Buying and selling fashion & apparel is fast paced. You need to understand your customers’ needs and respond quickly to changing trends. Globally, the sector grew by up to 4% in 2024. To take full advantage of new opportunities business to business (B2B) ecommerce is becoming an essential tool.
As a truly international market, regional conflicts and political shifts are causing disruption. Economic uncertainty and increasing costs make efficiency and productivity top concerns. Many business leaders continue to struggle with accurate market projections and planning. A lot depends on consumer confidence.
Investors are also prioritizing profitability and long-term sustainability, making efficiency even more important. You need evidence to show you have a clear strategy for both profitability and growth. Online customer self-service means you have immediate access to real-world information about customer behavior and preferences.
Do you still use manual order processing in your fashion and apparel business?
Cloudfy’s business to business (B2B) ecommerce platform is purpose designed for high volume complex ordering. It provides the advanced customer self-service and sales management tools you need.
Pre-built integrations with your enterprise (ERP) system allow you to automate tasks and empower customers to manage their accounts online. As a software as a service (SaaS) solution you can also minimize your IT infrastructure and administration costs.
We know that every fashion and apparel business is unique. That’s why we’ve made sure you can easily customize your Cloudfy solution. There are plenty of third-party extensions to choose from and a powerful application programming interface (API).
Intuitive site navigation and search features help buyers find exactly what they’re looking for. They can place their orders quickly and easily with fast page load times and a frictionless checkout.
Cloudfy is responsive for mobile devices and you also benefit from a field sales representative app and a customer ordering app for sales on the go.
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Key sales challenges in the fashion & apparel sector
New brands are likely to help expand the fashion & apparel sector, with sportswear leading the way.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help improve consumers’ online shopping journeys, so creativity is also a key factor for success. Other considerations include:
Value for money
As consumers prioritize their discretionary spending you need powerful and engaging stories to showcase your brand values. Second-hand and upcycled fashion and fast-moving trend-setters duplicating the latest styles make agility a priority. Buyers need to find your latest collections quickly and easily and see how you meet their customers’ needs.
Sustainability
Despite economic uncertainty, it’s important to maintain a clear focus on your environmental credentials. Regulators are driving the agenda with policies on supply chain transparency, traceability and labor practices. Despite price sensitivity amongst consumers, sustainability is still an important concern. In the longer term, businesses across the sector must work together to reduce emissions and decarbonize the value chain. Accurate measurement and clear messaging will provide long-term dividends.
Optimized growth
While the luxury market remains challenging, mid-market and sportswear brands have enjoyed improved performance recently. Many shoppers see items online, then visit stores to try new styles before buying online to pick up in store. Understanding new customer journeys is key to ongoing success. Collecting reliable data at every touchpoint will help you plan and deliver the best customer experiences. As fashion marketplaces face increased challenges, manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers must take advantage and fill the gap. AI can help create personalized style suggestions based on online searches and buying behavior.
Top 10 B2B ecommerce features for fashion & apparel businesses
Powerful B2B ecommerce features and business system integration allow you to simplify and streamline operations for your fashion & apparel business. Here are ten we think you need to have on your checklist to meet the challenges in your sector.
Branding
Flexible, responsive page design helps you build trust and customer loyalty. B2B ecommerce website design is all about increasing customer satisfaction by simplifying the buying process. At the same time your site’s pages, catalogs and user journeys must follow your branding guidelines. It’s essential to provide professional and consistent experiences across all your touchpoints to build long-term loyalty. You need powerful tools to manage your product information, images, videos and documents. And everything must work quickly and effectively on all types of digital devices.
Customer experience tools
Too much choice online can affect buyer engagement and conversion rates. AI can help you create high quality online content, improving search engine results and helping you curate bespoke customer experiences.
Your B2B buyers expect outstanding purchasing experiences based on their own online shopping journeys. They want you to help them find exactly what they’re looking for with easy navigation, useful product data and streamlined checkouts. To speed up the process your site should provide useful filters based on style, color or brand name, for example. You can simplify choices based on prices, ratings, or materials.
Custom catalogs
Your buyers want to minimize risks and optimize sales performance. They are often involved in research, specification and supplier selection during the purchasing process. They have tight schedules to curate the right items for each season and purpose. You can help by presenting personalized selections from your wider catalog. You can base them on their previous search and ordering histories and items popular with other customers. You can customize your product and service catalogs for each company, division, department, or for individual buyers. If needed, each group within an organization can see its own catalog. You can even tailor pricing, promotions, payment plans and delivery methods.
Flexible pricing
As consumers become more cost-conscious you can support your buyers with flexible pricing options. As an alternative to offline purchase ordering, you can quickly and efficiently apply custom pricing rules online. This encourages buyers to adopt online ordering and self-service account management. Accurate contracted prices, curated product recommendations and reliable stock visibility give them confidence to place their orders.
Automated order processing
When you integrate your B2B ecommerce platform with your ERP system you can capture customer orders immediately. Automated order workflows save time and improve inventory and warehouse management. You will improve customer experiences, reduce operational costs, minimize errors and increase efficiency across your organization.
