Part 3 - River of Goods: Separate B2B and B2C Webstores

Many wholesale B2B manufacturers and distributors have a business model that allows them to sell directly to both consumers and wholesale distributors, and there are many options for setting up appropriate eCommerce webstores for both. This blog series focuses on three real companies operating in the B2B space with three very different ways of selling their products online.

River of Goods

River of Goods is a B2B-based manufacturer of lighting fixtures and home decor. River of Goods differs from our first two examples because they have a domain for end consumers and a subdomain for wholesale clients. River of Goods also differs from other B2B manufacturers because the same products are available to everyone, regardless of consumer or distributor status. Consumer prices are higher, however, and only distributors who purchase wholesale can access wholesale pricing via a site locked with a password.

Consumer Site

Wholesale Site

What are the benefits of separating wholesale and consumer sites?

River of Goods makes a profit and keeps consumers happy by allowing them to purchase the same items as a wholesaler; they also make a profit and keep wholesale distributors happy with lower prices and a password-protected product catalog. According to Forrester Research, 52% of consumers visit manufacturers’ websites intending to buy, and a third of those prefer to purchase from the manufacturer.

Whether you open your site to consumers, lock it for clients with log-in privileges, or offer products to B2B and B2C customers in separate domains, your solution must integrate your ERP/back-office data (e.g., customer, order, and item data) with your eCommerce webstore so the two systems automatically share information – product numbers, images, descriptions, customer contact information, pricing, shipping information, etc. – without error-prone manual re-entry.

Sniperdyne’s Nomad has affordable, built-in features that make it easy to manage any webstore. Are you considering a change to your eCommerce site but aren’t sure where to start? Luckily, we can help – please contact us today for more information.