Consumer goods manufacturers face an interesting challenge. On the one hand, they spend considerable time learning about consumers and their aspirations for the product categories that the manufacturer is producing; on the other hand, they typically sell their products in large part through B2B customers who also have their own demands and business models that may, at times, compete with the multiple channels through which the manufacturer has chosen to move their goods. Their B2B customers can take on various forms: retailers, store-within-a-store format that has dedicated areas for the brand, outlet formats, direct-to-consumer, catalog or phone order, franchise operators, export operations, and shared support models in foreign countries.

For a manufacturer to thrive in such settings requires a business model and a commerce platform to have breadth and depth of capabilities in serving customers:

• A full range of branded materials and assets, both physical and digital, that can be managed for consistency across all channels, formats and customers
• Flexibility in ordering arrangements that enable both retailers and consumers to easily place orders
• In a franchise model, there is often a need for a dedicated site that just caters to the agreed upon assortment for the franchisee but one that allows individual stores to execute their own ordering
• Flexibility of print or digital catalogs to be constructed in full, as part of a seasonal assortment view, by geography, and even individualized catalogs catering to the buying patterns or preferences of consumers

The hybris platform is uniquely suited to support the full range of customer interaction models and assortment content and ordering that is required by branded manufacturers. As a global platform, it also can accelerate the ability of the manufacturer to extend its reach or to manage its far-flung commerce offerings efficiently from a common core.

Whether involved in discrete or process manufacturing, industrial manufacturers are increasingly relying on their commerce platforms to aid and execute their product content and information management, customer interactions and ordering, and selling support.
 
Their customers have come to expect the kind of experience that consumers now demand from retailers as they move through a purchase journey or manage the relationship with the manufacturer. Some elements that have emerged:
 

• Increasingly, customers also expect self-service options for standard orders and expect that they should be able to view their own order history and order statuses when interacting online.
• A sales representative should be able to have real-time access to the full range of product and customer information when working with a customer, whether using a mobile phone, a tablet, or a PC. The customers expect that sales reps should be able to provide value-added service beyond what they themselves can already view on-line.
• Just as consumers demand simplicity, industrial customers expect that recurring or complex orders should have embedded templates that simplify the ordering process, such as having repeat orders, suggested orders based on history, or standard components within a bill of materials.
• Customers also assume that they can streamline their operations with catalogs that are tailored to a specific site or even a person in their organization.
• Customers do not want to deal with the internal complexities of the manufacturer. If a customer is ordering for a specific location, what they really want to know is whether the complete order will arrive on schedule as promised even if the order is assembled from several plants producing different categories (assuming the manufacturer is shipping FOB that location).

The manufacturing environment will continue to face increasing expectations from their customers, whether those customers are retailers, wholesalers, other manufacturers, or professional end customers. They will increasingly leverage consumer-oriented devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) for their sales associates and their customer interactions.
 
hybris is a platform that embraces both manufacturing and consumer-connected companies – and provides a platform that takes the best ideas from both worlds and provides a common core platform and integrates with relevant emerging platforms.
 

Because the hybris B2B solution includes the consumer-facing customer experience ranked “leader” by both Gartner and Forrester, it is an ideal framework for creating a down-channel or direct-to-consumer implementation.