The digital future of B2B E-commerce
In this playbook, we will guide you through five actionable steps that will empower you to navigate the complexities of the current B2B E-commerce landscape, empowering you to not just survive but thrive in this era of digital transformation.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to achieving digital leadership. As we navigate through a complex web of macroeconomic instability, global supply chain disruptions, rising material costs, and the ongoing ripple effects of the pandemic, B2B commerce is ripe for disruption. Customers, once passive buyers in the B2B sphere, have evolved into active co-creators of value within the e-commerce ecosystem demanding personalised products and services to a similar level of excellence as seen in the B2C landscape. This shift is powered by data-driven product and innovation strategies, cost pressures and competition, compelling businesses to place an emphasis on true customer-centricity.
No two e-commerce platforms are identical, they each offer unique features and functions, varying in specialisation, customisability, and the quality of the customer experience they deliver. In this dynamic environment, choosing the right digital tools and platforms is important; the competitive advantage is in understanding which features align most closely with your business needs and can make it easier to build the exact online presence you need to win.
80%
8 out of every 10 buyers will switch their supplier if the digital buying process disappoints
83%
of B2B buyers prefer ordering or paying through digital commerce
33%
of B2B buyers are more likely to buy from, and 37% more likely to renew a contract with, a seller that delivers an excellent customer experience
250%
increase in B2B mobile ordering since 2020
The digital future of
E-commerce in the B2B sphere
The shift to digital engagement and the remarkable growth in e-commerce revenue in both B2B and B2C sectors is evident. What's striking is that modern B2B consumers' expectations for digital presence and purchasing experiences have surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Notably, B2B companies are transitioning to digital go-to-market sales models, with 41% using video conferences and 23% relying on online chats, while traditional in-person methods have seen a significant 52% decline (McKinsey, 2020). With Millennials and Gen Z now in key decision-making roles, their preference for minimal or no interaction with sales representatives during B2B transactions has significant implications for the B2B landscape.
This playbook emerges as a vital compass, offering insights and strategies to navigate the landscape by creating efficient and engaging B2B e-commerce journeys, potentially accounting for up to 95% of the total purchase time (Gartner, 2020).
Define your customer
Actions you can take
In B2B e-commerce, every transaction involves a complex decision-making process with various stakeholders. Recognising the diversity of buyers and their business models is crucial for success. To thrive, you must deeply understand your customers, where they gather information, and why they engage with your platform. This knowledge forms the basis for creating effective customer journeys that convert needs into purchases.
Identify customer profiles before diving into your digital strategy. Each profile has unique needs, preferences, and objectives. Avoid one-size-fits-all approaches; instead, create and refine multiple customer personas to effectively segment your audience. Successful B2B commerce firms emphasise tailoring digital platforms to cater to the distinct needs of these customer personas and delivering value propositions.
In the sphere of B2B e-commerce, every transaction is more than just a purchase; it is a multifaceted decision-making process involving numerous stakeholders. Additionally, B2B e-commerce is a complex ecosystem that encompasses a wide range of online transactions and business models. Therefore, it's imperative to recognise that not all buyers and their business models are equal. To succeed in this dynamic landscape, you must gain a deep understanding of who your customers are, how and where business buyers get their information from, and why they engage with your platform. This behavioural understanding and knowledge are the foundations upon which you can build meaningful customer journeys that convert needs into consideration and ultimately, purchases.
Are they looking for a bulk-order reorder? The requisitioning or sourcing of a new supplier? A highly technical piece of equipment? Are they expanding their product offering?
Before delving into your digital playbook, it is essential to identify the individual customer profiles you intend to target. Each of these profiles represents a unique set of needs, preferences, and objectives. Remember, one-size-fits-all approaches to B2B e-commerce are ineffective and outdated. Creating and refining multiple customer personas is a best practice that helps you segment your audience effectively. Successful B2B commerce firms have demonstrated the importance of this customer-centric tailoring of their digital platforms to meet the diverse needs of their identified customer personas and in delivering their value propositions.
Practical actions to take
Define and decide
Define and identify key customer profiles or personas for your website. These personas represent your target clients or visitor types. The number of personas required depends on your product/service range and industry focus.
Start with one persona, analysing their search intentions, business goals, needs, requirements, budgets, frustrations, and stakeholders in purchasing decisions. This helps refine parameters for tracking and engaging your audience, enhancing your value proposition.
B2B e-commerce success often comes from tailored product content and interfaces that cater to defined customers, aligning with their industry and buyer's needs. Understanding your target audience can uncover new audiences, expanding your Total Addressable Market potential (TAM).
Decide who your key customer profiles are; every website should cater to a visitor or customer type. These are personas, fictional characters that represent specific target clients or other visitor types. The number of personas you need depends on the variety and scope of products or services you offer and the industry you wish to target.
