B2B Portal definition, types, examples

Development

Mykola Dovhal , CEO

Publish Date: Jul 3, 2024

8 min read

Building and supporting long-term relationships with clients is one of the primary goals of every business that operates in the B2B ecosystem. Actually, an interesting point here is that the receiving company also seeks long-term cooperation that reduces the need for constant searching for new partners.

Willing to hold their clients, businesses start to apply different strategies, supplying their shop with a variety of applications for regular communication, exceptional customer service, problem-solving, etc. A B2B portal can be an effective solution here. Please note that it generally differs from a B2B website while providing you with a little bit of a different approach. So, what is a B2B site? What sets it apart from a portal? And what businesses should pay attention to this approach? Read this article to get to know more.

What is a B2B portal?

The business to business portal serves as a comprehensive digital place that eases transactions and interactions between parties. Here clients can typically find the listings of product offerings, then place their orders for goods, and track the delivery status. Furthermore, this digital place often provides the receiving party with features to manage client accounts and directly communicate with suppliers or support managers.

For businesses that sell their products, a B2B portal is a possibility to effectively manage the entire order lifecycle. There are also tracking tools for managing inventory that include monitoring the stocks in real-time, analyzing sales data and market trends to predict future demand, etc.

Here it is important not to confuse it with the site as it generally serves for a little bit different purposes. So, what is a B2B website? Generally, it is like a digital storefront to which clients can come and get the needed things. It usually shows the services of a particular company and provides details on pricing. A B2B portal, on its side, offers a wide range of features such as custom prices, advanced order management, etc.

Why Do You Need B2B Customer Portals?

Nowadays more and more companies that operate in the business to business market, start benefiting from B2B portals. They mostly apply them because of 3 main reasons.

Centralized solution

One of the main points that attract both businesses that provide services and those that receive them is that a B2B platform provides a so-called centralized solution. It serves as a place for various business activities, covering communication, transactions, product management, and more.

Automated services

Furthermore, B2B platforms allow a certain level of automation which streamlines order placement, processing, and fulfillment. It also reduces the need for human labor and as a result, minimizes manual errors.

Improved customer experience

Since these digital places give personalized product recommendations and relevant promotions based on customers’ past purchases, the receiving parties feel understood and appreciated. That’s how they are more likely to remain loyal to your brand and make repeated purchases in the future. A B2B customer service example is simply that businesses can find everything on one platform, without running from one to another.

Types of B2B portals

As the demand for these digital places is constantly growing, different types of B2B platforms have appeared. As for now, we differentiate 5 common portals.

Service portals

A service B2B portal is a type of digital place that is made for those businesses that supply other companies with various service-based solutions. That can be a perfect match if you are running a consulting firm, software development company, marketing agency, or any other type of business that provides services.