Optimizing B2B Workflows with Magento Automation Tools

Fed up of repetitive, manual tasks bogging down your B2B operations?

As a B2B business, you know too well the pain of slow-moving, repetitive workflows. Whether it's processing orders, managing customer accounts, or dealing with approvals, time-consuming manual processes eat into your productivity and grind your teams down.

The good news? Automation is the solution to your B2B woes. Magento's got a suite of automation tools that can revolutionize your B2B workflows. With a little bit of Magento B2B development by Envisage Digital, you can automate practically everything from order processing to account management.

In this article you'll learn:

• What is B2B Workflow Automation?
• Why Magento is Perfect for B2B Workflow Automation
• Key Magento Automation Tools for B2B
• Automating Order Management
• Customer Account Management Automation
• Inventory and Pricing Automation

What is B2B Workflow Automation?

Workflow automation might sound like tech-bro buzzword jargon, but at its heart, it's exactly what it sounds like. B2B workflow automation means using software to automatically handle routine business processes with no manual human intervention.

But there's something else that people tend not to realize…

It's not enough to just automate your workflows for the sake of it. It's vital to have thoughtful, consistently-executed automated workflows in place that are both error-proof and scalable with your business growth.

Think about your business. How much time does your team spend on:

• Processing bulk orders
• Customer account approvals
• Updating inventory levels
• Sending order confirmations
• Responding to pricing requests

If you're like most B2B businesses, the answer is "way too much." Hours each day are spent doing repetitive admin tasks rather than working on more valuable strategy, relationships, and growth-driving activities.

Don't just take our word for it. 60% of companies are already using workflow automation solutions and the results speak for themselves. Automated workflows help businesses remove human error from processes, dramatically reduce processing times, and free up teams for high-value work.

Why Magento is Perfect for B2B Workflow Automation

Magento is not just another ecommerce platform, it's a B2B operations powerhouse.

Magento is perfect for B2B workflows for a few reasons:

First, it's more than capable of handling the complexity and nuance of B2B operations. Magento can easily deal with multi-level approval workflows, custom pricing structures, bulk ordering, and more.

Compared to other platforms which are built for simple one-off transactions, Magento knows that B2B is different.

And not only does Magento excel at automating complex business processes, it's also popular among B2B companies. 25% of Magento B2B stores are already using automation technology to power their operations.

Magento's automation features include:

• Advanced workflow triggers based on specific business events
• Custom approval processes depending on customer types and order values
• Automated pricing updates based on customer segments and volumes purchased
• Inventory synchronization between multiple warehouses and sales channels
• Customer communication automation for orders and account changes

Best of all, with the level of flexibility and customizability Magento offers, you can make the automation rules work for your unique business requirements, not the other way around.

Key Magento Automation Tools for B2B

So which automation features are you going to need to supercharge your B2B operations?

Well, here are Magento's automation features built specifically to tackle B2B complexity.

Company Account Hierarchies

One of the first major challenges with any B2B operation is managing users at multiple levels within the same company account.

With Magento automation, keeping track of user permissions, credit limits, and approval workflows based on account hierarchies is automatic.

If a new employee joins a company on your Magento store, the system will automatically give them permissions for that company account based on their role.

No more manual account set-ups, permission slips, or human error.

Shared Catalogs and Custom Pricing

Want to show certain products and prices to certain customers? Sounds like a normal B2B thing, right? You guessed it, Magento automation has you covered.

The platform automatically shows customers relevant catalogs and apply prices based on rules you set for each customer segment. Volume discounts, contract pricing, and seasonal adjustments all take place without you needing to lift a finger.

Quote and Negotiation Workflows

The sales process in the B2B world is often more complex, involving more negotiations and approvals.

Magento automation automates the entire process. From a quote request, through routing it to the right sales rep, applying the relevant discounts, and sending follow-up messages all in accordance to pre-set timelines.

Automating Order Management

Order management is where automation can make a MASSIVE difference for your B2B business.

To setup Magento order workflows that will actually work for you, follow these 3 steps:

Start with your most common orders. Most B2B businesses have repeatable ordering patterns. Recurring orders, bulk orders, or cyclical buying patterns.

Magento can be setup to automatically process these orders using triggers based on inventory levels, calendar dates, or past customer buying behavior. Say goodbye to the constant back-and-forth communication bogging down B2B sales.

Multi-Level Approval Automation

Orders don't always get shipped immediately in the B2B world. Depending on the value of the order, the customer, or special terms, orders often need additional approvals before release.

Magento's automation is able to route orders through these pre-defined approval chains. When an order hits certain order value thresholds, customer credit limit thresholds, or special customer status, it can automatically be sent to the next person in line for approval.

Automated Reordering

Customers are often placing the same types of orders again and again with B2B companies. But most B2B platforms make them start from scratch every time.

Magento automation has a reordering feature that watches for purchase patterns in customer orders. It then allows customers to set up automatic replenishment orders that get triggered when stock levels reach certain points.

Customer Account Management Automation

Customer account management in the B2B world involves so much more complexity than your average ecommerce business.

Magento automation tools can step in and help to make routine account management activities automatic. The system will automatically do:

• Credit limit monitoring with alerting features for when limits are approached or breached
• Payment term enforcement based on custom terms negotiated with individual customers
• Account status updates, including account suspensions, triggered by payment behaviors
• Communication workflows for sending notifications and messages related to changes in customer accounts

Automated Customer Onboarding

When a new B2B customer starts to onboard with your business, there's a lot of admin involved. Credit checks, account configuration, and user creation all take time.

Magento can automate much of this process for you. New account applications trigger internal approval workflows, credit checks, and send automatically generated welcome communications.

Inventory and Pricing Automation

You're not going to believe what can happen when your inventory and pricing are not in sync.

Magento B2B workflow automation can handle these tasks automatically. When inventory levels change, the system will update across all platforms and for all customers instantaneously.

Overselling is automatically prevented and sales teams and B2B customers have access to accurate availability information at all times.

B2B pricing is particularly complex. Volume discounts, special contract rates, seasonal adjustments, and unique customer terms all need to be factored into the pricing calculation and presented to the customer correctly.

Magento's workflow automation can handle these calculations and pricing updates automatically using your pre-configured rules. The system will automatically change prices when special promotions start and stop, when contracts are updated, volumes are reached, and so on.

So What Are You Waiting For?

Magento B2B workflow automation is just what your business needs to stop the madness of sticky, manual B2B workflows. Manual B2B workflows are eating into your margins, overburdening your teams, and keeping your business stuck in constant reactive mode.

Businesses that move first with Magento B2B automation will have huge competitive advantages over their competition. Faster order processing, better customer service, and more profitable operations will set them apart.

It's not a case of if you'll automate your B2B workflows, it's a case of when.

Start optimizing your B2B workflows now and get ready to fly.