B2B is the acronym for "business to business", which refers to the business model in which transactions of goods occur between two companies, therefore, it relates mainly to wholesale trade.
In the traditional B2B eCommerce business model companies face two major challenges:
- The ability to serve customers.
- The costs of this model.
It is clear that the ability to serve customers in a traditional way is very limited based on the fact that a seller usually has a working day of 8 hours a day, between 5 to 6 days a week, which is clear limits the number of customers that can serve, especially if they must travel physically.
Under this premise is that the model becomes expensive, because having the ability to serve a significant number of customers requires having a large sales and service team.
>>What is a marketplace and how does it differ from a b2b eCommerce?<<
Considering the above, you have set out to analyze: the sales you have lost? Customers who have not been able to serve? How to lower the cost of selling?
To overcome this, it is clear that you should think about making a change to the sales model, some considerations that you can assess are as follows:
- It is estimated that more than 75% of B2B buyers research at least half of their purchases online and more than 30% make at least half of purchases online, and this figure is expected to reach just over 50% in the next 3 years.
- 32% of B2B buyers start their searches on supplier pages.
- 75% of B2B buyers say they would buy again on the platforms of the same suppliers because of the advantage offered by omnichannelity.
- 74% of buyers want to search for product information on any channel.
- 72% say they want self-service access for managing their accounts and orders.
Now, these points make it clear to us how important the B2B model is to customers, but why should my company adopt a 24/7 sales model? It is simple, for the following reasons:
- Generate more business opportunities, new customers can find us through search engines or by reference.
- Improve sales management, many industries such as hotels, restaurants and supermarkets, operate under extended hours 7 days a week, this represents a great challenge for the traditional channel which hardly has the ability to be available at all times and what if the cost is very high, here the e-Commerce B2B becomes a key piece, since it has the ability to serve customers 24/7.
- Lowering costs
- Get customer feedback as well as product reviews and ratings.
- Reaching new markets, being available in the cloud can be accessed from anywhere in the world, with the advantage that being a self-service platform with automation tools helps overcome the problems that time zones pose.
- Achieve a concentration of data by having integrated e-Commerce and ERP.
>>3 Tips for Planning Your eCommerce b2b Strategy<<
In conclusion, the benefits of the B2B e-Commerce model are clear that will essentially help you boost your business, now, are you likely to be questioned: is my company ready?, or will this model be for my company?, or how can I implement a model like this?, to facilitate this process we recommend the following steps:
- Download the questionnaire that will allow you to make a general diagnosis of the current sales model situation. (link to questionnaire)
- Develop the value proposition (the differentiating factor)
- Define processes to automate and how these will support the management of the different channels (call center, routes, sellers, among others).
- Methodology: Request a consulting appointment at this Link
>>How to implement an e-Commerce B2B model?<<