It seems like there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel after an unpredictable year. As both consumers and companies have a more positive outlook on the months ahead, it’s time to start thinking about how to welcome customers back to your business.
Recent events have changed purchasing habits for the foreseeable future, and it’s more important than ever for your business to have a strong eCommerce presence to keep up.
How B2B shopping has changed
While much of the focus of evolving retail behavior has been focused on consumers, we can’t overlook how businesses have changed in the past year. As a result of nationwide shutdowns and disruptions to the global supply chain, the way companies are making purchases has changed.
According to a research by Demand Gen Report, 68% of B2B buyers say the length of their purchase cycle has increased compared with a year ago. B2B buyers are not halting their purchasing, but are simply being more cautious with where and how they are spending their hard earned dollars.
Something that has remained the same, however, is B2B organizations’ reliance on digital channels. In 2019, Gartner reported that B2B buyers only spend 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers when they are considering a purchase. This is largely due to how much information can be found online.
Sellers have few opportunities to influence customer decisions, so it’s imperative for them to provide an exceptional experience to keep them coming back and share positive reviews.
What do B2B customers want?
At the beginning of the B2B purchasing journey, it’s important to provide buyers with an experience similar to that of consumers. They need a website that’s easy to navigate and full of the product information necessary to make an informed purchasing decision. From then on, the experience begins to become distinct.
The same report from Gartner explained that the B2B purchasing decision is unlike any other because it’s not linear. With anywhere from six to 10 decision makers involved, the buying journey is more like a continuous loop rather than a straight path.
But even though the B2B customer journey is more complex, it doesn’t mean the actual act of making a purchase should be. Business buyers require a personalized, streamlined buying experience. Individualized pricing and credit amounts, authorizing different buyers and saving accurate shipping information are all a must. Similarly, displaying accurate inventory information is critical to ensuring a buyer can purchase the amount of stock they need.
To provide this seamless experience, integrating customer-facing and behind-the-scenes systems are a must.
erpCommerce™: Better serve your B2B buyers
erpCommerce™ was created with B2B organizations in mind to help them integrate Magento and Sage X3’s systems. We understand the importance of providing businesses with a personalized shopping experience as they begin to increase their spending and have more reliance on eCommerce.
The integration of these two essential systems focuses on seven major customer touchpoints with ERP as the core value add. While standard integration exists to begin optimizing your processes quickly, erpCommerce™ was designed to be flexible so you can create your own unique workflows as needed.
With a positive outlook on the economy, now is the time to improve your front- and back-end systems to provide your customers with a superior eCommerce experience. Let erpCommerce™ help your ERP system be the single point of truth that runs your online business so you can focus on bringing in more revenue in other areas.
Contact the team at Pixafy today to learn more about erpCommerce™.
