Choosing the Ideal B2B eCommerce Platform for FMCG: An Expert Guide

Integrating a digital commerce platform becomes a strategic solution for leading FMCG enterprises seeking to improve operational efficiency and win customer loyalty. The question is, how do companies select the ideal B2B ecommerce platform tailored to the unique FMCG needs? In this guide, we'll cover this major issue, delve into the key features of a robust ecommerce platform, and explore the top platforms available on the market today.

1. INTRODUCTION TO THE FMCG INDUSTRY & ITS PECULIARITIES
2. B2B FMCG ECOMMERCE PLATFORM VS. ONLINE MARKETPLACE SOLUTION: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
3. WHY LAUNCH A B2B ECOMMERCE PLATFORM?
4. THE GROWING COST OF INNOVATION: A HIDDEN CRUCIAL FACTOR
5. CHECKLIST: MUST-HAVE TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES OF B2B FMCG ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS
6. TOP B2B ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS FOR FMCG COMPANIES
7. CHOOSING A PLATFORM THAT WILL LAST

The definition of FMCG isn’t as straightforward as one may think. For this article's purpose, we define fast-moving consumer goods as products with a short shelf life and faster sales. Great examples of fast-moving products can be food and beverages and personal care products, including beauty items. To get a deeper understanding of the state of the FMCG market and its trends, check our article on the topic.

Among other characteristics, from the sellers’ perspective, perishable fast-moving consumer goods have a high turnover and a relatively low profit margin per unit, which adds unique challenges to manufacturers and distributors.

The retail margin and hypercompetitive environment in the FMCG industry have made automation a must, not a choice. While the pressure on FMCG companies is mounting, many retailers have already exhausted traditional cost-reduction methods. These external factors combined make the risk of disruption in the FMCG segment very high, forcing companies to innovate internally to face rising customer expectations.

Being a trusted technological partner for prominent FMCG enterprises like HEINEKEN, Lavazza by Bluespresso, and De Klock Dranken, we at Virto Commerce know firsthand about the importance of choosing the right B2B ecommerce platform. Now, let’s define the concept of an ecommerce platform and how it’s different from online B2B marketplaces like Amazon Business or Walmart Business.

An FMCG B2B platform is an ecommerce solution specifically designed for the FMCG industry’s needs. A B2B ecommerce platform has the necessary functionality to conduct business online, correctly showcase products and services, accept orders, and process payments. While one part of the platform is available to any online visitor, another part can be hidden and accessible only to registered customers with sign-in credentials.

Online marketplaces, in turn, are a different class of solutions. They are specifically designed for businesses that want to buy and sell products frequently but don’t have the financial means to establish their own independent digital channel.

Online marketplaces from Amazon or Walmart allow FMCG businesses to leverage their infrastructure and customer base. However, FMCG enterprises that want to beat competitors on a customer experience level won’t find these marketplaces particularly useful.

Only B2B ecommerce platforms enable FMCG companies to manage their customers' experiences at every step and gain valuable customer insights along the way. B2B ecommerce platforms tailored for FMCG needs also empower businesses to build lasting relationships with stakeholders and make informed decisions based on client data.

Let’s see why FMCG companies hop on a train of ecommerce expansion and how smart investments in a robust B2B ecommerce platform can pay off.

eCommerce platforms provide new opportunities for both B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and B2B (Business-to-Business) models. The competitive advantages include a seamless purchasing experience for buyers and increased market reach for sellers.

For FMCG companies, an ecommerce platform provides independence. For example, brands can unlock new revenue streams and reach new regions previously unavailable due to budget or technological constraints or other restrictions associated with traditional expansion.

Below, we’ll look at a few key benefits that ecommerce brings to FMCG enterprises working with a B2B business model:

With a robust ecommerce portal, FMCG companies can provide accurate information about their products and services, such as real-time inventory and logistics, to all parties within the supply chain. Moreover, an ecommerce platform makes international compliance transparent and easy.

Launching an ecommerce B2B platform means manufacturers can have extensive data about their end users even if they use intermediaries for distribution purposes.

Data gives FMCG companies valuable insights into products that are sold more frequently, purchasing trends, and buyer profiles. An ecommerce platform also provides direct customer feedback that you can use to make informed, timely decisions based on numbers.

