The rise of Agentic AI is starting to reshape how B2B e-commerce operates: from procurement, catalogue management and pricing to customer service, supply chains, and even marketing. We’re going to take a closer look at how and why it’s growing, what it’s being used for, what the risks and barriers are (and there are currently a fair few of these), and what we might realistically expect in the near future.

What is Agentic AI?

Hitherto, AI in commerce (and elsewhere) has often involved fairly deterministic automation, such as rule-based systems, chatbots with ‘canned’ scripts, or analytics that potentially flag issues but require human intervention to resolve. Agentic AI goes further to include:

• Establishing goals and planning: Agentic AI can take a high-level objective (for instance, “optimise inventory turnover”) and break it down into subtasks
• Autonomy: making decisions without needing explicit instructions for every step, monitoring, adjusting, and adapting
• Learning and memory: repeating over time, utilising feedback, retaining knowledge of past interactions, and improving performance
• Integration with third-party systems: interacting with APIs, enterprise systems, data sources (ERP, CRM, back-office systems) to affect human-like behaviour

This all allow Agentic AI to handle tasks that are an ever-moving feast, have a number of stages, or where conditions change (e.g. an interruption to supplies, a change in demand). In short, areas where simpler automation may well fail or require frequent tinkering. And adjustments from human beings.

Why Now? What’s Pushing Agentic AI in B2B

Several strands coming together are driving B2B ecommerce towards adopting Agentic AI:

1. Complexity and scale: B2B commerce often involves large catalogues, has multiple stakeholders (such as buyers, suppliers, 3PLs, and so on), custom pricing (which is sometimes extremely complicated and even esoteric), contracts, and complex dependent tasks. Manual or semi-automated systems really can struggle to keep up. Agentic AI appears to unlock a way to reduce manual burden.
2. The availability of enabling technologies: Recent strides in Large Language Models (LLMs), reinforcement learning, multi-agent orchestration, robust API ecosystems, real-time data streaming, and cloud computing – all make Agentic AI more feasible and practical.
3. The demand for responsiveness and agility: Whether it’s disruptions in supply chains, sharp shifts in demand, or the need to personalise offers across a range of buyer groups, the ability to act quickly confers some real competitive advantage. Agentic AI systems help detect anomalies (for example, inventory shortages), adjust pricing or provide delivery options, or re-route orders with minimal lag.
4. Cost pressures and efficiency demands: staff costs, logistics costs, inventory carrying costs are all more than ever. Automating the decision-making process (where possible and safe to do so) helps reduce overheads and derisks error, while freeing human teams to focus on strategy, relationship building, and negotiation.
5. Customer expectations: Buyers (particularly in the world of B2B) increasingly expect digital experiences that are akin to B2C ecommerce. They want the site they’re using to be quick, transparent, customisable, and with up-to-date information. Agentic AI offers a way to help with personalised offers, management of contract compliance, and anticipation of renewal needs.

Current Examples in B2B eCommerce

Whist still in their infancy there are multiple promising use-cases where agentic AI is already being piloted or deployed in B2B ecommerce.

1. Procurement agents / purchasing bots
   Some companies are exploring agents that automatically reorder supplies based on stock levels, demand forecasts, or usage trends. These agents negotiate with preferred suppliers, compare pricing, and even schedule delivery, sometimes initiating procurement without human intervention for standard or routine orders. This cuts time and reduces errors. Use of such agents depends on good integration with inventory and/or ERP systems
2. Dynamic pricing & contract compliance
   For those companies with complex pricing structures, volume discounts, and contracts, Agentic AI will monitor competitor pricing, supply and demand, and adjust offers in real-time (albeit within contract rules). Additionally, helping to ensure compliance with trade agreements, margin thresholds etc., can be enforced via AI agents
3. Personalised customer experience and sales
   Agentic AI is powerful. Insights it gains from buyer behaviour, interpreting usage data, or account history may be used by agents to suggest cross-sells, upsells, or renewal prompts. For example, an agent might monitor key account details and detect that usage is dropping off or that a competitor product is muscling in, and prompt intervention or an adjustment in pricing. Agents might also streamline multi-touchpoint buyer journeys
4. Supply chain and logistics optimisation
   Agentic systems are being used (or forecast to be used) in supply chain management (SCM) to adapt to disruptions, optimise routes, manage inventory across multiple nodes, and trigger responses (e.g. reorder, reroute) when conditions change. Gartner predicts that by 2030, 50% of cross-functional SCM solutions will incorporate agentic AI capabilities
5. Customer support & self-service
   Agents that autonomously respond to enquiries, resolve routine issues (such as returns, order tracking), escalate only when necessary, and even anticipate issues (e.g. stock delays) to proactively communicate with buyers. This reduces support burden, improves consistency, and may improve buyer satisfaction
6. Operational decision-making and insights
   Agentic AI is always on. As it is continuously monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), it can forecast demand, detect anomalies, and recommend or implement changes. For example, adjusting inventory safety stock levels, flagging supplier risk, or recommending alternative shipping routes

Risks, Challenges and Barriers of Agentic AI

There’s a lot of promise surrounding agentic AI but there are a bunch of challenges, especially in B2B environments, which are typically higher stakes. Some of the main barriers:

