The online spending phenomenon has demonstrated massive growth especially in the business-to-business trading environment. Many reports and articles predict further growth in the next few years. To capitalise from online trading spend, success is reliant on effective fulfilment. This element of the process can be the most complicated and costly therefore huge savings can be made if businesses get it right.

e.ssential catalogue provides solutions for both or a combination of business-to-business (b2b) and business-to-consumer (b2c) selling environments. By not offering an online order facility increasingly disloyal customers will be lost to those businesses that can.

The main benefits of online trading can be derived from how an order is processed once an order has been placed online to ensure smooth and effective delivery.

The main obstacle for companies setting up a successful online ordering service is that information regarding product availability, customer specific price lists, customer account information all need to be available online in real time. e.ssential catalogue delivers integration. The solution simply integrates with back office systems so that when a customer clicks on a product online it connects to the back office system picking up relevant information such as product details, availability, pricing details and customer credit check.

Once an order takes place online it is passed through to the back office system to be processed all in real time. As there is not two separate systems problems with data maintenance, credit failure, orders confirmed where stock isn't available are all eliminated. If a customer is required to go offline to deal with payment, order delivery or enquires a repeat transaction is less likely as there is no added value for a customer to use the online order service.

Businesses delivering online ordering can increase the speed and flexibility of business. e.ssential catalogue has been designed to provide businesses with an 'out-of-the-box' approach minimising set-up and implementation costs and time.

B2B
e.ssential catalogue for the b2b selling environment enables businesses to offer online trading, providing real time ordering and accurate order status reports. The solution offers businesses the tools to provide a fast, useable, simple, intuitive and efficient service.

Facilities include, Accounts Receivable Enquiry, Stock Enquiry, Order Enquiry, Order Entry. The high level of integration makes b2b online trading simple and delivers huge business advantage.

B2C
With current cost pressures within the sector eCommerce offers a route to reduce costs and increase competitiveness. The cost of an internet transaction is considerably lower with some research stating that online ordering is up to a 100th of the cost of other forms of purchasing.