The current B2B ecommerce website vertical is on a steep rise and more importantly, the way merchants look at the business has also changed. B2B ERP solution used to be an extension of B2C (Business to Customers). But now, small to medium and medium to large size organizations understand the importance of having B2B and B2C as standalone business models which were once followed only by e-Commerce giants like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay.
Forrester predicts that by 2023, e-Commerce market will be worth $1.8 trillion. We went beyond because of the pandemic. The scope to diversify/expand is also immense in the B2B space with varied opportunities and the technological advancements provided by eCommerce platforms like Magento.
In fact, 74% feel that buying from a website is more convenient than buying from a sales representative and 3/4’s of B2B firms are already upgrading their eCommerce platform.
The tide for B2B ecommerce website business is shifting from an extension-based model to SaaS-based products as this gets onto an interesting win-win situation for both the customer and the service providers. The ongoing support contract helps/gives room for the service providers to constantly improve the quality of services and keep pace with the technological advancements and the Return on Investment(ROI) is also high as there is mutual accountability.
Segmentation with Customer Groups and Profiles
In B2C, customers are generally treated equally. But wholesalers deal in larger orders that vary from customer to customer. As a result, these organizations need strict group designations for segmenting clients.
B2B companies should be able to classify customers into groups. This allows businesses to set pricing, minimum order requirements and group-specific content (like promotions, shipping and payment options) for each segment.
You should be able to group your B2B customers based on their profiles, including
- Geographical location
- Order volume
- Catalog selection
- Reorder frequency
- Quantity of products ordered
And by segmenting them into specific customer groups, their shopping cart experience should be customized according to their profile selections. Filtering the website content, pricing, and payment and delivery options available to them.
Easy connection to the sales team
This can be tricky. Many companies think chatbot pop-ups are a smart move, but they might actually seem intrusive. You want to avoid these pop-ups that appear immediately after a web session starts, asking visitors who may not even be leads to talk to a sales representative. These are the modern equivalent of the door-to-door salesperson showing up uninvited on your doorstep and your accounting system become more advance
Instead, try providing a non-intrusive message letting visitors know you’re there to answer their questions when they are ready.
Customers’ language
No, this one is not about trying to translate your website copy into your customers’ native languages (although that type of localization is desirable, too). It is actually strongly linked to the customer-centricity feature discussed above.
After having understood the business needs and objectives of your customers, you need to create website copy around those outcomes so they can easily understand that your solution is appropriate for them. Most of the time, they are aware of their problem or need, but they don’t associate it with your solution (or even with your product category). That’s why you should fill in this gap by helping them, on their terms, understand why your product or service is relevant.
In fact, all of this comes down to translating your product capabilities into their desired outcomes. While doing so, make sure to avoid industry jargon that is difficult to digest; keep the language simple and precise.
Calls-to-action (CTAs)
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are also an essential component of companies’ lead generation efforts, and, for that matter, of any inbound marketing strategy. As with landing pages (where they are, in fact, featured), the main purpose of calls-to-action is to drive conversions. Effective calls-to-action result in prospects proactively making a desired action. Sounds great, right?
As a starting point, you should consider your conversion goal – a webinar registration requires different messaging than a trial download. However, designing compelling CTAs requires an ongoing improvement process in terms of message copy, design, and placement on the page. A/B testing will become your best friend, helping you compare the way visitors respond to different variations in your CTAs.
In the end, calls-to-action should be clear and specific, so that visitors understand what they need to do to achieve the desired action.
Educational content
Almost two-thirds of B2B buyers cite informational content as a notable differentiator for winning vendors. Conductor’s study on the impact of educational content on customers further revealed that visitors are 131% more likely to buy from that brand after having consumed its content. Matching this trend, last year, educational content ranked second among methods used by B2B content marketers to nurture their audience, with the budgets allocated for content creation also having increased.
Therefore, investing resources in educating your customers through blog posts, eBooks, webinars, infographics, or whitepapers is essential. These pieces of content demonstrate that you understand your customers’ needs and challenges.
The B2B customer is more rational than the B2C one, plus there may be more stakeholders involved, so they need extra resources to make an informed decision. In addition to providing extra value to customers, educational content can be used for conversion purposes (gated content, as explained above) and for building a reputation as a thought-leader. If done right, your SEO will also benefit from this.
However, the B2B industry comes with an extra layer of complexity because customer needs vary depending on their size, industry, and roles. In fact, 68% of B2B buyers want content organized by issue or pain points and 59%, organized by industry or vertical. As such, a common practice of top B2B marketers is to organize the website content based on these variables in order to deliver targeted experiences that add real value.
Conclusion
Launching a B2B eCommerce website will require your company to make changes. You’ll need to think differently about customer relationships. You’ll need to invest time and money, and you’ll need to choose the right eCommerce platform for your business.
This article should have provided a basic understanding of the essential B2B eCommerce features you’ll want for your site. Now, don’t waste time, get your B2B eCommerce site going.