To begin, start with one persona and consider their search intentions, goals in their business, the needs to be served, requirements, budgets, potential frustrations, and stakeholders over the purchasing decisions and examine any influencing forces. Building these personas can help curate persona parameters in which you are able to track and engage target audiences and establish a better understanding of your value proposition. Successful B2B e-commerce firms have shown priority towards website product content and tailored interfaces for their defined customers, highlighting a deeper acknowledgement aligned with the buyer’s intended customers and particular industry, and demonstrating their ability to help businesses succeed. By examining your target audience, you may uncover alternative audiences which you can nurture to increase your Total Addressable Market potential (TAM).
Engage and research
Engaging with your actual customers is invaluable for testing your site's appeal. User research, done in collaboration with customer success and sales teams, provides real-time insights into visitor behaviour. This research involves techniques like user journey mapping, behaviour analysis, interviews, and facial expressions. E-commerce journeys are task-oriented, so experience blueprints tie these journeys across time and touchpoints while highlighting important enabling processes and tools.
Encourage product teams to adopt a customer-focused approach to better understand thoughts, actions, and needs. They focus on feedback, involving different teams and stakeholders in journey mapping. This approach yields a prioritised series of problem statements for e-commerce. The goal is to observe and test user experiences to identify enhancement opportunities in UI design, product messaging, and purchase functionality, following user-centred design. Customer journey mapping can benefit from data analytics for more personalised insights.
Engaging with your actual customers is invaluable, and a great way to test your site’s appeal. User research, conducted in collaboration with your customer success and sales teams, provides real-time insights into visitor behaviour and feedback. After all, buyers want to have a great rapport with sales and account reps who will look out for their best interests. This research may involve techniques such as user journey mapping and behaviour analysis techniques, such as eye-tracking of UI (User Interface) interactions, interview responses, and facial expressions. Remember e-commerce purchasing journeys are task-oriented, with clear completion stages in the journey, so the experience blueprint will tie together these task-oriented journeys across time and touchpoints/channels, as well as show what the enabling processes and tools are important for the specific purchasing journey.
Encourage product teams to adopt a customer-focused approach to better understand your customers' thoughts, actions, and needs. Unlike sales forces, they do not sell or cross-sell, they focus on feedback. Involve different teams and stakeholders in the journey mapping process, given that customer purchasing decisions are influenced across your companies' customer touch points, such as your marketing efforts.
This curated approach to user research can reward e-commerce with a prioritised and relevant series of problem statements. The objective is to observe and test user experiences of key user journeys on the website to identify opportunities for enhancements in platform UI (User Interface) design, product messaging, and purchase functionality, turning pain points into opportunities supported by validated business cases. This practice is better known as user-centred design. Additionally, Customer journey mapping can be enhanced through data analytics of customer touchpoints, by providing more personalised and localised insights.
Measure and analysis
Measure your engagement strategies' success and track customer decision-making and purchasing journeys through data from interviews, surveys, focus groups, and analytics. Web metrics like visits and bounce rates gain significance when viewed in the context of specific customer personas and initial touchpoints.
User testing metrics, like System Usability Scores (SUS) and Single Ease Questions (SEQ), serve as proxies for website usability. A/B testing, or split testing, is a great method to compare variations of webpages or marketing elements and improve performance. Test colloquial or industry-specific messaging for effective customer engagement.
Continuously adapt your approach to evolving customer personas and industry dynamics to maintain a customer centric B2B e-commerce platform. Leverage Customer Data Platforms (CDP) for data analysis and personalisation strategies to refine the purchasing journey.
Measure the success of your engagement strategies and track your customers' decision-making and purchasing journeys through actionable insights and data sources. Make sure you are gathering data from the right sources, such as interviews, surveys, focus groups and analytics. While traditional web metrics like visits and bounce rates are valuable, they become even more meaningful when interpreted within the context of specific customer personas and their initial journey touchpoints. Consider every feasible way your customer can interact with your company; the list will vary depending on the scope or specialisation of your product or service offering.
Metrics from user testing, such as System Usability Scores (SUS) and Single Ease Questions (SEQ), provide a proxy measure of website usability. These metrics help identify which parts of your interface may pose challenges and how customers perceive their overall experience. A fantastic way to test different marketing content or website user interfaces is to conduct an A/B test with different customer segments to build targeted approaches. Also known as split testing, it is a powerful technique to evaluate and improve the performance by comparing two or more variations (A, B, C, etc.) of a webpage, or other marketing elements, to determine which one yields better results. For instance, colloquial or industry specific messaging should be tested to find the most effective solutions to engage and build relationships with different customers.
Continuously monitor and refine your approach over time as customer personas evolve and adapt to changes in industry dynamics. By doing so, your B2B e-commerce platform will remain agile, responsive, and customer centric. Furthermore, Customer Data Platforms (CDP) can be used to host current customer data to be analysed and integrated into personalisation strategies. Leveraging these, you can generate data-based problem definition hypotheses to start creating business-justified requirements for the next phase to improve the purchasing journey.
