Aleran FAQ
Aleran was purpose-built for B2B commerce, addressing the changing needs of today’s manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers. Learn more about what the Aleran digital commerce platform can do for your business and get the answers to your most frequently asked questions.
General Questions About the Platform
1. What is Aleran’s digital commerce platform?
B2B sales are complex — requiring solutions, not just products. That’s why Aleran made it our mission to develop an agile, all-in-one technology ecosystem that gives manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers the tools they need to transform and scale their businesses in the new digital economy.
With industry-leading B2B commerce solutions, sales order management, product information management and a range of other features, Aleran’s digital commerce platform provides maximum flexibility to tackle the unique sales needs of today’s B2B sellers, removing the risk and eliminating the headaches that come from traditional cost-prohibitive builds and months-long integrations.
In addition to B2B, Aleran’s digital commerce platform can also be customized to fit all your commerce needs, including B2C, B2B2B and B2B2C.
Our enterprise-grade, cloud-based platform is designed to work seamlessly out-of-the-box (or as a headless integration) with your ERP, CRM and any other critical business software via our custom integration services and robust library of APIs.
2. Who does Aleran serve? What kind of companies can use Aleran?
The Aleran digital commerce platform was purpose-built for multi-tiered, multi-channel B2B sales, which makes it a great fit for small, mid-market and even large enterprises who need to streamline, optimize and digitally transform their businesses.
We can currently serve B2B and B2C manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, suppliers, vendors, sales orgs and brands across a broad range of verticals, including:
- Aerospace
- Appliances
- Automotive parts & accessories
- Agriculture
- Business services
- Construction
- Electronics
- Energy
- Fashion & Apparel
- Food & Beverage
Healthcare & Medical Supplies - Industrial Supplies
- Retail
3. What are some of Aleran’s product features?
The Aleran platform helps manufacturers digitally transform sales and gain operational efficiency with no additional tech investments, hidden costs or in-house builds. Some key features include:
- End-to-end sales order management (SOM)
Automate admin tasks and streamline order management with native, self-service quoting and ordering. - Configure, price, quote (CPQ)
Generate quotes for configurable products and then convert to sales orders quickly and accurately. - Catalog-embedded buying
Transform PDF catalogs, brochures, line cards and more into dynamic, digital and secure eCommerce sites. - Product inventory management (PIM) for B2B Sales
Review, manage and store product info, assets and pricing data in one place, keep track of product availability and sort by segment, channel, geography and customer. - Customer portals
Log-in for personalized content according to user role and need, reduce call center costs, and increase loyalty and conversions. - Multi-storefronts
Create and manage multiple digital commerce experiences, including eCommerce sites, shoppable PDF catalogs, and more, all managed through a single back end.
4. Can I use Aleran even if I don’t have a product catalog because I am a “job shop” or an engineer-to-order or made-to-order manufacturer?
Yes! Aleran is flexible enough to work for manufacturers who don’t use catalogs because of their highly customized processes.
For example, ETO manufacturers are able to streamline and modernize their sales and eCommerce processes by using Aleran’s CPQ (configure, price, quote) feature, which allows them to generate quotes for configurable products and then convert to sales orders quickly and accurately. In addition, ETO manufacturers can gain huge efficiencies from implementing self-service order management, one-click reorders, and OEM- or customer-specific portals.
5. What tools and features should manufacturers look for in an eCommerce platform?
When evaluating B2B eCommerce platforms, there are an assortment of key features to look out for, including:
- Personalized experiences and promotions
- Easy online quoting and ordering
- Accurate pricing and terms for each B2B customer
- Shoppable PDF catalogs
- Self-service customer portal (look-up orders, reorder, see status updates, manage contacts)
- Secure online payments
Pricing & Implementation
1. How much does it cost?
Our flexible pricing and plans were designed to work for growing businesses. Contact us today to get an estimate.
2. How do you deal with variable freight quotes for credit card orders?
Aleran allows buyers to enter credit card information for preliminary authorization. We don’t store the number, instead, we tokenize it for security purposes and then pass it through the ERP for processing once the order (with final shipping costs) is ready to ship. Because it’s not possible to charge a higher amount than was originally authorized, a placeholder “full retail freight” estimate can be added at the time of authorization. Alternatively, a separate invoice can be sent just for freight costs.
