Hence, you decide to build an e-commerce shop for your business. But will this digital transformation please your clients? Will it relieve customer support and reduce costs?

In this blog post Iā€™ll give you some straightforward UX tips that will help you transform digitally or improve your current e-commerce shop, in a user- and business-friendly way.

So, letā€™s start with the main UX challenge in this transformation

Cutting off customer support and still manage to sell a complex product and generate more leads.

Usually, B2B e-commerce products are more complex than B2C ones. Furthermore, B2B products are often sold in bulk orders with multiple packaging options. This means, users of B2B e-commerce are obliged to take several decisions when purchasing a product, which requires extensive research. Thus, how can you or your team help the user understand the features, variants and usage without talking to a human or seeing the product life? You can imagine how difficult it is to explain such products merely through an interface. Indeed you wonā€™t be able to replace all traditional customer support, but you will be able to reduce it and demonstrate your products in a very user-friendly way, only by following the UX tips below.

How to make a B2B e-commerce product more understable

  • In B2B there is a tendency of not showing prices. That isnā€™t user friendly. However, if you still decide to do so, provide information that gives the customer more confidence: like availability of the product and a price range.
  • Try to simplify complex products with multiple variants, by turning the variants into products. If thatā€™s not possible then use tabs or another design pattern to make the product detail page more structured and user friendly.
  • Compare different products to help the user decide.

How to simplify the B2B e-commerce transaction process

  • In B2B the user is often asked to request a quote. Since this is quite a boring task to do, create a positive feeling around it, for example, by displaying in the quotation form that the user will get a response within an hour.
  • Promote new products, on your homepage for example. B2B e-commerce customers like to stay informed about new and innovative products.
  • Make sure after-sales support is in place, where the user can create tickets once there is a technical request and follow their progress.
  • Design for a more rational than emotional decision making. B2B e-commerce customers arenā€™t impulsive buyers. Decision making is complicated and usually there are many people involved in the process.
  • Ensure to have different ways for users to get in touch: Live chat, contact-form, telefone, etc. However, show these options at the right moment of the purchasing process. Otherwise you are not cutting off support, but overwhelming the user.

How to ensure all B2B e-commerce actors are satisfied

  • Simplify the collaboration between the people involved in the purchasing process. For example, by having multiple people editing a quotation form and sharing the product specifications and configuration with others (PDF).
  • Keep in mind that you intend to build long-time relationships with your customers. So, think about features that simplify their coming-back to your site. For example, by saving their last product configuration and enabling the option to rebuy a product in the purchasing history.
  • ā€œPut yourself in the users' shoesā€ ā€“ usually this is a team of technical and finance experts.

Main take-aways about UX in B2B e-commerce

The complexity and individuality of B2B business makes it almost impossible to stick to conventional B2C e-commerce design patterns. B2B e-commerce shops frequently require more design and technical customization. Yet, known patterns should be used whenever possible, so that users arenā€™t forced to learn every pattern from scratch.

Before starting to reinvent design patterns, get to know the problems, needs and goals of who you are designing for: whether this is your customer or the support service. This means you should invest in user research prior to defining requirements.

At Liip we strive for digital progress ā€“ our aim is to find the best solution for our clients. We have several teams specialized in e-commerce that are used to build state-of-the-art, customized and user-centric e-commerce shops. The e-commerce solution that we choose depends on your needs. For example, one of our teams is doing a project using Shopware.

Besides development other services can be provided separately. We have experts from User Experience to SEO & Analytics who can help you overcome your individual challenges. Contact us if you are interested in our services. Liip supports you in finding the right solution for your business.