Missing Features in BigCommerce That Affect B2B Operations

Lack of Automated Categorization

One big hurdle for BigCommerce users, especially with large product catalogs, is the lack of robust automated categorization. In the B2B world, where catalogs are vast and varied, efficient categorization is crucial.

BigCommerce relies on manual categorization. For small product lists, this isn’t a big issue. But as catalogs grow to hundreds or thousands of items, the limitations become clear. Without automated tools, keeping an up-to-date catalog is tough, impacting customer experience.

Imagine a B2B buyer navigating an online store with misclassified or outdated listings. Finding irrelevant items or missing desired products frustrates them. This can lead to a negative view of the business, hurting both the immediate shopping experience and long-term relationships.

The impact goes beyond inconvenience. In B2B, time is critical. Wasting time searching for items reduces efficiency. B2B buyers, often making frequent, high-volume purchases, need intuitive navigation and accurate info. Poor categorization disrupts their operations and might drive them to competitors.

For businesses, the lack of automated categorization burdens resources. Manual categorization is time-consuming and prone to errors. As businesses grow, this challenge increases, limiting market competitiveness.

BigCommerce doesn’t offer built-in solutions for this issue. However, businesses can turn to web developers for custom solutions. These might include algorithms for categorizing products by attributes or integrating third-party tools.

Some businesses design systems to categorize products based on predefined parameters. While helpful, these solutions require significant investment in time and resources. They may not fully match the efficiency of a native automated feature, leaving room for improvement.

Limited Payment Options

In B2B commerce, diverse payment methods are crucial. BigCommerce, however, falls short here. It integrates with some popular payment gateways but lacks support for key digital wallets like Visa Checkout and Masterpass. This gap frustrates businesses that want a comprehensive payment suite.

BigCommerce also struggles with B2B payment terms. Standard terms like net 30 or net 60, where payment is due 30 or 60 days after the invoice, aren’t well-supported. This limitation makes it hard for businesses to offer flexible terms.

The impact on B2B customers is significant. Buyers used to specific payment methods or terms might be frustrated by their absence. This frustration can lead to cart abandonment and lost sales.

For businesses, these payment limitations can stunt growth. Not offering preferred methods affects sales, especially for large orders. Attracting and keeping clients with specific needs becomes tougher, possibly slowing expansion.

Workarounds often mean more manual work to handle custom payments. This increases costs and the risk of errors. BigCommerce allows some customization via third-party integrations, but this needs technical expertise and investment. Businesses may need experts to optimize payment options or integrate specialized B2B gateways.

These gaps show the difference between BigCommerce’s native features and B2B payment needs. As B2B e-commerce evolves, offering flexible, varied payment options will be crucial for staying competitive and meeting customer expectations.

No Backordering Capability

A B2B company that allows customers to place orders for items that are currently out of stock but will be back in stock and delivered is called backordering. This feature is critically important for businesses with large-scale inventories or those offering personalized or tailor-made products. Unfortunately, BigCommerce doesn’t have back ordering functionality natively.

In the absence of a backorder, B2B customers can’t place orders for unavailable items, which results in missed sales opportunities and possible disruptions in the supply chain. For example, a client who requires a certain part for their manufacturing process might seek the item at a competitor’s store if they are not able to buy it via your store. This drawback can have a negative impact on your business relations and affect the business in its process of expansion.

The introduction of back-ordering features will enable B2B companies to catch sales even if products are out of supply temporarily. Thus, they will be able to give the customers a perfect buying experience and maintain sustainable sales revenue.

Inadequate Customization for Canonical URLs

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to online stores; canonical URLs, in particular, are the keys to correct search engine’s indexing and ranking of web pages. Canonical URLs, for example, specify the preferred version of a web page, which in turn prevents duplicate content issues. Nevertheless, the BigCommerce platform’s capability of creating custom canonical URLs is restricted.

The lack of being capable of customizing the canonical URLs to the products, categories, and pages can cause B2B stores to be strong contenders for better search engine rankings. This, in turn, can lead to poor visibility, fewer organic search traffic, and lower sales. The right URL structure is the cornerstone of SEO, as it aligns with the content theme and the search engine hierarchy.

Thus, B2B companies are required to give priority to SEO in order to attract potential consumers who are looking for specific items or services. The inability to customize canonical URLs in BigCommerce can be a hurdle in these campaigns, which can lead to losing positions in search rankings. Here, companies can turn to the support of BigCommerce development services to get customized URL structures implemented and to optimize their SEO strategies.

Limited Blog Functionality

Content marketing is undoubtedly a powerful tool for B2B enterprises, and blogs are at the core of this strategy. Driving traffic, educating potential clients, and demonstrating industry expertise are the primary functions of blogs. Nevertheless, the blogging capabilities of BigCommerce fall short when compared to those of dedicated blogging platforms like WordPress.

The lack of sophisticated blog functionalities, such as easy product integration and efficient call-to-actions (CTAs), may restrict the amount of relevant information that you can leverage to drive traffic and conversions. In business-to-business enterprises, potential customers are more likely to be attracted and engaged if product information and market intelligence are well-trained. Without enough blogging, companies may miss out on converting potential customers.

A good blog should allow for the easy linking of content with relevant products and have enticing CTAs that would prompt readers to go for a purchase. The tedious process of manually linking products in BigCommerce to the blog posts could easily have caused some of the sales opportunities to be missed.

Insufficient Inventory Management Tools

Inventory management is a major component in the B2B industry, where companies are, in most cases, handling a lot of items and have a complex supply chain. Although it is okay for smaller businesses, BigCommerce’s inventory management tools are not as effective for B2B businesses that have more demanding requirements.

For the correct functioning of the warehouse and timely delivery of orders, IT features like real-time stock updates, an automatic reordering system, and multi-warehouse support are necessary. The basic inventory management abilities of BigCommerce can be the cause for stockouts and overstocking as well as for excessive periods of order processing.

On the other hand, a third-party inventory management app or custom development program can be integrated by B2B businesses to improve their inventory management capabilities. This can lead to cutting costs and improving customer satisfaction by making the product available for the customer when needed.

Limited Support for Custom Pricing and Discounts

B2B transactions often concern difficult pricing structures that include volume discounts, tiered pricing, and custom quotes. BigCommerce’s support for custom pricing and discounts is minimal and thus, it might be difficult for B2B companies to give flexible prices to their clients.

Not having the benefit of supporting custom pricing, B2B businesses could face issues with preparing custom quotes and discounts pertaining to the order volume, customer loyalty, or specific contract terms. This can be an obstacle for the business to close a sales deal as well as attracting and maintaining clients.

Lack of Advanced Shipping Options

One of the crucial parts of the B2B customer experience is shipping, as companies frequently demand shipping solutions that are adaptable and trustworthy. Built-in shipping options of BigCommerce might not be enough for B2B operations that need advanced features such as freight shipping, multi-carrier support, and real-time shipping rates.

Those offering advanced freightage services are necessarily a must for B2B businesses dealing with large or bulk orders, international shipments, and time-sensitive deliveries. Apart from businesses, these capabilities are important for providing accurate shipping quotes, management of logistics, and fulfilling customer demands.

To improve their shipping operations, B2B businesses can either use third-party shipping solutions or develop custom shipping modules within BigCommerce. This, in turn helps in diluting the shipping process, cost reduction, and giving the client a better service through the improvement of the customer journey.