Cross-selling in SAP ecommerce

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.

Let’s go back to our client who manufactures laminate, hardwood and porcelain tile floors.

Before they partnered with Corevist to launch an SAP-integrated B2B eCommerce site, most of their B2B sales were received via phone, fax and email and processed by customer service reps. The CSRs and sales reps relied on what we like to call “tribal knowledge” to recommend special adhesives, tools or other related products required to install different flooring products.

But, as the company prepared to launch a B2B eCommerce site, there was great concern that without a CSR or sales rep to guide them, customers wouldn’t know to order the materials required for installation of a particular flooring product.

The solution? Cross selling.

Let’s look at how it works.

First, cross selling materials need to be configured in SAP.  This screenshot shows one of the SAP cross selling setup screens.

Your cross selling relationships can be one-for-one (or material for material), or you can set up rules based on product hierarchy. Once those rules are established, our cloud-based SAP B2B eCommerce solution checks those rules, in real-time, as your customers place items in their online shopping cart.

In the screenshot below, a logged-in B2B customer has ordered Hot Pink Carpet and Fuchsia Floor Tile (material numbers P-220 and P-210). When they hit “update cart” a list of recommended products, including carpet glue, carpet pad staples, porcelain tile adhesive, and tile sealant appear on the page.

The recommended products are shown above the cart detail list in a carousel that users can expand or collapse according to their preference.

When the order is placed through the B2B eCommerce portal, it’s also immediately posted in SAP, in real-time, with the materials grouped according to their cross selling configuration.

The recommended products sold online are grouped with their related material numbers on the SAP standard order overview screen.

Support for SAP cross selling is now part of our core solution.

If you already have cross selling set up in your SAP system, then this feature will work for you on day one, without any additional configuration.

If you don’t already have cross selling configured in SAP, and you still rely phone, fax, email and the “tribal knowledge” of your CSRs for order entry, we can help.

 

About “Behind the Scenes”

As a fast-growing technology company, we’re faced with new opportunities and challenges almost every day. Our response to those events often creates interesting stories (certainly for us and we hope for you).

This series was created to capture and share a “backstage” look at the ways we’re working to scale the company, evolve our services, and respond to the demands of the marketplace. We hope that our customers, partners and friends find value in our efforts to be transparent.