GOb2b Blogs

Here at Aspidistra, we’re often heard discussing how important imagery is. Whether you are producing a humble electrical component, the most basic of building blocks, or an exquisite design-led product, your B2B customer will still want to see photographs and evidence that they are buying the right stock. They want quality images, useful descriptions and even videos, to show them that they are in the right place, making the right buying decision.

Technology and trends in B2B ecommerce are developing rapidly. This is certainly due to the combination of consumer, B2C ecommerce and the sophistication of B2B technology. Together they ensure that B2B ecommerce integration is one of the most exciting technologies around.

Think large-scale, global ecommerce and the two big names that spring to mind are probably Amazon and eBay. But both these corporations are eclipsed by Chinese giant, Alibaba, whose 2014 sales were estimated at USD 420 billion – over five times that of closest competitor, Amazon. Established in 1999, most of Alibaba’s revenue comes from its B2C ecommerce sites, but in 2014 a staggering USD 1 billion was generated from the company’s B2B business, an online platform connecting buyers all over the world with suppliers in China.

Think large-scale, global ecommerce and the two big names that spring to mind are probably Amazon and eBay. But both these corporations are eclipsed by Chinese giant, Alibaba, whose 2014 sales were estimated at USD 420 billion – over five times that of closest competitor, Amazon. Established in 1999, most of Alibaba’s revenue comes from its B2C ecommerce sites, but in 2014 a staggering USD 1 billion was generated from the company’s B2B business, an online platform connecting buyers all over the world with suppliers in China.

A new graphic representation mapping the number of Internet users by country and the percentage of each country’s population actually online in 2013 has been produced by the Oxford Internet Institute – and we think the results make for interesting viewing.

1. According to Google, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had problems accessing – and 40% will visit a competitor’s site instead. McKinsey &...

We often come across healthy (and sometimes unhealthy) competition between Sales and Marketing for control of the website. The usual conflict is that Sales want to make sales and Marketing want to build brand and gather data. It’s up to the business to decide which is the priority. The problem comes when sales are the objective but marketing are still allowed unfettered ‘creative’ control. There is an overwhelming desire to do something different; to make the site stand out from the crowd. This can lead the designer to build a site that doesn’t follow accepted web paradigms.

“Video content creation, consumption, and advertising will continue to grow”

“Mobile marketing will reach equal consideration with the desktop in B2B”¹

It has been a little while since our last posting, but we have been very busy over the last few months. We’ve had several new members join our growing team, and we’ve expanded our office. This has been driven by growing sales and several new major customers.