If your B2B company is still on the fence about selling online, consider this: B2B buyers are now more frequently buying online than over the phone and through other offline channels. In fact, B2B eCommerce is on course to hit $12 trillion in sales by 2020, according to a Frost & Sullivan report.
Retail eCommerce giant Amazon.com has demonstrated how safe, easy and fun online ordering can be. But B2B eCommerce is a much more complex ordeal than retail eCommerce. It requires careful consideration regarding what options will help or hinder online sales.
If you’re looking to improve an existing online store or in the planning stages to launch one for the first time, consider these 5 must-haves for B2B eCommerce. They could mean the difference between a big sale or a lost deal.
1. Allow Flexible Payments
Allowing your customers to check out and pay whichever way they need to is extremely important. For B2C sites, asking for a credit card or Paypal for payment makes sense. But on your B2B website, you need to offer more options: pay with a purchase order, a company credit card, or another business payment method. Doing so will bring you a lot more customers than if you force them to pay with a credit card.
2. Offer a Quote Request Button
B2B businesses tend to make large purchases. Therefore, they might need to request a quote for a purchase order and approval. Providing them with this function quickly and easily will likely get you more business.
3. Multi-User Account Enablement
Make it easy for a company to use a single account to access your products. The easiest way to do this is to have the account belong to the company, not to an individual. That way, anyone in the company with the right credentials can log in and use the account. Allow users to create a corporate account and then register separate individuals. This will make it easier for the company to see who ordered what.
4. Quick Reorder Option
Many B2B buyers simply need to reorder a previous purchase. Time is money, so why make them go through the whole process of reselecting and ordering? To improve the B2B eCommerce experience and drastically increase recurring revenue, offer a quick reorder option that saves preferences such as preferred payment and shipping options.
5. Engage in a Conversion-Centric Design Optimization Program
Conversion-Centric Design Optimization uses design and psychological triggers to increase conversion rates. This means convincing a visitor to do one thing and only one thing, such as making an online purchase. Tracking where they get hung up in the process and/or what is motivating visitors to buy or not will provide insightful intelligence. You can then use these insights to make improvements in the overall shopping experience.
All marketing tactics should be thought of as part of a larger whole, rather than separate pieces. By strategically integrating all marketing tactics, the marketing program becomes more effective and cost efficient. As a B2B agency, we developed B2B 360 Integrated Digital Marketing to meet this improved performance need. To learn more about B2B 360 and how it will benefit your business, download our free eBook: The Better Path to Top-Tier Tech Marketing.