Why B2B Customers Drop Off in Your Portal

1. The customer doesn't see their own price

A buyer who sees a list price doesn't trust the portal. They know they've made agreements, so they call to check. Or they don't order online at all.

Solution: after login, always display the customer-specific price, including tiered pricing and contract agreements, pulled directly from your ERP or pricing rules. A price that's wrong costs more trust than a price that's missing.

2. Stock and delivery time are unclear

"In stock" doesn't mean much to a buyer who needs to know whether it will be on the job site by Thursday. Without a clear delivery time, they'll call anyway.

Solution: display a concrete delivery date or lead time per item, and when there's a shortage, indicate what is available: partial delivery, an alternative item, or the expected date.

3. Repeat orders take too many clicks

Most B2B orders are repeat orders. If your customer has to search for the same twenty items every week, the phone is faster.

Solution: offer order lists, "reorder" from the order history, and quick ordering by item number or via CSV upload. For regular customers, a repeat order should be ready within a minute.

4. Search doesn't work with the customer's language

Your customer searches by their own item number, an old number, or a brand name. If the portal finds nothing, they conclude you don't carry it.

Solution: make search work with your own item numbers, customer item numbers, EAN codes, old numbers, and synonyms. Review monthly which searches return no results — that's where your quickest wins are.

5. Login and user management are a barrier

One login per company, no way to add colleagues, or a password that the inside sales team has to reset. Every barrier at login is a reason not to use the portal.

Solution: multiple users per customer account with their own roles, the ability to invite colleagues themselves, and self-service password recovery. A new user should be able to get started without any involvement from your team.

6. After the order, there's silence

Where is my order? When will it be delivered? Where is the invoice? If the portal doesn't answer those questions, your inside sales team will get those calls.

Solution: display order status, track and trace, packing slips, invoices, and credit notes in the portal, and proactively send a notification in case of delays. Every question the portal answers is one fewer phone call.

7. The portal doesn't fit into the purchasing process

In many companies, one person orders and another approves. Or a purchase order number or cost center needs to appear on the order. If that's missing, the portal falls outside your customer's process.

Solution: support approval workflows and budgets per user, fields for PO number and cost center, and for larger customers, punchout from their own procurement system.

Quick self-assessment

Go through these questions with someone from your inside sales team. Every "no" is a friction point.

• Does a logged-in customer immediately see their own price?
• Does every item show a concrete delivery time?
• Can a repeat order be placed within a minute?
• Does the search function find customer item numbers and old numbers too?
• Can a customer add colleagues themselves?
• Can a customer find order status and invoices without calling?
• Does ordering fit into your customer's approval process?

Finally

The best measure of your portal is not the number of logins, but the number of phone calls and emails your inside sales team no longer receives. Ask your team which questions they still answer every day. That's where your next improvement lies.

Transparency: I am involved with Vendordesk and Marello, a B2B portal. The friction points in this article apply to any portal, regardless of which platform you use.