The relentless evolution in technology has changed the paradigm of digital transformation. B2B commerce industry is gaining a lot of momentum through technological evolutions.
The emergence of new trends has brought a new buying process for the B2B businesses. According to a report B2B market size is expected to reach USD18.57 trillion by 2026, and it will grow at a CAGR of 18.70%.
All the growth is the result of increasing online selling. And the pandemic has accelerated the online marketing, buying, and selling of products and services.
The growing market indicates the flourishing future of B2B online sellers. But to stay in the competition, one has to be vigilant enough to keep a close eye on the latest B2B commerce trends.
To simplify your work, we have come up with the latest B2B commerce trends. You can incorporate these trends into your B2B business strategies and get an edge over your competitors.
B2B Commerce Trends To Watch Out for in 2022
The Evolution of Audience
Before the year 2020, the market was mostly composed of the baby boomers and the members of Gen X. There was a stark contrast between these two generations. On the one hand, baby boomers wanted data accessibility through datasheets, sales literature, and product trials. On the other hand, Gen X wanted information from conferences, print ads, trade shows etc.
The generation of millennials grew up with technology. Almost 38% of them are technology-driven and frequently use the latest gadgets and technology. Millennials capture a significant part of the B2B commerce market. Thus focusing on Gen X and millennials would be a trend that a B2B commerce business must focus on.
Self-Service Portals
The year 2022 will bring the trend of self-service portals where B2B businesses are focusing more on empowering customers by delivering world-class customer services, where the customers can easily get the answer to every query with utmost ease.
The self-service portal has accelerated the overall B2B commerce strategy. It is a common phenomenon that whenever businesses serve customers they should make sure what factors will work for businesses and what will be the best business practices.
One of the best examples of a self-service portal is the Amazon experience. It empowers consumers with its impeccable features such as easy researching, microscopic comparison, easy reordering, and shipment tracking.
The coming time belongs to self-service where different industrialists & B2B businesses will empower their trade accordingly.
Rapid Order Fulfilment
One of the major reasons for the growth in the B2B commerce industry is its transparent and efficient distribution process.
Basically, by B2B order fulfilment we meant the fulfilment of orders from one to another business. It is a situation where one business takes care of the stock of the other business or retailers.
Generally, B2B commerce fulfillment is used for the larger product quantities and lower order volumes. The process of B2B fulfillment is compact with complex shipping, cost, compliances, and logistics.
The process of fulfilment can get accelerated by the integration of automated inventory management software. It will reduce human errors and optimize time to store, pick, and log-in products.
The automated fulfilment process is the future of the B2B commerce industry. One can take the help of solutions like the Salesforce commerce cloud solution. It is a fast, efficient, and result-driven solution.
A rise in Value-Added Services
Every business wants to increase growth and revenue. They want a strong relationship with their existing and prospective customers.
To do so, one has to get ready to be flexible enough to attract new customers and retain the new ones. And for that businesses should start offering value-added services that will attract new customers and retain the existing ones.
The value-added service is something that a business offers with the existing services without charging additional cost.
eCommerce Websites
This is the era of digitalization. Gone are the days when eCommerce sites were considered a poor choice to garner new customers. Today, eCommerce marketing plays an important role in building a new audience and maintaining the existing ones.
In the present time, B2B businesses always include websites in online selling. Though the demand and growth of eCommerce websites were surging before 2020, the advent of the pandemic has fueled the growth of online selling.
The digitally-driven customers now easily can find new B2B businesses and place orders.
Customer Personalization
According to market analysts, customer experience is a key factor in the success or failure of any business. The customers of B2B businesses search more for personalized services. The touch of personalization with services will elevate the customers’ experience by a thousand times.
The rise in the trend of personalization will continue to prevail in 2022 and beyond. It will keep getting big. There are many businesses that have already included personalization by including advanced technologies like AI and machine learning. These technologies collect data, analyze it, optimize it, and present its final result in front of the users in such a way that the users will get a 360-degree view of their B2B business process.
Here are some ways through which you can start including personalization in the business – offer services based on the demand of the location of a customer, make product/service recommendations on the basis of previous purchases, and send follow-up emails on the basis of customer behaviour.
Customer Loyalty Program
In the above section, we have discussed the customer experience. Now extending the point by including one important factor and it is the customer loyalty program.
The concept of loyalty programs is no more restricted to B2C businesses. The buyer in B2B businesses is also a buyer that requires some discounts, offers, or loyalty points at the time of purchase.
Through customer loyalty programs, you can easily level up brand awareness, gain new customers, and elevate up-selling and cross-selling.
You must be aware of the fact that acquiring new customers is more expensive than maintaining the existing one. And perhaps that’s why customer loyalty programs work as a boon even for B2B businesses.
Get Ready for Flawless & Streamlined B2B Commerce in 2022 & Beyond
With the speed with which the technology is evolving, it becomes essential for customers to keep close track of the upcoming trends so that staying in competition and in the market won’t be rocket science.
We hope by following the above-mentioned trends you B2B businesses can improve the shopping experience of their customers and bolster their relationship with them.
