Forrester forecasted that B2B eCommerce generated $1.1 trillion in sales in 2020, accounting for 12.1 percent of all B2B sales.
According to the International Retail Commerce Association, the growth of B2B eCommerce is outpacing that of B2C retailers by more than 100%.
Companies who engage in B2B eCommerce for manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, see greater earnings than their rivals who do not have a fully functioning eCommerce website.
Why is this important? Well, evolving consumer demands and technological advancements are driving the fast rise in B2B eCommerce.
Further, business-to-business customers anticipate the same variety of choices and ease of use that they get as private consumers when doing their research and placing their purchases. As more Millennials get engaged in business-to-business buying choices, this tendency is becoming increasingly prevalent.
At the same time, technological advancement has made it feasible for B2B merchants to build eCommerce websites capable of handling complicated setup, buying, payment, and reordering procedures, among other things.
Deploying a B2B eCommerce platform for manufacturers may entail a significant up-front financial investment. Nonetheless, in the long term, the investment will be well worth the effort. The following methods can assist you in increasing your return on investment:
1. Search Engine Optimization (also known as SEO)
To be discovered online, your eCommerce website should be search engine optimized. Here’s how to do it:
- Create a mobile-friendly site.
- To target the appropriate audience, do research and use keywords.
- Each landing page’s page names and meta descriptions should be optimized.
- Avoid the problem of duplicate content by including unique text on categories, subcategories, and product pages. This will prevent search engines from demoting your website for duplicating content.
- Use structured data to aid search engines in better understanding your content eCommerce for manufacturers – google snippets.
2. Inbound and content marketing are two types of marketing that are becoming more popular
Hubspot estimates that 76 percent of B2B businesses will adopt the inbound technique as their primary marketing strategy.
In addition, inbound marketing strategies that are well-designed and backed by solid content marketing programs have been shown to produce a high return on investment. Also, inbound marketing is especially effective for lead generation since it attracts prospective consumers to your website while also educating them about your goods and services.
Listed below are some tips for maximizing the effectiveness of inbound marketing and content marketing for your B2B eCommerce website:
- Use prospective consumers’ buyer personas to guide the development of tailored content for them.
- Be aware of your prospects’ psychological makeup at all phases of their customer journey.
- Hire eCommerce managers.
- Develop an editorial plan based on your buyer personas’ queries and concerns at each step of the customer journey, and map it to your content production approach.
- Investigate the most effective distribution and promotion channels for your content.
- Capture and nurture leads by providing them with more relevant and valuable material.
- Make use of segmentation and retargeting to ensure that content and audience are aligned.
- Design a compelling user experience and to appeal to prospects at the decision-making stage, utilize rich information at the product level, such as a product demo, for example.
- Ensure that your inbound marketing team and your inbound sales team are working together and communicating well.
3. Make ordering and reordering easy
Typically, B2B eCommerce for manufacturers is designed to increase conversion rates. As a result, it is critical to provide your consumers with a user experience that makes the ordering and reordering procedures as simple as possible.
Here are a few suggestions for making your purchasing process more user-friendly to improve conversions and client lifetime value:
- Reduce the complexity of the price structure to make product setup, quoting, payment processing, recurring shipping, and online reordering more straightforward.
- Organize product presentation and pricing per the business guidelines of the customer organization. Enable customers to choose from pre-approved goods and place orders within a defined price limit, so you can make the buying process easier for everyone involved.
- Capture and mirror customers’ previous contacts with sales representatives through phone or live chat (for example, over the phone or via live chat) in product configuration, price, and shipping choices, among other things, to provide customization.
4. Localize even when serving a worldwide market
B2B eCommerce websites can assist manufacturers in reaching a worldwide clientele, thus offering up possibilities in rapidly expanding international marketplaces.
To fully capitalize on this advantage, you must have a robust centralized eCommerce infrastructure in place while also adopting site localization to guarantee that your foreign clients have a smooth and appropriate user experience:
- Incorporate relevant shipping, delivery, and price information that changes depending on the region or market group being targeted.
- When producing content, consider the primary language, dialects, and culture of the nation in question. Localize the whole customer experience, including customer service, the payment system, and digital marketing campaigns.
- To generate visitors to the eCommerce site, use the most effective marketing and communication methods available in the local market.
- Observe all applicable rules and regulations in your area.
For instance, consider localized mobile applications — nowadays, 50 percent of individuals use their cell phone as their primary Internet connection. Certain nations, such as China, also have considerably greater percentages of unemployed people.
Invariably, a robust backend system that collects and organizes as much prospect and client information as possible is required to execute an omnichannel strategy effectively. This allows you to offer your customers a high degree of customization while maintaining a consistent customer experience.
5. Innovate with data
You can collect a significant amount of data from analytics and understand how prospects and customers engage with your website, which can improve the overall user experience and boost conversion on your eCommerce website.
Moreover, you can manage your money and resources more efficiently if you make use of first- and third-party data, as well as real-time updates on product availability and consumer needs, among other things. You will also be able to provide superior merchandising and personalized user experiences, and optimum pricing and product mix tailored to each client’s specific requirements.
In fact, there are multiple approaches for increasing traffic to your eCommerce website, enhancing brand recognition, and bolstering the end-user experience to increase conversions. What should you do? Choose methods that are most relevant for your target audience.
What have been the most successful tactics you’ve used in your eCommerce manufacturing business thus far? Drop us a line, and share your thoughts on the subject.