Consulting | Digital Commerce 360

B2B buyers prefer manufacturers’ ecommerce sites

Paul Demery — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 19:51:13 +0000

B2B buyers are spending more online, but they’re choosey about their ecommerce destinations — and prefer purchasing on manufacturers’ websites.

Buyers tell us that the best source for product information is the brand manufacturer’s own site.

Joe Cicman, senior analyst

Forrester Research

Joe Cicman, senior analyst, Forrester Research

Buyers want helpful online product content and purchasing features, demands that have many of them preferring manufacturers’ websites, new research from Digital Commerce 360 and Forrester Research Inc. finds.

“Brand manufacturers win buyers with great content,” says Forrester senior analyst Joe Cicman. “Our joint research indicates the top choice for business buying in 2023 is the brand manufacturer’s own site (57%), beating-out Amazon Business at 43%. Why? Both a surprise and a delight: 85% of buyers tell us that the best source for product information is the brand manufacturer’s own site.”

The joint research project also found that 70% of B2B buyers will increase their online purchasing of goods and services in 2023.

Cicman — who will discuss at the EnvisionB2B Conference & Exhibition this month the results of the joint DC360/Forrester suryey and the intersection of online buyer demands and sellers’ ecommerce technology strategies — asserts that sellers must review the functions that address the challenges they face in serving customers, then identify the ecommerce technology platform that covers those w.

McKesson discusses B2B commerce trends

Val DuVernet, senior director of digital strategy and optimization, McKesson

Cicman will speak at EnvisionB2B in a June 21 session to analyze with DC360 the results of the joint research project and discuss digital commerce technology trends with Val DuVernet, senior director of digital strategy and optimization at medical products distributor McKesson.

B2B companies “should examine potential ecommerce solutions to identify which ones cover the specific common functions they most value,” Forrester says in the March 2023 report, “Demystifying the Technical Functions of B2B Commerce Solutions,” written by Cicman with input from other Forrester analysts.

Some of those functions, for example, can include how ecommerce technology manages customer account hierarchies, contract terms and personalized product catalogs for each customer.

Gartner’s Gene Alvarez on technology choices

Gene Alvarez, distinguished vice president and analyst covering digital commerce technology at research and advisory firm Gartner Inc., says B2B companies today have plenty options for deploying ecommerce technology based on their resources and their customers’ demands regarding the online buying experience.

Gene Alvarez, distinguished vice president and analyst, Gartner Inc.

Companies with limited IT resources can opt for software-as-a-service platforms that support customized customer-facing front ends. But businesses with more substantial resources can move up to even more customizable modular and composable MACH platforms with extensive use of microservices, APIs, cloud and headless infrastructure configurations, Alvarez says.

As competition increases in B2B ecommerce, and companies develop new and innovative ways to interact with buyers and make their customers’ jobs easier, it will be crucial for online sellers to operate commerce technology they can modify to keep up with new standards.

“As new innovation comes along, you need to” be able to bring about that new innovation because it will be table stakes within a year,” Alvarez says. “That’s where MACH brings advantages.”

Alvarez will speak on digital technology trends and strategies at EnvisionB2B. He will lead a June 20 panel and workshop on building customer loyalty.

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The No. 1 reason you need to deploy digital self-service technology

Kristina Harrington — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 13:00:50 +0000

Kris Harrington

The most important reason you need to implement digital self-service technologies now is that we live in an increasingly digital-native world. This shift is quickly changing customer expectations and how they want to do business.

If you don’t adopt some of these new ways of doing business, you will exclude a growing population of customers and employees.

According to a recent report by technology research and advisory firm Gartner Inc., “Digital-native expectations will influence every industry, and companies that ignore them will be left behind.”

In order to stay competitive and meet the expectations of your customers, you must implement digital self-service solutions that provide convenient, accessible, and efficient information to your customers.

So, what do we mean when we talk about digital natives and living in a digital-native world?

To explain this trend, it’s crucial to understand the differences between a digital native and a native analog. A digital native (or person born after 1995) is typically defined as someone born after the widespread adoption of digital technologies, such as the internet and mobile devices. This means that they have grown up with technology as a part of their daily lives and may be more comfortable using digital tools for a variety of purposes.

A native analog (sometimes called a digital immigrant and a person born before 1995) is someone who was born before the widespread adoption of digital technologies. They may have had to adapt to using new technologies as they were developed rather than growing up with them as a part of their daily lives.

Please note these terms are not concrete. There are many factors that can influence how comfortable someone is with using technology, such as access to digital tools, education level, and personal preferences. Generally speaking, these terms help us to understand the changes we are experiencing in the world today.

If we think about the rise of digital natives, we can use various examples to illustrate how a digital native may behave differently from a native analog.

Think about how you’ve changed your business to adapt to these new behaviors:

1. Shopping habits

Digital natives are more likely to shop online, using their smartphones and other digital devices to research and identify the right products, compare prices, and make purchases. Native analogs, on the other hand, may prefer to shop in a physical dealership or depot and use printed manuals or brochures to research products.

2. Communication

Digital natives are more likely to communicate via digital channels, such as social media, instant messaging, and email. They also prefer short-form content, such as memes and emojis, over longer-form written communication. Native analogs, by contrast, may prefer face-to-face conversations, phone calls, or even written cards and letters.

