B2B is the growing industry that is set to shape the entire online eCommerce market in the coming years. While people might think it is still the time for B2C module of business to progress, intellectuals know that the only next way of progress in the online industry is B2B eCommerce.
Many people think that B2B and B2C work just the same. Well, it is true and false both. While the basic business processes are the same, B2B offers more value and power to the user than B2C. A B2B store is equipped with all the major features that are required by a B2B business owner. However, there are instances when owners often overlook major success factors when working with B2B eCommerce.
Some of the B2B eCommerce Factors that are Overlooked:
1. Personalization
In the case of B2C business modules, users generally think they reach to a larger mass of direct customers and, thus, employ personalized themes, text and designs to enchant the customers. While for B2B, users think that they are only going to reach to large companies and so maintain a formal tone and a professional approach. While this might sound correct, it is absolutely not!
Even for B2B companies, it is always better to make use of personalized content and ways to attract customers. Yes, while B2c makes a company meet its end users, a B2B eCommerce also brings a company closer to its customer which is another company made out of individuals. Even in B2B module, it is important to make the customers feel safe and likely to make business with you. At the very core, even B2B businesses are made up of humans and using professional, pre-packed content for traditional marketing won’t help anymore – casual and friendly tone would help more in setting up a stable client relationship.
2. Shipping
Keeping a maintained shipping and order processing will be of great help for B2B users. When a customer makes transactions, the last step of completing an order is the shipping details. Now, many times it happens that in optimizing the whole store, an owner forgets about the shipping and delivery details. It is so crucial that it can help or hamper the potential customers of a company. It is estimated that nearly 61% of customers abandon their cart after seeing the shipping rates too high or delivery date too late. Another thing that affects direct sales is the competitive shipping aspects – a customer might have to choose a minimum unit of items in the cart to avail free shipping; while on the other hand, another vendor might sell the same product at a lesser shipping price. Hence, keeping a well-organized shipping and delivery process would help a B2B user by keeping more customers to himself and observe lesser instances of an abandoned cart.
3. Segmentation
The segmentation factor is directly involved with the personalization factor mentioned earlier. Segmentation means to categorize buyers (i.e., customers) based on various factors like price, timing, etc., and also categorizing your buyers, according to demographics, size, business needs, order volumes, and the likes. Hence, segmentation will allow a B2B user to personalize the B2B approach for various buyer categories, thereby attracting them towards higher levels of engagement in your business.
4. Content and Optimization
Again for a B2B eCommerce, it is very important to be available to the digital industry. Keeping all the business processes in place is good, but there is one thing that almost everyone forgets – solid content and top-notch optimization. Business owners invest a lot in maintaining a B2B eCommerce store but often overlook the major thing such as content which brings more business every time. It is not that only B2C user who need to keep a lovely website with flamboyant content; it is also the recommended thing to do for B2B users. Without proper content marketing and perfect optimization, a B2B company can never seek to excel even if it sells the best products. Thus, keeping the content marketing strategies up-to-date and maintaining a well-optimized website will bring more potential customers to your store.
While there are a lot of challenges B2B users face while selling their products, these 4 aspects are overlooked more often. We will again dig deep into the world of B2B eCommerce and bring out more insights that help make this world.
Till then, Stay Tuned!
Get started with your B2B eCommerce store and gain a competitive edge in the market!
