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Why ecommerce is Great for B2B
DynamicWeb
Can a sword cut through a steel bar? Can a motorcycle jump the Delaware River? These are the types of questions you might see on TV myth-busting shows. For us, the real question is why some B2B companies are still holding out on e-commerce.
Let’s bust some myths!
Myth #1: B2B ecommerce will never replace giving your customer a handshake in a physical store.
There’s no reason to fear the online customer experience any longer. Personalization and recommendation engines provide users with content customized to their interests. You’re still getting to know your customers just like before. But with ecommerce technology, you’re able to immediately act upon that knowledge and offer your customer a new solution.
Myth #2: B2B ecommerce is too different than B2C with too many people involved.
B2B sales often do have to go through several people (engineers, managers, executives, etc.) before a decision is made. The number of decision makers is even more of a reason to provide your leads with continued email communications and online engagement through rich content.
Furthermore, with a digital marketing plan, your e-commerce site provides a library of content that uniquely targets each person up and down the chain of command. Despite some B2B marketers claiming that B2C is too different, Forrester has actually studied this and recommends that B2B adopt proven B2C principles for higher sales.
Myth #3: B2B products are too complex with too many prices.
Online configurators allow the customers themselves to customize a very complex product down to the individual specifications. When customers take this task into their own hands, it reduces workload for your employees, and it gives more control to the customer. Then the customer simply submits the product for a quote afterward.
A quality B2B ecommerce solution lets you display the full quantity of products in your inventory, allows for customization, and lets you set prices at will. And when it comes time to pay, ecommerce gives the customer many different methods to pay, from credit cards to bank transfers to a number of international solutions.
If your B2B company is still a holdout, then hopefully we’ve allayed some of your fears. B2B ecommerce is on the rise, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. It’s becoming more and more likely that your competitors have a ticket to the elevator, and if you don’t get on board, you might get behind.