top b2b commerce trends

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TOP TRENDS IN B2B COMMERCE

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Page 1: Top B2B Commerce Trends

TOP TRENDS INB2B COMMERCE

Page 2: Top B2B Commerce Trends

B2B COMMERCEPrior to the digital age, manufacturers and suppliers produced thick, printed catalogs, employed armies of sales and account managers to build relationships and close deals, and staffed backshops and warehouses to deliver on their customers’ needs. Today’s B2B commerce transactions typically involve multiple organizations and cover a complex range of applications that enable organizations to form both offline and online relationships with suppliers, customers, distributors, resellers and other partners.

While traditional B2B selling channels have remained the most influential, a combination of ubiquitous digital technologies and increasing buyer expectations have led a rapid shift towards digital B2B commerce. Pure-play retailers like Amazon are using their sizable momentum in the B2C world to double down in the B2B market. These shifts are causing B2B sellers to rethink their marketing and sales strategies and the corresponding core investments around customer engagement and commerce infrastructures.

A recent study shows that more than half of global B2B buyers will make at least 50%2 of their purchases online within the next three years. B2B customers are changing the game of business-to-business as they become more accustomed to a buying lifecycle that includes digital experiences well before and long after the sale. B2B buyers, like consumers, now expect seamless, omni-channel experiences, accurate and detailed product and inventory information, reduced shipping and delivery times, and 24/7 self-service access. B2B sellers need to adapt their strategies with a B2C focus, manage the complexity of B2B transactions, provide seamless integration, and be fast, reliable, and efficient to satisfy changing buyer expectations.

Many B2B organizations have established an online channel and are focusing on how to grow online sales in order to maximize revenue. A study conducted by Frost & Sullivan projects that B2B eCommerce sales will reach $12 million globally by the year 2020. But to succeed in the new B2B landscape, companies are going to have to shift the way they think about the end customer and their buying experience. In this guide we look at the top 4 trends that are driving B2B companies to re-platform and rebuild their eCommerce sites to satisfy the growing demands and high expectations of their customer.

75%

93%OF B2B BUYERS PREFER ONLINE PURCHASING OVER A SALES REPRESENTATIVE1

OF B2B BUYERS PREFER CONVENIENCE OF PURCHASING FROM A WEBSITE VS A SALES REPRESENTATIVE1

Page 3: Top B2B Commerce Trends

TOP PRIORITIES FOR B2B BUYERS & SELLERS IN 20153:

Enhance search functionality on website

Enhance search functionality on website 48% 60%

SELLERS BUYERS

Access to website through mobile app

Improved personalized product recommendations on their website

42%Improve personalized

product or service recommendations on

website

39%

58% Visibility to rates & reviews of products and/or services

50%

Page 4: Top B2B Commerce Trends

OPTIMIZING THE B2B EXPERIENCE TO MATCH B2C EXPECTATIONSAs B2B buyers become more empowered, they are demanding the same type of experience as B2C consumers: control, transparency, inventory visibility, product information, and convenience. The B2C customer experience has put tremendous pressure on B2B commerce, and buyers are no longer satisfied with fragmented experiences – they want a seamless one. The path to purchase is no longer linear and offline. Today’s buyers are transitioning their product search and purchases from traditional, offline channels to digital (i.e. web and mobile) settings and companies that do not adapt their technology to their buyer’s needs will fall behind.

We can see this happening in the B2C world as companies adapt more digital technologies to create seamless experiences to satisfy customers. Customers move between a multitude of touch points that did not exist before, researching product information and reviews, checking social networks, and posting/tweeting about their experience through the entire shopping journey on a wide variety of social channels and communities. B2B companies can utilize social channels to help expand their brand, engage with different communities, express a vision, promote products and offerings, and offer customer service and/or support.

