How e-Commerce Will Empower Your B2B Business

E-commerce is already shaping the future of B2B businesses. There has been an unprecedented expansion on B2B e-commerce platforms, especially after COVID-19. Based on a research published by McKinsey & Company “A post–COVID-19 commercial- recovery strategy for B2B companies; July 2020(1),”: Digital interactions are two times more important to B2B customers now than they were before the pandemic.
So what does all of this mean for your business? Read on!

E-commerce is an investment in future success

If you see B2B e-commerce as only a tech solution involving a website with a shopping cart, then you have it all wrong.

B2B e-commerce is about closing digital gaps – you want to organize your product information, inventory input and output, orders and customer data in one package. Having it all within online reach, in real time, and at the convenience of your sales team – ultimately catering to your customers’ comfort. All of this requires executive leadership, deep understanding of your clientele and getting your teams unitedly on board to make it victorious.

In today’s competitive climate, regardless of the industry, companies that thrive and succeed at scaling their businesses are the ones that view e-commerce as a holistic system, and further embrace and foster innovation within their organizations. Ones that fail to do so lose their spot one step ahead of their competition, along with new entrants that are granted with innovative technologies and e-commerce platforms.

If you know you need to begin selling to other businesses online but you’re not sure where to start, you’re not alone.

Download this hands-on whitepaper to find out how!

A B2B e-commerce platform allows better customer data analysis

B2B data is voluminous, varied and analyzed difficulty. Gathering data across the different functions of your businesses might seem arduous; you must know, however, that an optimized e-commerce platform that integrates with your existing business systems will allow you to take advantage of your data across all platforms. This enables you to analyze customer insights and your performance, along with exploring areas for new business development.

Leveraging data will not only allow you better customer data analysis, but will also enable you to optimize user experiences on your channels. Allowing you to highlight missing data, and to optimize it in real time helps you execute targeted audience decisions – resulting with a higher ROI and with reduced costs.

Ensuring B2B customers a seamless experience

Your customers want to interact with your business and take part in your offerings. In fact, your B2B client is probably moving between different channels, trying to gather information about you, before they get in contact with your sales representative. You need to ensure meeting customer expectation with the experiences your platform provides. Even in B2B settings, individual users show up with B2C expectations. Providing a top-notch experience with optimized functions gives way for more users and with more ease.

As we mentioned previously, e-commerce platforms enable customer data insights –  Allowing you to understand them better, thus serve them better. Customers today bear this expected minimum: a unique omnichannel experience, across all your platforms, responding to their very needs and expectations. 

Reaching e-commerce maturity

It’s important to note that e-commerce has not yet reached its full maturity, as it has been evolving rapidly over the past years. This is good news for you, as you still have time to get yourself on track!

Always remember that e-commerce is not just a trend, or something to timidly try out based on its success elsewhere. It is rather a full and immaculately strategized commitment for your entire organization to reap eventual success from.

We have categorized 3 levels of current state B2B e-commerce maturity. Take our maturity test and find out at which level you are, and what to do about it!

Take the test now and find out your level of maturity!

Emakina is a trusted partner in providing commerce solutions for leading B2B businesses in the Middle East. As a long time Salesforce Consulting Partner, we have been the preferred supplier of key decision makers who seek more than just the implementation of tools and technologies. We partner with you in strategy design, business development and the technological asset implementations required for advanced progress.

Reach out and speak to one of our experts.

(1). https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/advanced-electronics/our-insights/a-post-covid-19-commercial-recovery-strategy-for-b2b-companies