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Sofie Kerremans

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<p><strong>The global B2B industry continues to grow, and it offers all kinds of opportunities for many companies that feel limited within their own country. Expanding internationally can come with some difficulties:&nbsp;currency changes can cause cash flow problems, cultural differences can make marketing complex, and the shipping of goods can get expensive.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong>However, these aspects shouldn’t hold your company back from the opportunity of going global. There are some ways to boost your international e-commerce strategies for&nbsp;more success. Let’s examine them in this article!&nbsp;</strong></p>
<h3>The first steps&nbsp;to international e-commerce&nbsp;</h3>
<p>While some businesses are launching web shops in countries where they already have a physical presence to support existing customers, others plan to launch web&nbsp;shops&nbsp;in entirely new regions to reach new, potential customers.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Even though an international expansion can be attractive, many B2B sellers find it overwhelming&nbsp;because&nbsp;determining&nbsp;customers' demands and interests in other countries can be&nbsp;a&nbsp;time-consuming&nbsp;process.&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
  <li>If you notice international visitors on your website, you may want to examine their regions of origin and consider those markets as starting points.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Choosing a country nearby your first&nbsp;international&nbsp;market&nbsp;will help you get started on the right foot.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Cooperate with channel partners and wholesale distributors. They will help you enter foreign markets and reach new customers&nbsp;based&nbsp;on&nbsp;their well-established networks.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>After identifying your new markets,&nbsp;expanding your&nbsp;website&nbsp;in those markets’&nbsp;correct languages&nbsp;is next. Doing so improves customer trust and drives significant increases in retention and engagement&nbsp;(see infra).</p>
<p>Ensure you access expert insights as you&nbsp;plan&nbsp;ahead&nbsp;and&nbsp;consider&nbsp;the recommendations and tips of those who have already accomplished their global expansion goals.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Make your website multilingual&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Interacting&nbsp;with your international customers in their chosen language is one of the best ways to build trust and improve your professional relationship.&nbsp;Your customers are more likely to engage&nbsp;and place an order when your website is in their first language.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Website localization often begins with translation, but it stretches far beyond translating. Localization involves adjusting every aspect of your website to meet your target audience's preferences. You want them to feel like your web shop was designed with their culture, requirements, and language in mind.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Implement ERP-systems&nbsp;</h3>
<p>When your e-commerce platform operates together with your ERP system, e-commerce becomes very manageable.&nbsp;All your customer data, order data, product information, prices, discounts, and stock levels can be saved in one central database—no more complex data synchronization.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Data synchronization creates unnecessary effort and costs because you enter the same information in&nbsp;multiple&nbsp;places. Furthermore, it is expensive to maintain. Especially when your business has taken the step to go&nbsp;global, ERP integration is necessary&nbsp;as it allows you to adapt data both locally and globally.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>In addition, an ERP system can help you translate currencies across national borders, while data can be presented to users in their local currency. What applies to currencies applies equally to languages in your web shop. An office in&nbsp;America&nbsp;can select the display language as&nbsp;English, while a production facility in&nbsp;Spain&nbsp;can display it in&nbsp;Spanish.&nbsp;</p>
<p>With an ERP system, you can make local adjustments so that everyone can operate in the way they prefer.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Adjust the payment options&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Different countries prefer to use different payment methods. In the United States, consumers&nbsp;prefer&nbsp;credit cards,&nbsp;while&nbsp;other countries prefer digital wallets like PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay. For instance, Chinese customers prefer to use&nbsp;AliPay, whereas some European&nbsp;and&nbsp;North American&nbsp;customers may prefer to use Stripe or Klarna.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Several e-commerce platforms like Shopify already integrate international payment options. The more payment options you accept, the easier it is for your customers to convert.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Offer 24/7 customer support&nbsp;</h3>
<p>It can be difficult for international consumers to reach a&nbsp;company&nbsp;during business hours with&nbsp;different time zones.&nbsp;</p>
<p>There are a few ways e-commerce businesses offer 24/7 customer service. Some decide to set up a chatbot. Others hire customer service representatives in shifts that expand outside of the traditional business hours. Others outsource their customer service completely to firms that specialize in 24/7 customer support.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="a848c914_af6e_0142_c62a_a807e64343b2" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>Today's world is more connected than ever, which means that companies can access international opportunities more&nbsp;than ever before.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Expanding your B2B e-commerce&nbsp;globally&nbsp;doesn’t have to be complicated, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. You’ll need to have a perfectly translated website adapted to the local customers you’re targeting, and don't forget to adjust payment options and customer care either.&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<p><em>Are you considering going global with your web shop? Or do you have any questions?&nbsp;</em><a href="https://b2bcommerce.academy/en/contact"><em>Do not hesitate to contact us</em></a><em>. We will be happy to advise you.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</em></p>

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Tips on how to expand your B2B e-commerce globally 

<p><strong>Strategies to engage and retain your customers are extremely important for the success of your B2B e-commerce.&nbsp;When you optimize your conversion rate, you can not only increase revenue per&nbsp;visitor, but you can also grow your business.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong>The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a specific action after landing on your ecommerce website. A conversion can be defined as anything from purchasing a product to adding item to a wish list or singing up to the newsletter.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong>In this article, we share&nbsp;some&nbsp;tips and tricks on how you can improve your conversion rate.&nbsp;Ultimately, these best practices will help you to maintain existing customers and attract new ones.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<h2>Improve&nbsp;your&nbsp;user experience&nbsp;</h2>
<p>It is important that you provide your&nbsp;web shop&nbsp;visitors&nbsp;with an amazing experience.&nbsp;If your website is not designed or structured properly and customers cannot easily navigate to their desired products&nbsp;or services,&nbsp;will this have an impact on your conversion rate.&nbsp;A website that provides a&nbsp;well-functioning&nbsp;user experience is&nbsp;the&nbsp;first&nbsp;good&nbsp;step&nbsp;to generate more conversions.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ultimately, there should be no page on your website where a visitor would think, “I want to learn more about this&nbsp;product or service, but I don’t know how.”&nbsp;Visitors&nbsp;won’t spend more than a few seconds looking for&nbsp;the&nbsp;next step, so it's important to anticipate how&nbsp;you can encourage them to convert.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>An improved user experience and simple web design will keep your visitors&nbsp;focused&nbsp;on the content that matters.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Ensure a fast-loading time&nbsp;</h2>
<p>The faster your website's load time is, the happier your&nbsp;customers&nbsp;will be.&nbsp;If the page takes too long to load, users will&nbsp;bounce, causing your site to lose out on&nbsp;potential customers.&nbsp;In other words, when you optimize your website’s loading&nbsp;time, you can expect to see improvements in user experience (UX), conversion rates&nbsp;(which&nbsp;will, in turn, also optimize your SEO), and ultimately, sales revenue.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>If you use an e-commerce platform, find out what configurations are available to improve page loading&nbsp;times. Most platforms offer small adjustments that can lead to significant improvements. Check the speed of your ecommerce site periodically to proactively solve&nbsp;issues.&nbsp;Google’s&nbsp;Page Speed&nbsp;Insights&nbsp;is a good starting point.</p>
<p>According to&nbsp;HubSpot, the highest ecommerce conversion rates occur on pages with load times between 0-2 seconds.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Be honest&nbsp;about&nbsp;stock and delivery information&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Nobody is pleased when the item they want to buy is out of stock, but it is even more frustrating when the out-of-stock status is not indicated.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>In addition to clearly displaying the stock status for each product and product configuration, you can also&nbsp;alert customers when stock is being refilled or&nbsp;give them the option to pre-order,&nbsp;as this will lead to a conversion.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Provide clear shipping information&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>
<p>One of the most common reasons for shopping cart abandonment is the lack of shipping information. Studies have shown that B2B buyers, just like B2C customers, are more likely to accept free shipping than any other regular incentive.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>The same goes for pricing.&nbsp;By stating shipping costs and return policies upfront, customers know what the costs will be before&nbsp;they&nbsp;place&nbsp;an&nbsp;order.&nbsp;Using a&nbsp;clear price system&nbsp;can boost conversion in your B2B eCommerce by providing customers with the best price.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Monitor your SEO&nbsp;</h2>
<p>One of the most important challenges is to make your site accessible to as many customers as possible. No matter what industry you’re in, if you want to increase the conversion rate of your e-commerce website, you need to accurately communicate your products or solutions to the target audience.&nbsp;</p>
<p>B2B e-commerce businesses can use keyword strategy and specific KPIs to create and fine-tune their SEO tactics. Metadata optimization and great content combine to capture leads, while little-known factors, like on-page markup, help to drive conversions.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Implementing an intelligent SEO strategy will help you improve your site’s web presence, boost search engine ranking, and organic search&nbsp;results.&nbsp;How to create an intelligent SEO strategy?&nbsp;Below you can&nbsp;find an example of a step-by-step plan:&nbsp;</p>
<ol>
  <li>Assess your SEO performance&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Determine your online marketing goals&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Define keywords and topics&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Audit the content of your website&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Create content that your target audience will find valuable&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Fix on-page SEO and technical errors&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Work on off-page SEO&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Track and adjust your strategy&nbsp;</li>
</ol>
<h2>A/B testing&nbsp;</h2>
<p>The most important thing about setting up an A/B test is determining the metrics.&nbsp;It is extremely important to measure what you want to know. Otherwise, you will end up jumping to the wrong conclusions.&nbsp;It is best to conduct tests based on data that you have already gathered.&nbsp;For&nbsp;example, when&nbsp;a certain product page converts&nbsp;better than another, try to identify&nbsp;what the differences are.&nbsp;Is it because of the lay out, check-out page or&nbsp;call to action?&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>See if conversion rates are affected when you replace “Add to Cart” with “Buy Now” as the&nbsp;call to action.&nbsp;Or when you eliminate&nbsp;one or two unnecessary steps. Try single-page checkout workflows versus multi-page checkout workflows.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Use the same referral sources for the most effective tests. For some tests, you can split traffic to different pages. For others, you can direct different types of traffic (organic&nbsp;traffic, paid traffic and&nbsp;social media&nbsp;traffic etc.) to the pages they may prefer.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A/B testing does not only have to be used when&nbsp;optimizing&nbsp;websites. You can also use A/B testing in your e-mail marketing campaigns and ads on Facebook and Instagram. The goal in these contexts, too, is to find out what works best for your visitors/customers/target group.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Conclusion&nbsp;</h4>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n48d8710a_1627_01d2_dca6_6427e84c27f0" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>Experiment with how users interact with the different features of your web shop. Rethink your check-out steps&nbsp;and&nbsp;optimize for speed and SEO.&nbsp;Learning how to improve the conversion rate of your ecommerce is not that difficult, but knowing how to implement&nbsp;the&nbsp;several strategies correctly, is not that easy.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<p>Try the above tips &amp; tricks and see what changes they are bringing to the conversion rate of your B2B e-commerce site.&nbsp;And if you feel like you could use some help,&nbsp;<a href="https://b2bcommerce.academy/en/contact">do not hesitate to contact us</a>! Our team of experts is happy to help and advice you.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

