For your B2B eCommerce site, the online store is the critical factor to your success. Most companies shop online once they’ve decided what they want. In a market that is already saturated, waiting around for clients to come to you is not an optimal solution.

New eCommerce websites go live every day, and in order to thrive and stay ahead of your competition, you must be more creative with your sales strategy and enhance the online experience you deliver to online B2B consumers. In this blog we’ll cover three ways that you can you enhance your B2B eCommerce site to boost conversions and ultimately generate more quality leads and sales.

Factors Influencing User Experience

For online buyers, a B2B eCommerce site is often the first point of contact. And since you never get a second chance to have a good first impression, it’s important to craft a great experience from the get-go. Here are some factors that can make or break a user’s experience on your site:

• Discoverability
• Website load time
• Website UI
• Checkout workflow
• Overall site navigation
• Payment options
• Delivery time
• Product quality
• Grievances redressal

User Experience, also known as UX, is critical to eCommerce—maybe even more than you might think. UX can impact these areas of business and more:

• The number of visitors on your site
• Sales conversions
• Profits
• Revenue growth

Optimize Your B2B Site

Improve site usability:

Simply put, a site that is hard to use does not make for repeat buyers. Visitors are less likely to return to your site, or trust you as a partner/client if your website isn’t friendly (including mobile compatibility) and doesn’t provide a positive overall experience. The best time to work on the usability of your website is during the initial site development phase. Collect feedback from early users to determine what needs to be improved. Use this insight to make improvements to the website and create an eCommerce site that doesn’t leave users unhappy or confused.

Focus on User Needs:

Start by asking yourself, why are users visiting your site? Some users want discounts, some users want information, some users are doing preliminary research. Others already know exactly what they need and want to find it fast and efficiently. Serving each user’s interest in the most efficient way helps to optimize your eCommerce site.

Dropout Points:

Observe user behavior with the help of analytics tools to identify areas that need improvement. Through tools like Google Analytics, you can see exactly where users are leaving your site, called ‘dropout points’. Analyzing dropout points provides an excellent opportunity to see where there may be a gap in your website design or content. You can gradually test new copy, designs, imagery, or forms on a particular page for improvements in a user’s time on your website and leads generated.

Enhance the B2B Buyer Experience

It is not enough to optimize the site; businesses also need to ensure buyers are taken care of throughout the buying process. Some ways to enhance the user experience include:

Create Informative Content:

No matter what space your B2B site occupies, chances are high that there’s another B2B entity selling a similar product or service to you. A Forrester report indicates business buyers are highly self-directed with over 68% doing their own research online. 62% plan to make a purchase decision based solely on digital content. Investing in an experienced content team gives you an opportunity to educate potential business buyers through informative and original content. Free downloads, how-to guides, and relevant news links can showcase to B2B buyers that you’re an industry thought leader and insider and that you have the knowledge and know-how to solve their particular problem. Original informative content inspires confidence in new users. Just make sure that your eCommerce content is readable on all devices including mobile, tablet, and desktop. Because you never know how your B2B buyers are consuming your content.

Deliver Excellent Customer Service:

No matter your product or service, there are multiple competitors on the web providing similar products and services. The level and quality of customer service influences sales, brand loyalty, and conversion rates. In the long term, providing exemplary customer service wins over buyers. A large percentage of business buyers will refer a company to other businesses if they experience good customer service. Make sure that you’re getting notifications if a prospect submits a question or a form to you via your website or social media channels and and be sure to respond in a timely fashion. Provide a contact phone number that is easy to find on your website so that existing clients can reach out to you quickly, if they need to. These are small but important actions you can take to provide excellent customer service that will reassure current customers and perhaps sway potential customers in your favor, while setting you apart from your competitors.

Improve the User Experience

Ultimately, you want to make it as easy as possible on the site visitor to complete a purchase with you. There are four places you can optimize the user experience to fulfill orders, satisfy recurring customers, and bring new customers into your client base.

Check Out:
Business buyers prefer a speedy and efficient checkout process. Incorporating features such as requisition lists, instant purchase, and quick checkout makes it possible to conclude business in minutes.

Delivery:
Make it easy for B2B buyers to schedule deliveries and pick-up options. This can be achieved through visible options on the site and checkout page and ensuring users can easily change delivery or pick-up preferences at any time during the purchasing process.

Inventory:
Display inventory by location if there is a physical address. This offers convenience for contractors and anyone who is looking to make a purchase at a particular brick and mortar location.

Account Management:
Offering account management services for repeat customers shortens the buying process. It also makes it easier to track order status, pay invoices, and access product catalogs.

No matter what services or products are featured in a B2B eCommerce site, the profits determine success. Focusing on usability, the checkout process, and customer service can significantly increase your eCommerce conversions. But all the good intentions and customer service won’t result in profit unless you have a functioning and user-friendly website. To learn more about how to unlock your digital potential call the team at InteractOne at 513-469-3345 or submit a form here for a consultation on how to optimize your eCommerce website.

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.

