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We hear it at every project initiation workshop. “You mean every customer will be able to see our ENTIRE material catalog??? We can’t let customer X know that we sell product Y to customer Z, that would create an awkward and difficult situation....” Almost every SAP customer has some materials they don’t want certain customers to know about. Take branded products for example. (“Why do you make an ACME labeled version but you won’t make one for my company?”) Or, maybe you keep in limited supply for just a handful of customers. Whatever the case, your company probably has materials in SAP you would prefer to keep hidden from some of your customers.

This is a direct quote from one of our clients: “If our B2B customers order porcelain tile online, and we don’t tell them that they need a specific tool or glue to install that product, they are going to be so mad at us.” According to Forrester Research, product recommendations (or cross selling) are responsible for an average of 10-30% of eCommerce site revenues. But on B2B websites, cross selling (or the lack of it) can drive so much more than revenue. It can help ensure customer satisfaction.

If I were writing this article for a magazine, that’s the title I’d give it. But, this is a serious blog about serious SAP B2B eCommerce, so maybe I should think of another title. How’s this? “Product hierarchy and attribute consistency in SAP data and its impact on SAP-integrated B2B eCommerce.” Well, that title is accurate, but way more boring.

Anyone who has shopped online (which these days is almost everyone) has certain expectations about how shipping is calculated. Namely, that it’s calculated immediately, so you know exactly how much shipping will cost when you click that “place order” button. Unfortunately, as with many other aspects of eCommerce, shipping is a lot more complicated with B2B orders...