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How to boost your B2B ecommerce conversation rate 

<p><strong>The adoption rate of email marketing in B2B businesses is around 88%, according to a study conducted by Circle Research. And around 42% of respondents said it was a very effective channel for generating new leads for their business.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong>Email marketing&nbsp;continues to remain relevant and perhaps even more effective than other forms of marketing. Many businesses are using email marketing to connect with potential clients, create new leads, and strengthen customer relationships.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong>Email marketing strategies can come in handy when used to their maximum potential.&nbsp;In this article, we give you tips on how to boost&nbsp;the&nbsp;email marketing&nbsp;for your B2B ecommerce.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<h3>1. Add value&nbsp;</h3>
<p>For B2C businesses, email marketing seems simple: promote new products, offer coupons, and let subscribers know about promotions and deals. But B2B businesses can’t always do this, especially if they&nbsp;offer services that don’t often change.&nbsp;</p>
<p>As a solution, you can&nbsp;try to take a different approach: add value. Send emails that offer your subscribers tips, ideas, or education on a topic related to your industry, product, or service.&nbsp;</p>
<p>For example, if you run a software company designed to make online storage easier, you could send out organization tips, links to productivity articles, or how-to information on compressing files.&nbsp;This value will increase&nbsp;your customers&nbsp;appreciation of you, making them more likely to choose your business&nbsp;when they’re in need of your services.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>2.&nbsp;Introduce&nbsp;loyalty&nbsp;schemes&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Building a relationship with your B2B customer&nbsp;is extremely important to the long-term value, and email marketing is a great way to&nbsp;do this.&nbsp;To make sure your customer stays loyal and informed about your business, here are some examples of consistent emails you can send out:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
  <li><strong>“We’ve Missed You”:</strong>&nbsp;If a customer hasn’t returned to your&nbsp;web shop&nbsp;in a while, send them an email that includes a&nbsp;special or personal offer&nbsp;and an easy way to opt out of future communications, if they are no longer interested.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
  <li><strong>“You’re on the list!”:</strong>&nbsp;The welcome e-mail that you send to new subscribers lays the groundwork for the further relationship with your new customer.&nbsp;</li>
  <li><strong>Restocking</strong>:&nbsp;Launching automated emails at certain intervals can help keep your brand top of mind when supplies need to be replenished.&nbsp;For example, popular products that sell out quickly</li>
</ul>
<h3>3.&nbsp;Build Lists&nbsp;</h3>
<p>The power of a B2B email marketing strategy is inherent within the&nbsp;mailing&nbsp;lists you build around it. These lists of email addresses should be developed with care, and should be curated and tagged appropriately, that way when it comes time to email your&nbsp;target&nbsp;audience, you’ve sent the appropriate email to fit your objective.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A lot of&nbsp;businesses build lists based off new and old clients. Others build lists based off other things. Ultimately, the lists you will build will be specific to your business or&nbsp;industry, and&nbsp;will be designed toward a specific objective.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>4.&nbsp;Optimize for mobile&nbsp;</h3>
<p>All your email messages should be optimized for smartphones and tablets, keeping your subscribers from needing to scroll or pinch-zoom to read your content.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Invest in a template that uses responsive design to automatically resize each of your emails to fit screens of any size. This will ensure that those who read your email will be able to do so on any screen without trouble.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Similarly, your website (or any&nbsp;landing&nbsp;pages linked in the email) should be mobile-friendly, ensuring that those wanting to learn more about you or the content in your emails can do so without difficulty. If your website is not already responsive, you should consider investing in this change as quickly as possible.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>5.&nbsp;Consider Automation&nbsp;</h3>
<p>You should not just send emails at any time of day, because they are more likely to be read at specific times.&nbsp;The best time to send emails is between 11 am and 2 pm,&nbsp;just before or after lunch.&nbsp;If your focus is on achieving the best CTR, send emails on a Tuesday. Or if the open rate is more important to you, send on a Friday. Whatever you do, don’t send emails during the weekend.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Also, remember that there’s no set formula for success. Find your own peak times by experimenting through sending emails at different times of the day, on different days, and see which ones give you the most success.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Automation is an option that helps you send timely and relevant communication. For example, automated messages can be sent to people who download content from a particular area of your site or complete a form there.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Conclusion&nbsp;</h4>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n73c05212_09f4_01fe_b533_f1f280e36e15" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>When your e-mail marketing is integrated in your e-commerce platform, it will increase exponentially. You have many more possibilities, can anticipate immediately, save money and boost your revenue. What's not to like?&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<p>Do you still have questions about&nbsp;email marketing, or can you use some help? Do not hesitate&nbsp;<a href="https://b2bcommerce.academy/en/contact">to contact us</a>. We will be happy to advise you.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

5 email marketing tips for B2B ecommerce - B2B Commerce Academy

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5 email marketing tips for B2B ecommerce 

