Recent changes and research in the ecommerce market have called its relevancy to B2B into question. Maxine-Laurie Marshall investigates what it means for B2B marketers
When was the last time you bought something online? This morning, yesterday lunchtime? I’m pretty sure it was some point within the last week though. I used to enjoy spending hours wandering around the shops to see what would entice me, but now I’m a pretty efficient online shopper. If I need a new book I’ll order it within minutes, birthday present for mum; ordered and gift-wrapped, dinner; it’ll be at my door 15 minutes after I get in from work.
And I’m sure your consumer online buying habits are similar. But does this trend translate into B2B purchases? OC&C Strategy Consultant, in collaboration with Google, recently highlighted businesses in the more consumer focused sectors of travel, retail and leisure could benefit the most from a global ecommerce market. It’s also very easy to be dismissive of ecommerce in a B2B environment by saying nobody is going to spend hundreds of thousands, or millions, of pounds over the internet. But B2B buying is more than just six-figure deals and Daryl Frost, head of planning at Ais London, rightly points out: “B2B marketers should indeed be focusing on e/mcommerce, after all B2B digital trends often follow consumer trends. Capitalising on behavioural trends that are easily transferable from B2C to B2B environments is a factor that cannot be ignored by savvy B2B marketers.”
However, B2B marketers appear to be getting more mixed signals about the relevance of ecommerce in the industry as Google quietly shut down its B2B ecommerce platform Google Shopping for Suppliers in June. This might lead to thoughts along the lines of: ‘if a digital giant like Google can’t make it work then who can?’ But lest we forget the uphill struggle it’s been having with Google+; we’re not writing off the relevance of social because of that.
Right for B2B?
A survey of 1580 business buyers in the USA, UK, France, Germany, China and Australia from Intershop revealed B2B buyers are faced with constraints. Seventy-six per cent of buyers said their organisations have approval/authorisation procedures in place and 31 per cent are forbidden to buy on their own. However, B2B marketers clearly have a rebellious streak as B2B buyers are ‘going rogue’ and making purchases online without involvement from procurement. The research, carried out by Forrester, showed 86 per cent of buyers are making purchases without procurement. These aren’t one-off purchases either, 64 per cent said they are making purchases weekly or monthly without procurement.
Speaking about the results, Lars Schickner, director of the innovation center at Intershop says: “They [B2B buyers] are not deterred by procurement policies. They are also able to make direct purchases and get reimbursed by their companies. What this means for B2B commerce is that sellers have to think about the individual buyer within an organisation as a powerful sales channel. They can no longer just think of procurement, deploy a field sales rep who is goaled on getting on corporate procurement’s approved vendor list and the revenue will come.”
So with B2B buyers set on ignoring buying policies and going solo, it would appear ecommerce is potentially a big industry for B2B. Last year Forrester released statistics estimating the US B2B ecommerce market to be worth more than $500 billion in annual sales.
Supporting this is a testimonial from Richard Lewis, marketing director at trade window blind manufacturer Green & Brown, which launched an ecommerce platform this summer and says 90 per cent of sales are already coming via the platform.
“It’s been brilliant, we’ve had no summer lull. We’ve been educating a lot of independent retailers of what’s possible and the ease of use. A lot of clients were not used to ordering online. They were used to a customer service manager ringing up, but we still have that, customers have an allocated account manager.”
Social and mobile
Although early days, potentially more good news for ecommerce in B2B comes as Twitter – B2B marketers’ second most used social channel according to B2B Marketing’s Social Media Benchmarking Report 2014 – launches a beta test of a ‘buy’ button.
B2B buyers aren’t strangers to using consumer sites they are more familiar with to make their B2B purchases. Despite the closure of Google Shopping for Suppliers, Amazon Supply is going strong and 25 per cent of Intershop’s survey respondents said they used a consumer site like Amazon or Ebay to make a B2B purchase instead of using the supplier’s website. Knowing this and the fact business buyers are embracing ecommerce, it could mean good news for Twitter’s buy button and more opportunities for B2B brands to expand in to ecommerce. Lewis says: “The internet is the easiest place to sell, within the commercial market place that’s all been going fantastically well for a good number of years, but it’s been lacking on a B2B level.”
Despite B2B’s slow adoption of mobile as an important factor in marketing, B2B buyers are showing the same consumer habits when they make purchases for work. According to Intershop, respondents are prepared to use multiple devices when buying online. Eighty-nine per cent feel secure using a desktop to buy online, 69 per cent feel the same about using a tablet and 51 per cent feel safe using a smartphone. This echoes what Lewis is seeing at Green & Brown. He notes there is almost an equal split between the number of orders placed on a PC and tablet. He says: “This did surprise me especially with the industry we’re dealing with where they are used to ordering by fax and phone. Generally now we’ll go and buy things we want as a consumer, and I suppose businesses are no different, it’s the same process.”
So yes, ecommerce is big business for B2C brands but this is precisely why it’s going to end up being big business for B2B brands. Those using it are seeing success and Intershop has revealed 52 per cent of its survey respondents have been buying online for more than six years. So perhaps forget the stereotyped view you have of
your customers that because they are in B2B they won’t be into ecommerce. Drew Nicholson, CEO of OgilvyOne DNX closes with one final additional benefit of embracing ecommerce: “These technologies provide B2B marketers with a great platform for serving their customers with easily accessible, localised and relevant information. Adopting an ecommerce way of working also gives the B2B marketer a clear, measurable ROI that allows them to demonstrate the value of marketing to the rest of their organisation.”