1. Data quality, integration and silos
   Like humans, Agentic AI depends heavily on accurate, up-to-date data. But for AI it has to be machine-readable, too. In many B2B companies, relevant data is housed across a lot of disparate systems (ERP, CRM, legacy platforms, etc.), is inconsistent, incomplete, or badly maintained. And like humans, without reliable data, autonomous agents will make poor decisions.
2. Trust, transparency and accountability
   Businesses, both buyers and sellers, are inevitably and quite rightly cautious. If an agent makes a wrong decision (such as getting the wrong price or supplier delivery date), the consequences may be significant and potentially disastrous. Trust in being able to audit decisions, understand the rationale behind exactly why something was chosen, and set guardrails is crucial.
3. Liability, legal, and ethical concerns
   Most businesses don’t tend to operate a blame culture, but who is responsible when an automated decision causes loss or breach of contract? If an agent buys outside the agreed guardrails or misrepresents product information, contracts may not yet clearly assign responsibility. Also, issues of bias, fairness (e.g. favouring certain suppliers over others), regulatory compliance (data protection, trade, export controls, etc.) are pretty serious!
4. Security and fraud risk
   Agents, particularly ones that are empowered to affect finances, contracting, or external interfaces, are potential back doors for malicious parties. Identity theft, adversarial inputs, compromised credentials, or badly implemented access permissions could let agents be manipulated in cybercrime, a very real and present threat.
5. Technological maturity and cost
   Whilst the AI technology improves at a rate of knots, in many cases, agentic systems still struggle with the weird edge case scenarios, the unpredictable, or long-term planning. Maintaining, training, tuning, and monitoring these systems requires will require substantial investment both in financial and in skilled personnel time to manage them.
6. Change management and organisational readiness
   Using Agentic AI isn’t going to be only a technical project. It’s going to involve some widespread process reengineering, people skills, and profound shifts in company culture. Employees need to trust the agents, know when a human override is necessary, and understand how decisions are made. There is going to be resistance, especially where human decision-making has been central. People are people, let’s face it. There will also need to be governance, oversight, and audit trails built in organisationally.

How to Use Agentic AI Successfully

For B2B businesses wanting to make the most of the potential opportunity, there are some key things that need to be defined first:

1. Do the groundwork
   Ensuring clean, standardised, accessible data across your product catalogues, contracts, inventory, and pricing. Without this, autonomy is unstable and probably unfeasible.
2. Define your scope and guardrails clearly
   Decisions will need to be made as to which tasks will agents perform autonomously, under what constraints, and when a human needs to get involved. This is particularly true for high-value, high-risk decisions so you’re going to need to do this gradually.
3. Make sure there’s an audit trail
   It’s important that you’re logging and auditing agent decisions, with the ability to play back how a pricing decision was made, or why a supplier was chosen. Establishing exactly when to override will be an important element.
4. Security and regulatory compliance
   You’re going to need strong authentication, along with role-based access, encryption, secure APIs to make sure your security protocols are as robust as they can be. And compliance with relevant laws (data protection, commercial law, export controls, anti-corruption, etc.) will need to be watertight. On the legal side, it’s important to contractually define liability so you know where you stand.
5. Invest in talent, change management, and governance
   Moving to an Agentic AI model is going to be a huge jolt to the system. You’ll need to make sure you have the right team in place. You’ll need to make sure you involve legal, compliance, operations, supply chain experts, sales and marketing. And you will also need to train staff to work with, supervise, and trust agentic systems.
6. Test and iterate
   Don’t go in all guns blazing. Start with lower-risk scenarios (like routine procurement or routine customer support) to test performance, build confidence, monitor impact (such as error rates, cost savings or customer satisfaction), and then refine.

The Near and Medium-Term Outlook

If we look at what could be in place over the next few years, several forecasts suggest Agentic AI will be deeply embedded in B2B ecommerce.

• Gartner predicts that 50% of supply chain management solutions will include agentic AI capabilities by 2030
• Many of the larger software firms are incorporating agentic features (autonomous agents, agents that reason, adapt, etc.) into their roadmaps
• More B2B companies will be using autonomous agents in procurement, supplier management, finance (especially in laborious tasks such as invoice matching, reconciliation), but more sophisticated ones too, such as contract renewal and pricing
• Agentic commerce (where purchasing decisions, transactions or parts of them are handled by AI agents) might well begin to reduce friction in buyer-seller interactions—e.g. automated contract fulfilment, compliance checks, and payments.

But let’s be honest, it’s not going to be seamless. Those barriers we explored earlier will mean widespread adoption will be uneven, and many companies will certainly be at the back of the queue. ROI will be most impressive where:

• Data is already relatively clean and accessible
• Systems are modern or can be modernised (e.g. good ERP/CRM/APIs, etc.)
• Where management will take a risk and be willing to try pilot programmes
• The business area they operate in has complexity that lends itself to automation (e.g. logistics and supply chains, and with large or recurring orders)

Final Word

Agentic AI really does offer an exciting evolution in B2B ecommerce. Using systems that act, learn and adapt independently, businesses will get improved efficiency, better decision-making, faster responses to change, and more personalised buyer journeys. That said, the risks are very real—as are the organisational, technical and ethical challenges. For B2B ecommerce players who approach Agentic AI with the right combination of a sense of realism, strong data foundations, clear guardrails, human oversight and governance (from a team that has bought into what you’re setting out to achieve), the rewards may well be transformational.

The rise of agentic AI isn’t just another white elephant. It’s fast becoming a strategic necessity. Those that succeed will, in all likelihood, redefine what competitive advantage looks like in ecommerce. And that means not just having the best products or lowest margins, but those who can conduct autonomous intelligence throughout their operations, while keeping trust, transparency, and control. A prize worth striving for.

The post The Rise of Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) in B2B Ecommerce appeared first on PureNet.

