a central aspect of a commerce project. However, it’s common to find hurdles to a seamless integration, which inevitably causes issues such as a lack of data synchronization and disconnected buyer experiences.
To ensure smooth operations, data accuracy and seamless business processes, it’s crucial to integrate the commerce solution with systems of record such as ERP and CPQ, a process that can be streamlined with commercetools Connect, as this solution takes care of the build, deployment and hosting of the application or service, even for custom integrations.
Connecting the dots for faster integrations — and results
For the first time, B2B manufacturers can achieve the perfect balance: Accelerate time to value for eCommerce projects while customizing capabilities and integrations to meet their business needs with none other than commercetools Foundry Blueprint for B2B Manufacturing.
Leveraging the power of the pre-built integrations that commercetools Connect makes available as part of this pre-composed solution, B2B manufacturers are poised to build and adapt their technology stacks with speed, simplicity and scale.
Explore all the capabilities of commercetools Foundry and discover how to get started with the only pre-composed solution that makes your commerce vision a reality in only a few weeks.
Ovidiu Cobzaru is a Product Marketing Manager focusing on the infrastructure of commercetools. Previously, Ovi held various marketing and enablement roles at multiple Forbes Top 20 technology companies. Today, he enjoys implementing a mix of technology and marketing initiatives to support a composable commerce future.