b2b e-commerce best practices (pdf)

Taking the WheelDriving Toward B2B E-CommerceIndustry Best Practices

B2B Sales is BeingTransformed

Business models are less durable than they used to be…[they] are subject to rapid displacement, disruption, and, in extreme cases, outright destruction.

The basic rules of creating and capturing economic value were once very rigid. Companies tried to execute the same business models better than their competitors did.

That doesn’t have to be the case anymore. Unlike product and service innovations, business-model innovations travel well from industry to industry.

July 2015

|

The Time for Innovation is Now

The climate for innovation is ripe because the experiences and expectations your customers have at home are being brought to work.

The average age of a B2B buyer is now under 35 years old and that market is beginning to demand a very differentiated experience.

The business that can do this best is going to be in the position to excel financially.

$6.7TAnticipated size of the global online B2B marketplace by 2020

|

Top Line Growth is the Bottom Line

Most organizations have or are in the process of optimizing the costs of their existing operations. For B2B sellers top line growth is the most significant measure of success because it is representative of expanding market share. With online marketplaces chomping at the bit, the industry generally abides by the principle “start growing or die slowly.”

Growth drives more value than cash or margin short term and three-quarters of value long term…but more than half of companies fail to grow or destroy value in the attempt.

|

Experience is the Key to Success

The end customer doesn’t care about channels. Too many B2B organizations take an offline first approach when in reality customers switch seamlessly between channels.

Buyers personal shopping experiences effect their business purchasing preferences. Personalizing their business buying experience is a great way to differentiate yourself.

Great retail sites works because they personalize to how a buyer shops. A great B2B site should personalize to how a buyer works.

50%

of B2B buyers say improved personalization is a key reason they want to work with a supplier

|

Being Easy to Work With is Hard

It’s long been said that people buy from people they like. This has always been true, but the manifestation of this principle takes a very particular form amongst B2B buyers.

B2B buyers buy from companies that make it easy for them to do their job. This is what it means to personalize in a B2B context.

• Automating the ordering process with pre-saved information for order entry, shipping and billing forms

• Automated recommendations based on order history and account status

• Give visibility into order status, transactions, billing, approvals, etc

• Personalized home page based on role, location, contract and buying patterns

• Customized catalogs based on entitlements and contracts

• Personalized alerts, reminders, and email messages about new products, maintenance offers, specials, quotes, orders, invoices, etc

76%

of B2B buyers say finding what they are looking for is the most important factor in a site’s design

74%

want product information available online and across all channels

|

Complexity is Everywhere

It’s not always easy to provide the level of personalization, transparency and self service customers want. 85% of B2B sellers say their ERP system is an important piece of the customer experience puzzle.

This, however, creates a real problem since most B2B organizations are supporting multiple ERPs across multiple locations. Creating contracts, new pricing, onboarding and other core e-commerce activities takes too long. The gap between B2B organizations’ ability to deliver services and the expected speed of those services is widening as B2C experiences continue to get better and faster.

44%

say onboarding, product and price management are too complex

85%

say e-commerce access to the ERP is a vital component in the pursuit of customer satisfaction

|

Now more than ever B2B sellers capabilities are misaligned with B2B buyer’s expectations. The financial impact of this misalignment could be massive given the increasingly competitive landscapes of the various B2B verticals. As the B2B market continues to grow to $6.7 trillion in transactions by 2020, B2B sellers can expect both more opportunity to differentiate themselves and more competition.

As we evaluate the key challenges that B2B organizations will continue to face, the issues can generally be categorized as follows:• Revenue Growth• Customer Experience Management• Complexity Management

To visualize this we have created the wheel you see on the right. The wheel shows the three main challenges facing online B2B sellers and the three levers that can be pulled to address each issue.

Understanding the Problems

Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth

Customer ExperienceManagement

• Site Traffic• Conversion Rate • Average Order Value

• Simplicity• Visibility• Personalization

• Buying Complexity• Selling Complexity• Growth Complexity

|

Pulling the Lever:Site Traffic

The first of several challenges to growing online B2B revenue is simply being found by your target customer base. Some measures indicate that 84% of revenue growth on consumer sites is due to increasing site traffic. There are very few reasons to believe this number is different for B2B.

Since virtually all B2B research is dependent upon search engine results, the key to growing site traffic is to rise in the organic search results. To say it a different way, businesses want to get found in the natural course of buyer research.

