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B2B eCommerce Masterplan book

Where’s B2B eCommerce heading in 2018? Before we take a look at some predictions, let’s take stock of where the industry is now, assess how the top performers are doing and uncover any current trends. Firstly, B2B eCommerce is within reach of more SMEs than ever before. Between 2016 and 2017, the number of Amazon Business sellers grew 183% and the number of customers grew to over a million.

When b2b customers buy online, they tend to adopt a different approach to b2c customers. There’s little emotion in their purchasing decisions, they are logical, practical and based around choosing a supplier they can trust – a supplier that ticks the most boxes in relation to product and cost, offers the most flexibility, and delivers the best service.

According to Forbes, global online sales in the business-to-business eCommerce market are forecast to reach $6.7 trillion by 2020. This is underpinned by a fast-changing landscape, and the heightened customer expectations that are driving digital transformation. It’s also backed by another recent survey that says 76% of retail executives across Europe and the US have already built a dedicated b2b eCommerce site, and the fact that, for nearly 40% of them, this site is their primary sales channel. So let’s look at how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) could help b2b eCommerce sellers gain competitive advantage.

Aspidistra Software is proud and delighted, to announce that their client, Industrial Ancillaries has won the B2B ecommerce Website of the Year award 2017.

According to a report recently released by Forrester, b2b eCommerce marketers are moving on from their traditional role of trying to out-smart online buyers, and delivering a stream of leads and support to sales teams. With the emergence of new technologies and digital tools, b2b marketers are shaping a digital-powered role as engineers of customer engagement, built around the managing relationships throughout the buyer life-cycle.

A recent survey amongst global b2b companies found that the desire for competitive advantage is driving seven out of every ten digital transformation projects around the world. What’s more, well over 30% of businesses polled in the research think that failure to deliver digital transformation projects will actually result in them losing competitive advantage. They see threats coming from all angles, with over a third of companies citing existing competitors, new market entrants and low-cost international alternatives as being of key concern.