B2B upselling and cross-selling are less transparent in an offline setting. Meanwhile, in an online setting, personalization and recommendations, as well as regional multicurrency functionality, can be added automatically.

Personalization in B2B ecommerce includes showing customers relevant content, including contractually agreed-on products and price lists. With a robust recommendation engine, FMCG companies can offer complementary products or targeted promotions that would have been impossible to suggest in a traditional setting.

Since buyer expectations are constantly changing and evolving, digital commerce has become a medium for both expanding the customer base and retaining existing customers through diverse online and offline channels.

An ideal B2B ecommerce solution for FMCG companies can deliver a top-notch omnichannel experience to meet increasing client expectations of convenience. You can learn more about the benefits of omnichannel ecommerce in our blog.

Now that we know why it’s vital to consider investing in a B2B FMCG ecommerce platform, let’s look at the key factor that makes a future-proof ecommerce platform stand out.

As we see, the FMCG industry is extremely dynamic. The competition among top FMCG companies comes down to streamlining procurement, optimizing supply chains, and providing outstanding customer experience. To do all that efficiently, enterprises explore modern innovation-ready B2B ecommerce platforms.

In an ideal scenario, the total cost of ownership (TCO) for FMCG digital platforms includes costs to launch a new solution, as well as IT and license fees. The cost of further changes within the platform and its features increases exponentially after the platform launch.

More often than not, companies in the FMCG segment find themselves in need of replatforming due to technical limitations of their current solution, lack of adaptability, and high development costs. Static monolith solutions are unable to keep up with the growing market expectations, forcing enterprises into a replatforming trap. Thus, the cost of constant innovation becomes the most expensive problem in ecommerce and a decisive element when choosing a digital platform for your FMCG business. We’ve gathered everything you need to know about ecommerce replatforming in one article.

The readiness to innovate and adapt to customer expectations are becoming crucial factors in selecting your B2B FMCG ecommerce platform. An adaptive solution, in contrast to a static one, is designed for continuous change for as long as possible. When executed correctly, such a platform will have architectural excellence with these five technical capabilities, enabling you to implement changes and launch new features quickly and efficiently. This, in turn, will prevent you from falling into the costly replatforming trap.

Here is a checklist of some must-have features that represent a resilient FMCG-friendly B2B ecommerce platform:

A cloud-native platform is built with technologies that inherently support application development on cloud infrastructure. This allows IT teams to build scalable applications and add fast and frequent changes to them without impacting service delivery. The cloud-native nature of an ecommerce platform allows FMCG businesses to cut costs in procurement and maintenance of physical infrastructure.

Contrary to a proprietary solution’s code, open-source solutions allow different stakeholders with appropriate permissions to access, modify, and distribute the source code. It means you can create new features with greater flexibility and less dependency on the vendor.

In addition, open code allows deep customization of catalog features so that users see prices and products agreed upon in their contracts.

This reflects the potential to directly add new independent and interchangeable modules (e.g., entities, functions, and algorithms) on top of the native solution. For example, modules like “catalog,” “real-time inventory,” or “payment” can be created, customized, and repurposed with a minimum of dependencies, all without breaking code.

Static platforms are less suitable for the fast-changing ecommerce market. Therefore, it’s best to look for an adaptable solution. A few indicators to look for include the ones we’ve already mentioned (e.g., modularity and cloud-based nature) and API integration capabilities.

​​eCommerce API integration allows FMCG enterprises to connect backend and middleware to B2B, B2C, and D2C channels, supporting unique business scenarios. Additionally, the API-first B2B platform smoothly integrates with different payment providers to ensure customers can choose their preferred payment mechanism.

In contrast to a traditional monolith platform, this technical capability means that your FMCG business has an independent storefront (frontends) and backend. Having them apart allows businesses to create multiple websites, test them, and easily maintain them through a separate backend.

In the case of B2B FMCG ecommerce, a headless solution supports quality omnichannel customer experiences. It also streamlines multinational rollouts, entering new regions and working with multiple pricing strategies and currencies.

To sum up, a future-proof and architecturally excellent B2B FMCG platform has the aforementioned capabilities that provide FMCG businesses with the following:

• Cloud-based ⭢ scalability and accessibility.
• Open code ⭢ high level of customization.
• Modularity ⭢ flexible extensions and upgradability.
• API-first ⭢ seamless integration and extensibility.
• Headless ⭢ decoupled frontends and flexible user interfaces.

