Discover how to Effectively Use SuiteCommerce
As you grow your software, services, or technology business, you will have a greater need to organize how you handle transactions with a customer. SuiteCommerce is an ideal candidate due to its flexibility to pull ERP data specific to customers and adapt to your business.
If you are a software or services company, you may find the quoting tool to be one of the most useful features of SuiteCommerce. Now you can reduce the manual effort of your sales representatives by allowing customers to choose the products or services they want to build their custom quote. Then, they can submit the quote, and your sales representative can review to confirm the pricing that they will receive. When the pricing is confirmed for a quote, the customer can review the details in "My Account" before completing the transaction. If you require an agreement in place, then you might want to include this agreement bundle that even lets you collect deposits!
With SuiteCommerce, the possibilities are endless!
Want a SuiteCommerce demo? Contact our team and get your free design mockup to help envision your webstore!
"The quoting tool is highly effective for the software and service industry. It helps reduce the attention of sales reps so they can spend more time on live demos"
Building a Quote in SuiteCommerce
You may not have thought about how much of a positive impact SuiteCommerce can have for software, services, and high technology companies. One of the best features for most companies in the software, online education, or services industry is the "Add to Quote" feature in SuiteCommerce.
So how does the quoting feature work in SuiteCommerce?
After clicking “Request a Quote”, the user is allowed to add any items to their quote request (both normal inventory items as well as kits and services) and add a message to their associated Sales Rep. Upon submission, the user will be shown a summary of their Quote Request but will not be able to click the “View and Place Order Button” until the Quote is approved by their Sales Rep.
Within NetSuite, the Sales Rep will find a new line item for the submitted Quote Request in Transactions > Sales > Prepare Estimates. When editing this Estimate Record, the Sales Rep will be able to adjust the individual pricing of each item in the Quote (useful for services without a fixed price) and apply discounts and shipping terms. They can also add a message to the Customer and choose how the updated Quote should be relayed to them (through My Account, email, etc) The customer will see an updated quote in My Account and will have the opportunity to either purchase the Order as if it were a normal checkout process or contact their Sales Rep directly for further negotiation.
Is SuiteCommerce the right choice for you?
If the answer is "YES" to any of these questions...then your software or services company is ideal for SuiteCommerce!
- Does your company sell something online? SuiteCommerce can manage all your online orders with ease.
- Does your company utilize a subscription model? SuiteCommerce can be heavily customized to fit any subscription model. It can be used to upsell and market products and services better.
- Would you like customers to see personalized info in My Account? The SuiteCommerce "My Account" page is the best option to utilize ERP data. For example, you can manage online course key codes, view any custom record associated with a customer, or even modify an existing order.
- Would you like customers to have access to their purchase history? SuiteCommerce has an excellent platform for customers to view their orders and allows them to easily reorder directly from their purchase history.
- Would you leverage the native Customer Center Portal? SuiteCommerce has a better portal as a replacement that can use all types of NetSuite data in an organized & stunning way.
- Do your customers pay based on users? SuiteCommerce can manage the users via My Account and modify existing orders
- Would you like customers to be able to build a quote? SuiteCommerce allows for quote management so potential customers can build quotes online and submit for review. For example, you may have a package of software solutions and services that can be bundled together for a discount. A customer can build their own bundle and submit for approval.
- Do you want to use SuiteBilling or Zone Automated Billing? SuiteCommerce can be the portal for customers to manage any type of subscription model. This can dramatically improve customer experience, helping boost customer retention.
Next Steps
Now that you have a breakdown of SuiteCommerce and how it outperforms the other major platforms, its time to dive a little deeper. If you have a go-live under 8 weeks, it's important to get moving quickly.
- Contact your SuiteCommerce implementation partner
- Take a look at some out of box themes or have your partner make a new one
- Contact your NetSuite Account Manager if you have one already (we can do this for you as well)
- Designate who from your team will be the point of contact (ideally a marketing team member)
- Start the requirement meetings with your implementation partner. This shouldn't require more than 3-4 hours to go through your processes and identify any required customization. The goal is to identify any non-standard or complex customization's to your website.
- Set a go-live date after you have identified the hours it will take to make a customization. Without heavy customization, a SuiteCommerce Advanced website takes 150 - 250 hours to implement.
- Get a domain name (i.e. www.yourwebstore.com or wholesale.yourwebstore.com)
- Set up status meetings with your implementation partner project lead. (1-2 times per week)
- Go-Live
- Work on post go-live projects that may include any search engine optimization (SEO) or continuous improvement projects.
- Consider accounting support specialized in e-commerce.
Oracle NetSuite Alliance Partner & Commerce Partner
Hopefully, this post gives you something to work with while trying to understand SuiteCommerce and what it can do for your business. If you have general questions about SuiteCommerce, or more specific questions about how our team can support your business as you work to implement NetSuite or SuiteCommerce, feel free to contact us at any time. Anchor Group is a certified Oracle NetSuite Alliance Partner & Commerce Partner, and is equipped to handle all kinds of NetSuite and SuiteCommerce projects, large or small!
FREE SuiteCommerce Book
Want to learn more about SuiteCommerce and how it can benefit your business? We'd like to gift you a FREE NetSuite Ecommerce paperback book! Here at Anchor Group, we pride ourselves on having the heart of a teacher... this is just one of the many ways that we follow through on that value. So, what are you waiting for?
Order the free SuiteCommerce book today, and we'll even pay for shipping!