71% of search result clicks are organic search results. The bottom line here is that you can’t effectively buy traffic. The single biggest step a company can take to pull the site traffic lever is to improve their search engine ranking by focusing on the exposure of relevant product details in context.

Revenue Growth

This can involve many different activities, but the trick is to think about your products the way a customer would think about them.

Are you customers more likely to search for “galvanized lag bolt” or “3/4 in by 6 in galvanized lag bolt”? There may not be a clear answer to this question, but, generally speaking–the more specific you can be with product data the better off you will be. Here are six other tips to help you grow site traffic:

1. Expose “long tail” product details2. Index every possible dynamic page3. Simplify “crawling” with automatic site maps4. Beautify URLs by making them human-readable5. Keep content up to date with fast indexing6. Push new content to search engines automatically

Site Traffic Conversion Rate Average Order Value Capabilities Required

Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Pulling the Lever:Conversion Rate

The second lever that B2B sellers can pull as it relates to growing revenue is to create a great experience for clients once they get to your site.

The ultimate question in this regard is “can my customers get to the right product quickly?” In order to succeed the answer must be an emphatic yes!

There is a very strong relationship between on-site search and intent to buy. Some studies have determined the impact of site search on conversion rate can be as much as a 50% increase.

Since 30% of visitors use the site search box, B2B sellers have a great opportunity to influence the research and buying cycle by focusing on providing the most relevant search recommendations and create pain free paths to the right products.

Revenue Growth

Helping B2B buyers take the right path to the right product as fast as possible is fundamental to delighting B2B buyers.

There are several capabilities that are essential to enabling this:

1. Propose valid next step with search type ahead2. Present possible matches with spell correction3. Control relevance with product sorting4. Refine product selection with faceted navigation5. Preselect most valid attributes for customers6. Boost customer confidence with product data7. Support research with dynamic rich media


Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Pulling the Lever:Average Order Value

The third lever B2B sellers have at their disposal to help grow revenue is to increase their average order value.

Selling organizations should consider whether they are maximizing the revenue that each of their customers are generating. Two questions to consider are:• Do my customers currently have spend that is going to a competitor and

are we maximizing category spend within my existing customer base?• In other words, are their products my clients are buying somewhere

else and are there opportunities to cross-sell or up-sell products they already buy?

Today, half of B2B buyers expect improved product recommendations. They expect their vendors to understand them and their needs at a deep enough level to make product recommendations.

Revenue Growth

The most successful companies will pull the average order value lever by utilizing customer entitlements, history and site behavior data to make product recommendations more relevant and compelling.

Here are six ways to hone your customer’s buying experience:

1. Present relevant products and content2. Allow rules and context to personalize3. Balance automated and manual content delivery4. Segment customers by any relevant criteria5. Reach buyers according to their preferences6. Leverage history and entitlements in promotions


Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Capabilities Required for Revenue Growth

Revenue Growth

Site Traffic

Average Order Value

Conversion Rate

Site Traffic Conversion Rate Average Order Value

Advanced Indexing

Preference Based Recommendations

Faceted Navigation

URL Beautification

Transaction Based Recommendations

Search Based Merchandising

Automated Site Maps

Segment Based Recommendations

Guided Search

Dynamic Pages

Capabilities RequiredCo

mplex

ityM

anag

emen

t

Revenue Growth


• Site Traffic• Conversion Rate • Average Order Value

|

Pulling the Lever:Simplicity

The area of customer experience management is increasingly central to online sellers’ strategy but what does that practically look like?The answer is threefold: simplicity, visibility and personalization.

The driving force behind simplifying the buying process is to make a B2B buyer’s job easier and in turn make you their vendor of choice. It’s a truism that people like to buy from people they like. That truism applies in B2B e-commerce and when you are easy to work with, people will want to work with you.

• 73% of your customers want automated workflow for approvals because most routine approvals distract from strategically important work

Customer Experience Management

• 74% of buyers research at least half of their work purchases online because they don’t want to talk to a sales rep. Complete and concise product data is essential

Below are a few ways to make it easy for buyers to buy and approvers to approve:

1. Delegate user administration of catalog filters2. Simplify complex price management3. Provide appropriate order capture methods like bulk order entry and share

purchase lists 4. Automate approval and rejection workflows5. Streamline most common tasks6. Speed up the onboarding process with self-service

Simplicity Visibility Personalization Customer Experience Management

Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Pulling the Lever:Visibility

The second lever B2B sellers can pull to create an exceptional customer experience is to increase the visibility buyers have into both their organization’s entitlements and buying habits.