Now, let’s compare the leading B2B ecommerce solutions for FMCG available on the market today based on their readiness to innovate and keep your TCO in check.

We’ve discussed how the risk of disruption in the FMCG industry is incredibly high and that the need for innovation increases with such high competition for customer loyalty. Now, with this important factor in mind, let’s look at the six top B2B FMCG ecommerce platforms available on the market today.

The SAP platform is one of the oldest solutions on the market and is tailored for enterprises. It comes with a strong performance for most of its features and an industry-specific approach to connecting accounting, finance, inventory, and FMCG distribution software.

However, the SAP platform can only partially support large volumes of products and catalogs and dynamic or individual pricing. Moreover, it lacks fast time-to-value innovation and requires larger teams, investments, and timeframes to support its performance. Get a detailed comparison of SAP Commerce Cloud and other solutions in our blog. Examples of SAP FMCG clients: Nestle and Ferrara.

Salesforce is another enterprise-focused solution for ecommerce. From a technological point of view, this solution acts less as an independent platform and more as a well-established SaaS service, though with limited extensibility. For an FMCG enterprise, it means that you can introduce some additional functionality, but you won’t be able to adapt core capabilities to unique customers’ needs. Examples of Salesforce’s FMCG clients: PepsiCo and Kellogg's.

WooCommerce is a platform better suited for SMEs that likewise don’t set a goal of innovating fast to meet customers' expectations. WooCommerce has limited capabilities (e.g., catalog structure) but can be improved with external plugins, which cost more and may pose some technical risks and lead to poor performance. That means that FMCG companies will find it difficult to predict the total cost of running and maintaining such an ecommerce platform. Example of WooCommerce’s FMCG clients: Dan-O's Seasoning.

Sana Commerce is another SME-suited platform for ecommerce. While Sana can become a tool for FMCG companies at the beginning of their digital journey, it lacks the essential capabilities to support multiple warehouses and upselling or cross-selling customization. Moreover, any changes in catalogs and properties must go through ERP, which can add challenges to managers working with the platform. Example of Sana Commerce’s FMCG clients: Food and Dairy Co.

Magento, now Adobe Commerce, is an ecommerce platform suited for enterprises. Due to its open-source nature, the platform allows the addition of new and unique features. Although Adobe Commerce has its customization advantages, the solution is still considered a monolith architecture. This means that FMCG companies may not fully enjoy the benefits of the platform being API-first, cloud-native, and headless. You can learn more about Adobe Commerce and its FMCG-suited alternatives in our article. Example of Adobe Commerce FMCG clients: Coca-Cola and Nestle Nespresso.

Virto Commerce is a .NET-based modular B2B ecommerce platform known for its unique transparent Virto Atomic Architecture™. It allows FMCG enterprises to innovate for years without increasing the cost of it. Virto Commerce aims to deliver value to enterprises and protect them from market disruption.

The platform can be a perfect out-of-the-box solution to create a customized scenario of any complexity for B2C and/or B2B FMCG ecommerce. With the API-first Virto Commerce solution, even small teams can successfully and quickly implement changes, add new modules and features, or integrate third-party functions. Virto Commerce offers a consistent system of properties, making product filters highly effective. Additionally, FMCG companies using Virto Commerce can seamlessly manage multiple storefronts without compromising performance.

Examples of Virto Commerce FMCG clients: HEINEKEN, Lavazza by Bluespresso, and De Klok Dranken.

As we can see, the dynamic and competitive nature of the FMCG industry calls for continuous digital innovation to face potential disruptions. In addition to technical capabilities, the growing costs of continuous innovation have become a decisive factor when choosing a B2B ecommerce platform tailored for FMCG needs.

Virto Commerce is an excellent choice for FMCG enterprises seeking to innovate and adapt rapidly to market challenges. With its comprehensive technical capabilities, including modularity, adaptability, and scalability, Virto Commerce helps businesses to make agile changes.

By investing in a future-proof B2B ecommerce platform like Virto Commerce, FMCG companies can position themselves for long-term success amidst industry disruptions and evolving consumer expectations.