If you thought that ecommerce is all about the B2C model, here is a reality check for you. Did you know that B2B ecommerce was already 6 times that of B2C ecommerce in 2019 and growing at a faster rate than its B2C cousin?
Research and advisory firm Frost & Sullivan had forecasted that business to business etailing would reach $12 trillion by 2020. But surpassing the forecasts, online B2B GMV already crossed $12.2 trillion in 2019.
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Why B2B Ecommerce Needs B2C ecommerce Features
Despite the characteristic differences between the business to business model of online commerce and its B2C counterpart, one thing remains common among them. For both these models,
Customer is the king.
So, what does the customer desire ultimately?
Nothing but simplicity and ease of shopping!
It is not surprising that decades of exposure to the B2C ecommerce model has conditioned the customers to expect similar experiences from their B2B ecommerce solutions. Up to 80%, B2B buyers are comparing their checkout experience with regular purchases on a B2C multi vendor marketplace.
Despite understanding the fact that the business to business model has long and complex sales cycles, a greater number of decision-makers involved per purchase, bigger ticket sizes buyers wish for the same ease of use.
The must-have B2C capabilities for an online B2B Ecommerce business
The stupendous growth and customers’ preference for online purchases have forced wholesale and enterprise businesses to take stock of the situation. More than 50% of wholesalers believe that they can offer better services to their clients through a website.
What’s more, businesses have also started looking for enhanced capabilities in their B2B ecommerce platform. With customers becoming more demanding, it has become imperative for wholesale businesses to offer them a seamless and transparent buying experience.
And the easiest way to do this is by giving their customers’ the best of both worlds, i.e, the enterprise-grade features of B2B combined with the ease of B2C ecommerce. To ensure they keep getting loyal customers, B2B marketplaces should adopt the most engaging B2C ecommerce capabilities listed below;
1. A WOW Store Design
Do you believe that B2B ecommerce platforms need not be as jazzy and great in design as B2C online stores?
Knock-knock, time for a reality check!
According to the latest reports, 76% of the B2B buyers consider site design to be the most important factor while making a purchase decision. Also, 4 out of 5 B2B buyers are expecting the same buying experience as on B2C portals.
Giving your customers a seamless experience on all devices is crucial to your growth. Ensuring your design adheres to the modern standards expected by your clients makes you their go-to brand. With more than 70% B2B searches beginning on mobiles, you need to make your site mobile responsive to get higher traffic and better conversions.
StoreHippo B2B ecommerce solutions give you mobile responsive, professional designs that do work well irrespective of the screen size. The inbuilt design tools and drag and drop feature make it super easy for you to change your website design and personalize your pages for your customers.
2. Better Engagement With Easy Search
- 76% of the B2B customers say the most important factor in a website’s design is the ease of finding what they are looking for
- 60% of B2B buyers listed advanced search as one of the top-three features
- 48% of B2B ecommerce sellers said an enhanced search is their first priority
Source: Accenture
We know by experience that an easy search and navigation contribute greatly to a site’s stickiness. The B2B catalogues are typically much larger than B2C and a strong search engine is mandatory to make the customers comfortable during their search process.
If the customers can easily search and find the products they are looking for they spend more time on a site further investigating the deals, related products/ services and have a higher probability of converting. The B2B ecommerce solutions should incorporate not only product search but they should also allow searching exact keywords, product descriptions, features etc.
Strong search capabilities that reduce the search and navigation time can help business to business retailers engage their customers better and longer thus making it easy to stay ahead of the competition.
StoreHippo offers advanced search and filter options to help buyers and sellers on your B2B marketplace. With the faceted search feature, your customers as well as sellers can easily use granular search to find their desired products in no time.
3. Ready for Mobile
Mobile is our lifeline. In this era of life on the go, 60% of B2B ecommerce purchase decisions are made on smartphones. Ecommerce is more about m-commerce and wholesale businesses need to adapt to this trend. The sooner the better.
It is a known fact that online buyers are most happy when they can surf, search and buy products and services on multiple devices they use throughout a day. The B2B sellers are expected to be available to their clients on all devices.
