E-commerce has tremendous potential when it comes to B2B, but it has to be approached in the right ways. What works in a B2C context will often fall flat when dealing with B2B e-commerce – which includes buyers who are often more savvy but even more pressed for time than the average consumer.
Seven Ways to Enhance Sales and Secure B2B E-Commerce Success
1 Align Your Product Descriptions
Offerings may be reviewed both by higher-level executives and by subject matter experts. As a result, each product listing should have enough detail for technical leaders while still making the business case important to the final decision-maker.
2 Use Trust Signifiers
There are three major trust signifiers that shouldn’t be ignored: Your “About Us” page, privacy policy, and legal page (also known as the terms and conditions.) While these often won’t be looked at until later in the process, they help confer legitimacy.
3 Make Products Easy to Find and Search
Individual product pages are often difficult to locate in a comprehensive online catalog. Make sure you have an internal search feature that will render your offerings discoverable. You can also cross-link them on other product pages as “related” content.
4 Optimize for Mobile Users
Mobile devices have empowered B2B buyers with a wealth of knowledge they can access from anywhere, even on an airplane. They are taking to the opportunity with gusto, so make sure your entire website is responsive for smartphones, tablets, and other platforms.
5 Nurture Leads Long-Term
Buyers looking for B2B solutions often start with a generic Web search, so content marketing is one of the best ways to capture highly motivated traffic. Email marketing can keep your prospect in conversation with your brand, while retargeting captures lost business.
6 Use (and Update) Buyer Personas
Different parties within an organization could be searching for your B2B solution. At the same time, there are many use cases that describe how it’ll ultimately be employed. As new sales and marketing data comes in, update buyer personas to stay abreast of these various buyer journeys.
7 Follow Up Proactively
It may take anywhere from 5-7 follow-ups to secure a B2B sale, but a large number of teams never follow up at all. “Following up” doesn’t necessarily mean contacting a prospect to close the sale, however: Touching base about new features and offers can rekindle interest, too.
As with so many of the most complex things in business, an effective B2B e-commerce strategy must be developed with the end goals in mind. Refining your process based on user behavior and feedback is essential. In time, you can achieve consistent e-commerce profits at low overhead, creating a virtuous cycle that strengthens your business.