For revisiting your basics on B2B Marketing & Sales and also to address challenges of B2B E-Commerce

1. 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

2. -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

3. Repeat Orders
B2B e-Commerce is short for business-to-businesse-Commerce,which
is defined as the sales of goods or services betweenbusinesses 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Benefits to B2B Ecommerce sellers :
-More sales with less outreach and research work

7. -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

8. -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.

9. 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 :
1. GE.
2. Avery Dennison.
3. H&D Supply.

10. 4. Dupont.
5. Clarion Safety.
6. Assurant.
7. Berlin Packaging.
8. Ingredion.
Problems in B2B Ecommerce
Challenges faced in B2B eCommerce & How
To Overcome Them
1. Real life demonstration of products is not possible

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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!

15. 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.

16. 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!

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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