Nearly half of businesses report losing customers due to an underwhelming commerce experience.
But 91% of these decision makers think their company spends enough money on the digital customer experience, according to a survey of 300 decision-makers by Elastic Path. The report, Solving the B2B Commerce Puzzle, cited that businesses are eager to meet customer’s expectations for seamless buying experiences, so they rely on ecommerce platforms designed for B2C sales, rather than B2B.
John Bruno, VP of product management at Elastic Path, said: “In the B2B spaces, it’s either innovate or die. B2B commerce is due for a revolution. B2C commerce tools do not work for B2B businesses, and they never will.”
In addition 82% of respondents stated if their company did not improve its commerce experience, it would see a negative impact on customer retention. Some 53% of respondents who had achieved profit margin growth agreed that was possible through the investments in digital buying and selling tools.
6 ways to achieve a purpose-built B2B e-commerce system
The report made six suggestions to develop a B2B-specific ecommerce system. These were:
- Offering streamlined reordering and guided selling
- Supporting flexible pricing models
- Giving sales team fewera dmin taska and a more consultative role in the sales process
- Delivering unified experiences across channels
- Supporting organisation-specific digital catalogs
- Providing account-based experiences.
CEO Harry Chemko, added: “When customers are given the buying experiences they expect, they buy more and remain customers for life. This study makes it clear that the missing piece of the B2B commerce puzzle is a purpose-built system designed specifically to enable the complexities of B2B buying and selling. B2B sellers should abandon the B2C-like methods hamstringing sales and implement solutions that empower the business to meet increasingly higher customer expectations.”
