Before we discuss these problem let me explain why we did this:
1. This was done in order to normalise data in order and customer tables. Many of our clients make integrations with 3rd party CRM that has automatic call systems, besides when you as admin click on the phone from your mobile device you can call the client right away only if it in correct format. So the idea was to help customer enter the phone number with less mistakes, so the admin has less work to do with filtering this out.
As far as the customer is concerned, they have made no mistake, but will be annoyed by being told that there is something wrong with the phone number format. Perhaps have a country code box, and have it not-required for customers with IP address that matches the store default country.
2. From our statistics most store owners work on b2c market, and old checkout was a real problem for them. It's outdated for 10 years at least. And we obviously wanted to make it modern and usable for your clients with such feature as: automatic geolocation, minimum of fields, mobile-friendly . So this was the main idea. Unfortunately we did not digg in into b2b model and that is why from my point of view we have all this discussion.
Where are you getting this statistic from? How are you defining "most" ? Why are you separating b2c and b2b anyway?
My guess is that "most" store admins will require their eCommerce software to cater for b2b and b2c even if only 5% of orders are b2b. 5% of 10,000 orders per year is 500 orders!!
Possible solution at checkout customer selects whether he/she is a company or a regular person. If he is a regular person checkout stays as it is!
In case he selects that he represents a company - there are some extra field (these that previously were in billing sections)
No... make it better for b2b.
1. do you need billing address at checkout?
b2c customers do not need billing address at checkout. Also do not create account at start of checkout, but give the customer the option to create account after order is placed. Also, if customer returns later but tries later and then creates account, assign all previous orders under their email address/ username.
b2b customers need billing and multiple shipping address at checkout
2. do you wok with companies (b2b)? if not please specify the reason why you need billing address
Need billing address, need separate email address for Billing and Shipping.
- For companies: need a checkbox: [Notify Bill-to] and [Notify Ship-to] to allow sending order status to addressee. Because some companies have staff placing orders (procurement,engineers,stores) .
- For companies: need a checkbox [Dropship order] which prevents sending of email to Shipping address (assuming the above is implemented), and tells packing staff not to include invoice with shipment.
For a Tax-Invoice it must have the address of the brininess claiming the deduction. If the invoice has the wrong address (the shipping address) it is not a valid invoice.
3. what approx percent of b2c compare to b2b sales on your site
Currently 4.83% of our customers companies. Note that most b2b customers place many orders, and are ongoing.
I could not get the more important statistic for % b2b vs b2c $/year.
4. what the best implementation of b2b checkout from you point of view (link or several to famous stores)
TBA