How self-service buying, B2C-like experiences, and automation are altering B2B selling.
B2B buyers want fast, easy, and self-service shopping from their vendors. McKinsey prefers hybrid selling, which mixes in-person, remote, and self-service engagements throughout the buying experience.
As B2B buyers become more tech-savvy, they’re pressuring vendors to adjust sales techniques and technologies or risk losing market share.
This is due to B2B purchasers’ changing demographics — 64% are Millennials and Gen Z. Gartner reports that 44% of Millennials prefer no sales rep involvement during purchases.
In this post, we discuss McKinsey, Gartner, and Forrester's latest and most important B2B eCommerce trends to help you plan your 2024 and beyond eCommerce strategy.
#1: Self-service buying
B2B self-service buying is growing. The sales rep job is changing. B2B buyers and buying groups are increasingly using self-service buying, exceeding human interactions by 15 to 12.
McKinsey and Forrester found that two-thirds of B2B buyers are willing to pay over $50,000 without speaking to a salesperson and a third over $500,000.
B2B sales staff are adapting to self-service buying in several ways:
· Use remote and in-person contacts and align, upgrade, and unify digital and eCommerce channels to suit consumer needs in an omnichannel and hybrid sales strategy.
· Data-driven insights can improve B2B sales processes, sales performance, and selling strategies.
· Offer seller-free bulk and quick ordering, subscription models, and automated replenishment to meet convenience and speed needs.
· Consulting, training, support, and customisation help you stand out and build client loyalty.
· Work with marketing teams to generate engaging buyer content and highlight solutions for specific use cases and qualified lower funnel leads.
· Deep sales builds trust, empathy, and value with customers through meaningful interactions and customized solutions.
#2: Generative AI (GenAI) will enter B2B.
Everyone is talking about GenAI, but few businesses are benefiting. In 2024, Forrester predicts only 25% of organizations would experience ROI from GenAI tech. GenAI has many benefits when properly implemented, including:
· Customizing product page content to the brand’s voice or buyer preferences.
· Prioritizing sales leads reduces time spent identifying qualifying leads, increasing win rates.
· Automate order processing and vendor interactions to reduce errors and free up time for strategic decision-making.
· Analyze real-time data to give firms meaningful market, competitor, and pricing insights and fuel product development.
· Advanced chatbots and virtual assistants help firms meet client needs in customer care and sales.
#3: Flexible payment alternatives
B2B buyers want more payment options to match their shopping flexibility. Size, frequency, and complexity vary widely in B2B transactions. Each B2B organization has different financial demands, so having numerous payment choices lets buyers choose methods that fit their cash flow, budgeting, and financial preferences.
Offering many payment methods simplifies B2B buying. They can choose the easiest choice, eliminating friction and possibly speeding up the buying process. We predict more B2B enterprises to explore commerce solutions that support invoicing, purchase orders, credit lines, and online payments for diverse transactions.
#4: B2C experiences for B2B buyers
Even services and solutions traditionally relied on sales personnel to offer increasing use of digital selling techniques. According to Gartner, 50% of Chief Sales Officers planned to change “from being leaders of sellers to being leaders of selling” by 2025 in 2021. Sellers must deliver B2C-like eCommerce.
But what makes a good eCommerce experience? Transparent pricing, real-time inventory availability, sales claim transparency and material customized to certain purchase stages, groups, and people improve digital experiences. Amazon Prime stresses fast order fulfillment, easy returns, and incentives like Amazon’s Daily Deals, training many B2B buyers in customer-first shopping.
All of this demands an eCommerce platform with product filtering, comprehensive search, numerous fulfillment choices, and order management that allows expansion and integration with other purchasing channels.
#5: A mobile-first approach
About 10 sales channels are used by B2B buyers to study products and services. This number hasn’t changed much in seven years, but channels are more mobile-focused.
A 2022 McKinsey poll found that buyers used social media, smartphone apps, and text communications, especially during research. This graphic shows that channel use quadrupled in 2022 compared to 2019.
Source: McKinsey
McKinsey respondents found that 38% of the largest share winners launched new digital channels, and 37% said testing with new channels improved their digital strategy.
#6: Automation
Organizations that must do more with less prioritize B2B selling operations streamlining. Automation eliminates repetitive work errors and frees up sales and customer support professionals to interact with consumers and sell.
Automation enhances all B2B eCommerce capabilities, including:
· APIs track and update inventory levels in real time, provide low-stock alarms, and eliminate manual data entry.
· Order fulfillment — creates packing slips, updates orders in real time, automates client order processing (verifying, picking, packing, shipping), and prevents cancelled orders from being fulfilled.
