As the business-to-business (B2B) sector expands, e-commerce has evolved from a nice to have to a need. The phenomenal growth of e-commerce over the past few years has heightened the need for B2B businesses to shift their focus online.
Unsurprisingly, 42% of distributors cite constructing a more complicated website to better meet client expectations as their top challenge for the forthcoming year.
To help you stay up to date, we’ve narrowed it down and gathered the most recent B2B e-commerce events that we think will have the biggest impact on your company.
Ecommerce Data For B2B
We now have B2B e-commerce. According to Digital Commerce 360, B2B e-commerce sites, log-in portals, and marketplaces saw growth in online sales of 17.8% to $1.63 trillion in 2021. According to Statista, the B2B e-commerce market in North America will reach $4,600 billion by 2025.
E-commerce is no longer seen as a cool new channel by B2B businesses.
Instead, according to McKinsey & Company, by 2022, around 65% of B2B businesses across industries will exclusively conduct business online. Additionally, for the first time, B2Bs now are more likely to provide e-commerce than in-person transactions.
Why? because it increases revenue. The same Mckinsey & Company analysis estimates that about 18% of B2B companies’ overall sales come from e-commerce. bigger than a phone, email, and video conferencing.
To provide the shopping experiences that consumers have grown accustomed to, B2Bs must give their digital transformation top priority in 2022.
Top Trends In B2B E-commerce For 2022
The International B2B marketplace has a challenging year ahead of them. You need to be an expert in the top B2B e-commerce developments we’ve listed if you want to succeed with this business strategy.
Delete Outdated Systems
For 36.6% of distributors, upgrading legacy systems will be a big difficulty in 2022. To provide a stronger, more B2C-like experience for your new and existing clients, you must, however, make sure you have the proper systems in place.
Unfortunately, many businesses make the mistake of just updating their networks when absolutely essential. Long-term, this may increase the difficulty of technological integration and put you back where you started.
Instead of concentrating exclusively on your technological needs, develop a strategy for digital transformation that is motivated by your overarching corporate objectives.
Invest In The E-commerce Platform Industry
When preparing for your digital transformation, your B2B e-commerce platform is a great place to start since it may serve as the center of your digital ecosystem. 35% of US B2B enterprises rank investing in e-commerce platform innovation as their top priority.
However, not every e-commerce platform is the same. Many still function as monoliths or “one size fit all” solutions, denying you the freedom to select the one that best suits your requirements.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can also discover networks that do not support B2B e-commerce functionality. Instead, they might offer a few functionality or workarounds.
You may receive all the advantages of SaaS with contemporary SaaS e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce.
Give Product Information And Discovery Top Priority
For instance, if you are operating in the Chinese B2B platform, finding products is one of the biggest problems facing B2B internet shoppers. Even if they can locate the products, they have trouble finding the most recent information.
However, there are numerous approaches for B2Bs to address this problem. One of them is product information management (PIM) software. PIMs are advantageous because they gather, manage, enrich, and distribute information about products across channels, including your mobile app or e-commerce storefront as well as social sales platforms, markets, and even advertising networks.
Cross-sell On Different B2B Marketplaces
In the B2B purchase process, marketplaces are essential. Many B2B buyers find inspiration and start their market searches on marketplaces.
One of the biggest aspects of third-party markets is their potential to attract new customers. This is an opportunity to expand sales, test new goods, and access global markets.
Investigate Social Media Channels
B2B organizations are increasingly eager to enter the fray because many of their clients are already utilizing these platforms, despite the fact that B2C businesses have traditionally dominated social media commerce.
Approximately 46% of B2B buyers use social media to research potential solutions, 40% to compare options, and 35% to gather the information they must have before making a purchase, according to Gartner.
It’s interesting to note that 54% of B2Bs have used social commerce to launch an online store, according to a study by Gartner.
If purchasing and offering checkout on social media now seems too frightening, you can still try B2B advertising with social media.