<p><strong>Over 70% of B2B buyers say they would switch suppliers if the overall experience was better with another&nbsp;business, and 79% of B2B marketers think a better online experience will transform their&nbsp;business.* What does this mean for your B2B e-commerce?&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong>Most&nbsp;businesses&nbsp;feel&nbsp;they need&nbsp;to improve their customer experience&nbsp;to meet their customers’ expectations and remain competitive.&nbsp;An improved customer experience is linked to increased revenues and other benefits. But how do you improve&nbsp;a&nbsp;B2B customer experience?&nbsp;You can&nbsp;find&nbsp;the answer in this article.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<h3>Feedback&nbsp;</h3>
<p>To gather feedback, you can use automated tools. These tools will give you insights on which you can base your hypotheses. This allows you to make improvements to optimize the experience of your B2B customers. The more feedback you collect, the more you can adapt your e-commerce to the wishes and needs of your customers.&nbsp;Examples of automated tools&nbsp;are&nbsp;contact forms, e-mail campaigns or thank-you page surveys.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Efficiency&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Nowadays, we are so used to receive everything we’ve ordered quickly.&nbsp;A direct response, real-time updates, a next-day order... A fast, efficient B2B customer journey is therefore of great importance.&nbsp;The longer the customer&nbsp;has to&nbsp;wait, the more negatively he will experience the purchasing process.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Obviously, you cannot accelerate everything, such as the production process, for example. In order to assist your B2B customer quickly and efficiently, you can do the following:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Have an online platform that works 24/7, set aside time to respond quickly and stay up to date with the latest technologies that help you deliver a fast B2B experience, such as voice commerce and PWAs. For example, a Progressive Web App is easier than a mobile app because users don't have to install anything.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Omnichannel strategy&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Use an omnichannel strategy to adapt your&nbsp;behavior&nbsp;to that of your customer. You are going to answer questions such as "How does he think?" and "How does that manifest itself in his behavior?".&nbsp;The average B2B customer goes through a six-step process before&nbsp;deciding. That's why it's important to offer a consistent experience that connects well.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>This means that the content, look and feel must be the same across all channels. Companies can even gain more trust if they can offer a balanced omni-channel purchasing experience. In the long run, this will create more customer loyalty.</p>
<h3>Be&nbsp;transparent&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Transparency is the key to success. Not only does it help to avoid high expectations or disappointment,&nbsp;but it&nbsp;also contributes to the trust your customers have in your business. Acknowledging mistakes, clear communication, shipping terms and access to information are some examples of being transparent.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>But bear in mind that you should always keep your promises to the best of your ability.&nbsp;Otherwise,&nbsp;it will have the opposite effect. In other words, do not promise anything that cannot possibly be delivered.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Personalization&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Personalization humanizes the contact between your company and its customers. Whether it concerns a customized e-mail, a tailored website or a personalized chat on your web shop: a personal approach is important in today's B2B landscape.&nbsp;If you create a personal message whereby you show as a company that you really want to add value, customers feel much more appreciated. This leads to more trust and loyalty.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>To give you an idea of how you can personalize your B2B web shop, we will give you some examples:&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
  <li><strong>Personal assistance:</strong> give your customers guidance during their purchase. The ordering process in B2B can be complex, so if you can help a customer during the purchase, you can leave a positive impression.&nbsp;</li>
  <li><strong>Recommendations:</strong>&nbsp;the good thing about product recommendations in B2B e-commerce is that there is often much more product information available. If you put this information next to the information you have about the customer, you can give him the right advice.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
  <li><strong>A personalized catalogue:</strong> each customer is given his own offer with adjusted prices and products. But&nbsp;also,&nbsp;within a customer profile, different lists can be shown, depending on which deal has been made with the customer.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n3fdf3103_3491_0113_1a15_c05eca880c84" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>B2B customers are becoming more demanding. A good customer-oriented approach can improve customer loyalty and satisfaction. Which then results in more sales and a better revenue.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<p>Do you still have questions about&nbsp;a&nbsp;successful&nbsp;customer experience, or can you use some help? Do not hesitate to <a href="https://b2bcommerce.academy/en/contact">contact us</a>. We will be happy to advise you.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>*Research:&nbsp;Ecommerce - Episerver&nbsp;</p>

How to improve the customer experience of your B2B e-commerce - B2B Commerce Academy

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How to improve the customer experience of your B2B e-commerce 

<p><strong>As an analytical, creative and customer-oriented marketer, Frederik&nbsp;Defyn&nbsp;ensures that your company achieves commercial&nbsp;success.&nbsp;With&nbsp;expertise in online advertising, e-mail marketing and marketing communication, Frederik outlines in this article everything&nbsp;you need&nbsp;to know about a&nbsp;valuable&nbsp;B2B marketing strategy.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<figure data-asset-id="fd9fd8f1-4019-47a6-8a41-9e61554673dd" data-image-id="fd9fd8f1-4019-47a6-8a41-9e61554673dd"><img src="https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com:443/aa1e286e-6912-0166-621b-5d2a3f9a1a88/3605ebb9-6799-46b4-bc18-e29d69a4a7f9/1.png" data-asset-id="fd9fd8f1-4019-47a6-8a41-9e61554673dd" data-image-id="fd9fd8f1-4019-47a6-8a41-9e61554673dd" alt="How do you create a successful B2B marketing strategy?  – an interview with marketeer Frederik Defyn - B2B Commerce Academy"></figure>
<h3>Hi Frederik, thanks for&nbsp;making the time to talk to us.&nbsp;Let's get straight to it: you describe yourself as an analytical and customer-oriented marketer, can you briefly explain to our readers how that translates into your approach?&nbsp;</h3>
<p>“Being analytical translates into&nbsp;data&nbsp;is knowledge.&nbsp;We don't&nbsp;tell&nbsp;our clients&nbsp;what works best or what’s&nbsp;the most beautiful.&nbsp;We test the different variants of ads, images or pages and then we conclude, based on statistics, what&nbsp;will&nbsp;deliver&nbsp;the best results.&nbsp;Being customer-oriented is expressed in two&nbsp;ways. On one hand, we focus on the actual&nbsp;end&nbsp;user. We believe that if you can help them correctly, then we will be able to succeed on behalf of our customer. It is a combination of what the&nbsp;end&nbsp;user wants and what our customer wants.&nbsp;That way, everyone is satisfied.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Many will say this, but we do not actually sell services. What we do sell is advice. We advise customers by giving them what they genuinely&nbsp;want&nbsp;and need.&nbsp;You can't attach a specific service to that.&nbsp;Sometimes it involves a lot of effort, sometimes it involves a few months of hard work and optimization before we see results.”</p>
<h3>Many companies want to see immediate results, how do you convince them to take a long-term view?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
<p>“All the statistics and success stories you read tend to confuse. After marketing, our main task when starting up or extending a campaign is to coach our client in their expectations. We tell them what they might expect and what is realistic. In addition, examples from previous campaigns also help. It is best to agree on this before even making an offer. This sometimes scares off potential clients, but our client always comes first. We also think about mental wellbeing. If a customer expects a transformation after just a few days, we know it wouldn’t be right.”&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Difficulties can arise when defining a B2B marketing strategy.&nbsp;How do you best handle this?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
<p>“For our customers, it is especially challenging because it requires close cooperation with the sales team. As a marketer, you quickly come up with additional questions about the quality of leads or what kind of questions they get from visitors. It takes some time to get sufficient support. In my experience, it works best to strengthen the cooperation step by step,&nbsp;with each small success.&nbsp;For example, when the sales team sees that they have more sales when using mailings, then the next marketing idea is clear to us, and we continue the cooperation by implementing more email marketing."</p>
<h3>E-mail marketing and e-commerce go hand in hand.&nbsp;How do you leverage&nbsp;e-mail marketing as a B2B professional?&nbsp;</h3>
<p>“A great advantage of a mailing is that it is measurable. In addition, you can personally follow up and approach those you send an e-mail. E-mail marketing is a very good tool for regular customers. You keep them informed of your product range, your up- or cross-selling, actions, and so on.&nbsp;In the best case, you can quickly remove customers who have just ordered something. You can also provide a different discount for customers who regularly buy a certain product. There are many possibilities."&nbsp;</p>
<h3>The approach to B2B marketing also has many possibilities. Do you think we can compare it to B2C marketing? Or are there clear differences?&nbsp;</h3>
<p>"The approach can indeed be compared but the&nbsp;motivation is different.&nbsp;In B2B marketing, it is ultimately the result of the entire company that counts, but apart from that, it is also about people. You must have a good value proposition.&nbsp;Also, knowing&nbsp;on&nbsp;what platform&nbsp;you are&nbsp;best&nbsp;present&nbsp;and when is important here.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>What is also a clear difference within B2B&nbsp;marketing&nbsp;is that people still use a lot of vocabulary or formal language. I find that awful. If you want to be attractive as a company, you must be able to get a clear message across in a playful or smooth way, right? How else do you attract customers?”</p>
<h3>How can you,&nbsp;as a business,&nbsp;improve your customer engagement both offline and online?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
<p>If you help potential customers early on in their customer journey, they will perceive you as a company that helps them and knows the market thoroughly. On the other hand, suppose you supply roofing to contractors, and your covering decorates an iconic building like the Sportpaleis in Antwerp. Certain customers will feel more connected to your brand as a result. Some B2B customers buy a piece of status, or rather, a piece of certainty. Because "look at us, we have the same roofing as Sportpaleis Antwerp".&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Why is a good understanding of the customer journey so important? And what about e-commerce?&nbsp;</h3>
<p>"It is important for several reasons. You need to understand your customers, have empathy for what they are doing, what problem they want to solve and why they are looking or worrying. If you know the answer to these things, you can address them personally and work in a customer-oriented way.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A customer journey has many phases. Most companies focus on the almost final phases, but if you help people in the research phase, you will attract even more potential customers. The same applies to e-commerce. Again, we speak of 'keeping employees connected' (investigative) rather than 'the best software' (comparative).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>A purchase often involves several decision-makers. In B2C, it is the partner who gives his/her opinion. In B2B, the roles of influence are more clearly defined. Whether they will ultimately buy from you depends on various decisions. In e-commerce, the decisions are taken by one or two people. Although it is a challenge to convince with one message. You can't pitch to all the people in a company. Everything must be easy to find on your landing page."&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Social media platforms are also part of the customer journey. Users can learn more about your brand identity and company image, among other things. But are platforms like Twitter and Facebook still relevant for B2B marketing purposes? Or would it be better to invest in new channels such as&nbsp;TikTok?&nbsp;</h3>
<p>“Be present there where your customer is. And if you’re a small company, it is enough to be active on the platform that bests&nbsp;suits&nbsp;you.&nbsp;You need to be able to work with it creatively. The best way to do that is to put your personality into it.&nbsp;I am convinced that you can attract B2B customers if you share content on&nbsp;TikTok&nbsp;and feel connected to it. That is how you will succeed. If I were to use&nbsp;TikTok, for example, it would have little result because I don't like the platform. Your audience will notice that&nbsp;straight away.”&nbsp;</p>
<h3>As with social media, you need to stay on top of trends. Which upcoming marketing trends will play an important role for B2B professionals?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>
<p>"I am not really a fan of predictions. But the long-term trend is that the customer expects more transparency about the impact of products. Although I don't see it happening any time soon that someone pays more at the end of the supply chain so that there is no more exploitation in production or logistics.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In addition, the big online parties (Google &amp; Facebook) are attracting more. Facebook even has options for your customer service or internal communication for some time now. Marketing is going to have to focus more on its content, message and service in the future."&nbsp;</p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n5b0f0f55_f111_0160_26a9_ed1b9fc14c5c" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>To conclude,&nbsp;let's&nbsp;recap!&nbsp;If you want to work in a customer-oriented way, try to think about the&nbsp;end&nbsp;user. Use every small success to grow further with your marketing. The tone of voice of B2B marketing communication&nbsp;could&nbsp;loosen up a little&nbsp;in order to attract the right people.</p></blockquote></p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="fc36bb67_4bf4_01db_1fb5_05ee7760fd76" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>And finally, help potential customers as early as possible in the customer journey and be active on the platform where they are most present.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<p><em>A big thank you goes out to Frederik&nbsp;Defyn&nbsp;for sharing his insights and valuable tips &amp; tricks.&nbsp;</em>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Follow&nbsp;<a href="https://be.linkedin.com/in/frederikdefyn">Frederik</a>&nbsp;on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch!&nbsp;</p>