While B2B eCommerce has rapidly grown and evolved in recent years, one trend remains the same: successful landing pages are often the key to capturing leads. Business-to-business (B2B) sales can be trickier than business-to-consumer (B2C) sales because B2B sales typically involve complicated products, multiple stakeholders and a customer who may be wary about committing to a purchase. But this doesn’t mean B2B sales are impossible—it simply indicates that carefully developed landing pages are crucial to moving prospects down the path to purchase.

When creating landing pages, you need to remember that you’re not selling your product to just anyone. You have a target audience in mind, and you need to gain their contact information. With a good landing page, you can introduce your product to your target audience and also potentially get their contact information by offering something of value such as a white paper and a contact form.

To get the most out of landing pages, you can’t put just anything on them. You need a strategy in order to optimize these pages so that they are as effective as possible. Here are a few strategies you can use:

Focus on the Content

Start with the purpose of the page, then curate content to fit that purpose. This might be your only chance to draw someone in, so you need to get your message across instantly. A bold headline, strong subheading, and powerful call-to-action is the perfect combination to entice site visitors from the start.

Ultimately, the goal of a landing page is to walk the customer through the purchase process. Build brand awareness by giving a general overview of the company’s services or products, discuss the features and benefits, and then drive conversions by adding a call-to-action or contact form that makes them click. Additionally, include anchor navigation so the page appears more digestible. This could be in the form of a menu or drop down that follows the visitor as they scroll through the page.

Triple check the content to make sure there are no typos, then send it to another member of your team and have them look it over and add their perspective. If you’re not a great writer, consider hiring someone to do it for you. Writing a great landing page is about clearly communicating the benefits of the product or service, and formatting it in a pleasing, digestible way.

Keep it Simple—and Get to the Point

One mistake that some merchants make with their landing pages is trying to do too much. According to Nielsen Norman Group, 57% of visitors’ time spent on a page occurs above the fold (and 74% is spent on the first two screenfuls). If every single statistic about the services or products are included, not only will it overwhelm website visitors, but they’ll give up and leave the site without getting a clear picture of who the brand is and what they do. When creating a landing page, focus on the most important aspects of the product/service, and then use that critical information to develop the page layout. Be sure to keep it simple—a headline, visuals, copy, lead form, and call-to-action. B2B customers want clear explanations and answers in the least amount of words possible. Remember, the goal is not to close the deal, but to gain their permission to continue the discussion.

Make Use of Images and Videos

When creating a landing page, make sure it is not simply a large wall of text. A great way to change things up is to include relevant images, charts and videos. According to MDG Advertising, 67% of online shoppers rated high quality images as being “very important” to their purchase decision. With that kind of importance, be sure the images you are using are of high quality and, if possible, avoid cheesy stock images. To do this, consider subscribing to a reputable stock photography service such as Shutterstock.

Videos are a great way to lengthen the time that visitors are on the site, and can sometimes convey more information about the brand than text can. If including a video on the landing page, make sure the thumbnail is visually compelling and well-aligned with the content. If there is no thumbnail or the thumbnail is uninteresting, prospects won’t click. Also, be sure to either include some sort of wrap-up for the video or consider adding the video script beneath it. If they don’t have access to headphones, don’t have time to watch a video, or something else, make sure they won’t miss the main message.

Split Test

Finally, it’s hard to know if the content on the landing page is going to be effective. This is why split testing and tracking the results is vital. Split testing works like this: create two versions of the landing page, with differences in content and presentation. When someone enters the landing page, they are randomly shown one of the two versions. By tracking the results of each page, you can see over time which version performs better. Then apply what you’ve learned, and repeat the process making  changes and testing some more.

Always Look for Ways to Improve

The key to optimizing B2B landing pages is to always look for ways they can be improved. Sometimes, small changes like adjusting your title, adding in some more images, or changing the call-to-action results in tremendous results. If you need assistance with your B2B eCommerce site or are looking to polish your landing pages, contact us today.

The success of your B2B eCommerce business hinges upon your ability to anticipate and overcome B2B sales challenges. From lengthy sales cycles to complicated product lines, selling challenges can thwart purchasing activity and negatively impact your cash flow. Fortunately, you can overcome most of these challenges by enhancing your content, launching targeted eMail campaigns, and catering to the specific needs of key stakeholders.

Below are the top seven B2B selling challenges and the inbound marketing strategies that can help you solve them.

Challenge 1: Multiple decision makers have varying requirements

Solution: Develop content and eMail campaigns that address stakeholder needs. The growing number of decision-makers and influencers has complicated the B2B selling process. A article in Harvard Business Review points to the increasingly large and varied pool of decision makers as a key factor in a company’s purchasing paralysis:

“…The number of people involved in B2B solutions purchases has climbed from an average of 5.4 two years ago to 6.8 today, and these stakeholders come from a lengthening roster of roles, functions, and geographies.” – Harvard Business Review, 2017.

