With the continuous evolution of the Business-to-Business industry, E-commerce has proved to be an excellent solution for business growth. With the rise of E-commerce, attention has drastically shifted to Online practices.
Today, business owners are more prone to present a website with a robust online presence as part of their business strategy in 2022.
To stay updated on business growth, let’s take a quick look at the emerging E-commerce trends.
B2B- Statistics for E-commerce
E-commerce is no longer a new strategy explored by the B2B industries. According to official reports, in 2022, approximately 65 percent of B2B industries have been operating on online transactions. They are more likely to attract E-commerce customers than physical sales.
E-commerce drives revenue
Apart from Emails and Video Conferences, the maximum revenue comes straight from E-commerce, which accounts for around 18 percent. From the official reports of Wonderman Thomson regarding the B2B purchase, it is clear that 49 percent of purchasing happens online across the U.S, U.K, and China.
Surprisingly, 52 percent of individuals aren’t happy with online B2B purchases. Approximately 90 percent of them wouldn’t mind shifting their attention to the B2B competitors if they have a terrible experience.
In this regard, B2B companies should meet the customers’ rising expectations by going through a much-needed digital transformation in 2022. For this, they will need to switch to the latest industry trends and the nominal websites won’t work out for them anymore.
Embracing the top-most E-commerce trends in 2022
You can surely master success for your business in 2022 with the following top trends in E-commerce:
- Make investments in the technology for E-commerce platforms.
- Let your customers get a personalized shopping experience.
- Upgrade your Legacy System.
- Focus on displaying products and their information.
- Explore the popular social media channels for your products and services.
- Ensure customer satisfaction by delivering orders faster.
- Explore the other online third-party marketplaces.
Make investments in the technology for E-commerce platforms
B2B E-commerce platforms serve as the core of the entire digital ecosystem. As a result, over 35 percent of B2B businesses in the U.S are specifically investing in the technology of E-commerce platforms.
Each E-commerce platform works differently and there are still platforms that aren’t flexible because they continue to operate on a traditional basis without updating and changing their ways. This further takes away the opportunity from the customers to choose the best solution for their requirements.
On the contrary, some systems exist without truly supporting the functioning of E-commerce platforms.
BigCommerce, which is a crucial part of modern SaaS Commerce Solutions, provides features supporting B2B complications, a strong security system, speed for innovation, and reduced ownership cost.
Let your customers get a personalized shopping experience
As per research, a personalized experience helps consumers understand the type of online suppliers with whom they could connect and build a strong relationship. Also, individuals spend more time online when they get a personalized experience and this extra time is calculated by an increase of 48 percent amongst consumers.
B2B buyers who look forward to a personalized shopping experience are almost 50 percent.
Headless commerce, a new strategy is being applied by B2B businesses to make the personalized experience simpler and more convenient.
Headless Commerce explained
Headless Commerce separates the front end of the website from the back end. The frontend presentation consists of a variety of things such as text color, font, style, image, table, graphs, and buttons whereas the backend consists of the infrastructure, checkout, pricing, security, etc.
Frontend technology can be used to provide an enhanced user experience with the best quality content whereas for the backend, taking out an E-commerce solution will prove beneficial.
Reportedly, headless technologies derived 1.65 billion in funding in the years 2020 and 2021. This will only increase with time because of the drastic rise in E-commerce businesses.
The top-most benefit of Headless Commerce is that it provides commerce functionality whenever required and also lets brands further provide API with BigCommerce fueling the commerce engine.
Upgrade your Legacy System
Businesses often upgrade their legacy systems only at the end moment and not regularly. This makes technological integration complicated and also makes them go back to the starting point.
Businesses necessarily have to develop strong and digitally transformative strategies in full sync with their mission, vision, and goals and not just at times when technology demands it.
Focus on displaying products and information
Usually, B2B buyers face challenges in finding the product and the latest information about the product they are searching for.
What is Product Information Management Software?
The Product Information Management Software (PIM) is a solution for consumers trying to find products and updated information about them. It is incredibly beneficial in the collection, management, enrichment, and distribution of product information across channels such as marketplaces, advertising networks, Social Sales, etc from the E-commerce platform or mobile application.