How do you create a successful B2B marketing strategy?  – an interview with marketeer Frederik Defyn - B2B Commerce Academy

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How do you create a successful B2B marketing strategy? – an interview with marketer Frederik Defyn

<p><strong>The COVID-19 pandemic has given B2B businesses an additional push to&nbsp;accelerate&nbsp;a digital transformation. According to research by McKinsey &amp; Company, a global management consulting firm, more than 75% of B2B buyers and sellers prefer to buy online.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong>But where should you position your B2B e-commerce to remain competitive in 2021? In this article, we discuss the most important trends to keep an eye on. They&nbsp;surely are nice to implement, but they’ll bring some serious challenges with them.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<h2>Trend 1: Headless e-commerce via APIs&nbsp;</h2>
<p>In these unpredictable times, there is a growing demand for responsive businesses that&nbsp;can&nbsp;adapt their revenue models with remarkable speed.&nbsp;Online, headless e-commerce and API-driven e-commerce offer businesses opportunities to respond to new challenges in a flexible way. Think for example of developments around Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>An example of an AI implementation in B2B e-commerce is the automatic addition and ordering of images in&nbsp;a&nbsp;web shop. This AI-based software recognizes, for example, which product is on display, what colors it&nbsp;has,&nbsp;so it can&nbsp;automatically adds&nbsp;the right tags. As a result, your web shop is always&nbsp;up to date.</p>
<h2>Trend 2:&nbsp;Focus on the environmental impact&nbsp;</h2>
<p>We are seeing B2C e-commerce businesses taking a step towards reducing their environmental impact. This includes highlighting the impact of certain actions towards their customers. More and more people around the world are becoming aware of environmental issues at home and at work. Showing and offering sustainable options in the web shop of your B2B company,&nbsp;can give you a competitive advantage.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Besides that, companies often must report about their emissions and other environmental impacts. The&nbsp;optimization&nbsp;of your supply chain and other e-commerce processes can be the key to achieving these goals.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Trend 3: Niche B2B online marketplaces&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Online marketplaces are also extremely popular in B2B. You can choose from a huge range of different niche marketplaces that are&nbsp;specialized&nbsp;in certain products, services or markets. Niche platforms offer a more personal experience and an easier step-by-step plan for the consumer.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>It is an interesting channel to take advantage of in order to quickly get in touch with a larger group of customers. The use of this type of sales channel can provide a nice balance in your omnichannel strategy.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Trend 4: Omnichannel experience&nbsp;</h2>
<p>In the world of B2B marketing, consumers have high expectations of customer engagement. It is therefore important to create room for experiments in order to improve the omnichannel experience and the entire customer journey.&nbsp;Personalization&nbsp;is going progressively further and is certainly a very relevant trend for B2B. And with the rise of headless e-commerce and API-driven e-commerce, these kinds of applications are also becoming accessible to smaller businesses.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Also from a branding perspective, an omnichannel experience with integration for content marketing is an absolute must. In B2B, strong relationships and loyalty are extremely important.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Trend 5: Augmented- and Virtual Reality&nbsp;</h2>
<p>In B2C e-commerce, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are a growing trend, aimed at delivering an inspiring and immersive customer experience. Nowadays, there are great opportunities to use AR and VR in B2B e-commerce. It can be used to offer the right components or custom designs.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>The use of AR and VR can bring many benefits to customers and make the B2B purchase experience easier. Many steps can be&nbsp;eliminated,&nbsp;and time can be saved.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Do you want to prepare yourself for the e-commerce challenges ahead? Get a full picture of the B2B e-commerce trends and what you can do with them by&nbsp;<a href="https://b2bcommerce.academy/en/products">downloading our e-book for free</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n2cb3c422_75e0_01b7_4588_08bb8e0f1be9" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>Do you have any questions about the above&nbsp;trends,&nbsp;or can you use some help? Do not hesitate&nbsp;<a href="https://b2bcommerce.academy/en/contact">to contact us</a>. We will be more than happy to help!&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>

B2B e-commerce trends that you should look out for - B2B Commerce Academy

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B2B e-commerce trends that you should look out for 

