The evolution of technology has made marketing, buying, and selling goods and services primarily online-based. Within the last ten years, online sales and commerce skyrocketed, making it impossible for a company to sell products without having online affiliations. This is what B2B e-commerce is based on.
What is B2B eCommerce?
B2B translates as “business-to-business” transactions. It is a term used to describe commercial transactions and connections made by businesses on online platforms. Under B2B commerce, there are different concepts. For instance, there is the B2B2C concept. In the business-to-business-to-consumer concept, the manufacturer’s business is brought directly to the consumer, meaning that the middleman will be removed, which will improve the interactions between the consumer and the manufacturer.
With many businesses now relying on the concept of eCommerce, the net has become choked with different online transactions. So, it is very easy for your company to get lost in the whole eCommerce crowd. For your business to stand out despite how widespread eCommerce has become, there are specific steps you must take. Some of them are:
Be Innovative
Generally, innovation helps businesses grow. Innovation will always attract people to something creative and appealing. In some cases, an innovative idea can fundamentally change a business by making it popular, inadvertently increasing sales, and boosting the business’s overall outlook. The same thing applies in B2B commerce. If you discover that your business is not being recognized by your prospective consumers, try doing something innovative. For instance, if you run a business involving orders instead of using a phone to receive such orders, try creating a site. That fresh idea can change the outlook of your business. So, innovativeness is a necessary factor that cannot be overlooked as a business-oriented person or company.
Reveal More of Your Services to the Consumers
Consumers are always looking for solutions to their problems or finding something that will match what they have in mind. As a business rooted in eCommerce, revealing information that is essential to the services you cover should be prioritized. This is because promoting what your brand has to offer clearly and in a defined manner makes it easy for consumers to see if their interest aligns with what you sell. So, let the online platform you are using provide a wealth of information that will be helpful to the consumer and you, the manufacturer.
Routine Check of your eCommerce Platforms
Depending on the platform you use to promote your brand and services, they should be monitored appropriately. An excellent example is a website. There are so many factors that can affect the way a website operates. The result of such elements is usually a slow response of such sites.
A slow site will repel customers because they won’t get what they are looking for quickly and efficiently. Therefore, if the site in question is routinely checked for unexpected issues that can occur, any problem that comes up will be rectified immediately.
Effectively Strategize SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) advertising is now one of the core areas in marketing because they’re needed to boost traffic on a site, thus increasing profits. Most companies do not give SEO the attention it deserves. However, if SEO is effectively used, your company can be recognized more. Most web traffic comes from a search engine, and less than 5% of people who access the web make it to the second page. This means that if websites are what you use as your e-commerce platform, effectively strategize SEO in such a way that you are on the first page of search engine results.
Send Promotional Emails
What are promotional emails? Promotional emails are sent to customers or subscribers to an online service or agency about the new or existing products or services available. Promotional emails are sent to inform people, especially customers, about special deals, limited offers, bonus offers, etc. If promotional emails are used well, it will make you stand from most e-commerce businesses. Secondly, your customers will be informed first-hand on the services you have to offer and will patronize you.
Offer Discount and other Reward Services
Never underestimate the power of a discount. As a business based on e-commerce, after you have had a good number of customers who frequently subscribe to your services, reward them. This will create a unique relationship between you and your customers. For instance, for bulk purchases, you can offer a 15-25% discount.
Your customers will note these things and even refer you to new people that will patronize your services. You can also make use of giveaway plans occasionally. The lucky winners will definitely bring more customers.
Generate a Sense of Urgency
Create a sense of urgency for people who access your site. Most visitors that access sites they consider “unknown” tend to leave such sites early. In order to prevent this creating a sense of urgency should be a necessary action, you should take. The sense of urgency you created will make the visitors to such sites understand that the services you offer are “the real deal.” Use phrases such as “limited offers,” “Only a few stocks remaining,” “buy now! We are almost out of stock”. This will undoubtedly pique the curiosity of visitors that access your site.
Build Trust
On the internet, scams and frauds are common so, it is not surprising that people will be wary of the services they subscribe to on the internet. So, to counter this, you have to establish your business on the internet and build a trusting relationship between you and your customers. It is crucial to display your security badges prominently on your site.
This will give your customers a sense of security and trust. Also, try using payment options that are tested and trusted by most people who purchase products online. Using a foreign medium can look sketchy to random visitors that access your site.
Free Shipping
Most customers hate paying for shipping because, in most cases, it significantly adds to the overall cost of the product you are purchasing. For instance, buying goods worth $120 and paying $25 for shipping will be generally frowned upon by customers. As an e-commerce business, do not underestimate the advantages of free shipping. So, using the fact that most customers hate paying for shipping to your advantage differentiates you from other B2B commerce crowd. For instance, placing free shipping on orders of more than $100 is a good start.
Final Words
The B2B e-commerce crowd has grown over the years and is still growing. So as an upstarting business, you must use these ideas listed in this article to your advantage to create a unique outlook.
