B2B customers, like customers in other areas, expect frictionless experiences. To stay ahead of the competition, B2B companies need to innovate strategies and evolve with customer expectations. If this area is left unattended or ignored, companies risk losing their businesses to competitors. So, first things first, what does seamless B2B ecommerce mean?
Smooth, or shall we say frictionless trading implies a set of strategies and practices aimed at removing hurdles and bottlenecks in the buyer’s path. These strategies enable the customer to have a convenient and seamless shopping experience.
However, because the business processes are interconnected, friction can hide behind the customer-facing aspects of the business and create serious problems. Eliminating these roadblocks and optimizing other connected elements in each business area must be a priority. It helps organizations achieve cohesion and consistency across multiple channels that can potentially impact customer relationships.
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Some of the most important aspects of smooth B2B e-commerce are:
- Security
- customer satisfaction
- fulfillment
- Diverse payment options
- Accessibility & UX design
- personalization
- Positive experience
Strategies you can consider to enable a smooth B2B commerce journey
1.Use generic email
No customer is a fan of those generic, sluggish emails that are constantly being bombarded on their PCs and phones, especially from the ones that are in no way related to their own best interests. If left unattended, it can lead to massive logouts. Businesses need to use email that resonates with their customers. Articles that have been recently browsed could be used to provide personalized product recommendations.
2. Bad customer service
According to the study conducted by American Express, more than 50% of Americans have abandoned a transaction or a planned purchase because of poor customer service. If a customer has any questions or doubts regarding the product, service or delivery, they expect the questions to be answered as soon as possible. Chatbots help companies provide buyers with personalized product suggestions, providing them with excellent service.
3. Lack of inventory visibility
Modern customers expect immediate/quick delivery of their products. Therefore, being able to filter product availability for their ecommerce stop is crucial. Or it can interfere with the customer’s ability to search and filter properly. To get the products soon.
4. Minimum Product Content
Companies need to know what a good product must contain. For example, it should contain a description, materials, specifications, dimensions, angle of view, number of frames, etc. Nonetheless, within a sub-industry within the retail sector, product content requirements are evolving rapidly. Therefore, businesses need to understand customer expectations and if not done properly, businesses can end up losing customers.
5. Vague delivery information
Internet users are very different from browsers. Therefore, customers who are searching must be presented with information in a simple manner that is intuitive, accurate, and predictive. Detailed and clear product images also help customers who use the search function.
6. Multi-Page Checkout
On the surface, it may seem too minor an issue to consider; However, this potential friction point can have a big impact on conversion rates. Therefore, the best practice here suggests that all fields including billing, payments, verification, etc. should be organized on a single page and divided into navigable and intuitive sections. It’s important to ensure that the faster and smoother the checkout process, the more your customer will interact and return to your website.
7. Poor page performance
Brands, big and small, are still struggling to put themselves in a position to offer websites that perform well during traffic hours. Mobile website load time is directly related to conversions, and when it increases from 1 to just 3 seconds, it will cause customer frustration. So this friction needs to be addressed immediately; Otherwise, you would watch your bounce rates soar even higher.
8. No customer reviews on the site
There is plenty of data to support the link between customer reviews and higher conversions. Gartner L2 report states that customer reviews can potentially increase conversion by about 133%, which is great. Without reviews, customers could easily be tempted to shop elsewhere and even resent the decision to shop on your site. When it comes to reviews and ratings, following best practices always yields lasting results.
These are some of the top B2B friction points to address to stay ahead of the competition. By keeping the above points in mind, you can enable remarkable growth in your business while greatly improving the customer experience.
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