B2B Magento Developer: IronPlane’s Approach

When hiring a B2B Magento developer, you want a team that:

• Has experience with various B2B businesses. Your agency partner should have experience developing Magento B2B solutions for a variety of B2B verticals. With the right depth of B2B experience, a Magento developer can more efficiently design and implement the right solution for your needs.
  
  
• Takes the time to understand your business. When it comes to eCommerce, B2B businesses have unique needs. These needs are different from those of traditional B2C businesses. You need an agency that will take the time to fully understand your business and design an eCommerce solution that brings you a concrete return on your investment.
  
  
• Uses eCommerce to complement your existing sales process. Your website should be a sales enablement tool supporting both your sales teams and your sales processes. A strong Magento developer works with Magento’s native B2B functionality as well as available third-party extensions to build a comprehensive sales engine.
  
  
• Has a proven track record with Magento. Developing a Magento site to meet the unique needs of B2B businesses (i.e., create custom modules, develop integrations with ERPs, avoid channel conflict issues) demands a high level of expertise, so it’s crucial to hire a detail-oriented developer who can build solid code, manage complex customizations, and continually optimize your site. When a Magento site is properly built and maintained, it has faster site speeds, better security, and is better equipped to handle updates and upgrades without crashing.
  
  
• Serves as a long-term, strategic partner. The agency you choose to work with is critical to the success of your platform. Magento sites require regular updates and security patches to keep them secure and stable. Beyond this maintenance, your B2B business must adapt to satisfy your customers and stay ahead of your competition. Your partner agency should help you identify Magento optimizations to increase conversions, improve customer experience and drive operational efficiencies.

At IronPlane, we specialize in Magento development services and have a decade of experience working with B2B businesses — building up Magento sites, rescuing “broken” Magento sites, and optimizing current sites to better support B2B operations. 

Through our consultative approach, we hone in on the current challenges with your site, determine how you can use your website as an effective sales tool, and develop your site to support key business goals. 

In this post, we talk about our process when working with B2B companies — discussing three case studies from past projects — and how we find the right solutions to support unique business goals. 

IronPlane’s team is knowledgeable in both Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce Cloud and has helped many B2B companies optimize their eCommerce websites to increase conversion rates and support the sales process. Contact our development agency for a free consultation.

IronPlane’s Individualized Approach to B2B Development

We get to know your business and sales enablement platform on a deep level through a business discovery and site audit. This lets us:

• Identify immediate issues: Do you need to upgrade or update your B2B Magento site? Should you migrate to a new Magento theme? Are all of your extensions and customizations working efficiently, without slowing your site?
  
  
• Discover optimization opportunities: Would a UX redesign bring greater usability and improved conversion rates? Can we improve your site speed? Is your site mobile optimized? What custom B2B Magento functionality could bring unique value to your customers?
  
  
• Prioritize website projects: We work with you to prioritize fixes and optimizations to ensure our efforts support your most important goals first.

Site Audit and Business Discovery

We offer three audit options, including: 

1. Free Audit: We do a brief inspection of your site, looking at core files, theming structure, installed modules, security, and customizations, and provide a summary of where you can make improvements.
   
   
2. Code Audit: This includes a review of your site’s front- and backend code. We also look at the areas of your site relating to user experience, taking a close look at site speed, accessibility, and SEO.
   
   
3. Comprehensive Site Audit: This audit is the one we typically recommend, as it combines the previous two audits with a key performance indicator and analytics review. It also includes our Business Discovery element.

During our Business Discovery, we gather information about your business, interviewing company stakeholders and key organization members. We focus on understanding your website goals, what challenges you’re facing, and how your Magento store can support your sales team and business operations. 

We Minimize Business Disruptions and Work with Your Timeline

Once we understand the goals you have for your website and the work we need to do, we meet with you to review our plan and discuss timelines for projects. Most clients are looking for a variety of upgrades and changes to their site, so we’ll plan with you to prioritize projects in the order that makes the most sense for your goals and timelines (and to minimize business disruptions). 

For example, let’s say you want to migrate to Magento from another B2B eCommerce platform (or from Magento 1 to Magento 2). We’d map out a single project to get you up and running on the latest version of Magento 2 with a comprehensive implementation of your desired customizations including design and unique B2B functionality.

If you prefer a rapid launch, we choose a phased approach where we get the core site up and running followed by a phased approach to deliver other components such as an integration with your ERP or newly designed interactive product pages and custom landing pages.

Whichever way you’d prefer to work, you’ll be matched with a dedicated Solution Specialist who will be your main point of contact to provide updates and discuss timelines for upcoming projects.

We’re Focused on Building Long-Term Partnerships

We work with many B2B clients on a long-term basis, fully managing their Magento sites (updates, security patches, extensions). Plus, all of our Solution Specialists are well-versed in best practices for B2B businesses, so they can monitor the results of projects and provide actionable insights to continually optimize your site to support business goals.