<p><strong>Every B2B professional wants a web shop that keeps expanding.&nbsp;Have you ever thought about blogging to boost your web shop? According to&nbsp;Oberlo, a software company specialized in&nbsp;B2B&nbsp;e-commerce,&nbsp;86% of content&nbsp;marketers&nbsp;use blog posts as part of their marketing&nbsp;strategy. 70%&nbsp;of them&nbsp;even created a blog to increase traffic to their website or e-commerce site.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><strong>A blog is not only&nbsp;&nbsp;useful to explain&nbsp;your business and products,&nbsp;it&nbsp;can also bring you many new visitors. In this article, we discuss&nbsp;several&nbsp;good reasons to start today and&nbsp;reveal&nbsp;the power of blogging.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<h2>Become an expert&nbsp;</h2>
<p>You know everything&nbsp;about the products and services you sell. Show it to your audience!&nbsp;By sharing helpful blog posts on your website, you can keep readers up to date with the latest trends, your expertise and the developments in your industry.&nbsp;This way, you develop an expert status and generate more traffic to your website.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Sharing blogs builds trust because readers see that you are an expert, and valuable content is also more likely to be shared with others.&nbsp;Within each business, there are plenty of informative&nbsp;blog&nbsp;topics&nbsp;you can write&nbsp;about.&nbsp;Do you have an idea?&nbsp;Get&nbsp;to know the subject and find a valuable approach.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Increase your visibility&nbsp;</h2>
<p>By writing and publishing blog posts, you are constantly creating new content. When you add an article to your e-commerce website,&nbsp;this has not only advantages for your visitors but also for&nbsp;SEO.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Qualitative, original&nbsp;content improves your findability for search engines like Google. The fact that the posts are on your web shop means that they contribute to the findability of your entire website.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Personal interaction&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Compared to other content on your website, a blog post is often written in a&nbsp;more&nbsp;informal tone. This allows you to build a personal relationship with your visitors more quickly,&nbsp;without losing any professionalism.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Share new blogs on your business’&nbsp;social media channels&nbsp;and start a conversation by asking a question.&nbsp;This allows you to engage with your community and find out what's on their minds.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Extra marketing tool&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>
<p>A blog can be perfectly combined with social media. Each time&nbsp;you post an article, you can&nbsp;share it on&nbsp;different platforms with an adapted caption.&nbsp;You can also add a direct link to your website or&nbsp;web shop.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>It can be quite a challenge to keep up with all the social media evolutions, but with a blog you already have a solid basis for your online marketing strategy.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Highlight products&nbsp;</h2>
<p>You can only add a limited amount of text on a product page. Sometimes this isn’t enough to describe products in detail.&nbsp;If more information is necessary, you can highlight it in a blog post, which also offers more opportunities.&nbsp;For example, you can add videos and images of the product, a manual or instructions can also be very useful. And don’t forget to link back to the page where the item can be ordered.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Some web shops even choose to let customers respond to their blog. This gives you the opportunity to directly receive feedback on certain products.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Nowadays, there are many advantages for companies who decide to start a blog.&nbsp;The power of blogging is still very underrated. Your published articles can inform people for years&nbsp;and&nbsp;push them towards a conversion. It’s a valuable marketing tool&nbsp;with great&nbsp;accessibility.</p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n5d09a8c3_ffd7_0120_e5c2_56dcc7cc45ec" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>Your competitors are doing it, so why aren’t you?&nbsp;Have a brainstorm with your colleagues and get the most out of your blog posts. Do you still have questions about&nbsp;blogging&nbsp;or can you use some help? Do not hesitate to<a href="https://b2bcommerce.academy/en/contact" title="Contact us"> contact us</a>.&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>

Why your e-commerce site should have a blog  - B2B Commerce Academy

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Why your e-commerce site should have a blog 

<p><strong>The amount of&nbsp;web shops&nbsp;keeps increasing. That’s why it&nbsp;is more important than ever for B2B&nbsp;professionals&nbsp;to&nbsp;have a well-functioning webstore.&nbsp;Many businesses see this as a challenge.&nbsp;Most of them anticipate short term changes or haven’t done enough research in advance when launching their web shop.&nbsp;Read more about the most common mistakes in B2B e-commerce in this blog post and get started.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>No integration of all channels&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Contrary to what some people think, e-commerce is more than just having a&nbsp;web shop. By e-commerce we mean the web shop and all the resources that contribute to making it successful. If we use this as a starting point, it immediately brings us to the first&nbsp;mistake.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>In fact, it is very important to integrate all (online and offline) channels and to combine their strengths.&nbsp;Determine how you want to spread a message&nbsp;– via&nbsp;the website, Facebook, a flyer... - and use different channels. In doing so, try to look for optimizations that can be made for each channel, so that your campaign achieves the maximum result.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Negative user experience&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>
<p>We have all experienced it. You want to buy a product online, but the web&nbsp;shop is not cooperating.&nbsp;You get annoyed and you experience the process as less pleasant.&nbsp;In this example, the web shop does not provide a good user experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>For business orders, the same user experience is often expected as for consumer web shops.&nbsp;Unfortunately, many businesses think that it is less important for B2B e-commerce... A negative user experience is going to keep your customers from making purchases and it will also decrease your searchability on Google.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Impersonal approach&nbsp;</h2>
<p>B2B customers have a completely different customer journey than B2C customers.&nbsp;For B2B e-commerce, real-time personalization for all visitors is key to provide flexibility, customized content, offers and promotions. It makes no sense to solely&nbsp;focus&nbsp;on conversion for the website.&nbsp;Think about providing relevant content, such as filters in the search tool, recommendations and adjustments in the content based on the browsing habits.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>The right implementation of segmentation and&nbsp;personalization&nbsp;leads to a higher Click-Through Rate and conversion. And it doesn’t need to be complicated.&nbsp;For example, based on Google Analytics you can already determine whether someone is visiting your website for the first time,&nbsp;at what time, the kind of landing page and so on.&nbsp;If you apply&nbsp;this data to the customer journey of frequent buyer persona’s, you’ve&nbsp;already come a long way.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>No follow-up with customers&nbsp;</h2>
<p>To get the most out of your customers,&nbsp;you should really get to know them, Unfortunately, it’s not common&nbsp;practice&nbsp;yet.&nbsp;B2B&nbsp;professionals usually&nbsp;have a much&nbsp;longer&nbsp;relationship with their customers than B2C&nbsp;professionals. Usually, the customer orders more frequently, and stays loyal due to personalized terms and conditions.&nbsp;So why not ask them about their wishes and needs?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>And if you really don't have the time, you could partially automatize the process. Leave a short questionnaire on your website or let customers write reviews after their purchase. This way, you can always talk to them&nbsp;later. To help your customers more effectively and maintain their trust, a good follow-up is necessary.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Conclusion&nbsp;</h2>
<p>With more&nbsp;and more B2B web shops on the rise, B2B professionals&nbsp;have to&nbsp;deal with more competition. This also increases&nbsp;customer&nbsp;expectations. Therefore,&nbsp;you should&nbsp;ensure the best possible customer experience. Put your customer first and you will be rewarded with&nbsp;more revenue.&nbsp;</p>
<p>There are many things to consider and options to choose from.&nbsp;Why Wait? Start today! Take these common mistakes into account, and&nbsp;your web shop will become a success.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="f40d5f12_b5ac_0104_790a_3ecf7db5425b" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>Do you have any&nbsp;questions,&nbsp;or can you use some help?&nbsp;<a href="https://b2bcommerce.academy/en/contact">Do not hesitate to contact us</a>!&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>

B2B web shops: mistakes to avoid B2B Commerce Academy

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B2B web shops: mistakes to avoid