3. Education

Digital natives often learn differently from analog natives, using digital tools like online courses and interactive educational software. They may also be more comfortable with self-directed learning and less reliant on traditional lecture-style instruction. Analog natives may prefer a more structured, teacher-led approach to education.

4. Work style

Digital natives often have a different work style, favoring remote work, flexible schedules, and digital collaboration tools (Slack, Zoom, Teams, etc.). They may also be more comfortable with a less hierarchical work environment and less formal communication. Native analogs may prefer a more structured in-person work environment with clear hierarchies and more formal communication.

5. News consumption

Digital natives often get their news from online sources, such as social media and news websites, and are more likely to fact-check and verify the information before sharing it. Native analogs may be more likely to get their news from traditional print media and may be less skeptical of the information they encounter.

6. Entertainment

Digital natives consume entertainment differently from analog natives, often streaming movies and music online. They also tend to prefer short-form content, such as YouTube videos and social media stories, over longer-form content, like feature films or albums.

One example of how the world has become increasingly digital is the widespread adoption of smartphones and mobile devices. According to a report by Pew Research Center, 85% of adults in the United States now own a smartphone. This figure is even higher among younger generations, with 96% of adults aged 18-29 owning a smartphone. The adopted use of smartphones and other mobile devices has fundamentally changed how people interact with each other, with businesses, and with the world around them.

These are just a few examples, but they illustrate how the rise of digital natives has transformed consumer behavior, workplace culture, and even how we learn and communicate. They also demonstrate that if you don’t adopt some of these new ways of doing business, you will exclude a growing population of customers and employees.

Digital self-service solutions are essential in today’s digital native world. It’s more important than ever to implement these solutions now.

About the author

Kristina Harrington is the co-founder and CEO of GenAlpha Technologies, which provides digital commerce technology for manufacturers. Prior to GenAlpha, Kris worked for more than 10 years in leadership positions at two large multinational original equipment manufacturers, Bucyrus International and Caterpillar, supporting the mining industry. In her various positions, she worked with internal stakeholders, dealers, and customers to deliver business results both in aftermarket and equipment sales. She can be reached at kharrington@genalpha.com.

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LinkedIn lead generation: How to build your sales network and pipeline

Michael Mayer — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:00:05 +0000

Mike Mayer, CEO, Main Event Digital

LinkedIn is a business professionals’ platform highly focused on the individual. For c-suite executives, company leaders, and team managers, this means conducting prospecting from your own profiles, and not the business you represent.

Once marketers know who to pursue, they can automate personalized drip campaigns to their prospect list.

Many executives prospect from their LinkedIn profiles because they know the value of generating leads for their company’s sales pipeline. These executives must commit a lot of their time if they want to be successful and develop a marketing strategy that maximizes leads. Butthat approach doesn’t work for most executives.

Executives who are a bit more resourceful find a way to automate their prospecting. But that approach doesn’t typically work either, as we all know the feeling when you receive a message in your LinkedIn inbox asking you to connect with a random stranger with a message that reads something like, “Hey, I have a nice shiny object to sell you. Let’s connect!”

That’s not a good way to start a conversation, online or off. Imagine yourself sitting at a bar and someone walks up to you and immediately starts to sell you something. I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to give them the time of day. Similarly, when someone takes this approach online, you’re not typically going to respond and probably won’t even establish a connection with them. The bridge is burned.

But digital marketing experts are starting to flip the script on that narrative, as some skilled professionals automate highly engaging LinkedIn prospecting campaigns.

Innovative ways for lead generation

Over the past five years, automated emails and phone calls have experienced lower levels of engagement than ever before, as recipients have grown tired of poor messaging. Many recipients now partially or completely ignore these very noisy channels. This trend has forced marketers to think through new, innovative ways to connect with prospects and drive leads. One of the solutions they came up with is lead generation through automated LinkedIn prospecting.

LinkedIn is the de facto standard to identify potential leads. The tool provides literally dozens of filters that marketers can use to build laser-targeted prospect lists, such as the industry a prospect is in, the type of company they work for, their job title, who they are connected to, and a lot more.

Once marketers know who to pursue, they can automate personalized drip campaigns to their prospect list. They can personalize by dynamically using the data that the prospects have provided on their LinkeIn profile and their connections. For example, marketers can automate an invite with a message that reads “Hey Tom, I see we both know Jennifer over at XYZ Distribution. How do you know her?”

But just being “personal” isn’t the holy grail. Savvy marketers set up a series of drips to touch their prospects on LinkedIn repeatedly in order to get a response. With every touch, the LinkedIn user receives a notification, encouraging them to pay attention to the “ask.”

Typical — and more aggressive — LinkedIn drip sequences

A typical drip sequence will include a profile view, profile follow, invite, dynamic message and continue with the marketer liking the prospect’s content. The most aggressive marketers will share and even comment on the prospect’s content.

Once a prospect accepts the connection with the executive’s account, the marketer can send additional dynamic messages until the prospect responds. Upon the connection, the prospect’s contact info can be automatically pulled into a CRM or email marketing automation platform. From there, the best practice is to automate an email drip sequence to inform the lead and gather more information from them with a clear call-to-action.

This process is also effective in “outreach” campaigns that aim to keep in touch with existing connections. For many B2B companies, maintaining clients is as important as finding anew. And because “outreach” campaigns target people that you probably already know to some degree, the message needs to be personalized.