Visibility” in this context means a single view of product and account data across channels and in a single location.

• 64% of buyers say visibility of all account activity across channels is important or very important

• 62% of buyers say unified order history availability is important or very important

Why do buyers care about cross channel availability of account activity? Because visibility builds awareness and makes buying easier.

Visibility into account activity speeds up the buying process because it gives the buyer confidence they have all the relevant information to make the purchase.

Here are five ways to empower your customers with a unified view of their business:

1. Give them a convenient single dashboard for saved, shared and scheduled orders

2. Make it easy to find order and quote status3. Allow them to maintain ongoing purchase lists4. Make purchase limits and cost centers clearly visible5. Give them a view of frequent and recently purchased items



Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Pulling the Lever:Personalization

Personalization is perhaps the biggest lever B2B sellers have to create a differentiated customer experience. Personalizing to the way a buyer works touches on many of the other levers we have already discussed.

The best B2B sellers can rise to the top of the market pulling this lever because it fulfills requests that buyers have already said are important to them:

• 64% of buyers want personalized cross-sells and substitutions

• 68% of buyers want flexible price lists and catalogs for different users

• 73% of buyers want personalized approval workflow, unique to their needs

The key message here is to tailor the buying and research process to your buyers’ preferences.

If you can do these things you will create a relevant and engaging buying experience:

1. Personalize home page based on role, location, contract and buying patterns2. Give suggestions by keyword, part number, manufacturer3. Filter search results based on purchase history4. Provide negotiated pricing on select products, by organizations5. Deliver relevant, helpful content to inform your customers buying decision



Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Capabilities Required for Customer Experience Management

Simplicity

Personalization

VisibilityOrder Scheduling

Entitlement Driven User Experience

Single Dashboard

Delegated User inistration

Buying Power

Customer Alerts

Approval Workflows

Automated Billing Forms

Pending Approvals

Order History

• Simplicity• Visibility• Personalization


Simplicity Visibility Personalization Customer Experience ManagementCo

mplex

ityM

anag

emen

t

Revenue Growth


|

Pulling the Lever:Buying Complexity

Complexity can kill your business. Its not always easy to provide the level of personalization, transparency and self-service customers want. For most of you it’s going to require granting more visibility to your ERP, system reevaluating your e-commerce platform capabilities, or at the very least, the UI components of your site.

Of all the complexities that can hurt your long term business, buying complexity is the worst. Customers don’t care how many ERP systems you have to send information to and they certainly won’t care about your difficulties managing multiple channels.

A large portion of B2B buyers think common tasks are far too complicated. 93% of buyers want to transact online once they have made their buying decision. Empowering customers to do their job without having to interactwith the selling brand is a recurring theme today. Buyers expect routine, (and some not so routine) processes to be easily accomplished online.

Complexity Management Issues

Meeting this expectation not only delights your customers but can save money. Some organizations are seeing a 90% reduction in cost to serve by moving clients to an online self-service environment.

Below are six ways to reduce costs while making your customers happier and helping them do their jobs faster.

1. Customer-generated quotes2. User controlled configurations3. Customer self-selecting catalog filters for buyers4. Approver workflow automation5. Organization wide shared order lists6. Onboarding at your customers’ pace

Buying Complexity Selling Complexity Growth Complexity Complexity Management

Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Pulling the Lever:Selling Complexity

One of the biggest hurdles for B2B selling organizations to get over is their own complexity. If you can get your technology to act as a business enabler rather than a hindrance there is money to made.

85% of B2B sellers say that their ERP is a vital component in their pursuit of customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, 44% of that group says the common tasks a B2B seller has to execute, like onboarding, catalog and price management, are far too complex.

Many B2B sellers don’t bother to adjust pricing or promotions over time because the net increase may not be worth the effort. In reality a 1% increase realized price can lead to an 8% increase in operating profit.

The market continue to become more competitive. You should never miss an opportunity because your tools or technology slowed you down.

Industry leaders are capable of executing these routine practices with ease, are you?

1. Manage personalized price lists2. Keep catalog data up to date 3. Add, remove and modify catalog items on the fly4. Create and deploy targeted content5. Allow business users to create the right experience for each customer



Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Pulling the Lever:Growth Complexity

How much growth can you accommodate? If you had the opportunity to enter a new market, could you do it in a cost effective and timely manner?

