3M Looks To Grow Its B2B Commerce

With $30 billion in annual sales and operating in more than 70 countries, 3M has an active global B2B commerce program, selling products to a wide range of international wholesalers, retailers, distributors and dealers. Moreover, with its global enterprise resource planning system and a new generation of customers, the company recognized it had to implement an eCommerce platform capable of delivering B2B functionality to an expanding global user base.

The maker of some the world’s most recognized brands in the electronics and energy, consumer products, health care, industrial, and safety and graphics industries also needed an commerce system capable of integrating well with its evolving technology ecosystem and that could quickly adapt to changing market conditions. To accommodate such demand, the St. Paul, Minn.-based company recently implemented the hybris Commerce Suite, which it says will help improve the commerce experience among its customer buyers, which, like individual consumers, expect 3M to meet their omnichannel needs.

3M’s enhanced global commerce site went live in June with the goal of enabling the brand to add features and to scale its omnichannel commerce technology to its growing global customer base.

“At 3M, we require a lot from our commerce technology, and in addition to giving our B2B customers a high quality, omnichannel commerce experience, our platform must perform flawlessly and quickly adapt to new markets and business models,” James Fall, 3M vice president of global sales operations, said in the hybris software deal announcement. “By partnering with hybris, we have gained the commerce technology our business requires today as well as the flexibility we need we need for long-term success.”

Through the hybris Commerce Suite’s omnicommerce capabilities, 3M expects to be able  to deploy future commerce apps on the Web through mobile and tablet devices. Moreover, it will enable the company to support multiple currencies and languages, allowing 3M to effectively serve both new and existing global markets, the companies said.

User tools and personalization also will enable 3M’s business and merchandising managers to define customer experiences to help drive significantly higher conversion rates, while the platform will allow the company to use a single, unified software stack that is scaled to meet the needs of 3M’s smallest and largest markets in a single infrastructure.

“hybris technology is designed to address the rigorous, evolving demands of the world’s leading omnichannel commerce brands,” Steven Kramer, executive vice president of sales in the Americas at the SAP company, said in a statement. “By implementing the hybris Commerce Suite, 3M solidified its ability to provide an unparalleled customer experience to its diverse B2B and future B2C customer base.”

In April, another company, global payment processor Worldpay, worked with hybris’ platform to launch an eCommerce integration module to give its customers access to such end-to-end services as payment processing, alternative payments, fraud and acquiring services.

“eCommerce is not limited by geographical boundaries, and customers have the opportunity to sell into new markets globally,” Kevin Dallas, Worldpay chief product and marketing officer for eCommerce, said at the time. “The integration module enables customers to capitalize on this opportunity by offering end-to-end payment services that scale with their specific business requirement and internationalization strategy.”