Maaike

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<p>Your&nbsp;web shop&nbsp;is&nbsp;online.&nbsp;The product descriptions are written, the design is good, the photos are&nbsp;bang on target.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>You wait&nbsp;...&nbsp;</p>
<p>...&nbsp;and nothing happens.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>No website visitors. No contact requests. No sales.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>How is this possible? <strong>Simple:&nbsp;no one knows your&nbsp;web shop&nbsp;exists</strong>. Except maybe your colleagues, family and friends.&nbsp;If no one knows about it,&nbsp;how are they going to&nbsp;make&nbsp;their way there?&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>What your&nbsp;web shop&nbsp;needs is publicity. <strong>Here are&nbsp;four exceptional ways&nbsp;of generating it.&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></p>
<h2>SEO:&nbsp;be found on Google more quickly</h2>
<p>Anyone looking for a product is likely to start the search with<strong>&nbsp;Google</strong>. Type in a search term, hit the Enter key and just like&nbsp;that, Google&nbsp;whips up&nbsp;search results.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>The websites that appear at the&nbsp;<strong>top</strong>&nbsp;of these&nbsp;search results are the ones found most quickly. But how do you become one of them? The answer is SEO: Search Engine Optimisation.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>With&nbsp;SEO,&nbsp;you optimise a webpage for a search term</strong>. You do this—among other ways—by using the search term in the right places in your text. If you do it well, there’s a greater chance your webpage will appear at the top of the Google search results.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Exactly how you tackle SEO falls outside the limits of this blog. But don’t worry,&nbsp;the internet is full of articles on the subject.&nbsp;Articles&nbsp;you’ll probably find<em>&nbsp;because&nbsp;</em>they’re SEO optimised.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>SEA:&nbsp;be found more quickly on Google</h2>
<p>If you search for something on Google, a part of your search results come from websites that are SEO optimised. Another part —often the top three search results—are there because the related companies have paid&nbsp;for the privilege.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>This is called&nbsp;SEA: Search Engine Advertising. The benefit of these Google ads?&nbsp;In a snap of your fingers, you catapult your&nbsp;<strong>web shop&nbsp;to the&nbsp;top of the&nbsp;Google search results</strong>. Without needing to do any ‘SEO optimising’.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>But watch out:&nbsp;<strong>just because someone clicks on your website, it&nbsp;doesn’t mean they’ll stay there</strong>. Does your&nbsp;web shop&nbsp;look shabby and&nbsp;out-dated? Does it load slowly? Are your texts illogical?&nbsp;Because&nbsp;your visitors will immediately click away&nbsp;to&nbsp;go somewhere better. Keep investing in your website.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Blogging:&nbsp;set yourself up as an expert</h2>
<p>By ‘blogging’, we mean writing blog posts that you publish on your website. Preferably with some regularity.&nbsp;Fill&nbsp;them&nbsp;with useful information.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Suppose,&nbsp;<strong>for example</strong>, that you have a&nbsp;web shop&nbsp;selling fresh fruit. You could write blogs&nbsp;that explore:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
  <li>why fruit makes staff members more productive;&nbsp;</li>
  <li>five&nbsp;exotic&nbsp;fruits&nbsp;you’ve never heard of;&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
  <li>which&nbsp;superfruits for the office contain all the vitamins you need.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>The benefit of all that blogging is that you&nbsp;<strong>come across as an expert</strong>. As a thought leader. And if someone thinks that you’re the specialist in a specific product group, they’ll come to you&nbsp;when they&nbsp;buy products&nbsp;from that product group.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Social media:&nbsp;from&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;and&nbsp;Instagram to LinkedIn&nbsp;and&nbsp;Twitter&nbsp;</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Step 1:&nbsp;Choose a channel (or multiple channels).&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Step 2:&nbsp;Make a&nbsp;profile&nbsp;for your&nbsp;web shop.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Step 3:&nbsp;Publish regular posts.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>You don’t need to do anything more than that.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Which channels</strong>?&nbsp;This depends on your target group. Where&nbsp;is it&nbsp;most likely to be found?&nbsp;Because that’s the place where you need to&nbsp;present&nbsp;your ads. And if we say ‘present your&nbsp;ads’, we really mean&nbsp;‘share useful information’. Just like&nbsp;you’ve shared in&nbsp;the blogs.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p><em><strong>What</strong></em><strong>&nbsp;should you talk about</strong>?&nbsp;The problems and questions your target group face.&nbsp;Immediately show the added value of your products. What you’re best&nbsp;<em>not</em>&nbsp;doing: trying to fill every post with slimy commercial talk.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Also an option:<strong>&nbsp;advertising on&nbsp;social media</strong>.&nbsp;The additional benefit here is that you can&nbsp;use your&nbsp;advertisements&nbsp;to target people who are most likely to be interested in your products.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Would you like to sell more from your&nbsp;web shop? Make sure that it does more than just exist. Generate attention via&nbsp;SEO, SEA, blogs&nbsp;and social media posts.&nbsp;And make your&nbsp;web shop&nbsp;top of mind.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

How to make your company web shop stand out better B2B Commerce Academy

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How to make your company web shop stand out better? Go for gold with our four top tips. 