B-2-Be a Winner! APM Terminal Case Study
APM Terminals stands as an exemplary B2B firm, exhibiting remarkable digital leadership that has redefined the landscape of logistics supply chain management and e-commerce. The digital transformation stems from their profound understanding of their customers, leading to the seamless integration of digital tools that not only streamline the customer journey but add value while mitigating operational bottlenecks. APM Terminal’s data-driven strategy uses a combination of cloud services to handle integrations across B2B, E-invoicing and an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) integration with partners and customers. This robust cloud infrastructure ensures the most secure and reliable communication ecosystem for their clients.
APM Terminal invested heavily in understanding their customers' needs as part of developing their digital strategy. This helped them identify and then solve the complex issues customers face when ordering and tracking shipping containers. Through customer feedback and web analytics, they understood that clients who use multiple software tools wanted a way to bring APM Terminals data into their systems, processes and across applications. In response, they launched the developer-friendly API store opening a new revenue stream for APM Terminals, with zero marginal cost. This enhanced digital connectivity across the purchase journey helps a range of stakeholders including APM’s Terminal Operating Systems, into their internal systems such as Logistics or Transport Management Systems (TMS). Customers could now buy respective API capabilities tailored to their supply chain needs. Access to critical container, terminal or appointment data can now be achieved securely and cost-effectively, and crucially, in real-time. The integration of such data signifies an opportunity for customers, providing them with the data-driven tools necessary for real-time decision-making. This, thereby improving their supply chain processes and enhancing overall operational efficiency, illustrates APM Terminals' commitment to improving the customer journey beyond the point of transaction.
APM Terminal’s fusion of IoT sensors with advanced artificial intelligence enables customers to promptly select automated repairs or solutions for their containers at terminals, creating a streamlined and impactful upselling strategy. Customers can also request additional services - such as container fumigation or photography – which used to be processed and managed by email, phone or in person. This service not only elevates the customer experience but also bolsters revenue generation. Furthermore, the company has expanded its service portfolio to include Truck Appointment Systems (TAS), enabling flexible transfer and deployment options. Customers can now easily book, merge, and reschedule slots for container drop-off and pick-up, thus improving customer retention rates. Furthermore, they now have the opportunity to offer dynamic pricing to incentivise appointments at quieter times to manage terminal traffic flow.
Lastly, APM Terminals offers a suite of personalised services on the website, including tracking alerts, shipping line dashboards, saved container watchlists, and email notifications. The benefit of these capabilities is that they provide entry points for the customer into or to continue the e-commerce journey, providing a self-service journey for the customer and additional incremental revenue to APM Terminals. These features form a robust delivery tracking system that enhances transparency for customers.
Justify the customer's purchasing decision
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression!
Your website has gained a new visitor, and securing their attention in B2B e-commerce purchasing behaviour requires efficient content and marketing strategies. The initial interaction sets the stage for trust-building and future engagement, making the first impression crucial in line with identified customer personas.
To cater effectively to diverse customer personas, implement a robust product or service and supplier information governance framework. This framework ensures a seamless and personalised experience by matching the right products, services, or suppliers with unique customer requirements.
Streamline website content to align with what customers are seeking, focusing on their needs rather than internal structure. Emphasise your product, service, or supplier's value propositions to stand out in quality or cost compared to competitors, always in the context of meeting the customer's specific business needs.
Actions you can take
Align and prioritise
Align your Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation SEO, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and content strategies to ensure you rank where it matters. High organic search results are e-commerce essential. Implement content governance and prioritise in-demand products or services for better SEO. Use industry-specific terms in the backend to cater to diverse customer knowledge levels. Inbound links boost credibility and serve as effective B2B marketing, be sure to keep your XML sitemap updated and use SEO tools for auditing and tracking.
Embrace programmatic Account Based Marketing (ABM) for personalised B2B messaging. Consistency in user experiences drives loyalty and conversions. Account management personalizes content. Design Systems ensure consistency and mobile optimisation for SEO. Optimise for mobile and alternative devices due to varied purchasing channels.
Use Google Ads geo-targeting to bridge online and in-store experiences for nearby customers and local SEO enhances visibility in map listings. Implement multi-language content management for global reach and include geolocation features, native currency forecasting, and local sizing data for international strategies.
54% of US and UK marketers expect to spend more on content creation and strategy in 2023 (Integrate and Demand Metric, 2023)
Focus and engage
Focus on the customer discovery phase in B2B e-commerce. The landscape is evolving rapidly with more touchpoints in the buyer's journey (according to McKinsey, touchpoints have doubled since 2016!). Buyers access your site through various channels like emails, in-person interactions, phone calls, supplier websites, mobile apps, and more. Align your content with these touchpoints and capture data on buying preferences and behaviours to better match products with customer needs. Retail Media Networks (RMNs) leverage customer data for advertising and enhance traffic across digital and physical stores.
