Combining an e-procurement platform with a B2B e-commerce site offers many advantages, both for buyers and sellers. Before discovering all these advantages, it’s worth noting the difference between e-procurement and e-commerce.

These two terms are often confused, as they are both related to online supply chains. Despite the similarities, e-procurement and e-commerce meet different requirements:

B2B e-commerce platforms are designed to meet the business needs of sellers and e-procurement platforms are developed to meet buyers' expectations

Benefits of e-procurement for buyers

The e-procurement platform provides a centralized workspace and a unified dashboard for all purchasing teams within a company. This consolidation of information streamlines operations and operating costs to increase productivity. In addition, all purchasing-related records are stored centrally for easy reporting and data analysis.

Streamline purchasing processes

Automating the tracking of purchasing processes ensures smooth transitions between each task. Each time a step is completed, the next person involved in an action is notified. This ensures that no task is neglected or put on hold indefinitely. The system thus ensures that it correctly tracks tasks in the right order until they are completed.

Handpicked suppliers

An important aspect of B2B purchasing is supplier screening. It is essential to only want to deal with trustworthy providers. An e-procurement solution meets this expectation by pre-screening suppliers and conducting a complete review of them (legal documents, reputation, price, quality...).

Visibility of the purchasing process

e-procurement solutions offer dashboards to easily visualize the status of your purchases step by step (purchase order update, delivery date, invoice to be paid ...).

Workflow automation

What makes workflow automation so valuable is that it allows for accurate tracking of each purchasing project from order to delivery to invoicing. In addition, errors are automatically detected, which reduces the financial and time costs associated with them.

The power of e-procurement associated with B2B e-commerce

For several years now, corporate purchasing departments have had very specific requirements and strict processes to follow in order to complete their purchases. It is no longer enough for sellers to offer quality products on their B2B e-commerce site to differentiate themselves from the competition, but rather to respond to their customers' new purchasing models.

Integrating an e-procurement solution to a B2B e-commerce site is therefore a necessity for sellers in order to remain relevant and competitive on their market. This allows them to adapt to their customers' purchasing processes, to facilitate their purchases and to build loyalty by maintaining privileged relationships over time.

But don't panic, the integration of an e-procurement solution on a B2B e-commerce site does not mean a complete overhaul of the seller's site. The two tools are complementary and automatically exchange supply data on a continuous basis (inventories, stocks, orders, purchase orders, invoices, credit notes, deliveries, etc.). The seller and the buyer keep their respective usual working environments. This way, each can continue to work in parallel on their own scope without affecting the other.

If you are looking for solutions to simplify the procurement processes in your organization and to streamline your company's operations, do not hesitate to contact us to discuss with one of our experts.