Back-office technology is another way to collect all the information on one platform that is associated with your website to display the updated product information at a faster pace.
A chatbot is also an alternative for letting shoppers directly visit the product page and also opens doors for them to communicate with the sales team in case they have never bought anything from you.
Explore the popular social media channels for your products and services
The popularity of social media channels among B2C businesses already exists but now even B2B businesses are trying to step up their game by reaching consumers through social media channels. It has been observed that B2B buyers already search for information regarding products and their purchases through social media.
If selling products through social media scares you it is much better to experiment by choosing whatever suits best to your customers. You can experiment simply by sharing different posts or videos related to your products and their value so that you can understand the audience’s behavior. You might even share your customer’s experiences they have had with your brand and check what resonates the most with your target audience.
Ensure customer satisfaction by delivering orders faster
There are already existing B2B businesses using varied digital marketing strategies for business growth. Consequently, it has resulted in increased competition. So, it has become important and urgent for B2B businesses to deliver orders as quickly as possible.
To attract B2B buyers and balance the process of orders, B2B businesses can use Oder Management Software which is software for the management of orders across a variety of sales platforms with the reduction of the complexity of the supply chain and centralized information.
Such businesses can also shift their attention to third parties, commonly known as 3PL, if your business is already moving at a faster pace, the fulfillment cost graph is going upward, and you’re spending ample of time on inventory management.
Explore the other online third-party marketplaces
B2B buyers are observed to have started their journeys by searching for products in marketplaces.
Reportedly, 15 % of buyers in the U.S and 20 % of buyers in the U.K have a buying story with Amazon business. Third-party marketplaces are a great way to engage customers which further gives way to increased sales, access to the global market, and testing of the latest products.
‘Feedonomics’ is an excellent tool for streamlining the listings on Amazon and it is a great marketplace strategy that helps registered customers on Amazon get discounts when they purchase in large quantities. They also get incentives on prices that are only visible to the registered customers.
Determining the relevance of a trend for your business
There are several trends out there and you can’t practically use all of them, especially all of them at the same time. A few trends might appear expensive or even irrelevant to your business goals. It is more feasible to figure out which trend will suit your business needs. Evaluating the industry trends and also implementing the right ones will help generate better ROI.
Stay updated with the latest industry reports and data
The industry keeps evolving with time and the changes are often quick. You will need to stay updated with the latest news in the industry and all the data and numbers. Regular observation and analysis of the data and numbers will help you understand the future scenario. Knowing the latest industry happenings will also give you an insight into the trends that will work for you and those which won’t.
Analyzing customer’s behavior through data
B2B E-commerce has access to the customer’s data which further enables B2B companies to utilize that data by evaluating it and assessing it. This is only possible online. Quantitative Data is more about what a customer does which can be assessed through Web Analytics whereas Qualitative Data is the reason behind what a customer does, this data can be derived from surveys and feedback.
Requesting feedback
B2B businesses need to ask for feedback from their customers which will widen their horizons regarding their existing pain points. You might also start looking for solutions to cover up the challenges faced by your customers. Not only this but you can also plan for the future according to the customer behavior. You might as well extract a good idea from the customers when you directly interact with them, which you’ll be able to implement in the future.
Doing a competitor analysis is important
Conduct thorough research on your competitors and see what trends they have been following. Are those trends working well for them? Have they chosen a specific trend? Do you think applying the same trend will work for you? You don’t have to appear identical to your competitors but yes knowing what they are up to and what exactly is working out for them will also help you in curating unique and beneficial strategies.
B2B businesses- A conclusion
2020 and 2021 garnered attention from businesses to shift online. But with 2022, it is more about implementing strategies that work best for the customers according to their ever-changing behavior and requirements. It is not just important to stay relevant to customers’ needs but also to match up to their expectations by choosing the right strategies.
All the strategies mentioned above are important but can’t be used at once. The key to achieving success for your B2B businesses is to simply collect the data of customers with an analytical approach and implement your strategies keeping in mind all the information you have assessed about your customers. This will surely give your business a much-needed digital transformation.