3. How long does it take to go live?
Aleran prides itself on its speed to implementation, typically getting customers up and running in less than 90 days. Time-to-launch will be impacted by individual project scope and complexity. Contact us today to get a free time and cost estimate.
4. How do you integrate with iPaaS solutions?
Aleran works with multiple iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) solutions for syncing data with ERPs and other business applications (like CRM, WMS and EDI tools). These tools expose the core data elements in each system, and then our professional services team creates templates to map the necessary data elements based on each customer’s specific business needs (e.g. 1-way vs. 2-way sync on products; frequency of pricing sync, and so on). Contact us today for more details on our integrations.
5. How can I estimate my ROI with Aleran?
Estimate your revenue increases with our free ROI calculator.
6. Do I need a dedicated sales staff to benefit from using Aleran?
Though the Aleran platform has clear benefits when used by B2B sales teams, it can also help organizations without a dedicated sales staff.
Aleran can help companies implement automated quoting, self-service order management, one-click reorders, catalog-embedded buying experiences, and OEM or customer-specific portals – all without the help of a dedicated sales team.
Bottom line: Aleran helps make all your teams more efficient, keeping their processes moving (even outside regular business hours) and streamlining the buyer experience.
Benefits of Aleran
1. What are some of the advantages of Aleran’s digital commerce platform?
Key benefits of Aleran’s digital commerce platform:
- Is built for manufacturers, with the out-of-the-box B2B features and functionality they need most
- Provides flexible, transparent pricing and plans, including hand-on support
- Deploys quickly and easily, with minimal IT lift
- Supports all digital commerce and offline sales channels
- Includes built-in sales order management and product inventory management for seamless integration with the commerce platform
- Digitizes and automates manual processes, workflows and tasks
- Offers hundreds of pre-built integrations for your digital channels, non-digital channels and core business systems
2. How can creating a strong eCommerce presence benefit my B2B business?
A strong eCommerce presence is a necessity in today’s digital age, especially for B2B businesses looking to grow, remain competitive, and meet the evolving needs of their clients. Some of the benefits include:
- Better market reach: find a broader audience and connect with potential customers wherever they are
- Enhanced customer experience: digital, self-service tools enable a more streamlined and efficient B2B customer experience
- Increased sales opportunities: capitalize on automated upselling and cross-selling through personalized recommendations and showcase a wider range of products or services
- New operational efficiencies: automate many aspects of the sales process, from order processing to inventory management and free up staff for more high-value tasks
- Data-driven insights: access valuable data about customer behavior, preferences, and buying patterns to guide your marketing strategies, product development and business decisions
- Improved customer relationships: maintain continuous engagement with your clients via promotional marketing efforts and personalized content
- Competitive edge: differentiate your business from competitors who may not have as strong an online footprint
- Scalability: grow your business by adding new products, services, and enter new markets at a lower cost
- Flexibility: update your offerings, adjust pricing on the fly, or launch marketing campaigns in reaction to industry trends or customer feedback
3. Why do manufacturers need eCommerce?
Today’s B2B buyers are predominantly tech natives who like their B2B experiences as streamlined, frictionless and automated as B2C. They are looking for B2B eCommerce experiences that are largely self-service and remote, even when making large purchases or placing a reorder.
As a result, eCommerce must be an essential component of a modern manufacturing business’s strategy to thrive in a modern digital economy. The right eCommerce platform is more than an extra sales channel for manufacturers; it’s a strategic tool that can help them expand their market reach, engage directly with customers, optimize their operations, and gain valuable insights for better decision-making.
4. How can manufacturers battle “fear of the unknown” among their teams when considering B2B eCommerce?
Occasionally team members may be overwhelmed or intimidated by technical language and the prospect of introducing new protocols. One of our founding principles at Aleran is to reduce the fear of technology, so we made it our mission to design a platform that is smart (streamlining and automating the sales back office), simple (easy to learn and use), and supported (video tutorials, same day onboarding, and customer support staff ready to make the transition as painless as possible).
But the very best way to convince a reluctant office manager to consider a new solution is to take our software for a test drive — we encourage prospective customers to sign-up for a free demo of our platform.
Contact us today to get started.