Aug 18, 2022

All you need to know to achieve a successful e-commerce

E-commerce goals

E-commerce, e-commerce is driving profitable growth by expanding customer reach, reducing service cost and creating premium customer experiences, and using this powerful tool wisely has become very important for business (B2B) businesses.

Given the current B2B environment, e-commerce has proven to be a disruptive force, with more and more B2B companies moving a large part of their buying journey online, these buyers are increasingly expecting a similar e-commerce experience to consumers.

E-commerce goals

In order to meet the customer's need, companies must first raise their expectations from their digital channel, repositioning it from a mere transactional sales channel to an engine for growth and setting goals accordingly. Second, they must examine the buying journey. E-commerce has evolved into digital commerce, facilitating an online experience that spans the entire buying journey, from discovery to evaluation through purchase, delivery, and support.

This means that sales are digitally enabled or driven - even if the transaction itself is not ultimately made online, and finally, B2B companies must allocate e-commerce roles and responsibilities across the customer chain to deliver the best customer experience.

B2B companies must set clear goals about how their digital capabilities will spur growth.

the first goal

It is to reach new customers, especially those who are difficult to reach, difficult to reach, service too expensive, or who do not have enough value to continue within the company's current business model.

second goal

Is to get rid of customer service costs. Some components of the digital experience — such as discovery, evaluation, and support — can be more cost-effective and deliver better results than traditional delivery mechanisms.

third goal

It is to create a distinctive experience for customers to gain market share. In B2B, a differentiated customer experience typically revolves around three components of how quickly and easily a customer can:

Find the best solution for their needs

Make a purchase, get information / answers to their questions

What elements of the buying journey are digitally enabled?

The buying journey consists of five main components: discovery, evaluation, purchase, delivery, and support. For an effective e-commerce strategy, B2B companies must explore the elements that need to be digitally enabled.

To make this decision, they must consider multiple factors including the goal of their e-commerce strategy, the relevance of e-commerce to the element of the buying journey, the impact of the digital enablement of the element, and finally the expectations of customers and channel partners.

The goal of an e-commerce strategy is a key consideration in deciding which elements of the buying journey to target. For example, a strategy based on lowering service costs will focus on those elements of the buying journey that are expensive and have low added value, and a strategy that focuses on creating a distinct customer experience will target the elements with the greatest impact on the experience.

Who is in charge?

E-commerce Once the elements of the buying journey have been identified, the question moves to who should take the lead in delivering these elements: the suppliers themselves or their channel partners, and key questions related to content, sales, implementation, and after-sales support - depending on the goals of the e-commerce strategy - need to be answered .

To make these decisions, a supplier needs to consider several factors: the value of controlling the e-commerce experience, their capabilities vis-à-vis those of channel partners, additional value-added channels provided by channel partners, investment and costs.

Bringing together decisions about which elements of the buying journey are digitally enabled and who will take the lead lays the foundation for the model that a B2B supplier will deploy as their e-commerce strategy.