Identifying targeted audiences by dozens of traits

Since LinkedIn is so highly focused on professional individuals, the process for prospecting starts with optimizing, refining, and building out one’s own LinkedIn profile. From there, C-suite executives, leaders, and managers can use LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator.

Sales Navigator is a tool designed to enable users to identify their target audience or prospects by considering dozens of traits, such as title, industry, company size, geography, etc. Sales Navigator users can use this information to build lists of targeted prospects.

Perhaps best of all is that LinkedIn users can automate processes such as “liking” a post, or “following” a new lead. Sales Navigator users can take up to 250 actions per day. Imagine all the outreach you could do with 250 messages, follows, invites, endorsements, or likes every day!

Maximizing marketing outreach via automation

But in order to maximize this outreach, business leaders may find it more time-saving and cost-effective to use automation software to manage the workflow.

Drip campaigns created by marketing automation software still take time and commitment from c-suite executives and leaders. Because LinkedIn lead generation is all about crafting messages that create a conversation toward conversion, someone will have to respond to personal messages that you receive. Marketers have found that their clients don’t mind this too much, as they’re quick to remind them that these personalized messages are leads.

Organizers can use marketing automation software for a variety of campaigns. But with LinkedIn, marketers have a huge advantage in the amount of data available. While you can automate email campaigns, for example, you cannot tell much about your client when all you have is their name and email address.

With personalization, messages remove the cringe-worthy language and give potential customers something that speaks to them. Within that message is what your company can do to meet their needs. That kind of personalized message sounds like something worth reading.

About the author:

Mike Mayer is founder and CEO of Main Event Digital, a digital marketing agency for manufacturers and distributors. Prior to Main Event Digital, he worked as a B2B ecommerce executive at companies including U.S. Electrical Services, Crescent Electric Supply and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

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Distributors must make it easier to do business digitally

Mark Brohan — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 18:08:26 +0000

In this Q&A article, Karie Daudt, a veteran B2B strategist who is a Director of Commerce Strategy at digital consultancy Perficient, discusses how distributors can best take on the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly digital B2B world of commerce. In her previous article, Daudt discussed challenges for manufacturers.

DC360: What are the top B2B digital commerce trends B2B buyers and sellers should watch closely in 2023 and why?

Karie Daudt, Director of Commerce Strategy, digital consultancy Perficient

Daudt: There are many trends that distribution buyers and sellers should pay attention to in 2023.

This is the year of customer obsession and focusing in on the needs, wants and expectations of the customer. Important considerations are what do you make your customer do that they do not want to do? This is not just a simple focus on the buying journey, but a complete understanding of the process customers goes through to engage with you. We know that there are many people involved in the buying journey, and each of those people are engaged at different times for different reasons.

Think of how the process is for a new customer, versus an existing customer. What are all the use cases associated with the end-to-end process, and what are the challenges they face along the way? What role does the customer care representative play in the journey? When does a technical resource need to engage, and why? How does the salesperson stay engaged and informed in the process?

Understanding all the internal and external interactions that occur or could occur, provide the opportunity to solve for the multi-step process and make engaging with your business better. The ability to partner with your existing customers to understand the challenges they face is a great opportunity to build long-term relationships in a digital world.

Another trend to consider is the concept of how performance is impacting the customer experience. We are seeing a big trend in site reliability engineering. This is not just focused on how your overall site is performing, but also a way to key in and focus on specific activities. Taking an actionable and measurable approach with performance engineering and KPI alignment is the next big opportunity to driving better commerce results.

DC360: Has B2B ecommerce reached the tipping point where the industry now views digital commerce as mainstream? If so, why?

Daudt: I do believe that B2B ecommerce has reached the tipping point where the industry now views it as mainstream. The continuous growth and expansion of B2B ecommerce indicates that the acceptance and expectation of customers is that companies must have it. The challenge is that distribution companies need to take this seriously. Just having a website is not what B2B ecommerce is all about; it is making it easier for your customers to do business with you, including evaluating your internal business factors that impede success.

DC360: B2B ecommerce is accelerating on multiple levels right now, not the least of which is annual sales growth. In general, where are distributors being impacted, and why?

Daudt: As B2B ecommerce continues to accelerate, distributors need to stay in front of their customers. It is important to understand what challenges their customers face and find ways to solve those challenges. Distributors need to make themselves relevant and provide value that customers can’t find elsewhere. Distributors need to partner with their manufacturers to deliver better experiences through data quality, leveraging tools that help customers make better informed decisions. It is critical that distributors always visualize what the future looks like so they can plan ahead.

DC360: What did COVID 19, supply chain woes, labor shortages and inflation teach manufacturers and distributors about digital commerce in 2022? What hard lessons should they have learned, and why?

Daudt: Covid 19 should have taught distributors several things, with the first being that they need to have digital sales channels that can adapt and pivot quickly to address customers’ needs. One important lesson for many organizations was learning how well their digital sales channel can handle a significant influx of traffic. We saw many organizations take significant performance hits and get overwhelmed by people looking for products.

This performance challenge is leading to a new trend and opportunity for organizations to focus on site reliability engineering. Starting with the overall site performance, it is important for organizations to understand where they might see failures with a higher-than-average demand. You may see an increase in cart abandonment and may not understand why this is happening. It could be that your cart and checkout page are having an issue with performance, causing people to abandon their cart. Connecting these data points will enable your organization to improve overall experience in targeted and specific ways.

