Launching a B2B E-commerce Website: A Progressive Approach for SMEs

There was a time when online commerce was seen as the exclusive domain of B2C. Today, that idea is firmly a thing of the past. B2B e-commerce has become an essential growth lever for manufacturing and wholesale distribution SMEs.

Your customers now expect the same purchasing simplicity they experience in their personal lives: online ordering, real-time availability, automated tracking, and access to personalized products. If your company does not yet offer this experience, it risks quickly losing market share to competitors.

That said, launching a B2B e-commerce platform does not mean transforming everything overnight. To be effective, the project must be well structured, aligned with your business priorities, and rolled out progressively.

The good news is that it’s never too late to begin your digital transformation. With a strategic approach, B2B e-commerce can reshape how you sell, serve your customers, and manage your operations.

In this article, we present a practical, step-by-step method for structuring and deploying a B2B e-commerce project, while taking into account the realities of SMEs.

1. Define Clear and Realistic Objectives

Before getting started, it’s essential to understand what you want to achieve with your e-commerce platform. Do you want to reduce the load on customer service, increase sales, or reach new markets?

1.1 Target the Right Customers and Products

Start with your most important customers, those who generate the majority of your revenue. Offering an online portal to your key partners will allow you to achieve a quick return on investment while making their purchasing process easier.

On the product side, focus first on your most popular or most profitable items. You can later expand your catalog and offer complementary products to increase the average order value.

1.2 Apply the SMART Method

To keep your project on track, define your objectives using the SMART method:

• Specific: What concrete result are you aiming for?
• Measurable: How will you evaluate success?
• Achievable: Do your current resources allow you to reach these goals?
• Realistic: Are your ambitions aligned with the reality of your market?
• Time-bound: What is your timeline?

This simple approach clarifies your priorities and helps your teams focus on the right key performance indicators (KPIs).

2. Build a Sustainable B2B E-commerce Strategy

The success of an e-commerce website is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Rather than trying to do everything at once, it’s better to move step by step, prioritize needs, and build on solid foundations.

2.1 Roll Out Your Project in Phases

Phase 1: Build Solid Foundations

This first phase consists of laying the essential groundwork for your B2B e-commerce platform. The goal is to create a functional, efficient website that directly supports your sales process.

• Start by targeting your largest customers. You’re likely familiar with the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule): roughly 20% of your customers generate 80% of your revenue. By encouraging them to place orders online (through exclusive discounts, for example) you free up time for your teams, allowing them to focus more on acquiring new customers.
• Next, select your most popular products to simplify the catalog and ensure rapid adoption.
• Take this opportunity to review your pricing policy as well. Offering discounts for online orders or additional incentives can encourage the shift to digital. By increasing your online sales volume, you reduce your cost per order and improve your margins.
• Determine who will have access to information: all visitors, or only existing customers?
• Finally, don’t forget to list essential technical elements such as the domain name, SSL certificate (for a secure site), and any other configurations you can validate with your technology partner.

Phase 2: Enhance the Purchasing Experience

Once the foundations are in place, you can integrate additional features to enrich the customer experience and further boost sales.

Among the most useful are:

• a newsletter connected to your website to build customer loyalty
• a live chat tool to quickly answer questions
• a blog to share tips, news, or case studies
• personalized promotional pages based on customer profiles

These features are not essential at the beginning, but they help make your site more engaging, more professional, and better integrated into your overall B2B marketing strategy.

2.2 Centralize Your Product Data

A strong purchasing experience relies on complete and consistent product information. Even before choosing your platform, gather your data:

• Product code
• Product name
• Product description (in multiple languages if applicable)
• Product images
• Suggested products (recommended based on previous purchases)
• Supporting documents (such as downloadable product sheets)
• Links to videos

This information will be essential for populating your future website and ensuring smooth integration with your ERP.

An integrated management system, such as Fidelio, greatly simplifies this step by centralizing all your data, accelerating go-live, and minimizing errors.

2.3 Encourage Internal Collaboration

The success of an e-commerce project depends not only on technology, but also on people. Involve your sales teams, customer service, and operations departments from the very beginning.

Organize workshops to document your current processes and identify areas for improvement. This approach will help you simplify order steps and automate what can be automated.

3. Transform Your Sales Processes Through Automation

Moving to B2B e-commerce is about much more than putting your products online. It’s also an opportunity to rethink how you sell in order to gain efficiency.
Automation reduces the number of manual steps between order placement and delivery.

For example:

• The customer places an order online.
• The system checks inventory, sends the order to the warehouse, and updates stock levels.
• Invoicing and shipping are generated automatically.

Automation not only reduces errors and speeds up order processing but also allows your teams to refocus on higher-value tasks such as prospecting and customer retention.

4. Concrete Benefits of B2B E-commerce for SMEs

Companies that adopt B2B e-commerce quickly see tangible results:

• Time savings: customers place orders without staff intervention.
• Increased sales volume: your online store is open 24/7.
• Improved margins: more sales with fewer administrative costs.
• Geographic expansion: reach new markets without needing a physical presence.
• Better customer satisfaction: customers benefit from a reliable, self-service tool.

By integrating your e-commerce platform with your ERP, you gain real-time visibility into inventory, sales, and performance. This integration is the key to an agile and sustainable business model.

5. Equip Yourself with the Right Tools to Succeed

Choosing an e-commerce platform is a strategic decision. Make sure it integrates with your ERP to avoid double data entry and maintain data consistency.

A comprehensive solution like Fidelio allows you to go further:

• automatic synchronization of inventory and pricing
• real-time order processing
• performance report generation
• the ability to personalize catalogs by customer

These features not only automate your sales, but also enable you to deliver a customer experience that meets today’s market standards.

Conclusion

B2B e-commerce is no longer optional, it’s a necessity for SMEs that want to remain competitive. By adopting a thoughtful, structured approach that’s integrated with your management tools, you can increase profitability, improve efficiency, and build long-term customer loyalty.

What if now were the time for your company to finally make the move to e-commerce?

Discover how the Fidelio ERP solution can help you integrate e-commerce into your operations and drive your growth.