B2B firms should develop sales channels and social media strategies, including one-click checkout and mobile-friendly product catalogues. For many customers, the preferred point of sale is shifting, from in-stores to e-commerce and into nearly all social media platforms and mobile apps. In the East, the ad-to-purchase funnel has boosted customer engagement and is expected to spread to the US and European markets. Social commerce accelerates the shift from in-store to e-commerce, with 87% of consumers acting after encountering products on social media or websites (Nosto). Leveraging influencer and user-generated content (UGC) plays a valuable role in enhancing customer engagement and advocacy, much like B2C strategies.
The metaverse offers new opportunities for engaging content by online influencers, but brands should carefully consider sustainable revenue growth versus marketing value in this space. The use-case for metaverse investments is yet to be proven (IMRG).
78% of buyers use multiple channels to start and complete a transaction (Salesforce, 2023)
66% of buyers now opt for remote human interactions or digital self-service (McKinsey, 2021)
Consider and convert
Consider the anonymous visitor, who will be the majority, and facilitate frictionless access to remove any barriers to them getting the information they need through a carefully considered navigation and breadcrumb implementation. Converting high-intent anonymous visitors into known ones is a valuable opportunity. Strengthen relationships across application stacks like research, cart, and checkout by offering membership benefits, industry insights, and search guidance. Add competitor comparisons and retargeting ads for improved conversion rates.
For new omnichannel customers, create customer service tickets and send targeted marketing materials to them for a personalised approach to customer success. After-sales services can enhance trust and encourage the sharing of personal details for customisation. Guest checkouts can highlight the benefits of creating a business account, and offering trade credit, discounts, and promotions.
Use ABM tools to identify the visitor's company and personalise based on sector and intent to turn anonymous traffic into valuable leads.
B-2-Be a Winner! Materials Market Case Study
Materials Market has pioneered customer segmentation and building targeted approaches to e-commerce, setting the standard for innovation and customer-centricity. One of the standout features is their bespoke pricing widget (leveraging Configure, Price and Quote (CPQ) technology), utilising innovative machine learning algorithms, empowering customers to customise their pricing options based on product iterations. Customers can instantly see how changes in product specifications impact costs, ensuring transparency and informed decision-making. Furthermore, they have integrated geolocation technology to tailor pricing and delivery options to the specific needs of each customer. This personalised approach enhances the customer experience, fostering trust and loyalty.
To ensure that customers can easily find the products they need, Market Materials employs a robust SEO strategy. They utilise different keywords in the backend of their website to optimise search engine visibility for a wide range of customer segment key search terms, ensuring that their products rank organically. Upon landing on the Market Materials website, visitors are immediately greeted with clear signposts highlighting the benefits of creating a trade account. This encourages more customers to register and access exclusive features, fostering long-term relationships and repeat business. They also frame the supplier account set-up call-to-action and portals on their landing page; this approach caters to their diverse customer base, empowering suppliers to manage their interactions seamlessly while fostering a sense of partnership. Finally, trade credit and purchasing options are prominently displayed on the landing page, allowing customers to make informed decisions about their buying process. This transparency builds trust and provides convenience for customers, further confirming Market Materials' reputation as a customer-centric platform.
Market Materials strategically displays top product categories and bestsellers on their homepage, simplifying the product discovery process for customers. Customers can also easily navigate through various product verticals via their sub-page navigation feature. This intuitive navigation system ensures that customers can quickly find the products they need, increasing sales and customer satisfaction. Featuring a carousel of trusted brands bolsters their credibility and reliability in the eyes of customers and instils confidence in the quality and authenticity of their offerings. Additionally, having bulk discounts as a navigation option empowers buyers to make cost-effective purchases when ordering in larger quantities. They also provide options to view prices inclusive of VAT, simplifying the purchasing process for customers further.
For customers who require assistance, Market Materials offers a virtual buying assistant alongside contact information to reach sales representatives and customer services. This demonstrates their dedication to providing exceptional support and guidance throughout the purchasing journey. Industry-verified reviews are displayed prominently, highlighting the positive feedback from satisfied customers. This transparency reinforces their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.
Give reasons to engage and repurchase
Provide engaging ways to evidence your value!
E-commerce goes beyond transactions; it's about personalization for early adopters. To enhance retail competition, deploy tools that understand visitor engagement patterns and drive targeted actions within your Total Addressable Market (TAM). As customer demographics evolve, digital natives are taking on decision-making roles.
Website visitors seek clear, concise information; otherwise, they "bounce." Monitoring bounce rates is crucial for success. To lower bounce rates, streamline the checkout process and reduce clicks. Display product specs and promotions tailored to visitor needs for an engaging user experience.
Offer industry insights and regulatory updates through email subscriptions. This undervalued strategy also collects user data and prompts return visits. Use email to guide actions, encouraging B2B buyers to explore content, download materials, and reach out. Ensure email content remains relevant to maintain subscriptions, respecting customer preferences.
