In the B2B sector, companies that neglect their digital sales channels risk losing their competitive edge and access to an increasingly tech-savvy customer base. Integrated digital sales platforms set the stage for first-class shopping experiences in the business environment.
Customer expectations as a driver of digitalisation in the B2B sector
For B2B companies, digitalisation is no longer just a mandatory requirement; it offers an opportunity to excel. Companies that fail to embrace digitalisation risk losses in both revenue and customers. While traditional, in-person sales channels remain important, digital touchpoints are becoming ever more dominant in the B2B segment. Why is this? Simply put, an increasing number of key roles in purchasing and procurement are now occupied by “digital natives”. Having grown up with the internet, digital natives expect the same user experience (UX) and autonomy in B2B as in B2C: online shops and marketplaces where they can easily find and order the products they need with a single click.
However, the majority of B2B companies are still a long way from achieving this. Most online sales in this market segment are generated via EDI, with only a quarter being generated via websites, online shops, and marketplaces that do not use EDI. Consumerisation means B2B sellers have to make their existing sales channels future-ready as quickly as possible.
Status quo: plenty of room for improvement in B2B commerce
It’s high time for a strategic rethink. However, shifts in direction are all too often held back by existing IT and process structures. For example, fragmented and historically grown IT systems make it difficult to achieve centralised and uniform data storage (Single Source of Truth), which is necessary for well-founded strategic decisions, a consistent customer view and accurate real-time analyses. Without such a single source of truth, relevant company, transaction, and e-commerce data can only be consolidated with considerable time and manual effort.
Moreover, many B2B tasks, covering everything from managing product information to processing unstructured e-mail orders, are still performed manually. This leads to long processing times, high error rates, overworked employees, and dissatisfied customers.
Last but not least, many existing B2B self-service portals fall short of buyers’ high expectations: complicated and confusing input forms, no real-time stock checks, manual price approvals, and limited personalisation options frustrate customers, and often mean B2B digital commerce suffers high abandonment rates and lost orders.
A strategic opportunity: integrated digital sales platforms
To counteract this, an integrated, powerful digital sales platform is required. It should meet both current and future demands, manage the complexity of B2B processes, and integrate seamlessly into the provider’s ERP and CRM landscape. The ‘Best of Suite’ concept sets the right course for this. Appropriate solutions offer a consistent look and feel across all channels, thereby providing a first-class Customer Experience (CX) for the customer.
Therefore, more and more decision-makers are questioning the myth of ‘vendor lock-in’ and choosing a platform that integrates essential commerce components. This is exactly where novomind’s digital sales platform comes in. It unifies the key components of a modern commerce infrastructure in a single, consistent, and data-compliant solution that covers everything from automated product data management and multiple sales channels (own shop, apps, marketplaces) to first-class customer service and intelligent workflows.
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