OF B2B CUSTOMERS ARE INFLUENCED BY SOCIAL MEDIA

KEY CHALLENGES

High demands and expectations for B2C-style offerings and buying experiences

Understanding the buyer’s B2B shopping journey

Providing deeper levels of product information and rich content

Managing and tracking communities and social interaction

Delivering targeted and personalized experiences that grow sales and retention

TREND 1

75%

Page 5: Top B2B Commerce Trends

THE IBM-PERFICIENT SOLUTIONIBM’s Smarter Commerce offering provides B2B organizations with unique tools and solutions to meet today’s eCommerce demands and challenges. Perficient & IBM worked closely to develop the Smarter Commerce portfolio, providing technology to implement web, tablet, and mobile sites tailored for both B2B and B2C using business user tools and a configurable framework to target customers with pertinent and contextually relevant content, better product content and recommendations, complex product entitlements and pricing rules, a flexible promotions engine, dynamic search capabilities, and visibility into past purchases across multiple customer channels. The IBM Smarter Commerce solution provides a single view of supply and demand across channels and a coordinated and customizable fulfillment processes to support various channels and suppliers.

Perficient XD is a creative digital agency within Perficient that partners with our B2B and commerce experts to provide seamless, end-to-end client solutions. Our agency helps clients transform the way they connect with consumers through ideation, research, creative design, and innovation. Our deep B2C and commerce experience is a force multiplier when coupled with our technical and industry knowledge and our ability to deliver solutions to help organizations realize their business strategy.

Page 6: Top B2B Commerce Trends

B2B OMNI-CHANNELLeading B2B sellers recognize the importance of integrating systems and platforms that support omni-channel requirements of today’s B2B buyers. Driven by online purchasing experiences, buyers are demanding omni-channel capabilities across the buying lifecycle when making business-related purchases. Flexibility, speed, and convenience are the keys to adapting and differentiating business models. In order to meet this demand, B2B enterprises need to integrate technology and transform of processes at the same time. Most B2B organizations realize that the need for online channels in their sales and fulfillment strategy is imperative, but many are still far behind when it comes to their B2B commerce capabilities.

Omni-channel strategies help B2B suppliers make it easier to conduct business – reducing internal costs, optimizing operational efficiency, and enabling sales teams to provide more value where it counts, manage relationships, and grow the business.

TREND 2

KEY CHALLENGESConnecting consistent experiences to all customer touch points (field sales, all digital channels, call centers, and in-store experiences)

Sharing customer data and insights across locations and channels

Disjointed sales messaging and incentives among sales channels and departments

Understanding the engagement between peers, account reps, other company stakeholders, vendors and service providers

Access and integration to systems and data across multiple business processes

OF B2B COMPANIES HAVE DIFFICULTY INTEGRATING BACK-OFFICE TECHNOLOGY

44%

Page 7: Top B2B Commerce Trends

The intricate nature of B2B buying and selling requires an advanced level of sophistication on the backend, both in terms of platform functionality and integration. B2B organizations often deal with various networks and channels of business partners, manufacturers, resellers and dealers within many different locations, requiring configurable business rules and workflows to execute sales and marketing strategy across all channels. IBM’s portfolio delivers the necessary capabilities to deliver on the omni-channel needs of B2B providers.

Perficient has deep experience leveraging IBM products to meet the needs of B2B providers, including:

• A single-view of supply and demand across all channels to improve inventory utilization and provide accurate promise dates

• A coordinated and configurable workflow modeling to manage

IBM-PERFICIENT SOLUTION

complex B2B fulfillment processes across store, call center, and online channels

• A single-view of all backend processes such as purchasing, fulfillment, and reverse logistics, across the entire supply chain

• The choreography of integration to backend enterprise resource planning and other legacy systems to provide consistency across the enterprise

By providing business-driven solutions and technical expertise to implement the IBM portfolio, Perficient drives the business value B2B providers need to retain customers as the competitive landscape continues to intensify with new entrants to the traditional B2B markets. By providing a superior experience, organizations can build loyalty with their customer base and target new organizations with an enticing offering.

Page 8: Top B2B Commerce Trends

THIRD-PARTY PROCUREMENT PROVIDERS TO INSOURCED B2B PLATFORMThe days of faxing procurement orders are over for most B2B companies. By moving away from third-party procurement providers, B2B sellers can establish stronger relationships and achieve greater visibility into customer needs and behaviors. B2B customers expect integrated channel fulfillment so eCommerce sites need to be integration-ready to make it easier to interface with inventory availability and real-time pricing. B2B sellers have realized that they can gain a higher level of control over the buyer’s journey, their brand, sales, and customer connections with the implementation of their own eCommerce platforms and branded sites. By bringing these platforms in-house, B2B organizations achieve greater differentiation and flexibility and reduce outside costs with affordable, enabling technology.