Leverage insights from bounce rates to create personalised experiences that inform and reward engagement with relevance and evidence.
Actions you can take
Consider and deliver
Consider the first interaction on your website - it should reward visitors who have moved from the stages of discovery, investigation, and consideration. Landing pages must serve a clear purpose by providing relevant product information tailored to the visitors' needs and specifications, based on an understanding of customer personas. Implement pagination for smoother B2B customer navigation.
Consistency in presenting product information is vital across all channels, whether it's in the marketplace, distributor, or partner channels. The completeness of product detail pages is critical to avoid surging returns and reductions in trust. Focus on optimising product pages over the homepage, including category merchandising and automated product bundles, as these areas offer opportunities to highlight innovative features, boost conversion rates, and create valuable user experiences.
To enhance the browsing experience, consider smart bar navigation and logical architectures. While these elements can provide additional information, be mindful of their impact on visitor exploration and engagement. Prevent hindrance by offering automated product suggestions based on items in the visitor's cart and facilitating the retention of certain products while adding others.
Your website should act as a fast-loading, high-performing digital storefront. Use storytelling to craft compelling messages that showcase the improvements your products and services have brought to other customers and business cases. Tailor all content to be industry-specific, using universal descriptions and keywords to cater to both experienced and first-time buyers, which will improve your firm's ranking in organic search results.
Diversify your content with captivating elements like animations, videos, webinars, audio, and live streaming to enhance information delivery, increase visitor touchpoints, and boost conversion rates.
51% of shoppers said product knowledge is the top aspect of service (Manhattan, 2022)
Specify and deploy
Specify digital tools that offer relevant information based on visitor inputs. Investing in Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) ensures consistency across multiple touchpoints, facilitating personalised experiences. A DXP is essentially an integrated platform comprising various technologies like content management, marketing automation, Customer Data Platform (CDP), and API layers. DXPs present an excellent opportunity to enhance Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bridging communication gaps, and increasing transparency, security, and client support. Incorporate technologies like Digital Asset Management (DAM) software to enhance asset accessibility across the firm.
Customer Data Platforms (CDP), typically used in marketing, can be integrated with CRM providers via available APIs or integrations to gather behavioural data on client interactions, offering a comprehensive view of each customer. This improves product innovation and enhances personalised customer services and purchasing experiences. Data from CDPs can be utilised for CRM retargeting strategies.
Other noteworthy digital tools gaining traction are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Implementing tools like Augmented Reality (AR) and 3D visualisation can significantly boost conversion rates and Configure Price Quote (CPQ) solutions enable real-time product configuration. These tools can be further enhanced through machine learning, offering tailored experiences.
AI personalisation tracks customer journeys and recommends products based on digital footprints. It also provides real-time predictive analysis of demand trends and integrates AI image recognition to streamline product search. Adjacent AI-powered products expand the user base. Web accessibility solutions improve the user experience for people with disabilities, and ML translation systems enhance digital experiences across different geolocations.
Virtual Retail Assistants aid customer success teams by handling low-level inquiries, reducing response times, and improving customer relationships. This can help decrease inbound inquiries and streamline the user experience. Despite the increasing complexity of digital products, focusing on the customer experience and simple integration can make the process relatively straightforward with the right team.
Over 60% of B2B decision-makers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service (McKinsey,2022)
Keep and process
Keep and delay purchase requests until the decision-making stage. Prioritise nurturing interest with engaging experiences that maintain customer freedom. In B2B e-commerce, the shift from traditional payment methods, like invoices, to digital options is essential. Offer online payment gateways, cash flow management solutions, and even blockchain-based alternatives for faster and more secure transactions, enhancing trust and encouraging larger purchases.
Subscription-based and recurring revenue models, such as software-as-a-service solutions, are gaining popularity. They provide predictable income streams and foster long-term customer relationships. Combine online and in-store payment data in a unified commerce system to optimise conversions with seamless payments and authentication.
To facilitate onboarding and purchases, build and integrate secure payment options with third-party solutions, employing serverless payment processing or Merchant of Records. Ensure top-level security for customer data and financial information through SSL encryption and up-to-date software maintenance.
For repeat customers, monitor purchase times and analyse average purchase time data to inform communication strategies for sales teams. Reach out to customers around churn time to reengage and promote repurchases. This strategy streamlines purchasing journeys, aids supply chain and inventory management, and increases sales volumes and retention rates. AI can complement this data analysis by offering insights into the best times to target customers for restocking and product replenishment.