How to make your company web shop stand out better

<p>Pieter Moons is global e-commerce manager at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.puratos.be/nl?utm_source=Blog&amp;utm_medium=B2B%20Commerce%20Academy&amp;utm_campaign=Blastic" data-new-window="true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Puratos, a B2B company in the food industry with subsidiaries in more than 80 countries.</a> We go into conversation about trends and customer centricity, and Pieter gives us tips &amp; tricks on how to succeed in B2B e-commerce.&nbsp;</p>
<figure data-asset-id="2a52269e-7b0f-4f21-a019-8ada86aaadf0" data-image-id="2a52269e-7b0f-4f21-a019-8ada86aaadf0"><img src="https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com:443/aa1e286e-6912-0166-621b-5d2a3f9a1a88/72e5bf88-7788-41bb-bbd1-412c06e63817/B2B%20interview.png" data-asset-id="2a52269e-7b0f-4f21-a019-8ada86aaadf0" data-image-id="2a52269e-7b0f-4f21-a019-8ada86aaadf0" alt="Pieter Moons Puratos B2B Commerce Academy "></figure>
<h4>Hi Pieter, thank you for taking the time for this interview. Let’s get straight to it: please introduce Puratos and yourself to our readers.&nbsp;</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.puratos.com/?utm_source=Blog&amp;utm_medium=B2B%20Commerce%20Academy&amp;utm_campaign=Blastic" data-new-window="true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Puratos is an international group</a>, which offers a full range of innovative products and application expertise for artisans, industry, retailers and food service customers in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors. Its headquarters are located on the outskirts of Brussels (Belgium), where the company was founded in 1919. We currently employ over 9400 employees across 80 countries – you could say that we are a huge family! <em>(laughs)</em>.&nbsp;</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>A little bit about myself – I was born and raised in Limburg, Belgium – but I identify as a citizen of the world. I’m 100% millennial and triathlete in my free time. I’ve been working in the digital world for the last 10 years. I started off in digital marketing, but I’ve been focusing more on digitalizing the full customer journey in the last 5 years. My first experience in B2B e-commerce was about 10 years ago, when I worked for Rajapack Benelux. For the past years I’ve been working for Puratos, which has been great, considering the high interest I have for multicultural and international environments.</p>
<h4>Did the pandemic change B2B e-commerce practice?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>It definitely had a big impact on B2B companies. Trade shows were cancelled, key account managers couldn’t visit the clients anymore that were still open, many customers had to reinvent their business and some, unfortunately, had to close. Many companies pivoted in 2020, and fast. At Puratos, we now have thousands of customers that order online in the 30 countries that have an e-commerce solution. This number has quintupled in 2020.</p>
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<h4>Many companies still have to pivot. Which trends and innovations will be put on the agenda for B2B e-commerce?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>The great thing about working with an international team, is that you can see what’s happening in all corners of the world. It’s nothing new that, also at Puratos, Asian countries are leading when it comes to digital innovation and adaptability.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Our colleagues in China organized a first successful e-commerce live show via WeChat. They presented a new ingredient by creating the recipe and organizing a taste test afterwards. The entire patisserie community throughout China was buying this product during the live! Amazon recently started doing this (for B2C) as well – I believe this trend will become huge. It will probably take mid to long term before it reaches the West.</p>
<p>Another innovative project that caught my attention was the marketplace created by our team in the US: they tried to create an industry-wide marketplace, that focusses on healthier baking ingredients. Ab Inbev rolled out something similar in Mexico and South America. Creating your own marketplace, joining one or co-creating one with a distributor: this trend will grow and evolve.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="cb31856d_8e46_0145_f51f_4c8c588b00b8" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>AI will take a prominent place in the future of B2B e-commerce&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<p>We are successfully experimenting with an AI engine that calculates real-time which products a customer will be most likely to add to his cart , based on historic data and (regional) consumer insights.&nbsp;</p>
<p>To talk about something else – I think that short term, B2B e-commerce really has to focus on implementing real time inventory and transparent fulfillment and delivery processes. Companies often choose not to do this because of complex company or production processes, but this became a basic expectation of the client/prospect. And of course, you should always operate in a way that puts your customer central.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Speaking about customer centrality… how important is a good customer journey in a B2B e-commerce process?&nbsp;Very important.&nbsp;</h4>
<p>The customer journey life cycle for a B2B customer is, generally speaking, much longer than in B2C, B2B customers are often more loyal and order more often with the same supplier.&nbsp;</p>
<p>To start,&nbsp;&nbsp;pre-buy journey has to be smooth: new clients often start out as leads before they buy. This part of the customer journey has to be frictionless and hassle-free. Sales cannot be too pushy.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Customers also expect the same personalized service that they get from their key account manager. The customer knows that you know them well – he feels important, and rightly so, because he often buys on a regular basis. Your B2B e-commerce journey has to be omnichannel and personalized so it equals the customer’s offline experience. It’s a win-win, because key account managerscan put more time into the relationship and into prospecting.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>How can you create a B2B journey that is positive from start to finish?&nbsp;</h4>
<p><strong>Teamwork</strong>. There is no place for silos within marketing or IT when it comes to B2B e-commerce. To create a positive journey, you need the reoccurring expertise from logistics, finance, IT, marketing, product managers, legal, tax and so on.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The current process is often complex, especially when talking about new clients: you don’t know their delivery address yet, they don’t have a (personalized) pricelist yet. To turn a B2B e-commerce story into a successful one, you have to make sure it’s high on your organization’s agenda. Revisit and reevaluate current company processes based on what your clients expect, today and tomorrow.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Even if you haven’t seen the customer before, the most important part of the customer journey is a personal and fast post buy service journey. If you excel on this part, you’re already well on the way to create a positive experience for your customers and prospects.&nbsp;</p>
<figure data-asset-id="104deb63-8ab2-4610-a9f4-db680bea2f31" data-image-id="104deb63-8ab2-4610-a9f4-db680bea2f31"><img src="https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com:443/aa1e286e-6912-0166-621b-5d2a3f9a1a88/50486566-19dc-4eda-a40a-3f2bd65de556/Customer%20journey.png" data-asset-id="104deb63-8ab2-4610-a9f4-db680bea2f31" data-image-id="104deb63-8ab2-4610-a9f4-db680bea2f31" alt="customer journey B2B e-commerce academy "></figure>
<h4>If you’re able to create a positive journey, will you be able to retain clients more easily?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>If every B2B e-commerce responsible was forced to have a one-to-one chat with 3 customers every week and determine their development/communication roadmap based on these conversations, it would impact the customer retention enormously. Simple as that. Of course, you need all departments to succeed, but if you can delight your customer or prospect on your e-commerce platform, you’ll excel in keeping your customers loyal.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Delighting online goes hand in hand with UX/UI design. How important is this for a B2B e-commerce platform?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>Equally as important! Business owners or procurement officers don’t just work with RFP’s anymore.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I see this shift happening in our sector today. A traditional Flemish bakery has completely different expectations than a donut shop in New York city. Procurement officers or decision makers are used to buy on Amazon, Booking.com etcetera in their private life. You don’t compete with your regular competitors when it comes to UX/UI, but with these e-commerce platforms that your customers use day to day.&nbsp;</p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="c7756b7f_1126_0116_4858_0c34df870295" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p><strong>My top tip</strong>: have a smartphone day with your entire team. During this day, you can’t use your laptop. You can only use your smartphone to work and research (your own) e-commerce platforms. Professionally, we spend 99% of our time on our laptop, but please don’t forget that even B2B customers have moved to mobile for +50% of their time. This forces you to deliver an excellent mobile experience to your customer. I know we have been saying this for +10 years in the industry but mobile UX is often still not in the core when making decisions.&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<h4>When looking at the global economy, we see that B2B e-commerce is good for about 6X the turnover of B2C, and yet B2B lags behind when it comes to digital marketing, customer experience, UX / UI ... etc. How would you explain that?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>I think that the B2B customer is more loyal than B2C customers. Changing supplier is often costly, and this is why B2B players spend less time and money (unfairly so!) on their platforms and customer journey. We should also take the average order values for B2B in mind. Some B2B e-commerce players can generate millions a year with only a few clients aboard. B2C businesses generally have more clients that equal more transactions, which is why they generate bigger margins, and are able to invest more into customer experience.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>How can a B2B player start a winning e-commerce story? What are the traps?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>I believe it’s a trap to not start off with e-commerce as a company! Start with the basics. Do you want to migrate existing customers to an e-commerce order pattern? Do you want to generate new customers? Do you want to build your own web shop? Do you want to sell via a marketplace? Do your research: talk to customers and prospects, do market research (locally and internationally), ask for advice and help from e-commerce experts. They can add real value to your story.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It’s not because you start with the basics, that you shouldn’t nail those down. You need to be ready to review your entire sales and logistics process and adapt your strategy to the outcomes of your research.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n07cd389a_16c3_01df_da02_d12cabed5aff" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>Make it as easy as possible for your customers or prospects to do business with you</p></blockquote></p>
<h4>To recap, we have one final question for you: can B2B learn anything from B2C, or should B2B create their own rules?&nbsp;</h4>
<p>There are many similarities between both, like UX/UI and 121 communication. I think both should try to learn from each other. In my opinion, B2B e-commerce is a whole different ballgame: individual price setting on thousands of SKU’s, individual volume discounts, individual production or delivery deals, leads that turn into orders… it’s just not the same.&nbsp;</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><em>A big thank you goes out to Pieter Moons for sharing his insights and valuable tips &amp; tricks.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiP5aOG1LnuAhWrwAIHHS0SBwAQFjACegQIAhAC&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fbe.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fpietermoons&amp;usg=AOvVaw1NOEOgqozkajV0EJGfpo4G">Follow Pieter on LinkedIn</a>&nbsp;and subscribe to our newsletter to stay in touch!&nbsp;</p>

Pieter Moons Puratos B2B Commerce Academy 

B2B interview.png

Pieter Moons is global e-commerce manager at Puratos, a B2B company in the food industry with subsidiaries in more than 80 countries. We go into conversation about trends and customer centricity, and Pieter gives us tips & tricks on how to succeed in B2B e-commerce.

Make it easy for your customers to do business with you – an interview with Pieter Moons, Global E-commerce Manager at Puratos

