You’ll need digital business builders when your B2B e-commerce shop builders have done their job.
Digital sales are not from a different universe. It requires supply and demand – and logistics in between. It might be tempting to deep-dive into the technical implementation and integration and forget the one most crucial success element: ONLY DEMAND MAKES MONEY.
Would you leave your daily business in the hands of construction workers? Plumbers and electricians are experts in their field but running a shop and serving customers isn’t their core competence. Why think about e-commerce differently?
Go digital or die
There’s no alternative: you must go digital. Gartner predicts that by 2025, organisations offering a unified e-commerce experience by smoothly moving customers through journeys will see at least a 20 % uplift in total revenue. e-commerce is not black or white – on or off. There are various shades of how digital is good for your business.
E-commerce operations focus on reducing friction during the digital purchase process and maximising the economic outcome of your novel sales channels by boosting efficiency at a lower cost. According to Forrester, the B2B e-commerce market in the US alone will be worth 2 trillion USD in 2023. Compared to their expectation of “just” 736 billion USD for global B2C by 2023, B2B is far larger and a financially more significant market. (www.forrester.com/press-newsroom)
B2B companies must avoid thinking that digital is simply a shop & order page. It’s not about real-time ERP integration, inconsistent product data, or headless platforms. Instead, they need to see it as an end-to-end customer experience seamlessly combining your solutions, distributors, salespeople, and contact centres.
Revenue flow begins with demand generation
No shop sells anything without customers. Your e-commerce solutions require expertise to drive awareness and action towards selling your product or service electronically. That’s no different from traditional channels: tools and methods are just different. Still, it requires using conventional and digital media, social channels, digital content, search engines, and email campaigns to attract visitors and facilitate purchases online.
As said, streamlining purchasing experience needs to focus on gaps – points of friction where digital customers drop out. Assessment of abandoned cart rates demonstrates the minefields you’ve built along the journey. The intuitiveness of the process is missing.
Analytics is the key success factor. The right analytics should extract and interpret data from various sources, including customer demographics, buying history, and social media activity. Using the data should offer insight into shopping behaviour and frictionless process.
Keep them coming back
Good B2B business keeps customers returning, maximising the opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. Optimising the inventory, promotions, and intertwining product bundles can keep your stock circulating efficiently and accumulate profits.
Our colleagues at BBN Finland focus on running your digital business and leaving construction work to others.
Find out more https://www.luxidgroup.com/solutions#sales-solutions
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About the authorTimo Kruskopf is a founding member of Luxid, BBN Finland. Timo has built branding and communications strategies for several domestic and international companies. He now leads in the agency as a senior strategic planner, customer experience developer and contact strategy developer. |