DC360: What are the biggest B2B ecommerce challenges facing distributors, and how can they overcome them?

Daudt: One of the biggest challenges facing distributors today is product information quality. Organizations must invest in managing their product data and content, from collecting, standardizing, and enriching the information.

To overcome this challenge, distributors must make product information a priority. This may mean partnering with your manufacturers to address the quality, accuracy, and relevancy of the data they are providing you. It might mean leveraging inbound product syndication to improve the information you have for products.

Regardless of how a company improves the data they have for products; the distributor needs to take the initiative to enrich the products to align with their business and customer needs. For organizations that currently have a product information management (PIM) solution, it is time to prioritize managing and enriching the data. Focus on optimizing your top-selling products and differentiate your content from your competition for better SEO and onsite search results. For distributors that have not invested in a PIM solution, this is the year to make that a priority and improve the experience your customers have with your business.

Another challenge that distribution companies need to solve is providing better overall transparency to data. The ability to show product availability across different warehouses is one example. Or, let your customer know if the delivery date has been changed so they can plan accordingly. Give your customers options. For example, if the exact product they desire is not available let them know if they can order a direct replacement. The ability to keep your customers informed is no longer a luxury — it is key to your ongoing success.

DC360: Headless commerce, artificial intelligence and cloud applications are the most talked about new digital applications. Are these must-haves or nice-to-haves for sellers?

Daudt: You are correct, headless commerce, artificial intelligence, and cloud-first applications are the most talked about new digital approaches. Are these must-haves or nice-to-haves for sellers?

Honestly, distributors could consider any of these items as nice-to-have approaches versus must-haves. The key for organizations to think, how will these solutions help me move the needle for my business?

Artificial intelligence is interesting especially in how it can help things like intelligent search. The ability to use data and automated learning for areas like related products or cross-selling can be useful beyond managing those items manually in tools like PIM or ecommerce. It can also be an accelerator to drive more intelligent personalization, but I do want companies to think about what personalization is to their B2B business. How is this going to help me and possibly take me to the next level, or are there other key considerations I should be making before I move in this direction?

Headless commerce can be a great for distribution organizations that are more mature and can invest in connecting the front-end experience to the commerce engine. Headless can be a great move for organizations that are wanting to leverage technologies, like a content management system (CMS), that the business user is comfortable with to provide content that drives the user to a conversion. The organization needs to be prepared to make the investments in technology and the resources to support and maintain the headless approach and be nimble enough to take full advantage of the solution.

The cloud-native approach and leveraging APIs to connect commerce capabilities is an interesting trend. The reality is that this approach does require a fully agile development approach and an advanced IT support team prepared to operate as a software development team. If the organization is fully prepared to make the switch, and desires to make the necessary level of capital investment, it might be better to stay with a more traditional approach and see how the trend pans out.

DC 360: What happens if a B2B organization chooses not to make digital commerce a strategic priority?

Daudt: This is still my favorite question!

In my opinion, every B2B organizations must have a strategy that makes digital commerce a strategic priority. The important considerations are what does that strategy look like and what does it mean to our business. Digital Commerce is many different things to many different organizations, including a customer portal, an ecommerce digital sales channel that supports guest and authenticated users as well as a marketplace.

It can also include areas of your business to digitize product information and data to syndicate to websites, third-party marketplaces, and more. Every distributor needs to understand what the long-term strategic impact of their decision to not go digital in some way, shape or form.

In a previous article, Daudt discussed challenges for manufacturers.

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Your business collects a lot of data. Now what?

Raj De Datta — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 23:39:41 +0000

Raj De Datta

The world generates about 2.5 quintillion bytes every day, with the average person generating 1.7 MB of data every second. By 2024, it’s estimated that the world will consume 149 zettabytes annually — up from 74 zettabytes consumed in 2021.

That’s a lot of information — much of it incredibly valuable to organizations as they look to adopt a more customer-centric approach to business strategies. From marketing to customer service, the ability to understand customers on a deep, data-backed level can put teams at a massive advantage.

Sales and profits are substantially higher for businesses applying customer analytics broadly and extensively.

But while customer data (and other forms) can be a company’s most valuable asset, few organizations are using it widely or efficiently enough to recognize its true impact. Most organizations use less than half of their structured data to make decisions — and under 1% of their unstructured data. Only 13% of organizations have full confidence they’re maximizing their available data.

What’s more, data is still often seen as an area best suited for technical teams. While customer-centric functions like marketing arguably stand to gain the most from using this data, they’re also the departments most likely to face challenges in accessing or utilizing it.

Data is everyone’s problem

Ask just about any company about their data strategy and you’ll probably hear that they collect more data than ever before. Fewer will be able to say they’ve actually figured out what to do with that data.

In the past, data management was considered a tech or chief information officer problem, but with more departments expected to increase their customer centricity and efficiency, data has become an everyone problem. Companies can use it to streamline operations, identify customer pain points, and inform marketing and sales campaigns with customer insights to more effectively deliver what customers expect — and need. Data is valuable to every department, which means everyone has a role to play in the company’s data strategy.

The starting point for that strategy? Taking stock of what you have.

Data is often siloed across departments and technologies. Businesses need a clear understanding of their important sources of reliable data — where and how those are collected, what is actually needed, and which departments can benefit from its use.

