eCommerce is a crucial strategic topic for companies to consider. The development is accelerated by Covid-19 – but it’s definitely here to stay!
Traditionally, B2B organisations have considered themselves as “being digital” if they had a webshop. However, at Valcon, we believe that digital commerce goes far beyond this scope. Digital commerce is about understanding customers’ preferences to create a seamless customer experience – to be present where they shop. In addition, digital commerce is about providing an integrated set of digital experiences and capabilities for your customers across the full customer journey, from acquisition and business development to retention through multiple digital channels.
Typically, organisations have two objectives with digital commerce:
- Driving revenue growth by attracting new customers and increasing the revenue share of existing customers
- Reducing cost-to-serve through digitalising orders and support channels
However, for many organisations, digital commerce is also about:
- Supporting the acquisition strategy by acquiring “digital-born” customers, supporting the business development strategy by being relevant to the customers as well as supporting the retention strategy by incentivising the customer to stay on the platform
- Create a seamless customer experience that is more value-adding to the customer than the existing ordering channel
- Connecting marketing and sales as eCommerce is not just a sales channel, but also a relevant marketing channel to showcase brands in new ways
- Get deeper customer insights as eCommerce allows organisations to understand customer preferences on a new level
Traditionally, eCommerce and offline sales have been seen as two separate channels. Today, companies seek to link offline and online channels to create a seamless omnichannel experience. However, this is not an easy task. To successfully implement eCommerce, you must understand the required steps, the potential and the goals of eCommerce.
The following five steps will help you get closer to achieving your goals with eCommerce:
- Understand the customer journey and find the moments of truth
- Understand how your eCommerce platform supports your acquisition, business development and retention strategies
- Build eCommerce capabilities and competencies; managing an eCommerce platform successfully requires investments in specific technical and commercial competencies
- Build cross-functional and agile teams to support product development and commercial expertise
- The implementation of eCommerce solutions should be managed as a change project. By introducing a direct channel between the organisations and the customers, the existing roles and responsibilities of the sales teams are changing
Now it’s up to you!
Bringing the above questions into your next dialogue around B2B eCommerce will hopefully help you stress the sense of urgency regarding this topic.
Want to know more?
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