Manufacturers looking for an e-commerce solution know that Shopify is a popular choice. However, many don’t realize that there are more effective options available—especially if they plan to focus on B2B sales. 

While Shopify has features that make it great for consumer-facing stores, the platform doesn’t always provide the level of functionality that manufacturers and other companies need to sell products directly to businesses.

Fortunately, there are more alternatives available that are specifically tailored for B2B e-commerce. Let’s explore some of these options and discuss why they are preferable to Shopify in certain cases.

When is Shopify a good fit?

There is a reason that Shopify is the go-to platform for many e-commerce businesses. Setting up and selling is easy, with minimal upfront costs. If you’re a manufacturer that invests 1% of your budget in marketing, this e-commerce platform is for you.

However, Shopify has limitations that make it unsuitable for larger B2B manufacturers. For example, Shopify doesn’t support more than 500 SKUs very easily, meaning businesses with an extensive product lineup will outgrow the platform quickly.

If you’re not doing frequent global product changes and don’t require a comprehensive productized taxonomy, Shopify might be a good fit. However, if you’re looking for an e-commerce platform with a built-in product information management system (PIM), we suggest you look elsewhere.

Three alternatives to Shopify for manufacturers

There are three enterprise-level alternatives that B2B manufacturers use instead of Shopify. All of these alternatives cater to B2B requirements and help manufacturers build their business networks with complex order management tools, robust security, and comprehensive analytics.

Alternative 1: SAP Hybris

SAP describes Hybris as a “cloud-based e-commerce platform.” SAP Hybris is an enterprise-level solution that offers an integrated suite of tools for B2B sales and marketing. Some advantages of Hybris include its scalability, ease of integration, and comprehensive customer analytics.

It supports products from various vendors and multiple currencies, payment methods, languages, and more. Hybris can also manage digital and physical goods in the same platform, making it an excellent choice for manufacturers who produce physical goods or offer services alongside their products.

Hybris is a product family under SAP, which includes several products with specialized functionality. If you want to take complete control of your business process with Hybris, we recommend getting them all. The Hybris product family includes:

• Hybris Commerce
• Hybris Billing
• SAP Cloud for Customer Sales
• SAP Cloud for Customer Service
• Hybris Marketing

While this e-commerce solution sounds extensive, once you get the hang of it, it saves you a lot of time and money.

Alternative 2: Magento

Adobe acquired Magento (now Adobe Commerce) in 2018 and the platform advertises that it makes site content and promotion easy. Some of its key features include:

• An intuitive interface for content creation
• Customer segment personalization
• Quickly updating your e-commerce pages

With Adobe Commerce, you access powerful analytics and reporting tools that track customer engagement, conversion rate, average order value, and more. You also access advanced security features like fraud protection and data encryption.

Since Adobe Commerce is now part of Adobe’s product portfolio, it now easily integrates with its other services like Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, and Adobe Experience Manager. If you’re already using their ecosystem, then Adobe Commerce is a great choice for your B2B e-commerce needs.

Alternative 3: KYKLO

Perhaps the best alternative to Shopify e-commerce for manufacturers, KYKLO is a platform “built by the industry for the industry.” KYKLO is a full-fledged B2B e-commerce platform and product information management platform in one. KYKLO helps manufacturers and distributors improve online product discovery, generate more sales-qualified leads and deliver a better online buying experience.

KYKLO’s capabilities:

• Enriched product content: You enrich and maintain your product content based on your suggestions and KYKLO’s expertise. You don’t have to worry about taxonomizing your product since KYKLO efficiently does it for you. Further, KYKLO offers the industry’s most extensive and highest product library, built by electrical and automation engineers. This gives way to dynamic product content built for SEO and enhanced searchability.
  
  

• Product information and e-commerce platform: KYKLO is a PIM product at its core, with a cart built around it. If you’re looking for a comprehensive and tailored B2B e-commerce solution with full product information management capabilities, KYKLO is the perfect choice.
  

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Some of the largest B2B companies in the world use KYKLO, including Fabco-Air, Mitsubishi Electric or WAGO. KYKLOs partners include Schneider Electric, Festo and Phoenix Contact.

What we like about KYKLO is that it integrates with other business systems, like Oracle NetSuite, Trulinx, and Epicor, and features SAP Ariba native integration. Further, the platform has third-party integration with Intercom for live chat, Stripe for payment gateway, and Google Analytics for tracking. This means that you don’t have to purchase a whole ecosystem just to get the best e-commerce platform experience for your B2B business.

Choosing the best alternative to Shopify e-commerce for manufacturers

How should you choose your B2B e-commerce platform? Here are three key things to consider.

1. Designed with B2B in mind

Shopify is primarily built for B2C businesses that don’t require special segmentation and product information management capabilities. If you’re a manufacturer, choosing an e-commerce platform built with B2B in mind, such as KYKLO, is best. While Adobe Commerce isn’t technically a B2B platform, it scales pretty quickly depending on your ability to pay for its added integrations and systems.

2. Has PIM built-in

Managing thousands of SKUs and product information gets complex, especially if you don’t have the right tools. Make sure you choose an e-commerce platform with built-in product information management (PIM) capabilities, such as KYKLO. This way, you don’t have to worry about purchasing and maintaining a separate system.

3. Excellent product searchability

Shopify is terrible at SEO, so you want an alternative that does a better job at product searchability. KYKLO is a great choice here as it offers the largest product library, dynamic content optimization, and advanced search capabilities.

Try KYKLO e-commerce today

In the end, it all boils down to your business needs. If you’re looking for an e-commerce platform that tackles the complexities of B2B sales for manufacturers, KYKLO is the right choice. It has all the features you need to manage your products efficiently and get them to market quickly.

Schedule a demo with KYKLO today and see how it helps your business grow.