B2B ecommerce is a sector that has gained huge and sustained momentum driven by the opportunities it presents to drive revenue growth, streamline operations, and enhance customer relationships. Additionally, it provides B2B businesses the ability to gain real competitive advantage whether by building a B2B ecommerce site as first step or rebuilding an old existing site to capitalise on new technology and make further investments, and gain greater scalability, to get even more results.

The B2B eCommerce Boom

Globally, B2B ecommerce is experiencing year on year growth. And it’s serious growth, too. Looking at two sets of research conducted independently by Forrester and Statista, the worldwide B2B ecommerce market was valued at a staggering $7 trillion in 2023, significantly eclipsing the B2C sector. Buyers are increasingly expecting B2B transactions to mirror the speed, transparency, and ease of consumer user experience (UX), which imperils those who refuse to move with the times.

If we look at the UK specifically, a 2024 piece of research by Wunderman Thompson Commerce found that over 60% of B2B buyers would rather conduct more than half of their purchasing online. The pandemic turbocharged this shift, making remote buying the norm and exposing gaps in companies relying on old school brochures, face-to-face, or phone-based sales. In fact, it’s fair to say that for UK businesses, B2B trading platforms have moved from being an optional extra to enhance sales and satisfy fringe customers to a critical central role.

Opportunities in B2B eCommerce

That B2B ecommerce is a game changer is beyond argument. But why? What are the advantages it brings to the table? Let’s look at some answers to this question.

1. Reach & Access

This first one is simple. Just as the internet is borderless, so is B2B ecommerce. International markets can be reached easily by logging into a B2B ordering portal. A simple to use ordering portal with multilingual and multi-currency features allow typical B2B suppliers such as manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors to trade around the world with limited friction. This is of particular value to UK-based companies looking to boost exports post-Brexit. Customers across Europe, say, or North America can access your full product range, view customer specific pricing, and order online without any boots on the ground in terms of local sales team.

It also levels the playing field, allowing smaller B2B operations to go toe-to-toe with their bigger competitors, especially if they have a smart online presence (size of business is often no guarantee of ecommerce excellence, believe me).

What’s more, your site works 24/7 helping remove the challenges of international time zones.

2. Streamlining Operations

A big difference between B2B and B2C interactions is the complexity typically involved in any given interaction. Traditionally, B2B transactions frequently involve lengthy email threads, PDF quotes, multiple phone calls, and manual data entry into ERP systems. This need for detail never changes. But how simple it can be really does change with a well-executed ecommerce solution.

Integrating you B2B ordering portal will make all the difference. An integrated ecommerce site simplifies and automates those processes that take your team the most time and carry the highest risk of errors. Features such as real-time inventory updates, self-service ordering, bulk pricing tiers (price breaks in common parlance), and custom catalogues reduce internal workload and eliminate costly mistakes.

With a joined-up approach you will be able to link your B2B ecommerce operation with business systems such as ERPs, Order and/or Warehouse Management Systems and fulfilment solutions, giving a real 360-degree visibility. This streamlining will not only save you time but also provides richer data for forecasting, procurement, and senior decision-making.

3. Enhancing Customer Experience

Your B2B customers are the same as the B2C customers buying online in their free time. Except now they’re buying from you as part of their job. They expect the same intuitive UX they experience as consumers. They want to research products, view reviews, check technical specifications, and place orders without it being in any way difficult (or they’ll just go elsewhere). Having in place a sophisticated B2B ordering portal with a seamless UX, complete with advanced search, personalised pricing, instant reordering, and even AI-powered product recommendations will be a magnet to new and existing customers.

And, as we all know, improving customer experience (CX) also significantly helps in building loyalty and will encourage return visits and repeat purchases. Offering useful features such as account dashboards, and delivery tracking demonstrates your teams’ professionalism and reliability—two qualities highly valued by your customers in B2B relationships.

4. Personalisation & Self-Service

One of the greatest advantages of a modern B2B ecommerce platform is the ability to personalise the buying experience. B2B customers are very often long-term buyers, and they have specific needs and requirements; very often that’s why they’ve come to you to buy in the first place. By harnessing customer data, a B2B platform can offer tailored pricing, relevant product suggestions, and speedy access to order history.

Ordering portals also give buyers more control. They can generate quotes, track their deliveries, download their invoices, and even negotiate pricing (which agentic AI is going to impact majorly in the not-to-distant-future)), all without direct sales intervention. This reduces dependency on sales staff and enhances the buyer’s autonomy and efficiency.

5. Boosting Sales with Data & Insights

In B2B, as in B2C, ecommerce understanding your customers is crucial in achieving online success. A key component of that understanding is turning data into information. It can tell you what products people are buying and when. What items they are buying regularly, what they are buying alongside other products and what is selling the best. It can tell you when the buying journey of a given customer is interrupted and where. It can also tell you what products people would buy from you even if you don’t stock them (looking at site search data is invaluable for this). This data will inform merchandising, marketing campaigns, and product development.

It’s worth remembering too that your sales teams can gain insights from digital behaviour to guide their conversations. If a customer repeatedly views a certain product line but hasn’t purchased, it could well indicate interest that the sales team can then pursue proactively.

Challenges & Considerations for B2B eCommerce

One thing to note is that while it’s fair to say that the opportunities are vast, B2B ecommerce is usually very, very complex. It involves larger transaction sizes, negotiated pricing structures, complex approval hierarchies, and multiple payment methods. Most B2B-focused companies have to cater to varied customer groups, each with their own unique needs and permissions. So, building (or improving) a B2B platform requires careful planning, the right technology stack and an experienced development partner to provide implementation.