From there, consider areas for consolidation. There are a number of tools available to help unify data (a customer data platform, or CDP, for example), but they are of no use to organizations when there are countless tools in use and no single source of truth. Consider areas where you can consolidate tech stacks or where it makes sense to invest in a more comprehensive solution. Unification should also enable cross-departmental collaboration. All teams in your organization ultimately serve the same customer; they should see the same customer view.

And of course, prioritize both data privacy and quality. Organizations should seek to collect data responsibly, adhering to privacy regulations and collecting customer consent where necessary. Organizations should also seek to collect data they actually need. A data exchange is just that — an exchange. If customers provide information about who they are and what they like, a business should use that information to provide a better, more personalized experience in return.

Data put into action

So what does that better experience look like for your organization?

Some organizations make a key mistake with their data: They spend too much time worrying about collecting and storing it and not enough time thinking about how they’ll put it into action, making use of their data assets to drive the business.

How companies can use data to make the customer experience better, faster, more seamless, more enjoyable, more… anything, really, is quite astonishing. Consider where your customers — whose needs and buying patterns are unique to your business — will benefit most from a data-driven experience. These adjustments might be something easily accomplished within the organization, such as gaining a better understanding of existing, underused analytics, or they may require investment in new technologies, such as a CDP. Regardless, data put into action should produce noticeable results for both customers and the business.

For example, you can use data to:

Deliver personalized product recommendations with more precision and in more channels.
Ensure customers don’t receive promotions for products that are out of stock or unavailable in their size.
Improve customer service by monitoring support response times.
Drive down returns by recommending more accurate sizing or relevant products.

Leveraging actionable data to improve the customer journey elevates the customer experience, makes it more enjoyable and often, more tailored. That’s important. Customers overwhelmingly favor more personalized experiences — 71% expect it and 76% are frustrated when they don’t find it.

Using data to drive business decisions and customer experiences creates happier customers, improves the brand experience and delivers greater business results. In fact, sales and profits are substantially higher for businesses applying customer analytics broadly and extensively.

Data is everyone’s solution

Data is critical for scaling your business. And this is likely not the first (or second or tenth) time you’ve heard that.

As technology has evolved and data has grown abundant, many companies have understood its potential and sought to derive value from its use. Yet countless challenges have stood in the way of actually achieving that. Departments worked in silos, IT teams became the data gatekeepers, businesses collected data without a clear idea of what they wanted to do with it. There have been valid challenges preventing businesses from capitalizing on their data’s value.

But we can no longer allow those challenges to stand in the way of leveraging such a critical asset. Businesses must invest the time and resources to create a holistic data strategy. It’s time to focus on collecting and consolidating data, breaking down silos, and strategizing how to put data into action organization wide.

In today’s fast-moving, digital world, data is everyone’s problem. Harnessed correctly, it becomes everyone’s solution.

About the author

Raj De Datta is the CEO and co-founder of Bloomreach, a provider of “commerce experience” products and services designed to help online B2B and retail companies engage their customers. Prior to launching Bloomreach in 2009, De Datta served as entrepreneur-in-residence at Mohr-Davidow Ventures, director of product marketing at Cisco Systems, and a member of the founding team of telecom company FirstMark Communications. He continues to serve on the Council for Player Development for the U.S. Tennis Association and as a founder-partner at venture capital firm Founder Collective.

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Millennial and Gen Z B2B buyers are many and demanding online

Mark Brohan — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 18:47:16 +0000

Millennial and Gen Z B2B buyers are now the chief purchasers of goods and services for their organization. And when it comes to ecommerce, the growing number of millennial and Gen Z professionals have very high expectations for B2B ecommerce, says a new report from Forrester Research Inc.

Millennial refers to people born between 1981 and 1996. Gen Z refers to those born between 1996 and 2012.

Amy Hayes, vice president and research director, Forrester Research

“Generational shifts in the workplace are turning the business buying process on its head,” says Amy Hayes, vice president and research director at Forrester. “Lack of understanding about millennial and Gen Z buying behaviors can adversely affect providers’ ability to reach, engage, and ultimately win these buyers over.”

Millennials and Gen Z zoomers constitute 64% of business buyers. Furthermore, millennials make up more than half of all business buyers, Forrester says.

“These younger buyers are more demanding, engaging in more buying activities, and more willing to express their dissatisfaction with the buying process,” Forrester says. “These changing buying behaviors, combined with continued economic uncertainty and tighter budgets, necessitate that sales and marketing leaders adapt their go-to-market strategies.”

Millennial and Gen Z B2B buyers also have high standards for engaging and purchasing online from sellers

Younger buyers carry new demands and expectations for B2B buying. Forrester predicts that in two years, more than a third of millennial and Gen Z business buyers will purchase through self-guided digital channels. Those include vendor websites, marketplaces, app stores, or directly from an existing product.
Millennials and Gen Z B2B buyers are active information seekers. Younger buyers go to more sources and find third-party resources more impactful than vendor resources.
This group is quicker to express dissatisfaction with the buying experience. 90% of younger buyers cite dissatisfaction with their vendor in at least one area compared to 71% of older buyers.

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More businesses embrace a digital supply chain

Mark Brohan — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 21:54:33 +0000

Supply chain disruption counts as one of the most top-of-mind challenges big global business organizations will deal with in 2023, says a new survey of more than 1,000 supply chain executives by the Capgemini Research Institute.

Global business leaders are focusing their investments on the areas that will continue to drive their business transformation.

