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Francois Jaffres joins us from Noviland, a new technology company focused on helping businesses source products seamlessly from around the world. Currently, they have over 400 manufacturers in south east Asia and are quickly expanding to other countries. Noviland uses their platform as B2B eCommerce system to enhance the sales process and make it easier for their customers to get products from these manufacturers. We discuss the challenges of B2B versus B2C and why companies are hesitant to adopt technologies to aid their sales teams via eCommerce.

In episode 28 we have the honor of talking to our guest Mike Jortberg who leads the B2B eCommerce at Slalom, a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Seattle, Slalom has organically grown to over 8,000 employees. Mike has a deep background in Salesforce and CRM technologies and now works with Cloudcraze / Salesforce B2B eCommerce to bring eCommerce to the Salesforce ecosystem. We talk all things B2B and why he has been successful with Salesforce B2B eCommerce as an offering in the space.

John Cymerman is the CTO and technical leader of Trellis. He has worked on many large B2B projects and has pioneered the integration strategy for Trellis. We discuss in-depth 5 different integration techniques and strategies you can deploy depending on your situation. The five are the traditional batch file / ftp approach, SOAP APIs, Rest APIs, GraphQL, and an iPaaS technology such as Celigo or Dell Boomi. There are many ways to approach an integration and that's why its so critical to architect the right approach before beginning an integration project.

In Episode 26 we get the pleasure of speaking with Amir Hessabi, Senior Enterprise Solutions Engineer at BigCommerce. We discuss the value of a true SaaS eCommerce solution, BigCommerce, and how that can dramatically lower the cost of ownership for a B2B business. Traditionally B2B companies are used to legacy on-premise solutions and have often not yet adopted a SaaS application like BigCommerce for eCommerce. With SaaS you no longer need to pay for expensive upgrades or worry about software failing because all of that is managed for you in one affordable monthly fee. Having recently gone public, BigCommerce is a serious option that B2B companies should be considering.

In Episode 25 we have the pleasure of talking with David Stillson who has over 15 years of experience in Manufacturing, eCommerce, and business systems. David is currently the technical architect and manager of eCommerce Developers in LCI's digital experience team, a multi billion dollar public company. David has experience working with both small and very large B2B eCommerce businesses. We discuss the complexity of B2B from integrations to scaling sales and marketing as well as changing the culture within an organization. David gives great advice for people both new to the journey but also more experienced in the B2B journey looking to scale their online business.

In episode 24, Tim and Isaiah go through our five-step process towards improving your B2B eCommerce presence. The first thing you should do before getting to step 1 is to make sure you have an internal person qualified to run the project and a platform to build upon such as Magento, BigCommerce, Insite, or Salesforce, etc. Step 1 is to develop robust product data, step 2 is to integrate with internal systems, step 3 is to invest in user experience, step 4 is to have flexible payment and shipping options, and step 5 is to have external integrations with vendors or customers. We go through these steps in-depth to help you grow your B2B eCommerce business.

Our latest guest, Colleen Romero, has helped several massive companies scale their B2B operation online, such as leading brands like Napa auto parts.   We discuss what B2B companies need to do to build and implement a successful B2B eCommerce strategy.  We also cover topics such as why do companies struggle with marketing in B2B and how B2B eCommerce marketing is different from B2C. We discuss leading B2B eCommerce platforms and how to working with agencies. We also discuss what Colleen thinks it takes to find good agencies and make agency relationship successful.

Jessica Wetzel is an accomplished eCommerce Manager with 16 years of extensive experience providing strategy and growth in the areas of B2B sales, marketing, and eCommerce. In this podcast, we dive deep into how she helped a distributor go from offline to online with a robust eCommerce site that has evolved over the years. She wrote some impressive requirements documents to take the company to the next level and managed many agencies so she knows how to nail down requirements to get the most of your development team. Jessica is a true leader in B2B eCommerce and is now at PunchOut2Go where she can help you integrate with internal customer systems as a B2B business.

Adobe's Magento was recently named a leader in the B2B eCommerce Forester report. In episode 21 we discuss why Magento is a leader in the space and how they are working with B2B companies across the spectrum of sophistication. We discuss how change management is the leading problem that companies need to overcome to implement a best in class system like Magento for their B2B business.

In the first episode of season 2 co hosts, Isaiah Bollinger, and Timothy Peterson discuss our take on B2B eCommerce marketing. We discuss everything from acquisition to conversions to integrating with your sales team. We believe there is so much opportunity in B2B eCommerce to separate from your competition by being innovative in channels other players might not be spending time on. We discuss how social media is not something to ignore in B2B and can be a viable marketing channel for B2B eCommerce.