Key considerations include:

• Platform choice: Whether using Adobe Commerce/Magento Open Source, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce B2B, or a custom solution, the platform must support B2B functionality out-of-the-box or via robust integrations and/or extensions or plugins.
• Integration: Well planned and executed linkups with ERP, CRM, PIM, accounting, and logistics systems are crucial for operational efficiency and a seamless, joined up architecture
• UX: Investing in intuitive UX and responsive design is essential for both desktop and mobile users.
• Security & compliance: Pricing is highly sensitive data, as are contracts and customer data, so it’s important that the platform must meet rigorous security standards, including GDPR compliance. Selecting an ISO27001/9001 development partner is highly advised

Future-Proofing Your B2B Business

You see, investing in a new or existing B2B ecommerce site isn’t just about today. Rather, it’s about preparing for the future. Trends such as AI-powered personalisation, voice commerce, and predictive inventory ordering are already revolutionising how B2B buyers engage with their suppliers.

And let’s face it, younger procurement professionals are digital natives who prefer to research and buy online. As generational shifts continue, companies without a strong digital presence will simply find themselves increasingly irrelevant.

The ongoing rise of marketplaces (think Amazon Business, Alibaba, or even industry-specific portals) also means that savvy B2B companies will have to either compete effectively on these platforms or ensure their own service offers the same  functionality and ease of use.

In Short

Building (or improving) your B2B ordering portal is significant job but one that delivers real benefits to your business. From increasing sales and enhancing CX to boosting operational efficiency and even powering global growth, the ROI can be significant.

For UK businesses, again in manufacturing, wholesale, and distribution, the opportunity is highly significant and potentially profound. Those who act now will reap rewards in growing buyer demand for digital services, differentiate themselves from less nimble competitors, and build more streamlined, data-driven operations.

Whilst your journey will involve technical and organisational challenges and costs, the strategic advantages far outweigh the initial investment. And picking an experienced development partner with a track record in B2B and integration will derisk implementation significantly.  Meaning a well-executed B2B eCommerce strategy is not only an opportunity— it’s a necessity for long-term success.

The post B2B eCommerce: Build, then Build Better appeared first on PureNet.

You can forgive yourself for feeling like a rabbit in the headlights. Not only is there a lot of data to consume to convert into meaningful information but the fact it seems to be changing and evolving can make your head spin. We know, though, that the ability to use this emergent technology effectively could mean competitive advantage, increased revenues and lower costs. So, what to do?

From our perspective AI is somewhat old news. PureNet has been delivering AI solutions since 2012. One of the company’s founders and director, Dr Paul Gibson, has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and long ago saw how AI could be used by organisations effectively. Paul heads a team of PureNet consultants who can add real value across a range of sectors that could benefit your business.

So, with that in mind let’s look at some areas which offer some huge opportunities where third-party experience and expertise might be really valuable.

AI and Ecommerce

Ecommerce is perhaps the most obvious of applications. It’s certainly a space where AI has been operating for some time and is very mature as far as AI is concerned. Some areas which some merchants are getting great results are:

• Personalised Customer Experience –recommendation engines, natural language processing (NLP) chatbots, and AI-powered search functionality really improve user engagement and increases conversion rates. These are all areas we can help you understand. We’ve also built many of these tools so we really know how they could work for your ecommerce site.
• Fraud Detection and Security –AI-driven algorithms will analyse transactional patterns to detect anomalies, minimising fraud risks (the perennial headache of an ecommerce operation).
• Dynamic Pricing Strategies – We began to build functionality to do this back in 2012 (they’re a lot more sophisticated now) and they enable businesses to optimise pricing in real-time based on demand, competitor pricing, and/or consumer behaviour.
• Inventory and Demand Forecasting – PureNet can advise and assist in building models that predict demand fluctuations, helping you maintain optimal inventory levels and reducing over/under stocking.
• Marketing and Customer Insights –Our AI consultancy services can provide insights around segmenting customers, predicting buying behaviours, and making the most of your ad spend through predictive analytics and automation.

AI Applications Development

If you have your own in-house development team, or even if you outsource, our AI consultancy services will be able to help. inject knowledge into the team with some targeted AI consultancy. Areas in which we could help include:

• Automating Software Testing – PureNet would work with your team to introduce AI-driven testing frameworks to detect and resolve bugs more quickly, reducing rework and helping out in development timelines.
• AI-powered Code Generation – We would advise your developers on integrating AI-assisted coding tools enhancing developer productivity.
• Enhanced User Experience (UX) – Giving a first class UX can be enhanced by deploying AI-powered chatbots, utilising voice recognition, and adaptive interfaces (which are known to improve user interaction with applications).
• Predictive Analytics in Development – You can make use of machine learning to predict potential software failures and recommend optimisations before you deploy code.
• Cybersecurity Enhancements – It’s fascinating to see how many organisations now employ AI-powered threat detection to safeguard applications from vulnerabilities and security breaches. A great use of the technology.

AI in Product Management

Product management is crucial for driving product innovation and market success. Coops Collective AI consultancy services would support product management teams in:

• Data-driven Product Decisions – AI-powered analytics will identify market trends, customer preferences, and potential product opportunities.
• Automated Customer Feedback Analysis – Using AI tools enables companies to process customer reviews and feedback at scale, identifying areas for improvement or that require a closer look. Our consultants can show you the most appropriate and cost-effective tools you can use.
• AI-driven Roadmap Planning – Analytics are important, right? What about predictive analytics? Based on trends, these will assist in forecasting product success, prioritising features, and optimising development resources. Let us show you how.
• Competitive Analysis – AI-driven insights provide businesses with a competitive edge by using big data tasks to help in analysing market trends, competitor strategies, and customer sentiment.
• Enhancing User Experience – This is something we’ve been doing for over a decade. AI-driven personalisation ensures that products align with what your customers want, be it B2C or B2B, improving retention and engagement.