70% of B2B decision makers say they are open to making new, fully self-serve or remote purchases of more than $50,000, and 27% would spend more than $500,000. (McKinsey, 2022)
B-2-Be a Winner! Trox Technik Case Study
In the rapidly evolving B2B e-commerce sphere, Trox Technik stands as a shining example of how innovative technology can redefine the way businesses interact with their customers. Specialising in building technologies, Trox Technik has revolutionised the industry by offering highly made-to-order product variations through a sophisticated online product finder and configurator. The TROX Easy Product Finder design program is notable for detailed product information content and delivery, providing a seamless experience for customers to explore Trox Technik's extensive product range while ensuring compatibility with their unique project needs. Furthermore, the navigation of industry-specific product categorisation allows customers to quickly find what they need and make informed decisions.
The myTROX website increases customisation by offering key information such as expected delivery times, and pricing details and an online configurator for product lifecycle consumption and costs is another unique offering. This level of transparency and flexibility is a significant change in B2B e-commerce, enhancing their reputation and empowering customers by reducing the uncertainty associated with traditional procurement methods through forecasting and cost management. Additionally, Trox Technik's online fault reporting system ensures that customers can easily report and resolve issues, reducing downtime and improving customer satisfaction. This digital approach to issue management highlights their commitment to a seamless customer experience.
Building Information Modelling (BIM) has also been integrated into their e-commerce platform. BIM allows for the creation of a digital model of the building, incorporating all relevant data for design, construction, and management. The BIM digital tool ensures that all parties involved have access to accurate and up-to-date data. Through BIM, schedules and costs can be calculated with greater precision to streamline the entire construction process. Additionally, Trox Technik has introduced the TROX HFS+V (Hands, Face, Space + Ventilation) calculator, this innovative tool helps determine whether sufficient protection is provided in various premises based on industry specifications. It underlines Trox Technik's knowledge of industry standards while leveraging technology to simplify complex calculations.
Onboard with excellence
Streamline the purchase process and create a foundation for more!
After the decision on products or services is made, the opportunity multiplies. While maintaining relevance, you can gather more customer information to sell additional products or after-sales services. Understanding their needs can open doors for further offerings. To prevent disjointed customer experiences and hindered brand recognition, maintain consistent omnichannel communication. Keep clients informed about their position in the purchasing process and the reasons why. Always preserve information across touchpoints and enable smooth re-entry if needed. Implement real-time purchasing and onboarding processes or consider technology partnerships and e-commerce platforms, ensuring thorough due diligence to align services with objectives.
Challenges arise when dealing with outdated legacy applications that hinder integration and user-friendliness. Legacy Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) are often culprits, limiting integrations with carriers, marketplaces, and Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs). Such disjointed systems result in inaccurate inventory data, leading to overselling or stockouts, inefficiency, increased costs, and negative revenue impact.
Actions you can take
Deploy and invest
Deploy and implement software and applications to enhance your product offerings. Traceability systems can foster trust and credibility with customers, justifying premium pricing. Real-time interaction and collaboration tools like client, e-procurement, and supplier portal solutions increase transparency in current purchases, licenses, contract management, and support requests.
Product Information Management (PIM) software enhances internal operations by updating omnichannel data, text, and images. This ensures that data from suppliers and other systems is readily available to customers. PIM solutions maintain robust data governance throughout the product journey, connecting marketplaces, web stores, shipping carriers, ERP, WMS, and experience portals in real time. This increases transparency and clarity across organisations, and end-to-end processes across the customer lifecycle, enabling better customer services to build loyalty, minimise returns and lower costs; all whilst delivering high-value, personalised customer experiences. Additionally, it facilitates in-depth reporting and analysis for informed purchasing decisions.
Accurate product data enhances the e-commerce experience, in-store interactions, and control over product information on Google, while also improving reporting capabilities. Inconsistent product information can confuse customers, result in purchase hesitations, and contribute to higher return rates. Incorrect keywords and industry jargon hinder product discovery and reduce cart conversions.
Furthermore, this transformation streamlines business silos like shipping, returns, and inventory management. ERP software provides on-demand access to critical information, including real-time inventory levels, and offers robust sales demand forecasting capabilities. Real-time inventory monitoring ensures optimal stock levels are maintained, reducing the likelihood of missed sales opportunities.
Separate and innovate
Separate customers from painful legacy systems and processes that provide a negative first impression of becoming a customer. Optimise sites to be fast-loading, use caching and minimise HTTP requests in the short-term, before discussing new technological investments. Investment into system integrators or conducting intricate integration applications themselves remains a frequent issue for B2B firms trying to integrate their legacy systems. Retailers should pivot towards modular and API solutions to break legacy monolithic platforms and access flexible data models. With data via APIs, the platform can support interoperability with customer, product, content, and order functionality.
Depending on the products sold, further digital products, composable commercial stacks and exposed APIs have been integrated across leading B2B e-commerce players. Leverage these Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless (MACH) architecture stacks for modernising the backend commerce architecture to power unique e-commerce, order management, and marketplace solutions. Cloud-native architectures have the auto-scaling capabilities to increase capacity during increased traffic periods and can reduce the complexity and cost of in-house IT infrastructures and heavy-duty data centre operations.