· Customer service sends SMS/email alerts about order status and delivery, and directs consumers to the relevant agent or knowledge base answer.
· Order orchestration — sends orders to the best fulfillment location, gives automatic quotes (including discounts or special pricing), and updates customer profiles with order history and preferences.
#7: Omnichannel experiences
B2B buyers use up to 10 channels and independently navigate a multi-channel, multi-touchpoint buying journey. B2B sellers employ omnichannel experiences to meet buyers where they are and flourish in all channels (self-service, in-person, social media, branches, etc.).
During the epidemic, buyers and sellers had to communicate via video conferencing, chatbots, and social media. Buyers are used to digital tools, which will stay the same. A recent McKinsey survey opened a new window and found that 35% of B2B buyers found eCommerce the most effective sales channel, followed by in-person sales (26%), video conference (12%), email (10%), and telephone (8%).
Investing in technology and procedures that enable smooth omnichannel B2B eCommerce experiences is the only way to satisfy buyers who want the same omnichannel service from B2C. That demands customer-centricity, silo-free sales and marketing, omnichannel fulfillment, and data management.
To provide a successful omnichannel experience for your customers, you must streamline operations between all your digital touchpoints, including payment systems, eCommerce platforms, and customer service tools, to create a single view of each customer that everyone in your organization can access.
#8: B2B marketplaces
B2B vendors use third-party eCommerce platforms to target clients on Amazon Business and Alibaba.com, evaluate the competition, and improve ease.
A recent McKinsey poll of 3700 B2B executives found that marketplaces are a major B2B procurement channel. Nearly half of McKinsey respondents claimed marketplaces help them succeed in B2B ecommerce.
B2B marketplaces offer product reviews, ratings, and comparison purchasing. B2B buyers prefer digital commerce for ordering and payment over 80%.
B2B marketplace strategies allow clients to order online utilizing a trusted commerce platform, supplementing rep-driven selling. Amazon, the most popular business marketplace in 2021, lets businesses offer goods and services.
B2B merchants adapt their strategy for marketplaces by:
· Connecting marketplace accounts to inventory, order fulfillment, and customer service.
· Using third-party marketplace data and marketing to inform sales.
· Using many marketplaces to reach more people.
· Bundling products and services in the marketplace, expanding to new regions, and targeting new client segments adds value to customers.
#9: Recurring orders
Recurring orders, repurchases, and subscription renewals indicate intense client satisfaction and can generate steady revenue for B2B eCommerce businesses. Purchasing office supplies, inventories, and services from suppliers can be recurring orders.
Your repurchase rate is the percentage of existing consumers that return to your website to reorder/renew. Improving recurrent orders is a popular marketing approach as customers seek ways to automate stock replenishment, renewals, and restocking from trusted vendors.
The formula for repurchase rate:
Customer Repurchase Rate (RPR) = Number of consumers that bought from you more than once / Total consumers for that period
Recurring orders and subscriptions can boost B2B sales. They increase consumer loyalty and CLV. You need an order management system to process repeat orders, apply pricing and discounts for returning consumers, and enable subscription-based pricing.
#10: Investing in composable commerce technology
B2B organizations are known for being slow adopters, but that’s no longer an option. Businesses are spending more in flexible, scalable commerce solutions that link systems and improve customer experience without ‘ripping and replacing’ entire systems.
· Composable commerce solutions allow B2B enterprises to adapt, scale, and integrate. They provide quick market adaptation, efficient system integration, cost-effective customization, and technology choice without vendor lock-in.
· Integrations — For headless deployments and commerce partner use cases, your company’s digital maturity may require a pre-packaged frontend with pre-built integrations, pricing, and implementation accelerators. Integrating with ERP, PIM, and other systems easily prevents business disruptions and customer experience issues.
· B2B organizations that wish to use touchpoints like mobile apps or social selling, reach new markets, and avoid buying a platform for each channel need multi-channel technology. It’s hard to foresee what channels and behaviors customers will desire, so adding and adjusting capabilities rapidly is crucial.
The future of B2B eCommerce
US B2B eCommerce sales will surpass $3 trillion by 2027, up from 17% in 2022 to 24% in 2027, according to Forrester.
Rapid order fulfillment, integrated omnichannel experiences, and GenAI are driving headless commerce and omnichannel order management investments.
These advances allow B2B merchants to quickly update their storefronts and commerce platforms, boosting growth and agility. A flexible eCommerce infrastructure that can adapt fast and with low disturbance is the greatest approach to future-proof your organization.
Your B2B eCommerce strategy hinges on your ability to satisfy buyers and buying groups. You may capitalize on 2024 and beyond trends by anticipating customer behavior and investing in the correct technology.