AI in the Supply Chain

In our view, AI-driven solutions have the potential to revolutionise supply chain management just by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and making your operational capacity more self-sufficient. This covers a number of quite diverse areas in which AI can be used to achieve some great results and include:

• Predictive Demand and Supply Forecasting – You can use AI algorithms to analyse historical data factoring in external factors(wherever possible) to predict demand far more accurately than before
• Automated Logistics and Route Optimisation – By deploying machine learning models that there is an opportunity to optimise delivery routes and reduce transportation costs which can make a real impact
• Inventory Optimisation – You can deploy AI-driven tools to help your team in maintaining optimal inventory levels, preventing the headache of excess stock or product shortages
• Supplier Risk Assessment – Companies are using AI to assess supplier risks based on data-driven insights, which crunch the numbers to help ensure supply chain resilience

What is clear is that AI offers plenty of benefits across a range of business functions and processes.  By leveraging AI expertise, businesses can optimise operations, improve customer experiences, and gain a competitive advantage. And, as AI technology continues to evolve, companies that invest in AI will be better positioned to harness its full potential, driving innovation and long-term success. A helping hand from a team of AI experts makes decision making easier, quicker and far less riskier.

The post The Advantages of AI Consultancy appeared first on PureNet.

The UK’s business landscape moves with remarkable, and sometimes unnerving, speed. Organisations are constantly seeking ways to improve efficiency and streamline operations. One key solution that has gained significant traction is the implementation of customer portals.

These digital platforms serve as centralised hubs where customers can access information, interact with the company, and perform various tasks. The integration of customer portals not only enhances customer experience but also plays a pivotal role in increasing overall business efficiency. In this post, we will delve into the ways customer portals contribute to improved efficiency, supported by relevant statistics from reputable sources.

Streamlined Communication and Information Access

Customer portals serve as a bridge between businesses and their clients, providing a centralised hub for communication. According to a study conducted by Salesforce, 86% of executives cite ineffective communication as the primary reason for workplace failures. A well-designed customer portal ensures that important information is easily accessible to customers, reducing the need for back-and-forth communication through traditional channels.

Furthermore, a report by Forrester Research reveals that companies with effective communication practices are 50% more likely to have lower employee turnover. By extending this efficiency to customer communication, organisations can not only improve customer satisfaction but also reduce operational costs associated with excessive support inquiries.

24/7 Accessibility and Self-Service Options

Customer portals enable businesses to provide round-the-clock service and support. A survey by Microsoft found that 66% of consumers expect customer service to be available on a 24/7 basis. Implementing customer portals that offer self-service options empowers customers to find answers to their queries and resolve issues independently.

Statistics from Gartner indicate that by 2026, 85% of customer interactions will be managed without human involvement. This shift towards self-service not only enhances customer satisfaction by providing instant solutions but also frees up valuable human resources within the organisation, contributing to improved efficiency.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Customer portals generate a wealth of data regarding customer interactions, preferences, and behaviours. Leveraging this data for analytics and business intelligence can significantly enhance decision-making processes. According to a recent McKinsey report, organisations that utilise customer data for decision making are 19 times more likely to achieve above-average profitability.

By harnessing insights from customer portal interactions, businesses can tailor their products, services, and marketing strategies to align with customer preferences. This targeted approach not only boosts customer satisfaction but also optimises resource allocation, ultimately improving overall business efficiency.

Automated Processes and Workflows

Integrating customer portals with back-end systems enables the automation of various processes and workflows. A study by Accenture highlights that automation can lead to a 20% increase in efficiency across various business functions. Customer portals facilitate tasks such as order processing, invoicing, and support ticket management, reducing manual intervention and minimising the risk of errors.

Automation not only speeds up processes but also allows employees to focus on more strategic and value-added activities. This shift towards efficiency is reflected in a report by Deloitte, which states that 59% of businesses that have embraced automation have experienced improvements in employee productivity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the integration of customer portals into business operations has a profound impact on efficiency. The streamlined communication, 24/7 accessibility, data-driven decision-making, and automated processes offered by these digital platforms contribute to a more agile and responsive organisational structure. As the statistics cited from various reputable sources demonstrate, businesses that invest in customer portals are well-positioned to achieve higher levels of efficiency, leading to improved customer satisfaction and sustainable growth in today’s dynamic business environment.

The post Enhancing Business Efficiency appeared first on PureNet.

Shopping, ecommerce, market and online sales

What is ecommerce integration?

The ecommerce world is big. Seriously big. With such size and complexity comes a whole host of considerations and difficulties. One of those is the complexity of ecommerce itself. Setting up an effective online store can involve the setup of a huge number of items, all of which need to work in harmony with each other to fulfil a modern-day customer’s expectations when shopping. From a business point of view, this means juggling a seemingly endless collection of software, platforms and systems behind the scenes to meet those expectations. This isn’t always easy.

That’s where ecommerce integration comes in. You could think of integration as an extremely well-built network of roads that connects each and every one of your systems. It essentially links your online storefront and other online sales channels to your back-end systems (such as an ERP platform, warehouse management system, finance software etc.). This enables everything to communicate seamlessly and bi-directionally, meaning information and data can travel and be utilised freely and automatically. This removes the need to manually input data into multiple systems separately, making back-end business operations much more efficient as well as dramatically reducing the potential for errors and problems.

