Whilst business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce is undoubtedly thriving (worldwide sales accounted for more than $1.4 trillion in 2014 alone), business to business (B2B) e-commerce has been slower to take off. However, with Forrester predicting that B2B retailers will have more than 50 percent of their customer base buying online from them within the next three years, it’s clear that business to business e-commerce is starting to gain momentum. In the electrical industry, for example, a survey by Voltimum of 15,000 users across five key geographies, revealed that 66 percent of electrical professionals are now buying their electrical equipment online. As this highlights, within certain sectors e-commerce is rapidly becoming the preferred channel for B2B sales.

The potential of B2B e-commerce is something several major B2C players such as Amazon are starting to recognise. With sites such as Amazonsupply.com in the US stocking a wide range of wholesale products and other major B2C retailers reportedly eyeing up the B2B market, the tide appears to be turning. However, as an increasing number of B2C players start to enter the B2B space, it’s essential that business to business retailers stake their claim soon, to ensure they’re able to reap the benefits an online sales channel can bring.

Whilst the advantages of rolling out an online sales channel for B2B retailers are clear, for those that don’t already have an e-commerce solution in place, establishing one can present a few challenges.

To help address these, here are my key takeaways from the DMC Commerce Consultants guide detailing key steps businesses can take to implement a successful and strategic online sales channel:

1. When looking to introduce an e-commerce offering, it’s important to firstly build a real understanding amongst the management team. As part of this, you should make sure you know why you’re introducing e-commerce and what you’re looking to gain from it. This will help you to identify any problems early on, and plan a strategic approach. The results of these discussions might be that e-commerce isn’t yet the right move, however it’s impossible to determine this without first grasping the concept, and examining the potential benefits and pitfalls.

2. As ultimately the success of failure of any e-commerce strategy will be decided by the bottom line, it’s important to establish realistic objectives to measure how the strategy is faring. When putting together objectives, you should identify how you expect e-commerce to affect the operating results, and know whether this will be directly or indirectly, on a short, medium or long term basis.

3. Understand what makes your channel stand out on the market, and use this to develop a distinct position. Examine your customers’ needs in relationship to what’s already on offer – are there areas where there needs aren’t being met? What can your business offer to address these? Whilst just lowering prices is unlikely to be a viable option, explore other strategies such as offering exclusive deals, customer services, channel-specific attributes and a different assortment of products other than what’s currently available.

4. Take time to understand the impact digitalisation has had on business models. In today’s digital age, customers have access to a wealth of information at their fingertips, which has undoubtedly affected purchasing behaviour. Whereas once customers might have started their purchase journey by a visiting a bricks and mortar store, today people choose a product first, and a channel second. To develop a successful B2B e-commerce strategy, it’s therefore important to develop a product-centred marketing strategy.

5. Ensure your platform works alongside retailers. While there is always liable to be some competition between manufacturers and retailers, a good e-commerce platform should support both parties. Multichannel distribution provides an excellent example of how both parties can work together to support each other. Rather than placing manufacturer and retailer into competition with one another, multichannel distribution links the two channels via connecting services, generating leads for the retailer and indirect sales for the manufacturer.

As our e-commerce survey also revealed, product comparison and price played a key factor in people’s decision to buy online, so it’s also important to bear these things in mind when developing an online sales channel, to ensure you’re able to offer an attractive offering to potential customers.

With professionals’ lives becoming increasingly busy, finding a way to conveniently purchase products is more important than ever. E-commerce enables people to shop at a time that suits them, and browse from a range of products quickly, simply and easily, and with such clear advantages, it’s easy to see why it’s gaining momentum. As a result of this growing demand e-commerce now presents a window of opportunity for B2B retailers. In today’s digital age, it’s therefore important that B2B players recognise the shift towards online sales and adapt accordingly, to ensure it’s not B2C retailers that end up dominating the business to business market.

 

By Wolfgang Schickbauer, CEO of Voltimum. 

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