To remain competitive, forward-looking wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors are starting to rethink their ecommerce business in terms of mutual value.
Buyers are placing increased emphasis on the quality of their online experience and the value of strong supplier relationships. Progressive business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce companies are recognizing the rich source of market intelligence provided by their site visitors and customers.
Here are some ideas that could help you to create a value-based B2B ecommerce model.
Keeping pace with change
The B2B ecommerce marketplace is becoming increasingly complex and demanding. Distributors are moving into manufacturing with own-label products. Manufacturers are becoming distributors by selling directly to customers. Competition is becoming even fiercer. New enterprises are finding it easier and faster to compete directly with established B2B businesses using Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Cloudfy.
A Cloud-based platform is accessible, scalable and cost-effective. With regular updates deployed automatically in the Cloud, businesses can quickly take advantage of the latest innovations to make online buying easy and fast.
Business-to-business (B2B) buyers expect the same high quality experience they find in business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce. With the ability to integrate your online trading with product, pricing, order and stock data, and back office systems you can meet these expectations and build long-term relationships alongside improved sales and profitability.
Engaging catalogs
A modern online catalogs is much more important than a listing of products and prices. It is becoming an essential tool to build the value of your relationship with your customers.
Buyers do their research online from anywhere, at any time and using any device. They might not speak to a sales person at all – their buying decisions might be based solely on what they discover online. So it’s important that your catalogues are optimized for mobile devices.
Using your catalogue as a tool to engage with your customers will not only give you access to new sales opportunities; you will also gain valuable data. Analytics will give you priceless insights about product choices, budgets and decision-making.
Demonstrating value
Procurement roles are becoming more varied and individuals or departments are increasingly likely to be decision-makers. Cloud-based platforms like Cloudfy make it easy to provide demonstrations and free trial offers to potential customers. Once the value has been demonstrated products can be seamlessly bought or upgraded.
While it might be the traditional territory of your salespeople, this service frees up their time and energy for more profitable activities. It also provides valuable insights into purchasing behavior with existing and potential clients. For example, once your sales team has seen five or ten people in an organization signing up for a product, there’s potential to upsell to an enterprise-wide contract.
Cloudfy’s expert team can give you advice on how to become an innovative leader in this exciting B2B ecommerce marketplace. Contact us today.