A lot of B2B sellers struggle with the complexities of growing. Creating new micro-sites for high value customers is slow. New geography or brand sites are painful to set up. For many sellers managing organization, pricing, and catalog structures across multiple sites isn’t worth the growth opportunity.

Their pain is your opportunity. Remember, the new rule is grow fast or die slow. To expand your business you have to be able to reach new markets quickly.

If you want to capitalize on these opportunities you need an e-commerce platform that is built to scale.

Can your current platform provide you the tools you need to grow?

1. Multi-site framework for quickly sharing assets across brands2. Multi-geo sites to create a unique and regionally relevant experience3. Omni-channel responsive design to create a consistent

experience everywhere4. A single tool to manage sites, channel and brand experience



Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


|

Capabilities Required for Complexity Management

Buying Complexity

Growth Complexity

Selling ComplexityBuyer Generated Quotes

Rapidly Deployable Micro Sites

Content Management

Online Account Self Service Contract Management

Multiple Currency SupportApplication Integration Framework

Intuitive User Experience

Multiple Language Support

Catalog Entitlement



Compl

exity

Man

agem

ent

Revenue Growth


• Buying Complexity• Selling Complexity• Growth Complexity

|

Revenue Growth

E-Commerce Evaluation Guide

Revenue Growth Customer Experience Management Complexity Management

• How are pages indexed?• What content is included in the index?• How are site maps created?• Are URLs human readable out of the box?• How do catalog changes effect my site map

and index?• How do search engines know my pages have

been updated?

• How easy is it to find what I am looking for?• Is navigation intuitive?• Is all product data included in my index?• Can we recommend search results?• How easily can merchandisers create facets?• Are product pages easily configured?

• What tools are available to present products and content in context?

• Can I create rules driven recommendations?• How robust is the segmenting capabilities?• Can I manually select cross-sells and up-sells?• How do I balance automated and manual

content delivery?

Site Traffic Conversion Rate Average Order Value

|




• Can my customers manage their own users?• Can customers manager their own buyer’s

catalog filters?• How do I present complex pricing?• Can I support my customers preferred order

entry methods?• Can I automate approval workflows?• How complex is onboarding?

• Will buyers have access to shared and scheduled orders?

• Will buyers be able to see order status in a single place?

• Can buyers quickly find past quotes and order history?

• Can groups maintain ongoing purchase lists?• Will buyers clearly see recurring or frequently

purchased items?

• Is homepage relevant to customers industry and catalog entitlements?

• Are search results relevant to purchase history and catalog entitlements?

• Will forms be prepopulated based on known information?

• Can we provide personalized alerts to buyers?• Are recommendations relevant to order history?

Simplicity Visibility Personalization

|

Complexity Management



• Can users create their own quotes online?• Can buyers configure their own products

accurately without a sales representative?• Can customers manage their own

buying entitlements?• Are purchase lists shared and visible across

the business?• Can new customers onboard quickly?

• How difficult is it to maintain up-to-date catalogs and price lists?

• Can I add / modify / remove catalog items on the fly?

• Can I preview site changes as they will be?• What tools do business users have to create the

right customer experience?

• Does the platform support multiple languages OOB?

• Does the platform support multiple currencies OOB?

• How quickly can I create new branded or regional sites?

• How many tools do I need to manage all my sites?

• How will the platform scale to meet my growth goals?

Buying Complexity Selling Complexity Growth Complexity

|

Copyright © 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only, and the contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document, and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without our prior written permission.

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Intel and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, and the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. 0116

Taking the WheelJanuary 2016

Oracle Corporation, World Headquarters 500 Oracle ParkwayRedwood Shores, CA 94065, USA

C O N N E C T W I T H U S

Worldwide Inquiries Phone: +1.650.506.7000Fax: +1.650.506.7200

blogs.oracle.com/oracle

facebook.com/oracle

@oraclecommerce

oracle.com

Oracle Commerce

|

Oracle Commerce is purpose-built to handle the complexities and scale of B2B e-commerce while delivering consumer-like experiences that help business buyers do their job with ease, and make the buying process more personalized, and profitable. Oracle has helped B2B manufacturers and distributors of all sizes and we would be pleased to have the opportunity to discuss your goals and how we might help.

If you would like more information please visit our website at: https://www.oracle.com/applications/customer-experience/commerce/solutions/b2b-commerce.html

https://www.oracle.com/applications/customer-experience/commerce/index.html

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7419900

https://www.oracle.com/applications/customer-experience/commerce/solutions/b2b-commerce.html

b2b e-commerce best practices (pdf)

Documents