Here we look a Cloudfy vs Intershop as powerful and flexible ecommerce solutions for your business to business (B2B) ecommerce company.
Buyer expectations of digital experiences continue to increase based on their personal shopping experiences. Now seamless, Amazon-like purchasing is becoming a minimum requirement in B2B settings. However, in a new survey of over 600 B2B buyers in the UK, US and China over half said they experienced frustration with online buying.
So, while eight out of 10 B2B buyers say they don’t plan to go back to in-person sales after the pandemic restrictions are lifted, user experiences need to improve. Six out of 10 B2B buyers said they were dissatisfied with the functionality of supplier sites and were concerned at slow loading times. Almost a third said they struggled to find the products they were looking for.
Many manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors recognize that they need a more robust ecommerce solution. With so many options on offer it’s difficult to know what to choose.
Cloudfy and Intershop – background
Established in the UK in 2010, Cloudfy was designed from the outset to meet the needs of B2B ecommerce companies. It has a wide range of B2B features and integrations with major business systems available out of the box. It’s a software as a service (SaaS) solution in the cloud so it can scale with your business providing automatic upgrades and regular enhancements.
Intershop started out in Germany in 1992. It created the country’s first worldwide web-based store in 1995 and early standard software for ecommerce, Intershop Online. Despite a difficult period when the digital bubble burst, the company is well-established as a provider of ecommerce functionality including management of your sales channels, customer experience, product information, and ordering. It describes itself as a customizable Commerce as a Service (CaaS) solution; a combination of SaaS and a Platform as a Service (PaaS) for B2B organizations. It’s available in the cloud on AWS and Azure or as an on-premise option.
A comparison
Since change is at the heart of digital transformation Cloudfy’s ‘ever green’ SaaS approach means that users are always at the forefront of ecommerce. It’s a popular B2B ecommerce platform choice for growing manufacturing, wholesale, import and direct-to-consumer businesses.
It offers a straightforward, out-of-the-box solution for your ecommerce site with all the essential B2B ecommerce elements. It can be lunched in weeks rather than months or years and is available for a monthly subscription which makes it attractive for businesses that want to manage costs and risks while retaining flexibility to grow online.
It’s designed to connect with all major enterprise resource planning (ERP), accounting, warehousing, and business systems. It also has a powerful and flexible application programming interface (API) and flat file integration tools for customization.
Intershop’s Commerce Suite manages ecommerce functionality and includes some smart features and predefined commerce workflows. Depending on your needs, Intershop can be adapted to include Product Information Management (PIM), Web Content Management (WCM), Order Management (OMS) and personalized customer communications.
For organizations with multiple brands and products aimed at different target groups and languages, Intershop can accommodate various business models on a single platform and synchronize with partners, intermediaries, and subsidiaries.
However, integration with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system won’t be seamless, so customizations will be needed. Data must be synchronized regularly, so real-time updates aren’t available. Since business processes are often complex this can mean there are delays and extra costs involved in implementation.
Intershop’s move to become a cloud-based service is hampered by its technical scale and complexity which also mean that it lacks agility and flexibility in the fast-changing world of ecommerce.
Intershop is available for a one-time fee which might look attractive, but the starting price of US $100,000 will be a deterrent to many.
The best choice for your business
As more buyers use digital channels to research products and complete part or all their purchasing online, your choice of ecommerce platform is an important strategic decision.
Key considerations will include online discovery, round-the-clock purchasing, and the quality of your buyers’ online experiences. When you make B2B buying easy and engaging you will gain a competitive advantage.
Before making your decision, build your business case based on your medium- and long-term goals as well as the return on investment. Performance indicators like site traffic, conversion rates and average order values should be off-set against factors such as improved efficiency and scalability.
Overall, you will want to be sure that your choice will:
- contribute to the overall operational performance of your business
- improve relationships with your customers
- allow you to develop and maintain a competitive advantage
- improve your sales processes
- provide accurate information to enhance your decision-making
- support your plans for growth.
If your business is fast-moving and ready for digital transformation then we recommend you find out how Cloudfy can meet your needs before you make your decision.