With composable commerce, companies can enable user-friendly digital functionalities sources from specialists. However, since the rapid B2B business transformation following Covid 19 and the lack of upfront investment, we have seen growth in an attractive “end-to-end” solution package over composability. Companies can do both – depending on the levels of customisability and commodity features wanted, such as ERP and WMS.
By 2025, organizations offering a unified commerce experience by frictionlessly moving customers through journeys will see at least a 20% uplift in total revenue. (Gartner, 2023)
B2B buyers also are not as concerned about loyalty: 90% of B2B buyers would turn to a competitor if a supplier’s digital channel could not keep up with their needs. (Wunderman Thompson, 2021)
Prompt and promote
Prompt new customers to provide reviews and streamline the process for them, offering valuable evidence for potential clients. A substantial 46% of customers, both in the B2B and B2C sectors, value customer reviews the most as a source of information (IMRG). Positive reviews can motivate prospective customers to convert and provide insights into industry players and competitor strategies. However, in times of inflationary pressure and tighter budgets, B2B customer loyalty often wanes as they seek more cost-effective alternatives.
Hence, it's crucial to measure and target customer retention and conversion rates as significantly as customer acquisition. Integrate customer reviews into annual performance reviews, using digital tools for real-time feedback workflows. Implement multilingual, multichannel, culturally sensitive customer support initiatives to enhance satisfaction and engagement. Monitor the customer's journey for feedback opportunities at each touchpoint, eliminating the need for tedious end-of-case review submissions. Additionally, establish processes to analyse third-party seller performance, identify price violations, and to safeguard your brand against potential grey sellers.
B-2-Be a Winner! Dell Case Study
Dell has established itself as a pioneer in the B2B e-commerce sphere, leading the way in customer-centricity, technological expertise, and self-service capabilities. What sets Dell apart is its commitment to the consumerisation of IT, underpinned by customisation.
Dell's Premier serves a diverse customer persona, from medium-sized businesses to multinational corporations. The self-service capabilities include the creation of standard configurations for Dell products and access to quotes online 24/7 through a self-serve Quote-to-Order solution, eliminating manual steps in the traditional procurement process. Dell's substantial investments in electronic data interchange (EDI) and API platforms have resulted in seamless connections, real-time data exchange, and enhanced interoperability between businesses and Dell's e-commerce ecosystem.
PremierConnect seamlessly integrates ERP and procurement systems with the customised Dell catalogue, making these integrations accessible to both direct customers and third-party trading partners. Firms can securely shop a catalogue customised with their standards and pricing directly from their procurement system and receive the contents of each shopping session electronically. Electronic purchase orders integrate seamlessly into Dell's order management system, reducing order cycle times and improving order accuracy. This approach also saves organisations money and reduces the hassle by virtually eliminating time-consuming and error-prone double entry of order information.
Dell recognises that expert guidance and support are often essential in technological procurement and offers businesses access to a team of experts, including product specialists, engineers, and technicians. This readily available support equips businesses to make well-informed decisions regarding their investments, secure in the knowledge that a team of Dell experts is at their disposal. This allows teams to focus on their core operations while experts provide valuable B2B integration assistance. Additionally, Dell ProConsult Services are accessible in the U.S. and Canada, with Dell's technical teams available on-site to assist in deploying any phase of the eProcurement solution.
Deploying, installing, and configuring technology solutions can be an intimidating task and offering comprehensive integration services ensures seamless integration of technology solutions, reducing downtime, and facilitating a smooth transition to new systems. Moreover, it provides support for multiple currencies and countries, and the catalogues and product offerings are entirely customer-defined. Dell goes a step further by offering flexible financing options, including leasing and financing programs. These options enable businesses to acquire the technology they need without a large upfront investment, making advanced technology solutions accessible and manageable for businesses of all sizes. As an added capability, firms can receive electronic invoicing.
Serve with intelligence
Individualise the experience and turn customers into advocates!
The primary goal is to ensure the satisfaction of existing customers, followed by leveraging digital experiences to enhance the value of services or products. The third goal is to replicate this satisfaction with new customers. To achieve this, it's vital to make customers aware of their successes and provide them with a platform to share and celebrate these achievements. Understand what other competitors are purchasing next and why, and promptly and accurately communicate this information through multiple channels.
Empowering customers to feel knowledgeable and validated in their purchase decisions not only increases revenue and customer tenure but also offers prospective buyers evidence to make similar choices. However, in cases involving large, complex negotiations and transactions, frequent confidentiality agreements are common. This can limit the use of extensive review landing pages in SaaS or service-oriented B2B e-commerce firms, particularly when compared to other product industries and sectors. Furthermore, longer B2B sales cycles reduce the pool of recent and recurring customers. As a result, many companies underestimate the influence that existing and past clients can have on the decision-making processes of future clients.
