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In today’s competitive world, it’s vital for Business-to-Business (B2B) sales teams to offer their clients every opportunity available to order their products, learn about their offerings, and connect with their brand. And that means having a comprehensive B2B eCommerce strategy that takes full advantage of modern technology.
If you’re thinking of using eCommerce to reach more B2B customers, rest assured that the benefits are many. In this post, we’ve outlined the following key benefits of taking a thoughtful approach to B2B eCommerce in 2024.
1. Greater scalability and growth
2. Enhanced customer experience
3. Improved brand recognition
4. Minimal / Reduced B2B marketing costs
5. Reduced operational costs
6. Higher order value and volume
7. Flexible payment options
8. Automation in sales & processes
9. Analytics and data-driven insights
10. Access to customer feedback
11. Faster, cheaper deliveries
12. Access to new markets
13. Keep up with the competition
14. Omnichannel Experience with Multisite Capability
Let’s dive into each of these benefits so you can choose the right eCommerce-based B2B sales strategy for your business.
1. Greater Scalability and Growth
One of eCommerce’s strongest advantages compared to traditional sales is its tremendous scalability. While traditional B2B sales efforts require extra labor, more raw materials, and sometimes additional showrooms or other physical resources as they grow, B2B companies can expand quickly with fewer expenses and less effort.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you need to abandon more traditional efforts—it’s simply another highly effective sales channel for reaching B2B buyers!
Scalability and its associated increases in profitability are two major reasons why B2B eCommerce is poised to grow by 14.5 CAGR over the next two years, according to a 2024 report by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
2. Enhanced Customer Experience
This may come as a surprise, but B2B eCommerce sales offer an opportunity to improve brand awareness through having a greater online presence. That’s because online sales have buyers interacting with B2B business brands at multiple touchpoints throughout the consumer journey.
All the data you can gather from buyers using a B2B eCommerce solution means you’ll have additional opportunities for customized marketing campaigns (as mentioned above), cross-selling, upselling, and more.
The advertising industry uses the word “impression” to describe the number of times a potential consumer is exposed to a brand. It takes a certain number of impressions before someone becomes comfortable enough with your brand to make a purchase, and even more impressions (and positive ones) to build loyalty.
3. Improved Brand Recognition
This may come as a surprise, but B2B eCommerce sales offer an opportunity to improve brand awareness through having a greater online presence. That’s because online sales have buyers interacting with B2B business brands at multiple touchpoints throughout the consumer journey.
All the data you can gather from buyers using a B2B eCommerce solution means you’ll have additional opportunities for customized marketing campaigns (as mentioned above), cross-selling, upselling, and more.
The advertising industry uses the word “impression” to describe the number of times a potential consumer is exposed to a brand. It takes a certain number of impressions before someone becomes comfortable enough with your brand to make a purchase, and even more impressions (and positive ones) to build loyalty.
4. Reduced B2B Marketing Costs
A B2B eCommerce strategy can help reduce marketing costs in various ways. Traditional B2B sales often involve heavy outbound sales and expensive advertising campaigns, while eCommerce allows you to use numerous digital marketing tools.
Different types of eCommerce software and their associated plugins can help with:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Customer Experience (CX) personalization
- Customer data and analytics for informed decision-making
- Data to support email marketing
- Client Relationships Management (CRM) software integration
- And much, much more
Just as digital commerce isn’t intended to replace more traditional B2B sales efforts entirely, you will likely continue to rely on more traditional marketing channels to reach potential customers. This makes for a healthy combination of traditional marketing and digital marketing through your online store.
5. Reduced Operational Costs
A high-quality B2B eCommerce website can help you serve the B2B eCommerce market more efficiently, especially when you integrate it with your Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) software.
Connecting your online sales portal with your ERP can help with supply chain management, inventory management, optimizing fulfillment, and more.
Addressing customer needs and optimizing workflows that take customers from order to fulfillment can improve the buying experience and overall customer satisfaction.
6. Higher Order Value and Volume
A quality B2B platform and eCommerce site can help you increase order value and volume through better marketing and personalization informed by each customer’s order history.
Traditional sales can simply not gather and process the volume of data that an eCommerce platform can, and having an online platform provide this data can help sales representatives understand their customer base even better. In the end, this can lead to increased sales and customer engagement for more traditional, in-person sales efforts.
7. Flexible Payment Options
A quality B2B eCommerce website allows various payment options, from purchase orders to credit cards.
Plus, self-service ordering options make it easier for customers to place orders. This is just another customer-centric feature of a well-developed B2B eCommerce approach, and it will engender loyalty and boost business.
8. Automation in Sales & Processes
B2B sales often deals with large, complex orders. The more you can automate the process, from start to finish, the lower your operations costs and the greater your odds of getting each order right.
Digital transformation allows all kinds of businesses to automate the order process through seamless integration with ERPs and other software. It also helps with fulfillment by providing real-time information to distributors and wholesalers and makes reorders easier.
