The Covid-19 pandemic had a number of significant impacts on businesses the world over – but one of the biggest effects was that it forced more businesses to take digital operations seriously.
According to Adobe’s strategy lead Sheerien Salindera, customer experience is now the top differentiating factor separating the best companies from the rest. And while this is true for B2C transactions, it’s equally true for B2B relations.
B2B retailers are facing multiple challenges: from supply shock and staff shortages, to format disruptions and cost-conscious and time poor customers. Customers are demanding greater digitisation of the buying experience, and the businesses delivering it are enjoying the rewards.
During a webinar hosted earlier this month, Salindera, alongside JB Metropolitan Distributors’ IT manager Mark Spiteri, unpacked the digital shift occurring in B2B services.
B2B retail is going online, fast
According to Adobe research, 70 per cent of a B2B purchasing journey is already complete before a business’ sales department gets involved. This is due to the fact that many B2B buyers, much like their consumer counterparts, are doing the leg work themselves online before they pull the trigger.
Salindera noted that, looking forward, 80 per cent of sales interactions will take place in digital channels by 2025.
“These statistics really confirm [to me] the concept of digital experience playing a bigger role than just a standard e-commerce channel,” Salindera said.
Adobe data suggests that companies that offer self-service e-commerce capabilities in their B2B operations increase customer retention by more than 85 per cent.
These trends are indicative of a major shift in B2B shopping behaviour: customers expect more information available and want as much of the buying journey to be possible digitally (or contactless) as possible.
So what can you do?
For businesses looking to transform their B2B experience, Salindera said it’s important to take a strategic approach that targets where that consumer is going next.
Firstly, retailers should focus on a customer-centric approach to strategy, and ensure they have the support they need.
“Often it’s not the strategy or the thinking [that needs to be transformed], it’s the buy-in across the organisation. It’s about bringing people along on the journey,” Salindera said.
Additionally, changes to technology should be made in an intelligent and integrated way, and that staff are trained and ready to use it. There’s no point in investing in expensive tech if nobody knows how to use it, for example – a business would be better off using the tech they already have in smarter ways.
Finally, remember that content is still king, but can often be produced and presented in more efficient ways.
“Even in B2B, think of the act of a digital catalogue or sending out your brochure… these are the things where technology can really help, and we’re finding lots of ways to automate that process and make the content rich and timely,” Salindra said.
For more information on how to transform your B2B customer experience, watch the full webinar here.
