Shopping List Software on B2B eCommerce Platforms

A shopping list with enterprise eCommerce can be a very powerful tool, enabling the customer to repeat orders — often orders that they need periodically. This can be helpful for things like perishable items that may have a certain shelf life, or consumable items that are used up within a certain time period. Shopping lists are often used for scenarios such as an event or party, where the same items will be needed again and again. It could also be for a franchisee who periodically opens a new location. For a company that assembles or manufactures items, they may need to reorder every time they finish putting a complex item together so that they can start working on the next one. 

The most important concept behind the shopping list is that your B2B eCommerce platform needs to make it easy for the user to add items, modify, and manage the shopping list. That's why we enable access to adding items to a shopping list right within the catalog. The product details and the cart views of the eCommerce platform can enable other areas of access as well. For example, if for some reason someone removes an item from their cart, we may want to show a modal dialog that says, “Are you sure you want to remove this? Do you want to add it to your wish list or your shopping cart instead?” Stopping them from removing it can help create a mental commitment that can help with conversions later. 

The shopping list software can do this by enabling the original creator of the shopping list or the owner of the shopping list. There can be multiple owners assigned, but anyone who is an owner of the shopping list can share access to the shopping list for view (or view and edit). Different roles within an organization can also be set up with different permissions. 

It’s also important for customers to allow individual items to be purchased without the need to add the entire shopping list to the cart. Sometimes the easiest way for a customer to find an item is to access it through their shopping list, then simply click it over into the shopping cart. 

Notification Settings for Customers

Once an item is in a shopping list, Clarity’s B2B ordering system can also keep the user informed regarding stock, price levels, and other preselected information. Maybe they want to be informed when items get to a certain price point, or want to make a purchase if the item is about to go out of stop and won’t be available for a length of time. Notifications can be sent out if an out-of-stock item on their shopping list is back in stock. They also need to know if an item is never coming back in stock; you can then offer them alternate options that should work just as well. 

A shopping list typically lives in the user's dashboard and gives them an analyst view with searching and filtering so that they can find their different shopping lists. They can then manage permissions and the access that they give to internal or external users as well as the ability to clone — then alter — a shopping list. 

As you can imagine, being able to reorder items that have a complex workflow associated with them can be very helpful to save time and improve the process. The primary takeaway is that it’s a very powerful tool to enable reordering. It can be a key aspect for keeping certain customer types happy, those that may have large lists of items that they need to complete orders for. 

Clarity can make that happen, and we’re ready to show you the eCommerce business solutions we’ve created for dozens of companies' shopping carts. Get the process started by clicking below.