Businesses are driven to find the most efficient and cost effective solution to any problem they may have—just look at the advisory and consulting industries. When seeking to expand business operations in the B2B sector, eCommerce just makes sense—individuals prefer to research and buy online these days. Self-service is a rapidly growing trend.
Modern eCommerce has the ability to remove purchase barriers that have previously existed, such as a delay while waiting on a specialized price, a noon fax, or when waiting for account creation. eCommerce enables customers to create their own accounts, see items at list price, and make a spot decision about their purchase.
eCommerce can provide a balanced approach to growth and efficiency—sales reps have more time on their hands to dive into other tasks while customers have their every desire at their fingertips. Did we mention that B2B businesses love fast shipping? High-speed shipping and instant gratification culminate in a highly effective way to boost sales numbers across the board while reducing the bottom line.
Spoiler alert: B2B eCommerce sites can and do attract new customers. Here’s how:
How can eCommerce be Adapted to B2B Sales?
B2B sales can be time-consuming—some salespeople have only a handful of cases, some of which are prospective customers. eCommerce allows businesses to automate the top of their sales pipeline—list price items can be moved, increasing overall profit on some sales, while customers walk away with more time than traditional sales processes.
Once a client has decided to purchase again, their pre-existing account can be used. As the business owner, you have to ability to program customized pricing based on the client and their needs. Why redo a task like ‘collecting initial client information’ and ‘list price sale’ at the cost of time and money? A modern eCommerce website powered by Magento or Shopify will provide you these capabilities and create a fire-and-forget solution to improve your quality of sales and remove redundancies in order to free up valuable time for salespeople.
How Does eCommerce Promote Getting New Customers?
eCommerce can be used in conjunction with digital advertising to attract B2B customers who need your products or services. If you’re selling physical products, Google shopping listings can be created through digital ads, which will allow interested parties to view and compare your products against your competitors directly. This saves them time and increases your overall visibility.
Customers today also expect to have a smooth buying experience. Having to wait for responses from salespeople will only slow their day down and decrease your odds of making the initial sale. 93 percent of B2B buyers say that they prefer to buy online once they’ve decided they want to buy. 74 percent of them say that buying from a website is more convenient.
When paired with an effective content strategy, eCommerce educates buyers about the particular concerns they should note when looking to purchase as well as how a particular line of items removes their exposure to these risks, in addition to providing other valuable pieces of information.
What Difference can eCommerce Make on a Sales Workload?
Sales workload can be substantially reduced by employing B2B sales automation with eCommerce. One of the most notable places where sales can become more efficient is in the ordering and reordering process. Once a business has provided their information and proceeded to purchase, they can be assigned a unique discount. For any future purchases they will then receive their goods at this assigned discounted price, without having to discuss purchases and rates through your sales team.
The key takeaway is this: sales automation through B2B eCommerce isn’t putting sales jobs at risk, it is helping secure them by finding and retaining new clients. Relationship management can begin with fewer prospects, but higher overall satisfaction when customers can serve themselves. Want to learn more about how to properly expand your business in the B2B sector? Contact our team of eCommerce experts today.