So, what are the benefits?

That’s what you came here for, right? Thankfully, integration offers a wealth of benefits that can dramatically streamline your online ecommerce business. It not only reduces issues and manual workloads, but it also helps significantly when it comes to business growth. We’ll cover more on that in detail later in the article, but for now, it’s time to look at that big list of benefits in more detail…

Dramatic reduction of human error

Integration means there’s no need to input the same data into multiple different systems manually. Data and information is instead entered into a single place, and this information can then be accessed and read from every corner of the integrated system. This dramatically reduces the human involvement throughout the input process, reducing human error and redundant data. That means no more worrying about inconsistencies and problems that can sometimes occur from even the slightest lapse in focus.

Integration can actively save you money

Cost-saving processes can be one of the most effective means to improving a business’s return on invested capital. With integration, your online sales and orders (amongst many other back-office processes) become automated. It also allows customers to service their own needs in a variety of ways, including tracking order statuses, viewing available inventory, tracking deliveries and much more. All of this in turn reduces the need for human intervention as we mentioned above, and therefore reduces an extremely large administrative burden. This means much lower long-term costs in terms of both labour and operations.

Intuitive, streamlined, and automated system management

We touched on the automation of processes within the last point. That automation really is one of the biggest aspects of ecommerce integration. Once ecommerce processes become automated, a positive impact becomes evident across a vast array of factors throughout your business. Internal productivity will often see a significant boost as each and every process becomes streamlined and reduces the need for high human involvement. Any sales placed through your online storefront are integrated with everything happening in your ERP platform, meaning that each and every step of the process can be tracked at each point and all aspects of the business that a sale affects are synchronised across the board.

For example, integration provides seamless connectivity between payment gateways, shipping and logistics systems, and omni-channel sales feeds. This is extremely helpful not just for customers who are able to see and engage with your business exactly as they require, but also for back-office staff who utilise accounting or inventory systems on a regular basis. That intuitive access to every bit of operating data across the business is one of the most noticeable benefits of ecommerce integration, helping to reduce delays, access and trigger alerts, and reduce labour costs all-round. There’s also much less paperwork to deal with as everything is instantly accessible in a variety of formats from anywhere within your business.

Thanks to the project we carried out for Saddleback, a leading distributor of

performance road and MTB cycling products to the UK cycling industry,

a fully-integrated ecommerce solution created by PureNet saw a

dramatic 28% increase in site visitors with a 5% increased session duration

and an increase in conversion rates to an average of 6% across all of their sites.

The project as a whole has enabled Saddleback to further secure its competitive advantage,

whilst full integration to SAP provides an efficient workflow that complemented the

company’s existing business processes. This flexible, powerful and scalable solution

offered their customer-base an immersive online experience across all of their sites.

Simple, speedy synchronisation

The synchronisation of an integrated ecommerce system ties in with the above points. This rapid syncing means that every part of your integrated system is updated exactly when it should be, reducing the potential for errors and issues along the way. For example, customer records are updated in an instant, alongside orders and inventory data. If one of your customers wishes to cancel an order before it’s processed, the removal of delays thanks to integration means that orders won’t be sent out when they shouldn’t be, and your inventory data will be adjusted immediately. You don’t have to worry about chasing certain paperwork or confirmations, as your integrated system handles it all internally.

Efficient omni-channel sales management

Integrated ecommerce is incredibly effective for a business with a single online storefront. But what about businesses with multiple sales channels? Well the good news is that integration maintains that same effective and efficient nature for any omni-channel sales business. Because everything in an integrated ecommerce system is synchronised and built to work in harmony with each other, managing multiple channels is simple. Just like a single channel sales operation, an omni-channel business can benefit from that same streamlined system that ensures each and every bit of data and information is correct across the board without having to fiddle around with duplicate data. You can manage each channel in a similar manner, and integration can even work with an in-store POS system for businesses with a physical brick and mortar store.

Improved after-sales service

With the ability to have everything in one easily-accessible system, handling any issues that may arise prior to a customer’s purchase is significantly easier. This is where an integrated CRM becomes extremely useful, as situations such as RMA requests and other after-sales services are crucial parts of these platforms. Integration means that all of these services become available at your fingertips, enabling you and others within your business to service your customer’s needs quickly and efficiently. The reduced stress that comes from having everything in one place will also likely have a positive effect on your customer engagement, meaning happier and more satisfied people all round.

Here at Coops Collective, we built an intuitive ecommerce integration solution for Duffels.

The integration utilised the Merlin ERP platform which held all of the customer pricing,

inventory and financial information, and Magento as the ecommerce platform.

This provided the reliable functionality and a modern feature-set

expected from their vibrant and loyal B2B customer-base. The result offered a storefront

with a UX-driven journey which enabled a satisfying and intuitive customer experience, as well as

instant visibility of up-to-date stock levels and inventories. The solution provided a boost

to Average Order Values (AOV) across the board, alongside increased revenues as a whole.

Greater customer satisfaction and brand trust

Tying in with what we mentioned above, an integrated ecommerce system gives you a vast array of tools and capabilities that enable you to provide your customers with an enhanced service from the get-go. On top of the after-sales service benefits we mentioned above, integration allows you to provide incentivised loyalty programs that can be managed and accessed with ease, give customers easy access to their order history and other services on demand, and much more. This is all aided by the integrated storefront, ERP and CRM platforms which can work with each other to deliver the services that modern customers have come to expect. Increased customer satisfaction simultaneously builds greater trust in your business too, and can help a great deal towards building a good reputation for your business and practises.