Automation streamlines the sales process in countless ways, and it’s only possible through an eCommerce approach to B2B sales.
9. Analytics and Data-driven Insights
Every customer interaction, from website visits to sales to support requests, offers a massive volume of data that can support your B2B sales and marketing efforts. This data can provide valuable insights into things like:
- Customer behavior
- New customer conversions
- Upselling opportunities
- Effective marketing techniques
- Regional data for comparative market analysis
- And much more
Leading platforms like Adobe Commerce even include AI tools that help you find insights within your data that you may never find on your own. It’s a brave new world!
10. Access to Customer Feedback
Gathering customer feedback is essential for improving products and customer service, and eCommerce provides an ideal venue for collecting that feedback. Including on-page surveys and automated feedback forms via email is easier with an eCommerce approach.
Once you gather the data, your analytics tools (see above) can help you analyze it and use AI to spot patterns.
11. Faster, Cheaper Deliveries
A fully automated and integrated approach to eCommerce can help expedite delivery through automation and seamless communication to all parties involved.
For example, imagine an eCommerce website that communicates directly with warehouse inventory to ensure that product quantities are available at the time of purchase. Then, rather than having someone send an email or make a phone call to coordinate the shipment, everyone from warehouse employees to shippers knows exactly what to do.
A more efficient system reduces costs and helps companies optimize their business processes, leading to happy customers and increased profits.
12. Access to New Markets around the World
B2B Sales teams are often stationed in their headquarters or scattered throughout a country or region. Since B2B sales are often complex, companies can’t simply staff order-takers worldwide, serving every time zone.
By contrast, B2B eCommerce sales open up markets in time zones on the opposite side of the world. After all, your website is operational 24/7, 365 days per year.
These new customers may need an account executive to meet with them occasionally or communicate via email, but giving them immediate access to place orders anytime opens a whole host of opportunities.
13. Keep up with the Competition
Keeping up with the competition is essential. As more B2B companies offer an eCommerce option, keeping up will be harder for those who stay behind.
Considering all the eCommerce benefits we’ve listed in this post, from a smoother ordering process to personalization, it’s safe to assume that laggards will struggle to keep customers engaged and loyal.
Customization alone could be a deal breaker, considering a recent McKinsey report that found 71% of customers expect companies to deliver personalized experiences, and 76% of those customers get frustrated when companies fail to do so.
14. Omnichannel Experience with Multisite Capability
There are many ways to send a message worldwide, place an order, follow up on fulfillment, or get support. Successful companies meet their customers where they are rather than making prospects and customers jump through hoops to get things done.
Whether your clients prefer email, texting, communicating through your website, messaging via WhatsApp, or other channels, a well-designed eCommerce platform helps them reach you on their terms. That means more business, less churn, and higher profits.
What Are the Challenges of B2B eCommerce?
While developing a strong B2B eCommerce strategy is key to success today, doing it right is essential—and there are a number of ways a business might struggle. Identifying some of those challenges in advance will help you address and overcome them, so we’ve outlined some common challenges along with tips for addressing them.
Maintaining customer relationships
B2B sales success often relies heavily on building relationships with clients, and ordering online may remove the human connection from the equation. While your goal with eCommerce is to make ordering, tracking, and getting help easier, it’s no substitute for relationships.
How to address this challenge: Ensure that account executives remain attentive to customer needs and work to connect with clients on a regular basis with phone calls, video chats, and client visits. Also, if a client doesn’t want to order online, don’t force them to do so. Give them the option to place orders the old-fashioned way to keep them coming back.
Choosing the right technology
The technology stack you use to support your eCommerce efforts will be critical to your success, and your ideal choices will depend on your specific needs. Those needs include things like customization requirements, specific features, scalability needs, and more. Everything from the cloud platform you choose to your eCommerce platform will impact your odds of success.
How to address this challenge: If you’re unsure of your technology needs, reach out to an experienced outsourcing provider. Look for someone with plenty of experience building custom eCommerce websites, and look for case studies and testimonials to back up their claims.
Cybersecurity and protecting client data
Cybersecurity is key to protecting your business and keeping your clients’ data safe. Ignoring security risks can sink a business or even lead to personal liability for a company’s officers if they’re found negligent.
How to address this challenge: Employ all the established protocols for cybersecurity and data protection best practices. If you need help, consult a team of professionals with extensive cybersecurity experience.
Looking to Develop or Optimize Your B2B eCommerce Strategy?
Net Solutions has been developing software for leaders like the Harvard Business Review for nearly a quarter century, and we’ve got extensive experience creating B2B eCommerce websites that support powerful strategies.
From Euro Car Parts to Bonds of London, we’ve helped leaders in the B2B space to take full advantage of everything eCommerce technology offers—including the latest B2B eCommerce trends.
