The B2B marketplace is evolving its customer-centric sales approach to meet changing customer expectations and needs. In the past, the customer experience involved personal interactions, printed product catalogs, and phone orders; today, B2B buyers are looking for a more efficient shopping experience that fits their schedule, suits their buying preferences, and serves their business needs. In short, they want self-service eCommerce shopping with the option to speak with a salesperson or CSR. This hybrid sales model is becoming a popular strategy with today’s B2B sellers because it lets customers choose how and when they want to interact with businesses. In fact, McKinsey & Associates’ latest B2B Pulse survey finds hybrid selling will be the most dominant sales strategy for B2B organizations by 2024.
As a wholesale distributor, now is the time to improve your digital capabilities to better serve your customers. The majority of B2B decision makers today are either digitally savvy or digital natives who want to research, shop, transact, and manage their accounts online. With B2B eCommerce expectations skyrocketing, Gartner predicts by 2025 80% of B2B sales interactions will happen on digital channels.
To help you stay relevant with today’s buyers, here are five efficiency tools to add to your digital branch that will boost customer loyalty and drive growth for your business.
1. Customer account portal
A customer portal is the ultimate self-service tool. Not only does it save your customers time and money, it ensures a better overall experience because they are given control to handle many account management functions independently. This feature enables customers 24/7 access to their account information from the convenience of your eCommerce website.
A customer portal saves customers a call to your office to find out the status of an order, view their balance, or obtain an invoice summary. Additionally, it can link them to features like an online request-for-quote form, a saved list of their favorite/frequently bought items, and a place to review and approve other users’ shopping carts. User management functions within the portal enable customers to edit their contact information, change their shipping address, and set up different user roles and access for their employees.
2. Quick order pad
If your customers regularly buy multiple items at a time, a quick order pad gives them the option to upload a file of those items or simply copy and paste their product order from a spreadsheet directly into a web-based order pad. With just a click of a button, they can add items to their shopping cart where they can complete their order. A must-have for many B2B customers, the quick order pad is a time-saving tool that allows your customers to order products in bulk instead of individually selecting each product and its quantity.
3. Flexible checkout and payment options
When it comes to checkout and payment options, the more choices you offer buyers, the more likely they’re going to complete the sale with you. While some customers still prefer using purchase orders, many are looking for alternate ways to transact. With the help of secure payment gateways, distributors can offer smaller businesses and contractors the ability to transact with a credit or debit card. Integrated with your eCommerce site, a payment gateway safely and quickly facilitates the transactions made between a website and a payment processor.
Besides integration with payment gateways, your website should be able to sync orders to customer e-procurement systems. Known as punchout, this alternate checkout option allows a customer to access your online product catalog and purchase products within their internal procurement system. Punchout technology maintains a connection between the customer’s procurement system and your website to display the customer’s account information, including their contracted catalog content and pricing. The customer searches for items from your catalog and adds them to his shopping cart. Then, when they are ready to check out, their shopping cart automatically transfers to their company’s e-procurement system where the items are submitted to you as an order using the customer’s normal procurement system methods.
As B2B eCommerce sales continue to grow, so do transactions through punchout. Digital Commerce 360 estimates e-procurement sales in 2022 grew 18% year over year and, for the first time, topped $1 trillion.
4. Vendor-managed inventory tool
Today’s buyers are tightening their belts and looking for ways to lower overhead costs. One way distributors can help is by offering a vendor-managed inventory (VMI) tool that keeps customers sufficiently stocked without having too much or too little product on hand. The automated inventory replenishment tool allows customers to set quantity thresholds and replenish amounts for the products they regularly stock in their warehouse and trucks. Once the customer enters their current quantities on hand, the VMI tool calculates how many items to order to adequately restock their supply.
Integrated with your eCommerce site, the VMI tool enables customers to add the items to their shopping cart on your website and place their order. This value-added service helps your customers reduce costs from overstocking while making sure they always have sufficient inventory.
For added customer convenience, some automated inventory replenishment tools allow your sales reps to log in as their customers – with their consent – and manage their inventory for them. The sales rep builds the customer’s item order list, then visits their warehouse regularly to input their current inventory numbers into the VMI tool and places their orders for them.
5. Mobile shopping app
Convenience is key to buyers, which is why mobile shopping is an essential capability. But a mobile-responsive eCommerce site is not enough to satisfy customer needs. They want a mobile application they can access on their phone, tablet, or other mobile device that has features they can’t get with a solely mobile-friendly website. According to McKinsey’s Global B2B Pulse Survey, 65% of B2B buyers will actively look for another supplier if mobile ordering is not an offering.
Sophisticated mobile apps enable buyers to scan an item’s barcode or take a picture of the item they want to order and the app will search your catalog for the item. If customers are in a location without a cellular hot spot or reliable Wi-Fi connection, the app’s offline shopping cart feature lets them search and add items to their shopping cart and, once reconnected to the Internet, the cart syncs to your eCommerce site where they can complete their purchase.
Along with product shopping and transacting, a mobile app gives customers access to all the resources your website offers, including account information, promotions, favorites lists, and customer service. Using their phone’s camera, microphone, and GPS services, a mobile app gives customers multiple ways to shop, purchase, and engage with your business.
Better tools provide a better customer experience
Distributors are at a tipping point. To stay relevant and meet customers where they are, they must provide more convenient ways to engage with them and serve their needs. At Unilog, we’re here to help. Our extensive suite of tools includes a feature-rich eCommerce platform, unmatched product content, dynamic information management, and deep system integration hub to power deeper customer engagement and elevate your ability to sell. We offer all the best efficiency tools and self-service features for your customers – from quick order pads, automated inventory replenishment, and punchout capabilities to online RFQs and mobile apps that mirror your website. Contact us today to see our eCommerce products in action and to learn how easy it is to get started.