Integrated ecommerce also enables you to deliver a personalised experience to your customers, particularly if you use an AI personalisation platform. This would essentially allow you to provide real-time suggestions and recommendations to your customers throughout their entire purchasing experience. Be it suggested accessories or complementary products based on the product they’re currently viewing, based on their order or viewing history with your business, or even down to their location and customer profile that’s stored on your integrated system. This can work hand-in-hand with targeted marketing campaigns and loyalty schemes to provide a satisfying, relevant shopping experience that your customers will feel valued with.

Businessman hand holding wooden cube block with TRUST business word on table background. Trustworthy, Truth, beliefs and agreement concept

Better business control and report accessibility

We’ve said it multiple times so far, and we’ll say it again – integrated ecommerce puts everything in one place and right at your fingertips. That means that you gain much easier control over every aspect of your business. Particularly with typical ERP processes that enable you to take advantage of quicker, more intuitive capabilities that enhance the efficiency of your workload. Integration also enables effective report availability for your business, as each part of your back-office software is linked together meaning that reports can be generated based on a wide variety of elements all from one place. With everything combined, this provides on-demand clarification and information that can be used to address problems and make plans moving forwards.

Scalable – ideal for business growth

One of the more obvious benefits to ecommerce integration is handling long-term growth. Typically, as your business grows, so does the demand placed on you and others within the company. This can be a problem when everything has to be done manually, but integration takes that stress away and provides a much smoother overall experience as your business continues on its path of success.

We created a fully-integrated ecommerce solution for Lighterlife, a company who specialise in

better nutrition and its positive health benefits. They were looking to grow in a number

of channels, and their immediate goal was to develop their B2B opportunities by exploring

new channels outside of their core in order to aid international expansion.

Our solution was fully-integrated into SAP to take stock and pricing data and pass back financial information.

It also enabled customer-specific pricing, provided their customer base with

a feature-rich account area for complete visibility of their order history, and much more.

The future-proof solution enabled Lighterlife to set up advanced online promotions as

well as being able to accept multiple payment options to accommodate a

variety of different B2B requirements. It was also incredibly easy to administer and

use by non-technical members of their team, and interfaces seamlessly with their back-office SAP system.

As you can see, the list of ecommerce integration benefits is definitely a long one, and you might have noticed that each and every benefit complements each other too. There’s a lot more to discover with an integrated ecommerce system than just what we’ve spoken about above as well.

Do you want to learn more about how integration can help you and your business? Simply get in touch with us today!

Your success is not just our priority, it’s our passion, and our experienced team are always on hand to help you achieve it…

The post The Benefits of Ecommerce Integration for You and Your Business appeared first on PureNet.

B2B eCommerce is booming. According to Parcelforce, the sector will be worth £5.2 trillion by the end of 2020.

But what is B2B eCommerce and how do companies go about harnessing its potential? This eBook, co-written by leading B2B eCommerce provider PureNet and next generation eCommerce platform provider Kooomo, seeks to help answer these questions. We also hope to demonstrate how a skilled and experienced agency, working with a powerful eCommerce platform, can deliver growth, Return of Investment and to realise the potential the B2B marketplace offers.

For more information on how thus eBook can help you realise the potential offered by this growth market visit Kooomo’s website to download the white paper now or contact us.

The post Unlocking the Power of B2B Ecommerce appeared first on PureNet.

Jonathan Morgan. Coops Collective Operations Director said:

“We’re really excited to be working with Kooomo. It’s an exciting technology which offers our clients another approach to trading online. With its SaaS-based approach and revenue share model it complements our portfolio perfectly.

“With Coops Collective track record over 14 years of delivering exciting and successful eCommerce offerings our team is looking forward to adding our wealth of experience to delivering powerful Kooomo implementations.”

Ciaran Bollard, Kooomo’s CEO commented:

“We are delighted to extend our UK presence with Coops Collective, a leading eCommerce solutions agency. We look forward to innovating together to turbo-boost sales for our respective retailers and brands going forward.”

About Kooomo Digital Commerce Platform

Kooomo works with clients to maximise all digital sales channels globally by combining our expertise and next-generation platform in a proven and affordable digital commerce cloud solution. Built by eCommerce managers and named in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, Kooomo’s platform brings together every piece of the digital commerce puzzle. With a flexible revenue-share model, we’re all driven to succeed. Our extensive partner ecosystem, with world class technologies, ensures businesses are future proofed to keep up with the evolving digital commerce landscape.  Kooomo services a diverse range of customers worldwide, including Morrisons, Nutmeg, Havaianas, Butlers Chocolates, Avoca, CP Company, Miss Bikini and Blauer USA.

About Coops Collective

PureNet was established in 2006 and provides integrated ecommerce, portal solutions and applications. Its solutions span B2B and B2C clients and PureNet has worked with brands such as Argos, Krispy Kreme, Redde plc, Immediate Media, LighterLife and Jane Plan.

For more information on PureNet’s Kooomo ecommerce services contact us.

The post PureNet Partners with Leading Ecommerce Platform Provider Kooomo appeared first on PureNet.

1. Businesses do not even have an online ecommerce presence

Amazingly, many B2B traders are still relying on off line means to trade. It’s not a question of either/or. You can use tried and tested means of generating sales and exploiting new technologies to reach new and existing customers. The demographic is changing. Younger people, more used to buying online, are making the business decisions. They need to be accommodated and if you do they will reward you with online sales. Businesses with a proud, traditional heritage are making amazing headways despite their historical background, such as PureNet client
Widdop & Co. who are a prime example.

