Kenneth Ellis | Experience Director | Wunderman Thompson Consulting | mail me |
Consumer expectations of online commerce experiences, historically, have primarily been established by B2C interactions. In this ever-integrating arena, B2B players must increasingly look sideways at some well-entrenched B2C behaviours to gain a competitive edge.
B2B ecommerce has come a long way in recent years, particularly as manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors have accepted that ecommerce is an opportunity and not a threat. The value of digital transformation became glaringly evident during 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic changed how businesses operate. As a result, and to leverage the successes of already established B2C commerce leaders, more B2B organisations are opting for commercial platforms that afford access to the latest technology, a roadmap for continuous platform improvements, and third-party support.
The 2020 Gorilla report outlines five focus areas to help ambitious B2B brands gain a competitive advantage through innovation and define the next generation of B2B commerce experiences, namely:
Digital commerce offerings
- Marketing automation platform
Select the level of automation sophistication you need to gain relevant customer insights. Match the cost and functionality of the platform to your needs and digital maturity.
- CMS platform
Capitalise on the uptick in the need for richer, integrated content and commerce experiences by building more robust, best-in-breed headless commerce solutions.
- Owned B2B marketplace
Provide a wider product assortment, craft the right strategy, manage the nuances of operations, and tightly control logistics, and you’ll see how this outpaces overall ecommerce revenue growth.
- Responsive design
If you’re not operating with a digital-first mindset, you’re losing customers.
- Mobile apps
Although Progressive Web Apps have gained little traction, it’s one area where companies can gain a competitive advantage.
- Site speed
Page speed is a leading indicator of user experience, and unfortunately, long page load times were the norm across industries.
Trending towards transparency
- Account registrations
Instant account registration activation for site visitors is becoming the norm. Vetting users through long-winded gatekeeping could lead to customers taking their business elsewhere.
- Prices prior to log-in
Google does…
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Read the full article by Kenneth Ellis, Experience Director, Wunderman Thompson Consulting, as well as a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the October/November 2021 edition of BusinessBrief.
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