Aiman Ezzat, CEO

Capgemini

In the face of economic headwinds, organizations are taking a cautious approach to investment. They see supply chain disruption as the top risk to business growth for 89% of organizations, ahead of rising raw material prices and the energy crisis. Supply chain resilience is a key priority, with 43% of businesses planning to increase investment. Meanwhile, 39% intend to increase investment in technology to reduce costs and drive business transformation. Organizations in the U.S. and china will prioritize sustainability, but less so in Europe, says Capgemini.

To help weather the economic storm, businesses are considering ways technology can help to drive growth and create economic value quickly. The report found that 39% of them plan to increase investment in technology in the next 12-18 months, and a similar proportion is planning to maintain it. Executives plan on leveraging technology primarily to help reduce costs and to make faster decisions, leveraging cloud, data and analytics. To further protect their businesses in the next year, almost half of executives also plan to increase spending in cybersecurity, Capgemini says.

Capgemini data and supply chain disruption

Capgemini surveyed executives from 2,000 organizations across 15 countries in industries including:

Automotive
Consumer products
Industrial and capital goods
Banking
Insurance
Retail
Energy and utilities
Public sector
Life sciences
Health care
Telecommunications
Media
High-tech manufacturing

“Global business leaders are focusing their investments on the areas that will continue to drive their business transformation,” says Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat. “They should seize the opportunity that technology offers, not only to make their business more efficient, sustainable, and resilient, but more importantly to enable long-term growth opportunities.”

72% of organizations will be looking to make significant technology investments to reduce long-term cost, while 59% will look to make technology investments that support faster decision-making, the survey says. Companies are looking to add technologies such as IT infrastructure and cloud, data & analytics, and intelligent automation, among others, over the next year to 18 months to attracting investment in the next 12–18 months. 40% of very large organizations (with revenue more than $50 billion) agree that their cybersecurity spend is expected to increase in the most in 12-18 months.

“To tackle current risks and navigate turbulence, businesses must continue to make considered, directed investments, especially in diversifying and digitizing their supply chains,” Capgemini says. “They must adopt digital tools and technologies that drive cost savings and expand hybrid and remote working conditions.”

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Demystifying the B2B digital sales funnel

Johan Liljeros — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 20:44:57 +0000

Johan Liljeros

In today’s digital commerce world, understanding the sales funnel is the key to success. When selling to a business, the individuals you’re engaging with are dealing on behalf of others within the business, rather than making a purchasing decision based on their own wants or needs.

It’s incredibly important that your landing page is optimized to sell your product or service in the first few moments.

A major difference between the B2C sales funnel and the B2B sales funnel is the buyer’s motivation. Unlike consumers, businesses aren’t interested in buying things for entertainment or enjoyment. Every purchase a business makes is a calculated decision that it will work to boost their bottom line. Even if a company buys a foosball table for its employees, it’s a decision intended to help improve the employee experience and encourage workers to be engaged, productive, and, hopefully, loyal. There’s simply no such thing as a frivolous B2B sale.

Customer service needs also tend to be vastly different for B2B than they are for B2C. Consumers generally don’t want to talk to anybody when they’re making a purchase. They visit, browse, study, add to cart, and buy. It’s a journey without many opportunities for diversion.

Alternatively, the B2B sale is a longer and more complex buying process. Traditionally, B2B buyers would require a heavy amount of interaction with sales reps throughout the buying journey. These days, they’re doing product and service research on their own at an increasing rate.

What this means is brands must have the materials available to help potential customers conduct their research and reach their own conclusions. You’ll need more comprehensive product information, educational materials, and supporting information on hand to help guide B2B customers towards making the purchase. There’s a longer and more complex sales funnel for B2B, and it can be a lot to take in at a glance.

Let’s explore the six key stages of the B2B sales funnel process:

Stage #1 – Awareness

It’s at the “Awareness” stage that the customer is exploring their options. If they’ve worked with a suitable vendor before with good results, they will likely turn to the same vendor again. Or they may consider recommendations from colleagues; word of mouth plays a major role in B2B marketing.

There’s a good chance that the buyer will turn to a search engine to begin exploring vendors and product solutions to seek what they need. This is where your marketing efforts have a chance to pay off. Great content marketing, PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can help catch a potential customer’s eye during this Awareness stage, drawing them to your website.

Stage #2 – Interest

In the “Interest” stage, the buyer is on your website and ready to browse what you have to offer. It’s incredibly important that your website or landing page is fully optimized to sell your product or service in the first few moments of the buyer arriving there.

That means you want them to know exactly what it is you’re offering immediately. Use clear language to explain your product or service in a way that’s immediately visible and offers clear selling points. Too many companies squander that valuable interest with paragraphs about the company’s history or the product’s pedigree. This is a good way to lose the buyer’s interest and send them on their way.

Second, since you’re selling to a business, it’s vital to have examples of positive testimonials or other social proof available at-a-glance on that initial page. Since most B2B buyers must undergo a decision-making process involving multiple stakeholders, you’ll want to provide them with as much up-front credibility as possible.

Stage #3 – Consideration

It’s at the “Consideration” stage where the B2B buyer will start narrowing down their options, which typically means zeroing in on what you have to offer. This is where the strength of your product information and marketing materials will really be put to the test.

While this step would traditionally result in the customer reaching out to a point of contact within your company to begin discussing your product, it’s more likely today’s B2B buyer will do the research on their own and discuss among the stakeholders. You may still receive some emails requesting price quotes and the like, so be prepared to support these requests.

