For a long time, B2B sales used to be based on paper catalogs and a lot of manual data entry, along with a lot of back and forth phone tag. For example, if a procurement manager needed 500 industrial valves, they went to the back of their office and opened their filing cabinet to find that the valves were not located there.
That world is gone. Your buyers are now more than just “procurement professionals” who would work from a filing cabinet. They are all individuals who buy from an Amazon account, reserve an Uber ride, and watch a show on Netflix in their personal life. These experiences create a psychological reference point for a frictionless digital experience. As such, when your buyer arrives at work at 9:00 am, they expect a similar work experience to the level of digital convenience they receive as a consumer in their personal time.
This transformation of B2B e-commerce into B2C e-commerce has now established the minimum standards of contemporary trade. Companies that do not quickly adapt to these changes are not just going to have an issue with an outdated website, but instead will likely lose their entire share of the market to digitally-native competitors. In this document, you will find an analysis of the core trends of B2B e-commerce as well as how to balance the streamlined experience of B2C with the heavy-duty logic of B2B e-commerce sales.
Why Millennial Buyers Are Rewriting the B2B Playbook
This new wave of buying behavior is largely due to generational transition waves. Most B2B buyers are now Millennials and according to a new study from Merit Solutions, approximately 73% of all purchasers are Millennials today.
Millennials prefer to communicate in the digital world through social media, chat and live chat; phone calls really aren’t a preference for them — especially when they can find the information they need via an internet search. Gartner reported that on average B2B buyers only spend about 17% of their time with potential suppliers during the entire purchase decision process. If you don’t answer their questions quickly enough on your website, they will choose to do business with your competitor instead of contacting you for clarification.
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5 Core B2B Ecommerce Consumerization Trends
To remain Competitive, B2B execs need to be mindful of 5 areas where each of the retail’s level of service intersects with the B2B level of customer service expectations.
1. Self-Service 2.0: Total Buyer Autonomy
More than merely wanting options available to them, today’s B2B customers also expect to take care of routine transactions in a “Rep-Free” manner. Today, modern B2B companies have turned their highly functional websites into customer self-service web portals with necessary features beyond just being able to click one button to buy an item.
These features include:
- Real-time tracking and shipment status updates on LTL (Less-Than-Truckload), and specialty type shipments.
- Automatic re-ordering through Click to Fulfillment purchasing, providing users with the opportunity to order specific goods they use frequently based on what they have purchased in the past.
- Instant access to documents such as Tax exemption certificates, Credit limits and/or Historical invoices.
2. Hyper-Personalization via AI
In B-to-B, the term “personalization” goes beyond just saying “Hello to [insert first name].” It’s about using AI to provide custom experiences that are similar to those provided by B-to-C businesses at a significantly larger scale. We’re beginning to witness more use cases than ever for AI-enabled platforms, including:
- Price Contracts – buyers will see the negotiated contract rate/ bulk pricing when logging into the system.
- Predictive Replacement Parts – Recommend replacement for parts that have been previously purchased from based on their life cycle.
3. Mobile-First Procurement & Visual Search
B2B buyers usually don’t sit at their desks, however they may be present at a factory site, a construction project site, or a warehouse.
- PWAs: With a fast loading and website like experience in a mobile browser, PWAs are essential for workers who may not have great internet access in a remote location or may be in a location where there is no wireless connectivity.
- Image searching: Technicians can take a photo of a broken part and be able to find the exact SKU in the online catalog without the risk of inputting incorrect information in the manual method of finding the SKU.
4. Headless Commerce for Omnichannel Agility
Headless commerce architecture is helping businesses with the implementation of a standardized omnichannel sales experience for their B2B sales channels. Through a decoupled UI and ERP solution, businesses can implement their storefronts across multiple device types, i.e., from mobile devices to IoT devices, without the need to redesign the underlying application code for each device’s user experience.
5. Social Proof and Community Trust
For many professional buyers, reviewing online rating systems like customers do when shopping cannot be overstated. Adding B2C-style product page features like video testimonials from engineers, user ratings via star, and community-driven forums about your products will improve the amount of “social proof” needed for them to make a large purchase.
Navigating the “Complexity Paradox”: B2C Look, B2B Brain
Businesses face an enormous difficulty when trying to implement a digital transformation in B2B markets due to the Complexity Paradox: a simple interface must accommodate the huge amount of logic that occurs on the backend.
Solutions from market leaders to address this paradox involve digitizing traditional barriers seen in buying goods and services such as:
- Punchout catalogs: in which a buyer’s e-procurement (e.g., SAP Ariba or Coupa) is connected to a “consumerized” store, and
- Instant digital RFQs: that can transform the lengthy, manual process of requesting a quote to a quick trigger (i.e., then hey code); so approvals for standard orders placed by purchasing (bulk orders, etc.) are automated; thus instantaneous.
The ROI of Digital Modernization
User Experience Investment Is A Revenue Driver, Not A Marketing Cost. According to McKinsey & Co, Companies With Better Quality Digital Experiences Achieve:
- Higher Average Order Value (AOV): Due To AI-Powered Cross Selling That Increases The Size Of The Shopping Cart.
- Lower Operating Costs: Due To Improved Self-Service Delivering Less Workload For Customer Service And Sales Personnel.
- Higher Customer Loyalty: Due To Easy Purchasing Experience Creating More “Sticky” Relationships And Less Reason For Customers To Look Elsewhere (i.e., Shop At Other Companies).
Implementation: How to Start the Transition
Changing over from a legacy B2B platform can take a while; here are four things you can do throughout the process to help you along the way:
- Identify Friction Points: Conduct an audit of your current purchasing process to see where customers are needing to call for support.
- Clean Up Product Information: If you do not have the right images, specs, or live inventory, you can’t come close to being competitive with a consumer-driven marketplace.
- Build a Scalable Infrastructure: Many top retailers are working with specialized ecommerce service providers to build modular/API first architecture to make the transition from legacy to meeting modern-day customer expectations.
- Make Speed Your #1 Priority: Speed is the driving force in retail today; the same holds true in B2B. Studies show for each second of delay in a B2C, you lose 7% of possible sales.
Conclusion
The boundary between professional and personal shopping is completely gone. Winners in the B2B marketplace will understand the importance of valuing a customer’s time, being open about everything, supplying a seamless digital shopping experience.
Author’s Bio:
Akshay Tyagi is a Senior Content Strategist at Netclubbed, specializing in the intersection of B2B digital trends and modern user experience. He helps brands scale through expert ecommerce development services, transforming complex wholesale processes into seamless, consumer-grade buying journeys.
