Multilayer B2B Channels in FMCG Industry
Identifying Channels
-Factory
-Office
-Hotels
-Restaurants
-Caterers
-Office
-Railways
-Colleges
-Airlines
Assessing Demand
-Number of heads
-Consumption per head
In case of service industry like hospitals it will be a combination of staff , patients , visitors
Identify Purchase Procedure
-Tendering
-Enlistment
Identifying Decision Making Person
Questions to be asked to DMU
-Methodology of purchase
-Whether FMCG product of interest is purchased there
-Quantity and Quality of product consumed
-Rate at which pursued
-Delivery method , frequency and profile of supplier partner
-Whether open to new supplier
Setting up the Supply Chain
-Direct Purchase
-Through Distributor
-Through B2B Ecommerce
Feedback
-Quality
-Timely delivery
-Rates
Repeat Orders
B2B e-Commerce is short for business-to-business e-Commerce, which is defined as the sales of goods or services between businesses via online channels. ... A good example which should be mentioned is even giant like Amazon is now expanding into B2B e-Commerce, and it could grow faster than the retail unit.
A Heinz and SnapApp study found:
Millennial buyers are far more independent than Generation X or baby boomer buyers during their path to purchase: They conduct extensive research on their own before making any purchasing decisions.
While Generation X and baby boomer buyers rely on salespeople for guidance, millennial buyers are more likely to rely on the opinions of peers or outside experts than to trust a salesperson: They actively avoid engaging with sales early on; nearly 60 percent say they don’t engage with a salesperson until they’re in the middle of a purchasing decision.
These buying behaviors mimic B2C buying behaviors in which brands must educate, build trust and build community before a purchasing decision is made – or even considered.
If you want your brand to show up in those buying committees, you must have an online presence.
One of the best ways to make sure a customer doesn’t go to a competitor is by building a long-term, personal relationship with them.
This is why so many B2B businesses are family-owned and operated. There’s a personal touch to being one of the family: phone calls, dinners, visits and trips.
An online store can seem cold in comparison, but it doesn’t have to be.
And, especially now that Millennials are at the forefront of many B2B buying decisions, buyers are looking for a streamlined digital purchasing experience.
In a Demand Gen Report, 55% said, when all other factors are equal (e.g., price, quality), “a digital buying experience is extremely important to selecting a vendor.”
With 24/7 chat technology that can turn an online chat on your store into a text on your phone, the new generation can communicate efficiently and effectively in their preferred communication channel: text, Facebook messenger or a variety of other options.
In fact, this type of customer service is not only easy to set up, it is highly desired by customers across the board.
A study by McKinsey & Company found that slow site response times are a B2B buyer’s biggest complaint with online ordering.
Increasing your speed to respond to a customer is today’s version of quality, face-to-face interactions. Ignore it, and you’ll lose business.
Benefits to B2B Ecommerce sellers :
-More sales with less outreach and research work
-Increased visibility if SEO done well
-Scalability & Expansion -Enter new categories and geographies using a single source of truth
-Possibilities to create a customized customer experience for positive customer outcome
The global B2B Market size was 1.2 trillion dollar in 2018
Challenges to be kept in mind for B2B E-Commerce success :
-Opportunity to educate the buyer on products , features and promotions . Educate , develop trust and close the deal
-B2B Millennial buyers prefer outreach over social media and messenger apps
-Communicate early and often in the brick and mortar space
Have FAQs / How To Guides / Interactive Navigation
Knobs.co is a classic website on this
-Avoid technological errors as mistakes happen over large quantities , so integrate the same with your ERP
The ERP + B2B Secret Sauce (APIs):
“We use a proprietary ERP that sits on top of an IBM I-Series I-Mainframe, and we were able to get an integration built so that we can better leverage our data across systems.
One way we do this is in regard to customer service. We can pass cart details over to our ERP, and if a customer calls our customer service line and references their PO number, we can locate the record right away.
Being able to push things from our ERP into our BigCommerce store also allows us to help customers see things like their credit limits, balances, and past due balances. It’s empowering to our customers to have that data.”
– Chris Hiller, Vice President of Digital Strategy, Berlin Packaging.
-Rollout programs that focus on Loyalty , Repeat Purchase and Frequent Purchase
In certain cases revenue model can be both subscription based and one-time payment based
-Reorganize for both organizational change and legacy systems change
-Role conflict … the B2B Salesperson can become increasingly redundant and frontliners main role would be subsequently attending to only
The top B2B E-Commerce Companies :
GE.