Because decision makers rarely share the same priorities, it is up to eCommerce merchants to understand the specific needs of key stakeholders and develop useful content that addresses those needs. Here are some content design tips that can help merchants convince multiple decision makers to approve a purchase:

• Identify your top customers and get to know the specific needs of each decision maker
• Create custom specification sheets for each primary stakeholder group
• Use eMail segmentation to ensure that stakeholder groups receive customized content

Challenge 2: A lengthy sales cycle

Solution: Create a sense of urgency by offering time-sensitive promotions.
When coupled with properly planned incentives, time-sensitive promotions are an effective means of motivating customers to take action. You can create an eMail campaign to ensure that your customers receive details about your promotion as quickly as possible. The most effective time-sensitive promotions offer a specific incentive that is strong enough to compel a customer to place an order but not so costly that it is detrimental to your bottom line. Below are examples of effective and ineffective promotions:

• Specific and effective: “Place your order by December 31st and receive a FREE $25 Visa gift card.”
• Uninspiring, overused, and ineffective: “Place your order and receive 10% off.”

Challenge 3: Customers do not realize they have exceeded their credit limits.

Solution: Use eMail notifications to tell customers when credit limits are exceeded.
Busy purchasing agents typically procure products from a host of different vendors, including your company. Rarely will every vendor offer the exact same credit terms, which can make it difficult for purchasing agents to keep track of their credit limits for every vendor.

Fortunately, you can set up eMail notifications to ensure that your customers find out immediately if they have exceeded their credit limits. E-commerce platforms such as Magento are also useful because they allow you to hold orders for your customers until they receive your eMail notification and remit payment. When offered in conjunction with a variety of payment options, these strategies help keep customer satisfaction and sales at high levels.

Challenge 4: Past customers or once promising leads go into hiding.

Solution: Implement a lead nurturing campaign for dormant customers.
Few things are more frustrating for B2B sales representatives than the customer or promising prospect who suddenly disappears. Many representatives respond by amplifying their outreach efforts in an attempt to secure a sale. However, this type of pressure often pushes customers farther away. A lead nurturing campaign is effective because it subtly transforms you from a salesperson into an educator and supporter. Here are some strategies to incorporate into your lead nurturing campaign:

• Use targeted content to appeal to the different segments of your customer base
• Remember that a lead nurturing campaign should be supplemented with human intervention
• Be prepared for the possibility that some customers simply do not want to purchase your products

Challenge 5: Your products are complicated

Solution: Create eBooks and instructional videos to facilitate learning.
Selling complicated products is a challenge for B2B sales representatives because they often possess only a general understanding of their functionality. Customers often expect sales representatives to be product experts and to be able to respond to technical questions about their operation. By creating eBooks and instructional videos, you arm your sales staff with the tools they need to educate customers. You can also supplement your eBook library and videos by following these tips:

• Create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) leaflet that answers common customer questions
• Provide links to user manuals on your website
• Feature videos of your products being used by your customers
• Consider eMailing a copy of your instructional eBook or video to your best prospects

Challenge 6: Your products are viewed as dry or boring

Solution: Infuse life into your products with videos and case studies.
Not everyone can sell the latest groundbreaking mobile device or the latest fashion trends. Vendors are also needed to market products like car floor mats, toilet seat covers, storage bottles, and gauze. However, these products are often more challenging to sell because they are not viewed as exciting or interesting.

The key to resolving this challenge is to create a distinctive presentation that tells a story and captures the attention of consumers. You can achieve both of these goals by creating customer case studies and ideos of consumers using your products. Case studies that feature photos of products being used by customers are an especially effective means of promoting products such as sinks, lights, or monitoring devices that are often viewed as both boring and complicated.

Challenge 7: Tackling complex or high-stakes buying decisions

Solution: Enhance your website content.
High-stakes buying decisions often surface when businesses must replace capital equipment used by manufacturers or healthcare providers. High-stakes buying decisions are challenging for B2B sales organizations for two key reasons. First, they typically involve detailed analyses by multiple decision makers. Second, they often have a lengthy sales cycle because multiple stakeholders must weigh in on the decision. By enhancing your website content, you ensure that stakeholders have easy access to all the information they need to finalize their purchasing decision. You can enhance your website content in the following ways:

• Create detailed product brochures that feature photos, specifications, and warranty information
• Feature customer testimonials from industry experts on your website
• Include case studies or videos of your products in operation at well-known facilities
• Reward customers who are willing to serve as a reference or provide a testimonial

The Best Way to Resolve B2B Selling Challenges

The solutions outlined above will provide you with an excellent foundation for resolving B2B selling challenges and reducing their incidence. However, the surest way to tackle B2B selling challenges is to seek the guidance of a website development expert. For nearly 20 years, the team of professionals with InteractOne has partnered with leading technologies to help companies shorten their sales cycles and facilitate complex purchasing decisions.

Contact us to find out how our Magento-certified developers and skilled marketers can help you overcome your B2B selling hurdles. Through our superb content development and our winning eMail campaigns, we look forward to becoming your trusted solution for all of your B2B selling challenges.