Minolta brings ecommerce into focus

A U.S.-based part of Minolta is bringing B2B ecommerce squarely into focus. The big picture: launching a new ecommerce site to help customers research and make purchases more quickly and easily.

The maker of office technology products launched a B2B ecommerce platform designed to offer customers a “frictionless” buying experience while also potentially expanding its customer base, says Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., the U.S. unit of Japan-based Konica Minolta Inc.

The new ecommerce platform is based on “composable commerce” technology from Elastic Path, a software vendor known for ecommerce technology designed with extensive APIs and headless commerce architecture that supports customized ecommerce sites. Composable commerce supports the deployment of “best of breed” technology platforms designed to deploy software applications from multiple sources in customized configurations.

“Applying [Elastic Path’s] composable commerce technique to our digital ecosystem will provide us with a high level of flexibility to continue to innovate and meet the evolving needs of our customers,” says Velinda Cox, senior vice president of ecommerce at Konica Minolta.

For example, the company says its merchandising team is using Elastic Path’s EP Product Experience Manager system (PXM) to build relevant online buying experiences for customers on Konica Minolta’s new e-shop without having to rely on custom software development. The PXM system includes product information management technology, merchandising tools and product catalog management, which Konica Minolta has deployed to highlight document management and other products with product images, specifications, and pricing.

Konica Minolta also says it is  improving  online checkout by utilizing Elastic Path Payments, which is designed to facilitate payments as Konica Minolta expands into new regions.