PrimaGO is our ecommerce ordering platform, that has seen many improvements since its launch in 2016. In fact, it’s actually worlds away from the Prima Webcart which was the online offering when I joined the company back in 2010. Despite all of the enhanced features and functionality of the platform, I believe the principles of running a successful b2b web shop have remained pretty constant.
Get your data right
All ecommerce stores are driven by product data and PrimaGO is no exception. For some of the major industry wholesalers, their data is made available through a subscription service and there may be several tiers depending on the data quality (e.g. images, product video tours, enhanced descriptions) you wish to present online, helping users to make clear buying decisions.
Once you’ve subscribed its obviously really important you make best use of this data, by first making sure your system is kept up to date, and then importantly an element of housekeeping/setup to make sure the right products are showing online.
Pricing
Once the data is sorted, make sure before you give your customer their login details, you understand the pricing of the system and what’s been applied to your customers account. The last thing you want on your PrimaGO store is pricing queries for a new online user.
Tip: put a quote on in the back office and check the pricing. If it’s wrong here, it will be wrong for your online customer.
I would also advise reviewing the contract of your customer too. A tidy and correct contract list is really important when trading online.
Make your store presentable
Of course, you need the store to showcase the product range with nice data, but using the control panel there are many options to update the design and content of the store to reflect your brand.
Small changes do get noticed by your customers and can enhance the overall user experience.
We have our PrimaEDGE company website which links to your PrimaGO store allowing your business to showcase all your services, and at the same time quickly link through to your ordering platform.
Show customers you care
The customers I know who make the store a very successful part of the business, without exception, take the time to set up the store for their users. You are in part replacing the human interaction of your commercial relationship with the online order portal, so you must ensure it has everything your customers need.
From adding their logo to the store, to preparing various Orderpads based on the customer’s shopping habits, to managing the user permissions, the customer receiving this extra level of service can really provide confidence in your online solution and secure customer loyalty.
Features such as voucher codes to incentivise online spend help to strengthen this relationship further.
Make it easy for people
Set up the users so they see the product range they need and/or are allowed to see e.g. Orderpads, delivery locations, cost centres etc. This will lead to less errors and make the ordering process more efficient. You can allow the relevant users to retrieve invoices and order history easily.
A quick checkout process and email confirmations to the right contacts makes ordering processing convenient.
Make the items you want to push easily visible from the popular screens on the store e.g. the View Our Product Range section on the PrimaGO Homepage. You can tailor this section to the products you wish to promote online.
Growing the online business is part of the sales strategy, measure its success
One of the most important factors in the success of the store from my experience is to ensure that the PrimaGO store is an integral part of the sales strategy.
Far too many times I’ve witnessed the store being treated as an “add-on”, and “we’ll just see what comes in from the store each month.”
When you are going into an existing customer or prospect, leading with your online ordering platform can really set you apart from your competition.
Use the reporting module of Prima to measure the success of your online sales strategy over time through analysing orders by Source.
Having recently invested more directly in our web development team, throughout 2018 we will continue to deliver improvements to features and functionality of Prima Cloud and PrimaGO to enable our users to compete and grow business online.
If you currently use PrimaGO and would like to learn more about growing your online business, contact our UK & Ireland Account Manager, Oliver Rowles on oliver.rowles@primasoftware.co.uk or 0151 423 8522.