Michael Noble has spent the last 8 years building a leading B2B payments company Apruve. They can instantly turn your invoices into cash so you don't have to spend countless overhead on accounts receivable. Michael has a fascinating insight into the world of B2B eCommerce payments and has seen both small and large companies succeed in B2B eCommerce. We discuss everything from payments to simply what makes a company succeed or fail in B2B eCommerce.

Beckie and Tyler have worked at Wolf Automation to build up a strong eCommerce backbone for their company to process new customer orders and existing customer B2B orders. They have spent over a decade as a company building an eCommerce infrastructure that is a thriving part of their company culture. They engage in Google ads, SEO, and other modern digital marketing tactics to drive new business and then use their sales team to drive increase engagement with existing customers that buy online. Hear from a distributor making the most out of eCommerce as a distributor using modern systems and marketing tactics.

In episode 17, we talk about why distributors and manufacturers need to invest more in eCommerce to stay competitive. Often times going with the cheaper solution or under-investing in eCommerce can cost much more in terms of lost opportunity and growth potential. As manufacturers go direct to consumers there is even more need for distributors to come up with an eCommerce strategy that will make them competitive as the playing field becomes wide open. Ben has worked with distributors and manufacturers for decades in B2B eCommerce and has worked with many platforms like Infor Storefront, Magento, Insite, Unilog, and other B2B focused eCommerce platforms. Ben is also a search expert and has extensive experience helping B2B companies generate more revenue via better onsite search.

In this episode, we speak with Richard Keller about how real-time delivery and real-time information such as pricing and availability in B2b eCommerce is critical to growing your business.  Richard Keller has been in the technology space for over two decades building many different applications in the B2B industry. He has spent many years in the ERP business and worked with all sorts of B2B companies such as manufacturers and distributors. His most recent venture is an eCommerce marketplace technology he is using to build marketplaces like 1800 Battery where you can get real-time delivery and logistics of any battery from many providers. 

In episode 15, we discuss why you need a mindset of constant improvement and agile project management to scale your B2B eCommerce business. Our guest, Lori Mcdonald, has been running Brilliance Business Solutions for over 20 years helping both manufacturers and distributors with eCommerce. In the beginning they focused on custom solutions but since focused on Episerver, Insite, and BigCommerce. In this episode we discuss why you need the right platform to scale and grow and how you can go about choosing that platform. 

In episode 14, we talk with Justin Finnegan about why B2B eCommerce is now a critical requirement to be competitive and that relationships with customers are no longer enough. Justin Finnegan has built three leading digital agencies including most recently, Gorilla Group, one of the largest B2B eCommerce providers in the world. Justin Finnegan has been in B2B eCommerce since its inception in the late 90s and early 2000s and is now at a product company helping automate offline B2B orders, Conexiom. In this episode, we discuss many topics such as the evolution of B2B eCommerce, why companies struggle with it, why it's so important, and what agencies can do better to support b2b companies with eCommerce.

In Episode 13, Timothy and Isaiah talk with guest Mark Sutherland who has decades of experience in digital and eCommerce on both the client and agency side. He has been in both B2C and B2B eCommerce for small and large companies that have scaled internationally. We hear first hand how he brought a B2B eCommerce business to 8 figures that were previously struggling before he joined. He knows what it takes to scale internationally and how to scale a B2B eCommerce into the tens of millions of dollars.

Nessim Btesh is based of Panama and transformed their family B2B business to 100% digital sales in one year! Based out of South America they now went from a showroom to complete digital transformation online taking all orders online due to Coronavirus and ramping their business up during a time when many are struggling. Nessim has some amazing insight into why they developed a custom eCommerce solution integrating their many back office systems like their ERP to create a seamless commerce experience. They even have automated shipping capabilities and are working to further automate their pricing algorithm and much more. He truly developed a world class B2B system in a fraction of the time most companies have even achieved just a small percentage of this kind of success online.

Brian Beck and co host Isaiah Bollinger dive into the nitty gritty of B2B eCommerce and why we feel there is so much left on the table. The opportunity is literally billions of dollars, hence the book Brian wrote, Billion Dollar B2B eCommerce. We discuss eCommerce platforms, integrations, and what it takes to scale B2B eCommerce. Brian Beck is a true thought leader in the space that has been in the trenches himself as well as advised many companies so he knows what it takes to grow a B2B eCommerce business. If you don't know Brian Beck and your into B2B eCommerce its about time to learn from one of the best.

You may think B2B eCommerce is all about the website, but you couldn't be further from the truth. Steve Engelbrecht, CEO of Sitation, a process and operations company for B2B brands, discusses why you need to have great operations and processes to succeed with eCommerce. Co Host Timothy Peterson and Steve dive into why many processes are broken in B2B and how that stops companies from successfully growing with eCommerce. We discuss everything from PIM, ERP, and simply day to day B2B operations and how that impacts eCommerce.