Stage #4 – Intent

After extensive research, the buyer in the “Intent” stage will narrow down their options and, hopefully, identify your business as a potentially great fit to supply them with what they need. If the buyer did reach out and signal their interest in your product, your business should have mobilized to learn as much as possible about the buyer and their organization. This will allow you to tailor a sales pitch to speak on precisely as to how your business will be able to help them should the opportunity arise.

Stage #5 – Evaluation

At the “Evaluation” stage, the buyer has narrowed down their options even further and the decision is likely between your company and perhaps just one other seller. Company stakeholders are weighing their options and preparing to make a purchasing decision. There is nothing further to do except cross your fingers and hope to make a sale.

Stage #6 – Buy

This is Go Time! Contracts will be signed, arrangements will be made, and transactions will occur. The sales funnel has been completed and it’s time to move on to nurture your next customer. But take pause because the B2B sales funnel never really ends. It’s cyclical in nature. After you’ve made the sale, you want to stay in touch the buyer and offer them support for your product.

B2B customers will turn to businesses they’ve had success with before they go looking for other options. That means the door is always open for them to return for future purchases. The more in-depth relationships you form with clients, the more returning customers you will have, and the more streamlined the sales funnel becomes each time they pass through.

You may have the greatest B2B product on earth, but it’s paramount that to align your sales and marketing efforts with buyers’ needs at all stages in the sales funnel.

About the author

Johan Liljeros is general manager and senior commerce advisor, North America, at Avensia, a firm that helps B2B and B2C companies deploy ecommerce technology and strategies.

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Why tightly connected branding yields higher online B2B sales

Peter Lucas — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 18:05:56 +0000

Aligning the digital customer and brand experience ecosystems is critical, according to a new survey and report from Forrester Research Inc.

Even though 53% of B2B buyers responding to the survey have used a digital channel to complete a purchase, many respondents said they were dissatisfied with the ease of doing business when purchasing digitally. But while many B2B sellers recognize the need to address buyer dissatisfaction, Forrester finds that addressing that problem is impeded by three key organizational roadblocks:

Misalignment or lack of prioritization of digital initiatives
Fuzziness around internal responsibilities and accountability when it comes to managing the digital experience
Constraints when it comes to people, technology, and budget

The starting point for overcoming these obstacles is for B2B marketers to incorporate key elements of their brand strategy throughout the digital experience, according to the report, “Align B2B Digital Experience To Brand Experience And Customer Experience To Foster Growth.” In other words, B2B marketers need to describe what their company stands for, what it does, and what it strives to achieve.

“Where the digital channel adds value is bringing the brand to life, and that starts with what the brand stands for and what is the company’s brand vision,” says Renee Irion, principal analyst at Forrest and the lead author of the report.

The report identifies four critical elements of a B2B marketer’s brand strategy:

The brand vision, which emotionally connects the audience to the business.
The brand identity, which sets the voice, tone, and feeling for all of a company’s go-to-market activities.
Brand positioning, which connects the targeting audience’s pain points to the brand to build a strong emotional connection and brand image in the minds of the target audience.
Brand differentiators, which highlight a core set of attributes that distinguish the businesses’ offerings, such as culture and vision. Brand differentiators inform how aspects of the digital experience, such as content and services, can demonstrate these attributes, the report says.

Another top priority B2B decision-makers identified is improving the customer experience, which can boost customer satisfaction and loyalty and increase the likelihood of positively influencing customer perceptions.

“Improving the customer experience correlates with customer loyalty and can lead to cross-selling and upselling opportunities,” Irion says. “The customer experience is an extension of the brand experience.”

Customer experience best practices include identifying the customer and their needs so the marketing, customer experience, design, and customer research teams can understand customer needs, expectations and pain points. These are all key to optimizing digital experiences.

“A business can’t approach [marketing, customer experience, design, and customer research] independently,” Irion says. “There has to be as strong a connection as possible between them to improve the customer experience

Developing a customer roadmap that defines long-term initiatives is also recommended because it can help marketers focus on the customer journeys. A roadmap can also help B2B marketers where digital engagement channels can play a central role in delivering experiences that better meet customer needs, and help customers quickly achieve their goals.

Marketers should also prioritize customer experience projects based on their value to digitally engaged customers to help create the customer experience roadmap, the report says.

Finally, the digital B2B experience strategy must align with a company’s brand and customer experience strategies because a customer journey may not always start and end in the digital channel. For example, a B2B buyer may start the purchasing process by visiting a seller’s website, engaging with a chatbot, and transitioning to a salesperson. B2B marketers can positively influence a buyer’s perceptions.

They can ensure the digital experience strategy builds on four key principles:

Insights into a buyer’s decision-making process based on her actions within the digital channel so marketers know who to engage with and when.
Delivering content that influences the purchasing decision based on what the marketer knows about the buyer in the purchasing process.
Providing buyers what they need, when they need it, and where they need it to make the purchasing decision, rather than forcing them down a path the seller prefers.
Providing technology options that allows buyers to engage digitally, as well as through personal interaction.

“Reducing complexity and friction in the purchasing process and increasing the emotional connection with the buyer helps marketers speak to buyers,” Irion says. “Regardless of the channel the buyer ultimately purchases through, the digital channel is playing a more important role with B2B buyers and will continue to do so in the future, which is why B2B marketers need to align their brand, customer experience and digital ecosystems.”

