Challenges of Building B2B Apps For Ecommerce

By |Updated Date : Oct 17, 2023 | 75 views | Oct 17, 2023
  • Challenges of Building B2B Apps For Ecommerce

With B2B apps rapidly becoming the preferred sales channel in the wholesale ecommerce landscape, it's just the right time to build and leverage mobile apps for your B2B brand.

Ever wondered what makes mobile apps so highly demanded?

Yes, you guessed it right! 

It is the comfort they offer.

And the way it helps you implement data-driven, real-time marketing strategies to hack growth. 

Wondering how to build the most-conversion oriented mobile apps for your ecommerce business?

If yes, keep reading the space to learn all about B2B apps development

Let us first gather some insights on business-to-business mobile app growth:

  • 65% of B2B companies have a mobile app already
  • 42%+ of B2B revenue is generated by mobile devices
  • 20% faster purchases through B2B mobile apps marketing channel
  • 78% of B2B companies believe that B2B app is a future driver of the B2B industry
  • 80% of B2B buyers use smartphones at various points of the buying process

Source: Think with Google, Bugsnag

The winning formula for your business is now decoded. This is clear evidence that the use of mobile devices boosts sales and profits even for wholesale businesses. The B2B buyers expect information at their fingertips and with mobile devices, you can provide them quick services and ease of buying.

Why should enterprise brands build B2B apps?

B2B apps have gained immense popularity in recent years. Apps help brands resonate better with their clients and offer self-exploration and self-service features. Also, as the B2C brands are facilitating their buyers with mobile shopping, it has also conditioned the B2B buying habits to expect the same experiences. Modern buyers look for a comprehensive buying experience across all channels including mobile devices.

Here are a few benefits of having mobile apps for your B2B marketplace:

  • Helps reach new markets and a wider audience
  • Boosts brand awareness and customer engagement 
  • Opens up new channels of sales like mobile devices
  • Easy to offer personalized product recommendations
  • Boosts the ticket size with in-app purchases 
  • Improves customer loyalty as the buyers spend more time on your B2B apps
  • Helps move to omnichannel selling with different mobile apps and PWA stores 
  • Access to customer information with social channel logic etc

With the best mobile ecommerce solutions like StoreHippo, you can quickly build your mobile app and take your business on an upward growth trajectory. However, before you start on the journey to make your mobile app, you need to take into account the business requirements and the demands of your customers. As you consider both your business and your customers, you build a tailor-made mobile app that helps you keep your cash counter ringing.   

Challenges of building B2B apps for your B2B marketplace 

Face the fact. The B2B mobile app development cycle is not necessarily smooth. Delivering an app that matches the expectations of your customers can be an uphill task. But with the right features and solution at hand, the process can seem a little easier. Wonder how? 

Let us dive in and discuss the challenges businesses face while developing apps and how to overcome them:  

Finding the right tech solutions partner

The B2B business flows are complex. It requires a future-ready ecommerce technology provider that can understand and implement the complex requirements. To seamlessly build a B2B marketplace app, you need cutting-edge technology that can power your growth and next-generation technology that can help you take your business to the next level. Also, with the right tech partner, you can build mobile apps or PWA stores that look, feel, and work like mobile apps even on entry level devices.

How StoreHippo helps:

  • Built on the mobile-first principle, all stores built on StoreHippo are PWAs, that look, feel and work like mobile apps
  • The inbuilt mobile apps builder helps build Android and iOS B2B apps without the need for coding
  • You also get admin, vendor and delivery boy mobile apps to manage your business and fulfillment on the go
  • 300+ enterprise-grade features to easily handle the complex requirements of B2B businesses
  • Seamless integrations with the best-in-breed software to handle day-to-day business operations

Building an engaging interface

Well, gone are the days when a simple portal with the products and the functionality to place an order would suffice. With almost 80% of the buyers looking for a B2C-like shopping experience on a B2B marketplace app, you need to build a conversion-oriented engaging interface. To gear up for more traffic and sales on your app, build a unique, easy-to-use, engaging interface for your customers.   

How StoreHippo helps:

  • Use the built-in design tools and device-optimized customizable themes
  • Create wow app designs using the drag-and-drop features of the theme designer
  • Quickly translate the theme labels into 100+ languages with multilingual themes
  • Use unique B2B features like RFQ, MOQ, form-builder, admin-vendor-client chat, tiered pricing etc. help customers make faster decisions and negotiations 

Syncing the website updates on apps

Customer habits change rapidly and customers expect their favorite brands to adapt to their evolving habits immediately. Such dynamic market conditions require your enterprise to  update and sync your B2B wholesale app every time you update your online store. 

Suppose you develop your ecommerce website and app using different codes, with every update on your website, you go through code changes on your app as well. This not only makes the process tiresome but also entails a longer wait time as you need approval from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. 

How StoreHippo helps:

  • Create your B2B app directly from the website’s admin dashboard without any coding
  • Easily update your apps in real-time without the need to publish the app again
  • Easy and fast app updates as all changes are synced and reflected in your ecommerce mobile app in real-time

Ensuring app and client data security 

B2B apps development is no joke. Yes, modern-age customers look for a safe and secure buying environment as they share critical information on the app. Offering a secure app for transactions and interactions also helps build trust and brand value for your B2B online marketplace. Finding robust security features to safeguard your business app against cyber threats and malware can be challenging. 

How StoreHippo helps:

  • StoreHippo’s PCI-DSS-compliant platform comes with a range of built-in security measures
  • Robust security features to safeguard your business against cyber-threats and malware
  • Built-in audit logs feature to help you to identify and fix errors quickly on your B2B apps
  • Ensure ecommerce security and safe online transactions with 60+ domestic and international payment gateways, wallets, UPI, etc
  • Add validation feature from security page 

Budget overruns

Staying within the budget limit is a significant challenge while building a B2B marketplace app. The development costs can snowball as you make changes in your app during the development process. The cost of developing a B2B app will vary depending on how complicated the app is. It can be tough to figure out the costs involved before you start developing the software, however, to avoid unwanted overruns, it is a good idea to calculate an estimate.

How StoreHippo help?

  • Builds Andriod and iOS apps directly from your dashboard at no additional costs and without the need for coding 
  • Builds multiple B2B sub store apps for different sub-stores of your marketplace brand
  • Builds multilingual apps with multilingual themes to help customers shop in their native language with a touch of personalization
  • Auto-upgradable platform that auto syncs with the app eliminating upgrade costs
  • Zero coding saves costs of IT resources

Conclusion

The use of mobile apps even in the B2B marketplace is no more a maybe or someday. It is categorized as today and now. To help you overcome the challenges of B2B app development, StoreHippo brings the best mobile ecommerce solution that is designed with m-commerce as its core design principle. 

StoreHippo helps you build simple as well as complex apps in just a single click. With the inbuilt B2B features and headless platform, you can build out-of-the-box B2B solutions. You can also build multiple mobile apps for different storefronts with StoreHippo. 

Build B2B apps for your enterprise ecommerce brand with StoreHippo B2B mobile app solutions. Explore the enterprise-grade features by starting your 14-day free trial now.  

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