Episode 47: EDI & B2B eCommerce Integrations With Chris Bidleman of Celigo

The Hard Truth About B2B eCommerce podcast continues onto the next episode by welcoming Chris Bidleman, Director Solution Integrations at Celigo onto the show to discuss EDI & B2B eCommerce Integrations.

Chris Bidleman has been building integrations for B2B eCommerce for over a decade and has seen everything from legacy technology like EDI that is still widely adopted today to newer GraphQL based integrations. Integrations are a key backbone and issue that often stops B2B companies from moving forward with eCommerce. We discuss how to get over those hurdles and leverage modern technologies to move forward in a positive direction that may include both EDI and other more modern approaches.

Episode 47 – EDI & B2B eCommerce Integrations With Chris Bidleman of Celigo

In this episode, co-hosts Isaiah Bollinger, CEO of Trellis, and Timothy Peterson, Chief Marketing Officer of SportsBiz, welcome Chris Bidleman, Director Solution Integrations at Celigo onto the show to discuss:

• Future B2B transformation and what technology should considered to be adopted, what changed for the B2B eCommerce industry
• Environment for EDI system in current eCommerce plateforms, pros and cons for EDI currently
• Personal experience about working on EDI projects
• Covid-19’s influence on the eCommerce industry
• Differences between B2B and B2C

This podcast’s origin story

Podcasts are still a relatively new medium for content, but just because they are new doesn’t mean they lack power. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Podcasts have a unique ability to reach people on their time, whenever it is convenient for them – a way that previously did not majorly exist. Podcast listeners can take the information wherever they go and absorb it as they see fit. And that’s exactly what we are looking to do here. We want to reach a new audience of B2B eCommerce enthusiasts.

This podcast is all about B2B eCommerce. B2B is a different breed of eCommerce and it needs a different breed of Podcast. We get into the nitty-gritty of integrations, adoption, platforms, data and so much more regarding what makes B2B difficult to make successful for eCommerce!

We noticed that a few B2C podcasts exist on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but nothing designed for the B2B eCommerce community. B2B and B2C eCommerce have a lot of overlap, but even more differences. Each has a different set of requirements and customer demands that impact project scope. Let’s call a spade a spade. B2B is harder, more complicated, and harder to market. But it is also a bigger piece of the pie. The eCommerce B2B roadmap to success is not as cut and dry as B2C and that’s why we have started this podcast.

B2C platforms like Magento and Shopify have large communities that support and have done the entre-level work of most projects. The same community does not exist for B2B, but we are starting to build it. The ecosystem may not be as mature, but as experts in the space, we hope this podcast will help some people wake up and reevaluate their online sales strategy.

The first podcast examines major trends around B2B eCommerce as well as answering all of the above questions.  Take a listen for yourself and let us know what you think!

We will be posting new episodes with special guests weekly. You can listen on our dedicated podcast website and download the podcast on all major channels: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, Podcast Addict, Deezer, Listen Notes, and RSS Feed.