As consumers, we all shop online more and more often. This is nothing new of course, and the development of e-shopping has been even more pronounced since the advent of the pandemic. What is new, however, is that there is a similar shift towards online shopping by businesses. The Business-to-Business (B2B) market has traditionally been well behind retail in the online space, but now that’s changing – and changing fast!
In the B2B space, competition is fierce, requiring flexibility and adapting to conditions and data that change from one hour to the next. Corporate customers in 2023 are not the same as they were in 1993, nor in 2003. Today’s customer has information in front of them and can compare features and prices instantly. Businesses that don’t keep up and stick to the traditional B2B sales methodology is doomed.
However, studies and data show that the online B2B space is untapped and hides huge opportunities for anyone who moves smart and fast. A study on digital sales channels revealed some extremely interesting facts such as:
– Suppliers have a long way to go before they reach a level of e-commerce maturity, but there is some movement in the right direction.
– The percentage of revenue coming from e-commerce is significant and growing every year.
– Many suppliers are planning significant investments for their online store, primarily to improve their search infrastructure.
– The pandemic was a springboard for significant growth for those vendors who had prepared e-commerce infrastructure.
– Suppliers’ most important e-commerce goals are to improve efficiency, productivity and brand awareness.
The message is clear: online B2B stores are gaining ground and becoming more and more attractive for suppliers, even though this market is still in its infancy. What matters most, however, is a clear and long-term plan. Any business that enters e-commerce without really having a clear will, or even “tentatively” – which means that no one will be seriously involved in implementing and perfecting the e-shop – is doomed to failure. The secret recipe for increasing sales and market share has one key ingredient: the seamless and complete implementation of the online shop strategy.
The market has realized the importance of online shopping for B2B businesses, and that’s why, today, only 1 in 5 companies have online B2B revenue below 10% of the total, while just 3 years ago, this ratio was almost 1 in 2 companies!
On top of these statistics, we also see the growing importance of functions like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), not only for attracting customers but also for increasing brand awareness. This is where specialized and technologically advanced platforms such as SoftOne’s Shopranos, for example, become important, providing AI tools that automate such functions.
But even if online is not the main source of revenue for a business, in a short time it will be of particular importance. B2B customers are not disconnected from reality; they see, use, and experience B2C online shops, and they want that experience in B2B, so having a B2B e-shop – especially a modern and functional one – is essential. Some of the most important reasons are:
- It automates sales and processes, thus requiring far fewer resources – namely human resources – from the business.
- It creates an extremely solid foundation for the digital transformation of the company, driving the digitization of other processes.
- It is the best and fastest way for a business to expand its access to new markets, new products, new customers.
- It is the easiest and most cost-effective way to achieve what is known as “extroversion”, in other words, expansion into new geographies, both within and beyond borders.
- It centralizes information and data around every part of the business, including the warehouse, customers, suppliers, invoicing and so on.
- Finally, it provides insight into the business in literally real-time, even for items that were previously not possible. With advanced analytics, one can see with a click which customers, which products, which days or times, which offers and so on are performing best. One can also see the mix of goods sold, optimize stock, deliveries and a host of other parameters that until now required a lot of time, or were never analyzed!
How you can get your own B2B e-shop
Everyone knows that creating an e-shop is not an easy task. But solutions do exist, and one of the best is the one from SoftOne, which automates the creation of a B2B e-shop through built-in AI features that allow for even faster creation of automated content in up to 30 languages, saving countless hours of design and development, and delivers a state-of-the-art e-shop that is also secure, with proven functionality and a top-notch user experience.
The reason is the Shopranos platform which provides all the tools necessary to create online stores especially for B2B, minimizing deployment time and covering all platforms, from desktop PC, Mac, to smartphone or tablet. Through its innovative artificial intelligence features it offers the ability to create upgraded content regardless of the volume of product code, SEO titles and keywords increasing your e-shop’s traffic and attracting customers without geographical limitations. At the same time, it includes all the “side” costs that you may not have considered, such as hosting, maintenance, interface with ERP systems such as Soft1 ERP, but also technical elements such as domain management, etc.
The B2B online shop is essential for the near future. Whoever prepares it in time, will be many steps ahead of the competition. And do not forget. Regardless of what any business will do, customers will not wait. They will simply turn to those who are ready…