Below, we review three case studies to demonstrate how our dedicated Magento developers helped B2B companies develop their online stores to simplify the ordering process and increase bottom line. 

Omni International: Magento Migration and Optimization

Challenges

Omni International is a prominent manufacturer and distributor of laboratory equipment, selling to individual labs and large research groups, and they are known for their expansive product catalog. 

They came to IronPlane with several goals — they needed:

• To migrate from Magento 1 to Magento 2. 
• A modern and intuitive UI.
• A better way to represent their products and research articles so users can easily navigate the site and build orders.
• Increased shipping and bundling features.
• Ability to view quotes and shopping cart options.

Our Solutions

The first task was to move their site to Magento 2 and implement Magento B2B Commerce, which gave them add-to-cart and add-to-quote functions. This transition also granted customers the ability to easily maneuver the site and explore products, bundles, and accessories. They were able to read corresponding research and request formal quotes. 

IronPlane completed several other improvements, including: 

• Installation of customer tracking tool Pardot, so sales representatives could see what products visitors were interested in.
• Configuration of a distributor locator feature to match a customer’s IP address to the corresponding distributor, making checkout easier and easing the burden on backend operations.
• Implementation of Shipper HQ to simplify order tracking for customers.
• Creation of specific sites for customer segments in the US, UK, Ireland, EU, and Canada, in addition to a global store for visitors in other countries.

These improvements led Omni International to experience:

• 107.4% increase in revenue
• 67% increase in transactions
• 48% increase in average order value 

You can read the full Omni International case study here.

Gat Creek: Digital Sales Enablement with 3D Product Display

Challenges

Gat Creek, a custom furniture retailer, came to us without a digital sales enablement platform. In the past, they’d used printed catalogs and store displays to sell to customers, but they struggled to portray product offerings (and all the possible variations of it) so customers could see what their furniture would look like before placing an order. 

Gat Creek needed a website with interactive product pages so users could select the furniture they’re interested in; customize it with various wood, finish, and hardware options; visualize their order before clicking purchase. Their eCommerce store also had to appeal to both B2C and B2B customers. 

Our Solutions

Our team set up Gat Creek with a Magento storefront and implemented custom-tailored AWS Magento hosting so their site remains secure and stable. 

We also created a 3D product visualizer with an added AR feature, so customers could customize their furniture’s hardware, wood, and finish; preview a dynamic model of their order; see what the furniture will look like in their living space. These features make it easier for customers to engage with products and get a more realistic look at furniture before making their purchase. 

In addition, we enabled omnichannel ordering, so customers can order directly with Gat Creek or with retailers, and sales are credited back to the proper retail partner. 

Once our work was complete, Gat Creek saw an uptick in applications from interior designers, as well as: 

• 25% increase in revenue
• 21% increase in average order value
• 23% increase in conversion rates

You can read the full Gat Creek case study here.

Royal Chain Group: Site Enhancements and Simplified Order Process

Challenges

Jewelry wholesaler Royal Chain Group was struggling with a high bounce rate and a low returning visitor rate. They came to IronPlane looking for:

• A sleek, modern-looking site that allows visitors to easily browse products and make a purchase. 
  
  
• Functionality that could automatically update and accurately portray the current price of metals. 
  
  
• A simple order management feature that allowed customers to create profiles and review their balances. 

Our Solutions

We started by installing our open-source Magento foundation, Colibri, which has a lightweight code profile — providing high performance, scalability, and lower ownership costs. 

Then, we created an intuitive search function so users could easily find products and jump from one product page to the next. Afterwards, we installed a custom module that can automate price updates to reflect current gold and silver values so that every product on the site has accurate pricing. This same module can update user profiles so website visitors can see current orders and balances. 

In addition, we: 

• Created client portals with individualized quick order functions, payment options, product comparison tools, product reviews, wish lists, advanced group product capabilities, order history, and a rapid reorder feature.
  
  
• Restructured product data to comply with industry-standard categorizations and naming conventions.

Our work with Royal Chain Group resulted in:

• 107% increase in revenue
• 66% increase in conversion rates
• 32% increase in the average order value
• 40% decrease in bounce rate 

You can read the full Royal Chain Group case study here.

Learn More About IronPlane’s B2B eCommerce Solutions

IronPlane’s team of eCommerce developers and Solution Specialists understand the ins and outs of building and optimizing Magento eCommerce sites to support the unique needs of B2B companies. 

Our work is focused on finding and implementing solutions that improve the customer experience and support the sales process, so you can see better website performance and more ROI from your online sales channels. 

Since B2B website goals are ever-evolving, we act as a long-term partner and help your site scale with your business.

Schedule a call today to see how our B2B eCommerce development services can support your business. 

Related read: Magento Enterprise Developers: IronPlane + 5 Alternatives