To scale your B2B business, it is now essential to develop a digital commerce strategy. B2B eCommerce sites, log-in portals, and marketplaces had a 17.8% growth in online sales last year, totaling $1.63 trillion. It’s not going to slow down any time soon. According to Gartner, B2B organizations that provide digital commerce as part of their products will generate 30% more income than their rivals by 2023.
Businesses in the B2B sector should consider adopting an omnichannel strategy, which means that consumers get the same high-quality service and experience regardless of whatever sales channel they choose. By doing this, you may increase client loyalty, bring in new customers, and generate more income from eCommerce, as predicted by 86% of the sellers surveyed in Digital Commerce 360s 2022 B2B Seller Survey. To help you construct your B2B eCommerce strategy, here are five things you should keep in mind.
1. Mimic a B2C transaction experience in B2B
B2B purchasers anticipate a B2C-like transaction experience with the advent of “click-to-purchase” buy buttons that circumvent the conventional shopping cart procedure.
If you don’t use buy buttons, you’ll spend more than a minute longer on the checkout process, according to Pymnts’ study. When it comes to a thoroughly integrated payment strategy, the purchase button is only the beginning.
As a result, the payment process is silently in the background—the payment is incorporated directly into applications or platforms—to accommodate digital-first consumers. Ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber are excellent examples of this on the B2C side. The transaction is completed when the passenger exits the vehicle after their journey.
Embedded payments enable B2B firms of any size to maintain a flawless checkout experience for buyers since the financial services they need to access—payments, invoicing, and billing—are all in one single spot. Improved cash flow and client loyalty can help retailers save money in the long run.
2. Optimize your payment site by using RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
Providing credit card payment alternatives may be sufficient for occasional or one-time customers. Bills from many suppliers and portals on the purchaser’s side may be daunting for many B2B enterprises. In my experience, payments are often delayed or mishandled when a buyer only accepts invoices posted to a customized invoicing site. As a result of this investment, B2B buyers and sellers are no longer expected to manually conduct back-office chores such as extracting data, filling out forms, or transferring files. Adding data, such as PO numbers, to invoices and integrating them into procure-to-pay and enterprise resource planning systems is also facilitated.
3. Offer more flexible payment options, like buy now, pay later (BNPL), and trade credit
Embedded payments that let customers interact and transact on their terms have the potential to be among the most successful.
For B2B buyers who are looking for the same kind of online transaction, BNPL growth has recently been on a high. As with B2C, BNPL (purchasing with the intent to pay overtime in installments or on credit) has a similar concept, but the number of stakeholders involved (procurement team, accounts payable department, budget owner) and the resources required to meet their specific needs differs significantly from that of B2B.
In addition, B2B purchasers that choose the BNPL option make bigger, capital purchases, such as buying 50 computers from Best Buy for a school, which changes the use case.
Merchants and manufacturers have a wide range of alternatives for trade credit—i.e., customers may get daily, weekly, or monthly invoices and pay on terms that they choose.
However, the final aim is always the same, regardless of how the invoice frequency, net terms, and percentage of payments are determined. With your more flexible payment choices, you wish to help your B2B customers better manage their cash flow. If you had the option of 30-, 60-, or 90-day periods for invoicing, 82% of TreviPay’s customers would select one vendor over another.
4. You need to understand your B2B customers’ loyalties
Competition is intense, and B2B clients may actively search for a new provider if their primary demands are not addressed. 80% of McKinsey’s B2B decision-makers highlighted that a performance guarantee, including a complete refund if a specified performance level is not achieved, is critical to preserving brand loyalty.
Real-time/always-on customer support, product availability, price on the web as well as a consistent shopping experience across channels are all priorities for consumers. It is critical to have open interactions with customers and regularly analyze purchase habits to grasp these brand loyalty metrics.
5. Be mindful of the digital ID swindler
Digital commerce is becoming a significant source of client acquisition as more customers and sellers connect for the first time online. Acquiring a digital-first consumer, however, is fraught with peril due to the abundance of publicly accessible data. Many organizations will have to deal with B2B payments fraud or fraud attempts in 2020, according to a recent poll.
Providing advanced fraud detection methods and having a solid record of risk choices may go a long way toward improving the buyer-seller relationship between organizations. By using data, you may provide rapid credit and decisions.
It’s just a matter of time until digital commerce choices become standard practice in the global economy. According to Digital Commerce 360, 92% of online vendors will be able to provide more sophisticated online shopping experiences in 2022. Your company should also compete with the ever-expanding field of potential buyers.
Cooperative Computing’s goal is to provide your company with a solid digital foothold from which to grow and thrive. Starting with a digital maturity assessment, we will work with you to identify your current digital maturity levels and then will develop effective digital solutions that will help businesses expand faster in today’s digital environment. The time has come. Contact us today to start the discussion.