Avery Dennison.
H&D Supply.
Dupont.
Clarion Safety.
Assurant.
Berlin Packaging.
Ingredion.
Problems in B2B Ecommerce
Challenges faced in B2B eCommerce & How To Overcome Them
1. Real life demonstration of products is not possible
When buyers are purchasing products online, they have a hard time deciding how the product will look in real life, whether their customers will like it or not; with individual customers, they face questions about whether it will serve their purpose or not, etc.
So to clear this dilemma of ‘to buy or not to buy’ here are some steps you could take:
Upload realistic pictures of products on the website. Try using natural light with white backgrounds for photos. Provide a 360-degree view of the product in which all the angles of the product are shown.
Write a complete description of the product on the website. Don’t make any false claims regarding the products, because it will lead to disappointed customers. So do good research about the products and mention the features which the product claims to fulfill.
Keep a review section. Let buyers of the products come back and put up a product review. This will help you in turn about how the product is working out for your website as well as your customers.
Make returns and refunds easy. Mention all the terms and conditions for returning a product and make the entire process of return and refund easy and fast. This will allow the customer to purchase with confidence.
2. Customer Specific Pricing
Trust and long-term partnership between two companies are based on certain fundamentals of the trade. When you treat fresh customers and loyal customers the same way, you are providing your valuable customers with a reason to break the bond with you and deal with someone else. Thus, here are some tips you can follow:
Online portals must be incorporated into contract and pricing logic to automatically manage price according to the customer.
The same goes for customers buying a minimal quantity and those buying in bulk. Those ordering in huge quantity should be provided with discount coupons and more exciting offers.
Send your loyal customers discount coupons via emails or messages, to push them to shop more from your website.
This will encourage your valuable customers to stick with your business. Thus, the basic idea is to separate your premium customers from the general crowd. Offer them privileges and establish a long-term relationship with them.
3. Diverse Products Under Same Company
One of the biggest challenges faced by companies is to manage different type of products under one parent company. Since eCommerce platforms are used to sell diverse categories of goods, sometimes things might get mixed up. The best solution is to come up with microsites within the main site for each unique department.
This way, different sections are controlled separately and issues are resolved more efficiently. Transactions and shipments are more convenient to handle and fault or error is easier to figure out. The different sub sites resolve this issue and owners can manage as many sites as they want.
Basic Models in B2B eCommerce
1. Supplier Oriented Marketplace (eDistribution)
In this type of model, there are many buyers and few suppliers. The supplier provides a common marketplace. This market is used by both individual customers as well as businesses. For the success of this model, goodwill in the market and a group of loyal customers is very important.
A successful example of this business model is Cisco. Cisco owns an online marketplace which goes by the name of Cisco Connection Online. In 1997 Cisco sold US$1 billion worth of network products such as routers and switches to business customers.
Cisco started its online business in 1991. It began by providing basic electronic support via the Internet. Three years later, in 1994, Cisco launched its website Cisco Connection Online. By 1998, customers were using Cisco’s website — accessed about one million times a month — for technical assistance, to check orders, or to download software.
In 1998, Cisco disclosed that launching its applications online saved the company US$363 million per year!
Also, it saved US$180 million per year in distribution, packaging, and duplication as customers downloaded new software updates directly from Cisco’s website. Additionally, US$50 million was saved per year because there was no need for printing and distribution of catalogs.
2. Buyer Oriented Marketplace (eProcurement)
In this model, there are few buyers and many suppliers. The buyer has his/her own online marketplace. It then invites suppliers and manufacturers to display their products. Buyers search in electronic stores in malls and markets for similar service providing products and compare them.
So the buyer company makes it simple by opening a bidding site where a particular product is available from different sellers at different prices.
A successful example of a buyer-oriented marketplace is GE’s electronic bidding site which goes by the name of GE TPN Post. On GE’s bidding site, buyers pay a nominal fee for using the site. After that, the buyers post their project information on site. Potential suppliers download the project information and submit bids for the project. Buyers then compare the suppliers’ bids. This helps buyers to build new partnerships with sellers and receive and compare different bids and negotiate for better prices.
Sellers also benefit as they get a communication platform which has large-scale buyers and thus, in turn, expand the market with low marketing and sales costs.