2. Old technology

Some businesses may have made a foray into B2B commerce but have let things slide. New technologies, slick user experiences, powerful personalisation and real time integration will revolutionise your business, boosting sales and delivering measurable ROI. But you have to invest and you have to keep it up to date. Those that do can continually engage with new and emerging markets. Take a look at Stateside Skates for a great example of how you can do this.

3. Manual vs automation

Successful B2B ecommerce isn’t just about winning sales on the front end Back-end efficiencies such as integrating into your ERP for up to date unique customer pricing, live stock levels, accounts and order histories will save you significant time in the back office and revolutionise your efficiency. That’s exactly what’s been achieved by long term PureNet client Green-tech. Take a look at the case study for inspiration.

4. Marketing and Promotions

The ability to market your products to acquire new clients can be at your fingertips. B2B can be a world away from the B2C equivalent but it can learn from its consumer focused equivalent. Email marketing, personalised user journeys, content marketing SEO and pay per click advertising are all used by many successful B2B companies. Saddleback, one of the UK’s leading distributors of biking gear and accessories is a company that lives and breathes marketing. See how they’ve engaged in successful B2B ecommerce with a great look and stylish approach, here.

The B2B ecommerce is there for the taking. Talk to us how we can help you achieve it today!

The post Achieving Business to Business Ecommerce Success appeared first on PureNet.

We’ve been speaking to Daniel about the recent developments to the Buy Subscriptions website to improve the overall user experience for over two million yearly visitors and deliver an increase in conversion rate and overall revenue. 

PureNet has been working with Immediate Media since 2014 when we developed an engaging, conversion-focussed bespoke ecommerce solution for their magazine subscription platform. The website was awarded with Ecommerce Campaign of the Year at the PPA Customer Direct Awards after the launch. The solution has allowed customers to purchase or renew subscriptions for print or digital quickly and easily. Since the new platform launch, Daniel and his team have been working on further optimisation of the platform to improve user experience and deliver increase in average order value and conversion rate.

In 2018, Immediate Media embarked on an exciting journey to further optimise their buysubscriptions.com website using Coops Collective integration services to implement tools such as Optimizely, incorporating Tesco part payments, the use of gift card in checkout and implementing promotional engine logic while making sure their order processes were GDPR-compliant. On top of on-site optimisation, Immediate Media also enhanced the use of their online marketing channels, integrating Facebook conversion tagging to be able to track the digital user journeys.

Daniel tells us about the implementation process and what impact the different developments had on the buysubscriptions.com website, conversion rate and revenue.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, Daniel. Can you please describe the way you worked with PureNet to communicate and implement your 2018 roadmap?

Our close relationship with the PureNet team across account management, project management, consultancy, development and testing meant we were able to develop our features and technical roadmaps together. The valuable input from the PureNet team mixed with the strategic requirements of Immediate Media means we’re able to deliver projects effectively for our business – and we delivered a lot in 2018!

How did you determine which features took precedence within the plan?

We score our development backlog in a benefit vs. cost model, where benefits might include improved site performance, user experience, increased revenue, or a strategic business requirement, and costs might be development resource or missed opportunity from not reaching potential. We’ll also consider any hard deadlines (for example, GDPR related changes).

On top of overall UX advantages, did the integration of new technologies deliver additional improvements?

In early 2018 we undertook some technical optimisation and refactoring of the site to clean code and remove legacy functionality. This had a notable impact on page load times which decreased by 25%. Much of our 2018 roadmap was focussed on integrating new functionality – new payment types in particular. We’ve integrated continuous credit card, delayed payments for trial access, single free magazine issues, and part-payment vouchers. This work is in preparation for our multi-currency development in Q1 of 2019, swiftly followed by recurring PayPal. This will enable us to extend our overseas reach with relevant and more competitive offers.

How did the integration of the new features impact user journeys on the buysubscriptions.com website?

The ongoing improvement of the solution along with new offer strategies and growth initiatives across our marketing led to a record year for buysubscriptions.com in 2018. We saw users and sessions increase by 12% year-on-year, while our transaction metrics all saw growth: revenue (+14%), orders (+6%), and AOV (+8%).

We’re also delighted that we’ve received a Gold Trusted Service award from Feefo – a reflection of our entire subscription service; from website experience to receipt of their first magazine issue.

How are you planning to improve user experience for the Buy Subscriptions website further? What does the 2019 roadmap look like and how are you planning to collaborate with PureNet going forward?

As mentioned, multi-currency is a key development for Q1. We’ll also be carrying out many CRO initiatives this year, beginning with checkout improvements informed by customer data from multi-variant testing. We’re dedicated to ensuring our customers have a seamless experience on buysubscriptions.com.

We continue to build our strong relationship with PureNet so I’m excited to deliver another year of projects that will deliver growth for our business.

The post Improve User Experience | Q&A Session with Daniel Eales from Immediate Media appeared first on PureNet.

A portal means a doorway or entrance and in the realm of website development offers away of accessing a web system that will allow you, as a user, to perform a task. At Coops Collective, we have delivered a number of bespoke portals to clients ranging from SMEs to large corporation and aided in streamlining their internal and external processes.

To learn more about how PureNet can help you create new, cost-efficient processes within your business, download our Portal White Paper now.

Download Portal White Paper

The post Bespoke Portals and How They Can Help Transform Your Business appeared first on PureNet.