A B2B ecommerce platform that allows your business to be within the reach of its customers across devices and at all times can gain a definite edge over its customers. With more and more customers opting for buying through their mobile devices having a mobile-ready site is no longer a choice but a necessity for the survival of the business.
Offering customers ease and convenience along with engaging site design on all devices can help B2B retailers get better results from their efforts.
StoreHippo B2B ecommerce solutions have mobile-first technology at the core of their design goals. Wholesale stores powered by StoreHippo work seamlessly on all mobile devices. Also, all our stores are PWA. Which implies that they will look, feel and function like a mobile app on all devices.
What’s more, you can also build iOS and Android apps right from your dashboard without any coding or additional cost. You also get a mobile admin panel that helps you run and manage your business on the go.
4. Simple Sales Process
Alike B2C customers, B2B buyers also want to have a simple and fast sales process. B2B ecommerce solutions that facilitate customers to make an order without having to make inquiries from your sales or support team can greatly reduce your sales cycle and increase your overall ROI.
Offering a B2C like easy experience with ordering, tracking and the ability to pay using multiple payment channels can help your B2B business close more deals, faster. Also, making checkout simple across devices can help you convert better.
Adding some typical B2C features like upselling and cross-selling in form of personalized pricing and deals can not only increase your ticket size but also help you in staying competitive in the long run.
StoreHippo makes buying easier on a B2B ecommerce platform by offering multiple features likes to request a quote, IP based pricing and 50+ integrated domestic and international payment gateways to make payments easier.
5. Personalised Deals
Making your customers feel special is the mantra for building a long-term relationship with your customers. A B2B ecommerce platform that incorporates features to offer customer-centric personalized deals leads to a special bond with each customer.
When you have a powerful dashboard that allows you to analyze your customer records on the basis of past purchase history, frequency, order size etc. you can craft personalized deals for your clients. This helps in long-term trust-building and the sentiment leads to keeping your customer base loyal to your brand.
Additionally offering personalized deals in real-time through unified notifications like Email, SMS, mobile and web push notifications can be used to offer the customers exactly what they want. This can foster growth by increasing sales volume.
StoreHippo offers a snapshot of your business directly in your admin panel through various reports and analytics. You can study these to forecast trends and use the powerful discount engine along with other marketing tools to offer special deals and discounts to your B2B ecommerce customers.
You can also send real-time deals to your clients using our powerful notifications features that allow you to communicate through emails, SMS and web and mobile push notifications.
6. Wow Shipping Support
Shipping remains a woe for the product-based B2B ecommerce solutions. Working with diverse shipping partners and keeping track of all these channels needs resource overhead. By offering a streamlined and automated shipping solution B2B retailers can instantly win the trust of their clients.
Shipping optimization is at the core of every successful business. Shipping services and shipping charges play a crucial role in the final stages of completing an order process. A significant number of customers abandon their cart if they find that the shipping services offered are not up to the mark or add a substantial cost overhead.
A B2B ecommerce platform that offers an integrated and automated shipping solution with reliable shipping partners at discounted rates can be welcome support for its clients. Such a shipping solution will not only mean cost-savings but will also ensure a hassle-free logistics that will help in keeping the customers happy and loyal.
StoreHippo offers integrated shipping solutions to all its clients through ShipKaro. Wholesalers can avail discounted shipping rates on all their orders routed through our selected channel partners. You can easily integrate with any domestic or international logistics provider of your choice without any hassle.
What’s more, you also get an automated shipping solution to manage your own fleet of delivery boys.
Conclusion
Despite having some unique requirements B2B ecommerce businesses can gain a winning edge by incorporating the B2C ecommerce features that their customers are accustomed to. To achieve this feat it becomes necessary that businesses choose a B2B ecommerce solutions provider that is equipped to handle the diverse needs of both these business models.
StoreHippo SaaS-based ecommerce platform is designed for diverse B2B and B2C models. With its future-ready technology, 300+ enterprise-grade, as well as B2C ecommerce, features it gives an edge to your B2B business.
Explore the unique B2B features along with the versatile B2C features from StoreHippo right away. Book your free-demo with our experts now!
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