3. Intermediary Oriented Marketplace (eExchange)
In this type of model, there are many buyers and many suppliers. An intermediary company runs a marketplace where business buyers and sellers meet and do business with each other.
The best example of an intermediary-oriented marketplace is the giant player in this space, Alibaba. It started in 1999 when the founder created Alibaba.com, a business-to-business portal to connect many Chinese manufacturers with many overseas buyers. In 2012 alone, two of Alibaba’s portals handled $170 billion in sales. To get a feel for the size of Alibaba, since 2015 its online sales and profits surpassed that of all US retailers, including Walmart, Amazon, and eBay combined!
Current trends in B2B eCommerce
According to recent reports, analysts have forecasted that global B2B eCommerce revenue will top $6.7 trillion by 2020.
1. B2B eCommerce to be double the size of B2C
According to Forrester, by 2020 the B2B eCommerce market will be worth $1.1 Trillion compared to the B2C market at $480Billion. Also, 30 percent of today’s B2B buyers purchase half of their products online. This is expected to double by 56% in 2017 as B2B sellers will see a significant shift of offline business towards online business.
2. Mobile Commerce (mCommerce)
It is anticipated that mobile phones will generate 15 percent of eCommerce sales by 2020 and tablets will generate 33 percent.
According to a study, 42% of subjects used a mobile for B2B purchasing process. There has been an impressive growth of 91% over the past two years. The purchase process by mobile devices has increased 22% in the past two years.
Sellers are now focusing on creating mobile-friendly websites because 80% of Internet users have smart devices. And according to Forrester, 52% of B2B buyers research products using their smartphones. Mobile devices are very handy, they make the whole process of buying — the initial information gathering until final purchase at the best available price — easier!
3. Omni-Channel Engagement
Omni-channel engagement was among the top digital B2B commerce trends in 2016. And that holds true in 2017 as well. B2B customers shop from online websites just like individual B2C customers. B2B buyers also expect ‘consumer-like-buying’ experiences.
So regardless of whatever type your customer is, they always expect a seamless experience as soon as their shopping journey begins — from purchasing, sales support, customer care, tracking, and refunds and exchanges — in simple words a 360-degree customer service experience.
So how do you fulfill these expectations? There are various eCommerce platforms to help you with this. Nuance, Bold360, and Genesys all provide solutions to deliver a great customer experience at every touchpoint.
4. Smart Personalisation and Customisation
According to a research, 50% of B2B buyers said improved personalization is a key feature for suppliers they want to work with. Customers nowadays want a customised user experience. To provide this kind of experience companies are using machine learning to deliver smart B2B personalization such as by using historical input data to build insights that create a user-centric website.
Furthermore, 40% of B2B buyers identified back-end integration with financing, accounting, order management systems (OMS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as another key feature for suppliers to offer.
So, make the work of customers easier. Create a shortcut for them! Whenever a customer wants to reorder things, an order history feature helps to list past purchases. Improve the efficiency of your eCommerce website by reducing the number of clicks to get there.
5. Focus on the Global Market
Since eCommerce is a business that is online, it gives us to the opportunity to reach out to billions of potential international buyers. One research states that B2B organizations operate in an average of 7 languages. Multiple languages, currencies, and cultures shape the expectation of customers coming to your site. So try to get into various international markets.
Translate your websites to different languages, make the prices available in local currencies, provide options to make of use preferred local payment methods — keeping in mind all the local regulations — and in the end provide a great customer experience.
A successful example of growth in a global market is China. According to Smart Insights, “China’s growth is so rapid that total eCommerce sales are expected to double between now and 2019, adding $1 trillion Dollars worth of additional sales in just three years.”
Conclusion: The Future is B2B
While B2C businesses, brands, and investments have gotten the lion’s share of attention since the early days of the Internet, B2B eCommerce is here to stay and it’s slowly but surely growing in size to dwarf the B2C market.
Solutions for the B2B market are considerably more complex. And they often require a change in the mindset of the people behind small and medium-sized businesses. Moreover, these businesses make up the bulk of industry on just about every continent.
However, B2B eCommerce enjoys economies of scale and the long-term personal relationships behind each buyer and seller means that the future is clearly B2B.
References :
https://emergeapp.net/wholesale-business/b2b-ecommerce/
https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/b2b-ecommerce/#b2b-ecommerce-marketing-101
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