International sales
You can sell online to buyers anywhere in the world but purchasing patterns can change quickly. You need fast and flexible tools to meet changing demand. For example, as market growth in China slows many international fashion brands are looking elsewhere. Many are exploring new opportunities in India, and Japan’s luxury market continues to grow. You might want to follow the latest new opportunities or protect the markets you already have. B2B ecommerce multi-site functionality allows you to tailor your site to meet the needs of different countries or regions. Sales increase when you use relevant languages, sell in local currencies, and offer preferred payment methods.
Marketplace connectors
Online fashion marketplaces are under pressure as shoppers return to in-store shopping. However, they can still offer cost effective options to launch new products and reach new audiences. Working with marketplace partners opens new opportunities but can also add unwanted complexity to your business. With tried and tested connectors for the world’s leading marketplaces you can easily showcase your products and increase sales. From an administration dashboard you can manage all your product listings, marketplace orders and fulfillment. Connecting with partner back-office systems is simplified, allowing your buyers to submit wholesale purchase orders in their preferred formats.
Mobile sales
As shoppers explore new in-store experiences you can give your retail partners a competitive edge. With a mobile sales app you can ensure your latest product information, pricing and stock availability is instantly available. Retail assistants can access reliable data and receive valuable insights into performance. When your buyers are on the shop floor or in the stock room they can use a customer ordering app. A built-in barcode scanner allows them to quickly and easily add products to their order.
Data analytics
You can minimize data duplication and inconsistencies with B2B ecommerce-ERP integration. A central hub allows you to monitor the key metrics for your business without synchronization across multiple business systems. With fast and easy tools to access financial records, product information and customer relationship management systems everything is simplified. Clear and detailed statistics ensure you always know your bestselling products, stock availability, commitments, your top customers and order status. You can collect and analyze data to improve your understanding of customer behavior and make better decisions.
Inventory visibility
Modern supply-chain challenges mean stock level information in near real-time is critical for your buyers. It’s a key component when they’re planning their seasonal procurement strategy. Pressures on margins and environmental regulations also make end-to-end planning essential to improve performance and minimize waste. Business system integration ensures your data is always accurate. You can reduce waste, plan promotions and avoid out-of-stock orders. It’s easy to set the thresholds to optimize throughput and ensure you don’t fall below minimum stock levels. Simple traffic light style indicators make sure information is clear for everyone.
Case Study: Grahame Gardner
UK-based workwear specialists, Grahame Gardner, meets the needs of healthcare, dental, veterinary, spa and beauty businesses. The company offers one of the country’s largest ranges of workwear in a choice of colors, styles and sizes. They chose to replatform with Cloudfy to deliver branded ‘My Shop’ pages for their customers and Opayo integration.
Transforming your fashion & apparel business with B2B ecommerce from Cloudfy
Cloudfy’s latest B2B ecommerce technology helps you respond quickly and effectively to changes in the fashion & apparel market. You can simplify management, control costs, tackle supply chain pressures and seasonal deadlines and meet sustainability targets.
Real-time inventory visibility and tailored pricing build customer loyalty and optimize your performance. Seamless ERP integration helps to streamline and simplify sales order workflows and you’ll always have a clear view of your operations. Flexible page designs, easy navigation, and tailored pricing help you deliver exceptional customer experiences. You can reduce order errors, help your business to grow and increase profitability.
Frequently Asked Questions
If your current B2B ecommerce platform is slowing down and becoming difficult to maintain it’s time to consider replatforming. If your products aren’t easy to find and buy online you’re missing valuable sales opportunities. You need the best ecommerce features to impress your buyers with your latest product lines. This includes fast and easy tools to update your high quality content. Seamless customer journeys and easy ordering and reordering are essential to support sales and grow your business.
No, you can simplify selling directly to your consumers as well as trade partners with B2B ecommerce. With a purpose designed platform like Cloudfy you can show all or part of your catalog online with retail prices. Consumers can simply use a guest check-out facility to place orders and pay. Your registered trade customers can login to see their contract prices, access their account, place repeat orders and make payments.
Your buyers’ purchasing decisions are based on careful research. High quality content and an effective search engine strategy makes your products easy to find. When buyers have made their product choices they’re looking for speed and efficiency. Online self-service with a purpose designed B2B ecommerce platform like Cloudfy helps to accelerate the sales cycle. Detailed product data, easy customer journeys, smooth checkouts and downloadable marketing materials help your buyers every step of the way.
With advanced data analytics you can create valuable insights into your buyers’ interests and preferences. Each time they visit your B2B ecommerce site you can collect useful information about their interests, intentions and preferences. You can use this real-world knowledge to make informed decisions about product ranges, marketing strategies, and customer engagement approaches.
Yes, you can create a guest checkout facility for non-registered users to view and buy some or all of your products. Your registered trade customers can log in for their own contracted prices, product choices and preferred payment methods. You can offer multiple payment options for fast and easy checkouts to meet all your customers’ needs.
