A digital customer portal is the next evolution of the B2B online shop

Make B2B buying easy: with personalized offers for your after-sales, self-service options and a unified omnichannel customer experience, all in one place.

digital customer portal: happy customers and faster growth

What is a digital customer portal for B2B?

Bring all information together in one place - from the B2B MyAccount to your customers’ installed base. Provide after-sales products and digital self-services for a seamless and personalized buyer journey that will strengthen brand loyalty, boost sales and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

What are the benefits of a digital customer portal?

Good to know:

Our research among 125 e-commerce leaders in manufacturing revealed that 55% of the respondents will invest in a digital customer portal in the next 12 months.

 

01 Empower your customers

A customer portal provides account information, invoice and order history, order status, and other digital self-services online 24/7.

02 Increase online revenue

In the MyAccount section of a customer portal, you can integrate after-sales products and services to create high-margin cross-selling opportunities for an increased share-of-wallet.

03 Increase customer retention

Co-browsing functions, sales apps, and self-service configurators help you guide your customers efficiently through the purchasing process. A customer portal provides all kinds of integrations via standard API.

04 Leverage smart insights

Develop new digital service offerings such as pay-per-use, product subscriptions, or predictive maintenance based on product and customer intelligence. Position them right next to your customers’ installed base in your digital customer portal.

Visual Rainer Schüssler

“Intershop helps Trumpf to master the digital challenge of customized customer portals.”

Rainer Schüssler Program Manager Customer Experience at TRUMPF

4 reasons why you need a digital B2B customer portal to boost your after-sales

A digital customer portal is the perfect solution for your after-sales management.

After-sales has always been a major business driver in manufacturing. Spare parts, consumables, digital services - the possibilities are endless. With digitalization, the aspect of personalization opens up new dimensions of growth.

Here are the 4 key facts why you, too, should boost your after-sales with a digital customer portal:

  • A digital customer portal provides self-services

B2B buyers want to manage their own data, products, and service agreements. Also, they want 24/7 access to processes and content. This reduces their administrative workload and they can retain their internal processes. So, give buyers in a customer portal self-services to manage their data, products, service agreements, workflows, and cost center budgets. Enable easy reordering and quote creation, and access to e-learning content.

  • A digital customer portal boost your after-sales

After-sales, for example selling spare parts, consumables or wears, can boost up- and cross selling opportunities as well as customer satisfaction. The keys to success: leveraging correct after-sales product information and providing an intuitive customer journey. In the end, all information must be accessible on every channel in one place: The digital customer portal.

  • A customer portal makes your sales team happy

Digital customer portals offer sophisticated features such as configure, price, quote (CPQ), thus transforming e-commerce websites into a tool sellers can use to support customers with different needs: purchasing simple products all on their own, or complex products with the help of sales reps. Rep-assisted e-commerce is what Forrester research has shown to be most popular, because buyers may start offline with sales or customer service rep to gather information but make the purchase online. Or the other way around, buyers start gathering information online and purchase from a sales rep.

  • Customer portals are the basis for innovative digital services

As products become increasingly digitized within the Internet of Things, they can be used to gather data. This provides insights into product usage and other customer behavior. Manufacturers or wholesalers can then identify specific customer needs and create tailored digital services to meet them, for example automated reordering via a smart shelf or pay-per-use. The digitized products (“installed base”) can be registered in a digital customer portal and linked to those digital services.

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Octavio Perales
YOUR CONTACT Octavio Perales Vice President of Delivery North America Phone
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