KEY CHALLENGESComplexity of insourcing customer direct infrastructure

Ability to support tools to support the fulfillment process

Management from one centralized platform

Pains associated with migration and change management to support in-house commerce

Even greater reliance on understanding how customers engage and buy

TREND 3

IBM-PERFICIENT SOLUTIONPerficient and IBM work closely to provide customers with comprehensive solutions. IBM solutions provide the inventory synchronization to match B2B/B2C customer demand with the appropriate level of supply. These solutions integrate with the IBM supplier portal to automatically generate PO requisition and transmit to the supplier via the collaboration portal. The supplier portal provides EDI/XML/portal integration with thousands of suppliers and manages the vendor onboarding process. This IBM solution provides visibility and tracking at multiple levels to satisfy both the buyers and customers and can be integrated with drop ship vendors to seamlessly supply products directly to customer locations thereby improving customer satisfaction and increasing revenues. Additionally, the solution can be integrated with other systems internally or in the cloud to provide PO management, invoicing, payments and contract management.

Page 9: Top B2B Commerce Trends

BUYER SELF-SERVICEThe B2B “connected buyer” is looking for empowered experiences to deliver efficiency and convenience. Today’s self-serve eCommerce sites do more than replicate their sales reps, often providing functions that humans simply cannot do. B2B commerce sites provide the ability to research and understand products, receive suggestions for assortment combinations, and manage their buying process any time and anywhere digital channels give B2B customers control over the buyer’s journey. But these benefits do not belong to the customer alone. While the customer benefits from visibility, convenience and control, B2B providers are able to deliver these competitive benefits at a lower cost point and accelerate the sales cycle, while gaining more transparency and insight into the customer’s needs, patterns, and buying cycles.

An empowered buyer needs to be able to navigate the complexity of a B2B transaction easily, independently, and with the same level of service and accuracy they have come to expect with their traditional relationship managers and sales reps.

TREND 4

KEY CHALLENGESMultiple customer touch points

Sharing customer data and analytics across channels

Setting the right incentives and metrics within the organization

Seamless and accurate integration of self-service systems

Understanding of buyer behaviors and needs beyond the sale

Page 10: Top B2B Commerce Trends

IBM-PERFICIENT SOLUTION The IBM portfolio is engineered to help B2B providers analyze customer buying habits to continually improve the buyer experience of buyers and to provide relevant content and product recommendations during the buying process. Buyers can make informed buying decisions without interacting with their providers and have the information they need when they need it. Perficient works with B2B providers to implement the requisite analytics and customer behavior software offered by IBM to provide the necessary insights to offer customers the right information at the right time. Using advanced analytics, organizations can target and segment customers and drive optimal price points for their customer base.

Perficient helps to build the appropriate interactions to meet customer needs. We design and build the necessary B2B functions such as periodic reorders from order history, collaborating with colleagues on product requisition lists, quick order for power users, file uploads for orders, and determining product availability and promise dates.

B2B providers who migrate their B2B customers to the online purchase environment have experienced net increases in average order value.

SOURCES: 1 https://www.forrester.com/Death+Of+A+B2B+Salesman/fulltext/-/E-RES122288

2 http://blogs.forrester.com/andy_hoar/15-04-02-us_b2b_ecommerce_to_reach_11_trillion_by_2020

3 http://www.b2bmarketing.net/news/archive/infographic-49-b2b-buyers-prefer-making-purchases-b2c-websites

Page 11: Top B2B Commerce Trends

These top trends and others are helping to drive B2B ecommerce in 2015. B2B companies need to meet customer expectations by reshaping their channel sales strategies, investing in new technologies and rethinking the role of their sales managers. To learn more about Perficient’s B2B commerce solutions and how they help B2B companies stay ahead of the curve in the fast-growing B2B eCommerce market, contact us at [email protected]