Peter Lucas is a Highland Park, Illinois-based freelance journalist covering business and technology.

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Manufacturers: You need to embrace digital commerce. Here’s how.

Johan Liljeros — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 19:11:00 +0000

Johan Liljeros

Manufacturers have been relatively slow in adopting B2B ecommerce, especially when compared to direct-to-consumer retailers. For many, the return on investment didn’t seem attractive enough, or it was just too complex of an endeavor.

Combined with A/B and user testing, a manufacturer can design the perfect customer journey from start to checkout.

That all changed in 2020 with the onset of the COVD-19 pandemic. Manufacturers had to pivot to online B2B sales to overcome physical location closures and supply chain challenges. The primary sales channels were faltering, and ecommerce offered an efficient alternative.

Many manufacturers that made the leap saw the benefits of online sales almost immediately, with a major uptick in sales and profitability. Still, there are a lot of manufacturers that haven’t gone digital, which is a missed opportunity.

Below are four key reasons ecommerce for manufacturers makes sense:

Direct access to customers

Using an ecommerce channel to sell to B2B customers provides manufacturers with valuable customer data, including direct insights into how their customers shop and interact with their site.

Customer data is integral to creating winning marketing strategies. It’s also incredibly useful for new product development. Armed with insight from digital touchpoints, manufacturers have a better understanding of what their customers want and how they want it. This insight fosters more effective marketing campaigns, more relevant products and services, and improved sales and better profit margins moving forward.

Scalability to grow

Ecommerce enables manufacturers to expand their throughput for processing orders without the need for more distributors or extra sales representatives. Since the processes are handled digitally, manufacturers can fulfill many orders via automation and straight-through processing without any in-person contact.

Additionally, the ecommerce channel enables manufacturers to “land and expand” to global markets and sell internationally without physically having to move their operations to another country.

Increased brand awareness

The majority of today’s shoppers, both B2B and B2C, begin their searches for production solutions online. If a manufacturer’s products or services aren’t available online, they are missing out on visibility to get in front of potential customers.

By having an online storefront, manufacturers will also be able to leverage search engine optimization (SEO) practices to appear higher in internet search results when people make business-related searches. Additionally, manufacturers control the customer’s journey on their digital storefront. Combined with A/B and user testing, a manufacturer can design the perfect customer journey from start to checkout.

How do manufacturers plot their course to take advantage of digital commerce? Here are three key tips:

1. Choose your technology partner wisely

Even though the ecommerce platform is a vital part of a manufacturer’s investment — the partner that helps implement it will be the component that will ensure success. This is not only the technical part with the right software development team, but it also entails having a partner that understands the manufacturer’s business, and adjacent businesses, and has long experience in making online businesses successful. A partner like this will complement a manufacturer’s experience with its market, value proposition, and operations by injecting an outside perspective and new insights. It’s important to find a partner that is ready to challenge a manufacturer in the areas where it needs to be challenged.

When it comes to the platform, it is important to look also at possible accelerators that offer a short time to market. This approach means checking that all features you consider a common denominator in a B2B platform are implemented to a certain level. That step is necessary because within B2B, there is a level of features that everyone uses.

There is also a level of feature variations that will make a manufacturer unique, or that will better fit into how the company operates. In many cases, it is more efficient for a manufacturer to purchase and complete the work on a partially finished platform rather than buying an already completed platform and rebuilding it to suit its needs. In contrast, the latter approach typically shortens the life expectancy of the platform by many years.

2. Build your online storefront

After you’ve selected a platform, it’s time to build the site. The manufacturer’s online store needs to be engaging, easy to use, and unified with the brand. In essence, it’s vital to give customers the same feeling and service level online to replicate the experience of meeting a sales representative at a physical location.

When building the site, manufacturers need to imagine what the customer will want from a buying journey. Obviously, they’ll want the products easily accessible and searchable. Imagery, schematics, specifications, and certifications are common content elements for B2B manufacturers to incorporate into their site. The navigation should be as intuitive as possible, and the checkout process should be smooth.

3. Critical tools

There are many tools to consider when setting up an ecommerce channel for a manufacturing business.

One of the best things about ecommerce, as mentioned above, is all the useful customer and user data that a seller acquires as customers use their site and place orders. It’s crucial to have a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to collect and centralize this information.

Another must-have is a product information management (PIM) tool to manage the product catalog for all channels. This will help with activities such as:

Onboarding new data
Enriching product information
Controlling and automating the release process
Serving a manufacturer’s own channels, industry databases, and/or resellers

After implementing a PIM system, companies often see a 50-80% efficiency gain and a welcomed reduction in returns as the quality of product data always increases.

Spurring growth

Ecommerce for manufacturers is a growing sales channel; more and more B2B customers are turning to online storefronts to grow their business. If you are looking to expand sales as a manufacturer, a well-conceived ecommerce strategy can provide a business boost and lower the cost of sales. In an era of inflation, that can offset higher costs of raw materials to help support competitiveness. This strategy is not about competing with the existing sales team. Rather, it is to support them to close more deals, increase the throughput, and lift tedious tasks that do not generate new business.

About the author

Johan Liljeros is general manager and senior commerce advisor, North America, at Avensia, a firm that helps B2B and B2C companies deploy ecommerce technology and strategies.

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