Actions you can take
Ask and research
Ask for feedback from clients to enhance the customer experience. Negative reviews offer valuable insights for innovation and incremental improvements, contributing to a stronger business case for website usability and performance enhancements. Reviews also play a pivotal role in managing customer retention and optimizing conversion rates, bolstering key performance indicators. Highlight positive reviews through PR and marketing campaigns, press releases, and review banners to leverage customer feedback as a marketing asset.
This approach aligns with the development of Customer Empathy Maps, facilitating a deeper understanding of the user interface and website service offering. It presents opportunities to maximise results.
In B2B scenarios, where clients might be cautious about sharing business information, transparency regarding data processing is vital. Reward clients who provide data with exclusive offers, discounts, rewards, and early access to new products to foster loyalty.
Research industry-specific review sites that clients use during their purchase journey, especially crucial for heavily regulated or high-investment industries. Clients in these sectors rely on verified reviews to make informed decisions and gauge a business's success.
In a recent Forrester Consulting survey of more than 200 B2B directors with purchasing power—49% of whom were millennials—at least half said they typically researched a supplier’s business and client reviews online before ever accepting a meeting with them. (Deloitte, 2023)
Provide and persuade
Provide a platform for clients to share their views - it's a clear signal for improvement. After client intake, utilise various feedback mechanisms like post-purchase feedback forms, push notifications (e.g., chat-based SMS surveys), Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys, and client satisfaction surveys to reduce email and "Where Is My Order" (WISMO) calls. Internally, ensure support and customer success teams can handle feedback with agility and diplomacy, armed with purchase history, customer details, and the ability to add notes and tags to tickets for every call. This approach ensures confident and efficient handling of all issues.
To grow e-commerce market share, prioritise client-centric solutions. Direct communication and personalisation by sales, account teams, and marketing can foster relationships and rapport, prioritising the emotional value of being valued as a customer over discussing prices and discounts. Displaying case studies and B2B customer feedback showcases your work's value and the success of your clients.
Analyse and act
Analyse obtainable data for relevance and prioritize a Customer Data Platform (CDP) if necessary. Traditional, in-person sales models make data accumulation and quantitative analysis challenging, and as a result, analytics remains the most attractive tech tool for retailers (IMRG). Aligning data across marketing, customer success, product, and HR is crucial for revenue growth throughout the customer life cycle.
Leverage CDP and data analytics for holistic customer insights to fuel new business campaigns and product strategies, improving engagement, relationships, and conversion rates. This involves understanding customer preferences, top-performing products, and potential opportunities. First-party data drives informed decisions for growth while machine-learning algorithms predict likely product purchases based on historical data.
Deliver personalised messaging and real-time order updates, similar to B2C customer experiences. Integrate multiple carriers' tracking formats seamlessly to ensure accurate tracking data for domestic, international, and 'less than truckload freight shipping' (LTL) depending on shipping needs. Timely support is vital to prevent confusion and ensure visibility during delays or exceptional situations. Inaccurate and delayed tracking can lead to customer frustration and lower online ratings. But remember, consistently maintain clean data for informed suggestions, as working with incomplete data can do more harm than good.
B-2-Be a Winner! Amazon Case Study
Amazon has firmly established itself as a leader in the B2B e-commerce sector, driven by its commitment to improving the B2B and B2B2C customer experience and offering data-driven insights to its sellers. The pivotal factors that have contributed to Amazon's success include the extensive brand analytic features and comprehensive customer feedback and review opportunities.
Built on collaborative filtering, Amazon’s system creates detailed B2B user profiles by analysing past purchases, browsing history, and touchpoint call-to-actions. These profiles enable Amazon to recommend products that closely match individual preferences and the preferences of similar users, thereby personalising the experience and fostering loyalty. Amazon's Brand Analytics feature proves invaluable to registered brands engaged in B2B sales as it equips brands with an array of reports and metrics for data-driven decision-making. Key reports and features, such as the Amazon Search Terms Report, Demographics Report, and Market Basket Report, further cater to the B2B audience by highlighting information on customer search behaviour, demographics, and product bundling opportunities. In addition, recognising the significance of third-party sellers, Amazon offers tools like the Search Catalog Performance Dashboard, which enables sellers to compare their products with those of other brands, and the Alternate Purchase Report, helping sellers understand B2B customer preferences. These value-adding products include improving product visibility by optimising ads and keywords, helping sellers gain a competitive edge by identifying gaps in the product portfolio and boosting sales through strategic pricing and effective advertising. Therefore, for B2B sellers, the user-friendly interface provided by Amazon's Brand Analytics is critical in translating data into actionable insights.
Furthermore, Amazon extends its reach in the B2B sector by providing dedicated customer service representatives. To maintain the quality of its B2B marketplace, Amazon leverages customer feedback and reviews. The Amazon Verified Purchases label ensures that reviews come from real purchasers, guaranteeing authenticity. Furthermore, seller feedback plays a crucial role in evaluating merchant quality, particularly for third-party resellers competing with identical products.
