Nearly 90% of B2B buyers in the UK now use digital channels as their primary method to identify and evaluate new suppliers, reflecting a significant shift towards online procurement in the post-pandemic era.
This highlights the growing reliance on digital platforms for B2B transactions and emphasises the importance of having a robust eCommerce presence for UK-based businesses.
According to McKinsey research, B2B e-commerce has taken the lead as the most effective sales channel.
B2B decision makers use predictive technology to connect the end-to-end marketing and sales funnel and prioritise leads, allocating them to the best channels and individual sellers. They also establish automated, integrated marketing and sales routines that would be difficult to monitor and maintain with managerial efforts alone. These investments will be an undercurrent that keeps the team synced over long, complex sales cycles while minimising the loss of critical customer insights and key decision-making inputs throughout the process.
Have you ever wondered how some B2B organisations have their eCommerce all figured out and working well? They likely engaged a specialist eCommerce agency! These agencies are the masterminds behind the sophisticated, efficient, and scalable digital platforms that power business-to-business transactions.
Whether you're an electronic instrument or medical device distributor, wholesaler, manufacturer, or involved in Testing, Certification, or Inspections, a B2B eCommerce agency can help you improve your digital Customer eXperience (CX) and seamlessly integrate your Sales, Marketing and Customer Service Help Desk systems with your eCommerce solution and your ERP.
Never miss out on following up on a cross-sell, upsell or new lead, with your business development and sales teams updated in real-time on Customer Service tickets and all marketing activities into their accounts.
HubSpot makes all of this possible with user-friendly tools your teams will want to use.
Before diving into agencies, let’s understand the term itself. B2B eCommerce refers to online transactions between businesses rather than between businesses and individual consumers.
The key difference? B2B usually is characterised by complex buying committees fixing complex business issues, attached services with high-tech products, regular testing, maintenance and certification, custom price lists and bundles, contract fulfilment repairs and returns and centralised billing all facilitated by advanced digital solutions.
A B2B eCommerce agency helps businesses digitise, optimise and simplify operations. They integrate technology into your sales processes, automate your quote-to-cash process and make your B2B online store more efficient and accessible. From developing buying experiences your B2B customers want to managed integrations with ERP systems like Dynamics, Sage, SAP and NetSuite these agencies play a crucial role in your success.
B2B eCommerce agencies offer a wide array of services, including:
Crafting intuitive, high-performing Customer Portals with an integrated Help Desk and webshop
Connect your eCommerce platform with ERPs or inventory systems.
Gaining insights into customer behaviours and improving decision-making.
Running Google Ads, LinkedIn Ad Campaigns and PPC campaigns as well as SEO strategies to attract net new business.
Scaling a business online can be tricky. Agencies step in with:
Integrating your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), and Help Desk software is critical for achieving a seamless and efficient eCommerce operation. This integration ensures that all aspects of your business are connected, providing a unified view of customer interactions, inventory levels, and order processing.
An integrated system allows for better data management and real-time updates across all platforms. This means that your sales team can access the most current information about product availability, your customer service team can view the complete history of customer interactions, and your operations team can manage inventory more effectively.
This level of integration not only improves internal efficiency but also enhances the overall customer experience by providing faster response times and more accurate information.
Top agencies often employ cutting-edge technologies like:
Cookie-cutter solutions don’t work in the B2B world. Your buyer's demand:
Dynamic content feature enables real-time content updates without the need for coding. Users can centralise data and refresh content across various pages and sections. Dynamic pages are CMS pages that automatically generate and fill content from a structured data source.
Using personalisation tokens, you can display tailored content to your contacts according to their property values in your CRM. This personalisation can boost engagement with your website and email campaigns. You can customise content in your emails, website pages, and landing pages using any default or custom contact property.
Partnering with an eCommerce agency can be transformative for your B2B business. These agencies bring a wealth of expertise in B2B Sales, eCommerce, Customer Portals, Project Management and Systems Integration as well as digital marketing and advertising.
By leveraging their knowledge, you can create a comprehensive eCommerce strategy that aligns with your business goals and drives growth.
An eCommerce agency can assist in deploying customer portals servicing your most valued B2B customers while dramatically simplifying your internal operations. An eCommerce agency can incorporate and integrate your current ERP and scheduling solutions to provide customers digital access to the information they need to buy more from you.
Ultimately, the right agency can help you increase sales, streamline operations and improve customer satisfaction.
Marketing in B2B is all about building relationships. B2B Agencies can help with:
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the secret sauce. By using relevant keywords like "B2B eCommerce agency," your site becomes visible to businesses searching for your services. Blog content, optimised product descriptions, and meta tags all play a part.
It’s not all smooth sailing. Challenges include:
Selecting the right agency is critical. Consider these factors:
Before making a decision, evaluate the agency's scheduled consultations to discuss your business goals and see how they propose to achieve them. A good eCommerce agency will not only provide technical solutions but also offer strategic guidance to help you navigate the complexities of the digital landscape.
Whether you’re an offline B2B business looking to make the move into online B2B selling for the first time, or you’re an established B2B eCommerce brand seeking to scale your digital presence, Big Business Agency has the expertise and experience to help you navigate the complexities of an eCommerce B2B site.
Building a B2B store on HubSpot leverages the same processes as the creation of a HubSpot website. This enables us to move with speed and certainty through planning, scoping and building certain functions such as B2B store functionality, user experience, integrations and more, whilst drawing on our deep B2B project and integration experience.
If you have questions about how eCommerce projects would work for your business, feel free to reach out for a no-obligation chat here.
The future is exciting! Trends include:
In-person sales representatives, internal sales teams and eCommerce each contribute significantly. There is a continued increase in customers' preference for online ordering and reordering, particularly in Western European and Australian markets, where this accounts for approximately 40% of total orders.
The shift towards B2B eCommerce is driven by several factors, including the need for businesses to provide a more personalised and flexible buying experience.
Companies are recognising the benefits of online platforms for order management, product customisation, and real-time inventory tracking. As a result, the adoption of eCommerce solutions is no longer a luxury but a necessity for staying relevant in today's market.
A B2B eCommerce agency isn’t just a service provider - it’s a growth partner. At Big Business Agency, we specialise in eCommerce using HubSpot with CommercePro and we connect your ERP with Commercient.
We are here to help you navigate the complexities of selling to your customers online, scale efficiently and stay ahead of trends.
Ready to transform your operations? Now’s the time to act!
Get in touch to find out how easy it is to get started!
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