Could B2B E-Commerce be double the market size of its B2C

Companies not investing in digital channels today are rapidly falling behind their competition. Without a move into digital commerce, companies will lose customers, struggle to compete, and see their margins shrink. Failing to invest in a B2B E-Commerce platform can end up being a costly mistake, and potentially have your business losing out on millions of dollars in revenue. Today, businesses are seeing their customers purchase more online than any other channel.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help B2B enterprises turn data into actionable, real-time intelligence that is needed to enable a personalized eCommerce consumer-like buying experience.

Consumer-like eCommerce has now arrived in B2B, and there are trillions of dollars at stake. If traditional businesses don’t provide eCommerce with a personalized experience, the online giants will take their customers away and they will have to fold.

With an omnichannel IQ strategy – online, on the phone, or in-person – B2B customers receive a simple, intuitive and consistent omnichannel experience, increasing loyalty and average order size.

According to Gartner, “by 2018, 40% of B2B digital commerce sites will use price algorithms and configure/price/quote tools to dynamically calculate and deliver product pricing.” Pricing, configuring, and selling B2B products and services is exceedingly complex – and many of the traditional B2C vendors cannot make the transition. Enabling dynamic pricing (through the use of a powerful CPQ solution) can drastically increase deal velocity. In addition, CPQ tools can help provide customers with a more personalized experience, with the opportunity to configure solutions to their personal needs.

There are multiple solutions are available for getting B2B companies the ability to remain competitive by maximizing the immediate value of every online transaction - and the lifetime value of every customer.

The B2C expectations of instant service are permitting into the B2B space. B2B buyers are expecting the same service from their B2B companies, as they are from B2C companies such as Uber and Amazon.

Examples of personalization are as follows: products and solutions configured to meet precise business needs, contract pricing presented on the e-commerce experience, automated presentation of the right components and replacement parts based on previously purchased solutions.

Lastly, companies are starting to leverage machine learning in the cloud to deliver smart B2B personalization, turning data into insights that drives the best outcomes, even for very complex situations—for example, optimizing a quote for price, discounting and sales compensation based on similar customer and deal profiles. Optimizing across this set of variables is incredibly complex, but, when done right, can result in a major competitive advantage for today’s B2B enterprise.