Business-to-Business Market
There is a difference selling to companies and private individuals. Below is an angle of approaches to the business-to-business market.
Business-to-Business Market (B2B) Characteristics
- Few buyers in relation to total number of consumers
- Large-scale orders
- A relationship between buyer and seller can be established
- Potential customers are easy to single out/segment
- More persons are involved in a purchase
- Professional purchasing methods based on information and rationality
- Focus is on price and cost-saving
Purchase Methods
Three pervading purchasing principles are applied by companies:
- Straight re-buy – you buy the same as usual. Usually office supplies, coffee, etc.
- Substantial repurchase – before buying, you consider whether the requirement, design, or technology has changed since last time. This could be PCs, courses, or technological equipment.
- New purchase – you want to check the market for the most favourable offer meeting the requirements set out by the company.
Example of a Business-to-Business Purchase
A new purchase or repurchase in the business-to-business market can be illustrated in terms of a company wanting to replace their warehouse door.
- Problem identification: The company identifies its problem: We need a warehouse door, or Our main warehouse door is defective. Will the budget allow for such a purchase?
- Determination of requirement characteristics: The Company defines its requirement: Should the door be manually operated, or should it be automatically activated by photocells?
- Product specifications: The Company determines the type of door needed: Size? Metal or another material?
- Tracking down potential suppliers: The company checks their supplier file: Where did we get the existing door? Or: Who supplies warehouse doors?
- Making analysis and obtaining quotations: The company may ask you and other potential suppliers to come and take measurements for the door. The company requests a quotation for the delivery of the door, and may also ask you to state references.
- Evaluation and negotiation of quotation and choice of supplier: The Company compares the quotations received: Which one is cheapest? The most expensive? Will we get value for money? Advantages and disadvantages of both? Any guarantee that you or another supplier will be able to carry out the task proficiently?
- Placing an order: The Company chooses a supplier and rejects those not chosen.
- Check-ups on supplier and delivery: The company follows up on its order: Will you be able to deliver the door on time? The company tests whether the door functions according to their order. A similar process would be applied if the company were to commission a large translation project, a company progress report, or implementation of a new accounting system.
Advanced Payment Method
We agree that the process for B2B orders is more complicated than B2Cs. More complicated means that the shopping cart model should be the most appropriate. Your e-commerce website design company needs to design your site to make it easier to pay and reduce the basket desertion.
The payment process must not only be streamlined but also help to remember some other factors such as:
- Customers must be able to transfer their shipping costs to their delivery partners accounts (such as FedEx, USP, etc.)
- Customers must be able to retrieve their payment information from previous orders.
- They must have the possibility to pay for orders through different payment methods such as a line of credit, a purchase request, commercial credit, etc.
- It should be possible to repeat an order previously placed and not to research individual products again.
Wholesale Purchases
Very often, B2B customers place large orders. In such cases, searching for all the products in your online catalog is tedious and time-consuming. To simplify the task, you can provide your consumers with a form for a bundled order. When designing a group order form, ensure that the customers can add products only with the part number or the SKU. Also, they should be able to specify the desired amount for each item. Once the bundled order form is completed, it should take the customer directly to the payment page.
Minimum Amount of Order
Making the minimum order amount is another feature that makes a difference between B2C e-commerce websites and B2B portals. Very often, B2B companies sell products only in quantities of wholesale. Customers must order a specific minimum amount of order so it can be completed.
Degressive Discounts for the Wholesale Purchases
B2B customers often make bulk purchases. In this way, instead of listing products that are frequently sold as individual items, you can also list them as packages, boxes, cartons, or even pallets. The labelling designations will make things easier for the customer as well for you too. If a customer is looking for nails, he can easily add them to the basket in a box instead of 100 individual nails. In addition, B2B companies offer different levels of discounts to customers depending on the number of products ordered. For example, offering the same value to a customer who buys 10 air filters and a buyer of 1000 air filters makes no sense. Your online store must be able to accept different discounts depending on the quantity ordered.
Restricted Access
Some B2B companies only allow pre-registered customers or resellers to order products from their online stores. For example, if your business only sells through a network of resellers, your website should be designed so that only authorized resellers can access it. When choosing an e-commerce platform, make sure it can protect with a password your entire site and restrict access to customers. You can also restrict access to specific parts of the site to non-registered customers. Restricting a site area means that the home page and product line are accessible to everyone, but only authorized retailers can buy from your online store.
Improved Mobile Experience
The mobile shopping experience is growing. Today, more and more B2B customers are looking for professional products on their mobile. As mentioned above, almost 94% agree that they start looking for commercial services or products on their smartphones. Offering your site on mobile means that mobile-friendly sites are no longer an additional feature. They are essential to provide your customers with the best user experience.
When designing a responsive mobile e-commerce store, you need to look for advanced features such as:
- Auto-entry – this allows your clicks to fill out forms using information already stored on their device. This way, they don’t have to enter repetitive keys to get standard information such as name, address, email address, phone numbers, etc.
- A clear call to action button – with this button, customers can contact your customer support team with just one click.
Make sure your site has fast loading times and offers an optimized experience on all screens.
Intuitive and User-Friendly Searches
One of the best ways to increase the conversion rate on the website is to improve the search functionality of your B2B e-commerce portal. Customers should be able to locate the items they are looking for without going through your entire list of products. Being user-friendly and accessible means that you need more than just a search bar on your website.
Here are some improved search features to provide to your site:
- Search filters – customers should locate a product or refine default search results by varying attributes such as product size, colour, availability, etc.
- Long-haul searches – your e-commerce portal must be able to manage and interpret long-trailed semantic searches. Studies show that the dropout rate decreases significantly (40% to 2%) with a semantic approach than research.
- Auto-entry – while this may seem like a simple feature, it does indeed have a considerable impact. Auto-entry not only saves consumers time but also makes them buy other products that they haven’t thought of buying before
Flexible Payments
In the B2C world, getting paid immediately before processing an order is very important. B2B companies, on the other hand, do not operate that way. There is a stable relationship between the company and the customer, and very often, companies give their customers a line of credit. A line of credit leads to the need for flexible payment options.
Flexible payments add to the overall user experience. While different payment methods are very convenient for B2C online stores, they are incredibly critical for B2B stores. While offering several payment methods (uppler dot com) on your B2B e-commerce, be sure to provide options for offline modes as well as the usual ones such as credit cards, transfers, etc. An example of an offline payment method is to complete the order and then allow the customer to pay for it using the order number within 30 days of the end of the transaction.
Available Customer Support
To make sure you increase conversion rates, you need to provide more than a “Contact Us” page on your e-commerce portal. You can add the “Ask for a free quote” form or add a live chat service to provide your customer with real-time customer support.
Real-Time Inventory Updates
This is an indispensable feature of all B2B e-commerce portals. Only with real-time inventory updates, you can provide your customers with the most accurate information. If a consumer completes an order, only to find that you don’t have the required products, they not only lose confidence in your brand, but you also end up losing potential repeated sales and even the customer. Real-time inventory updates have far-reaching implications beyond your online box. You get a clear picture of your overall inventory, and this helps streamline your operations, especially if you run a business model just in time.
Read the related article - Concept of B2B Model: Types, Examples, and E-Commerce