<h2>3 essential lessons</h2>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n42ba7ab6_152f_01af_3741_9c8d53680e2b" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p><em>Were your customers still eager for a&nbsp;live&nbsp;appointment with your sales reps in 2020? Probably not. COVID-19 accelerated&nbsp;the digital transformation.&nbsp;E-commerce was already beckoning your B2B business&nbsp;and&nbsp;is now&nbsp;inevitably&nbsp;invading your day-to-day operations. Some studies expect that&nbsp;by 2022&nbsp;half of all B2B purchases will be&nbsp;made&nbsp;online. But how do you make your B2B&nbsp;webshop&nbsp;successful? Spoiler:&nbsp;pamper&nbsp;your customer like bol.com and Amazon do.</em>&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<h3>Online&nbsp;purchasing?&nbsp;Why not.</h3>
<p>Your B2B customer, in many cases a buyer, is not only a professional but also a human being. In the evening or at the weekend,&nbsp;with a few clicks&nbsp;he or she orders a new pair of shoes on Zalando, a&nbsp;birthday&nbsp;gift on bol.com or a coffee machine via&nbsp;Coolblue. Fast, easy and efficient.&nbsp;<strong>70% of buyers&nbsp;is also willing&nbsp;to order&nbsp;from&nbsp;webshops&nbsp;in a professional context</strong>.&nbsp;Provided that it goes as smoothly as buying a&nbsp;doll for your toddler. That is why&nbsp;your company&nbsp;must focus on&nbsp;experience: a clever design, intuitive navigation and a super-fast ordering process.&nbsp;3 lessons you can learn from the giants:&nbsp;</p>
<h4>1. Don't waste your customer's time&nbsp;</h4>
<p>A B2B buyer is only one link in the entire supply chain. He or she is bound by rules, budgets and procedures. And the&nbsp;high&nbsp;demands of his (internal) customer.&nbsp;In other words, a&nbsp;B2B buyer is not in the mood for a complex online purchasing process.&nbsp;Are you wasting his time?&nbsp;Then he walks&nbsp;straight&nbsp;to your competitor.&nbsp;</p>
<p>What&nbsp;makes a great&nbsp;webshop?&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
  <li>Your&nbsp;webshop&nbsp;is built intuitively. Your customer&nbsp;immediately finds what he’s looking for.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Your product description is complete&nbsp;and not&nbsp;too technical. You&nbsp;explain&nbsp;for which applications the product is suitable. There is (quality) visual material. The purchaser&nbsp;doesn’t&nbsp;have&nbsp;to&nbsp;contact&nbsp;you&nbsp;for more information.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Your product is&nbsp;filed&nbsp;under the&nbsp;right&nbsp;category. The purchaser&nbsp;can&nbsp;easily&nbsp;find&nbsp;every single&nbsp;product.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>The&nbsp;webshop&nbsp;is (correctly) linked to your ERP. Sold out products are marked "not&nbsp;available" in your&nbsp;webshop.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Fast page load time. Every time your customer adds a product to&nbsp;the&nbsp;shopping cart, the website&nbsp;reloads fast.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
  <li>The payment process is&nbsp;short&nbsp;and&nbsp;simple. Ensure a smooth, fast check-out with&nbsp;several&nbsp;payment options.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Re-orders are&nbsp;easy. The purchaser&nbsp;can&nbsp;simply&nbsp;repeat previous orders.&nbsp;No&nbsp;waste of time.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h4>2. Be transparent about the delivery&nbsp;terms&nbsp;</h4>
<p>Unlike a private purchase, a B2B purchase is usually not intended for the purchaser himself. Buyers are an intermediary between the supplier and the (internal) end customer. Was the product not delivered on time? Then the purchaser&nbsp;gets the blame. So be honest about delivery times. And make clear agreements about the place of delivery.&nbsp;Zalando gives you the choice between&nbsp;delivery to the billing address, another address or a delivery point. Your B2B customer&nbsp;also&nbsp;wants to indicate his preference:&nbsp;e.g.&nbsp;delivery&nbsp;at&nbsp;port 6, between 12:00 and 18:00,&nbsp;to&nbsp;warehouse&nbsp;manager&nbsp;Jones.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>3. Provide excellent support&nbsp;</h4>
<p>More than 75% of B2B buyers still want to speak to a representative (in person or by phone) before purchasing an entirely new product.<sup>1</sup>&nbsp;In that case, ensure that your customer immediately gets to the right person. Give your customer other options too. At bol.com they make it easy for the shopper: you can read FAQs per subject, call, chat or email&nbsp;someone. You don't have to put in a lot of effort to get in touch with their customer service. You also see an overview of all previous orders and (outstanding) invoices in the customer portal. Make sure that your&nbsp;webshop&nbsp;also offers exceptional customer service.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Key take-aways&nbsp;</h3>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n30e4131b_b2ff_0151_281e_a382a8a6c722" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>1. Build a cleverly designed, intuitive, fast&nbsp;webshop.&nbsp;</p>
<p>2. Provide complete product descriptions with high-quality&nbsp;images.&nbsp;</p>
<p>3. Indicate that a product is not in stock and indicate when it will be available&nbsp;again.&nbsp;</p>
<p>4. Provide a fast, hassle-free&nbsp;payment process.&nbsp;</p>
<p>5. Enable efficient re-orders.&nbsp;</p>
<p>6. Be transparent about the&nbsp;time and place of&nbsp;delivery.&nbsp;</p>
<p>7. Establish a competent, tech-savvy customer service team.&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>

Shopping cart with MacBook; e-commerce image from B2B Commerce Academy 

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What can your B2B webshop learn
from the e-commerce giants? 

<p><em>Your entire business is impacted when you dive into the e-commerce pool.&nbsp;Everyone, from&nbsp;Sales&nbsp;to&nbsp;Accounting, has to work differently, and that can cause agitation. How do you get your employees&nbsp;excited about a new, digital story? Success starts with respectful change management.</em>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Bring your team along&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Change is inevitable. Even if you choose not to change, the world around you will, and that will have negative consequences for your business.&nbsp;You’ll only successfully change if you have your team on board.&nbsp;But internal resistance is the most common&nbsp;obstacle&nbsp;for change.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It&nbsp;definitely pays to make your employees enthusiastic about your change plans. Committed employees enjoy their work more and that has a positive effect on customer service. In addition, engaged employees make fewer mistakes,&nbsp;present&nbsp;more ideas and suggestions, are ill&nbsp;less frequently&nbsp;and&nbsp;they’re&nbsp;less likely to change jobs.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>What should you look out for?&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>When employees are&nbsp;presented&nbsp;with&nbsp;a&nbsp;change process that leads nowhere, you pave the way for frustration and change fatigue.&nbsp;Which things&nbsp;most frequently&nbsp;sabotage their involvement?&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
  <li>Bad&nbsp;communication.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>The "why" is not clear.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>No input is&nbsp;asked&nbsp;from the workforce.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p><br></p>
<p><strong>ADKAR model&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>A useful model to shape your change process is the ADKAR model:&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
  <li><em>Awareness</em>: explain to everyone why change is necessary.&nbsp;</li>
  <li><em>Desire</em>:&nbsp;awaken desire to participate in&nbsp;the&nbsp;change.&nbsp;</li>
  <li><em>Knowledge</em>: make sure everyone has the knowledge&nbsp;needed&nbsp;to change.&nbsp;</li>
  <li><em>Ability</em>:&nbsp;make sure everyone has the skills&nbsp;needed&nbsp;to change.&nbsp;</li>
  <li><em>Reinforcement</em>: ensure that the change becomes permanently embedded in the organization.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p><br></p>
<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="n87d922f3_5f49_01af_170c_866eed34f621" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><h3>How do&nbsp;you get everyone on board?&nbsp;</h3></blockquote></p>
<h4>Communicate&nbsp;</h4>
<p>Every tip&nbsp;for&nbsp;a&nbsp;successful&nbsp;change process comes down to the same thing: communication.&nbsp;You&nbsp;might not even be sure of all the facts, but this shouldn’t stop you from communicating.&nbsp;Explain&nbsp;the goals of the project and&nbsp;what is already clear. Explain that you still need to clarify&nbsp;some&nbsp;other&nbsp;things. Do not do this&nbsp;just&nbsp;once, but provide regular updates on the e-commerce project. Share what you have already achieved,&nbsp;to help give a sense of progress, and ensure the image&nbsp;remains vivid and appealing to everyone.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Explain the benefits&nbsp;</h4>
<p>Awareness and Desire&nbsp;in the ADKAR model&nbsp;are related. Employees want to be inspired. That is why it’s&nbsp;important that you do not just say what you are going to do, but&nbsp;<em>why</em>&nbsp;you are going to do it. Explain the benefits of digitization. Tell them that a&nbsp;webshop&nbsp;is open 24/7&nbsp;and not tied to time zones. That&nbsp;ensures that customers receive better service and that you can tap&nbsp;into new markets, no matter how far away they might be.&nbsp;Moreover, a digital presence helps you collect data that you can use to refine your message and increase your sales.&nbsp;The&nbsp;higher your&nbsp;turnover, the more certain the&nbsp;future&nbsp;of&nbsp;your&nbsp;company and the more job security for your employees.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Involve everyone&nbsp;</h4>
<p>A successful change process is based on co-creation.&nbsp;From the outset, involve everyone who will be affected by the changes. In e-commerce, that means a lot of people:&nbsp;your&nbsp;IT&nbsp;experts, accountants, the warehouse&nbsp;staff,&nbsp;Sales&nbsp;staff&nbsp;and so on.&nbsp;Each of them will be able to share useful insights&nbsp;from their specific expertise&nbsp;and make suggestions on how to launch the&nbsp;webshop&nbsp;successfully.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<figure data-asset-id="012917ad-624e-44dd-8f5e-98f819438f06" data-image-id="012917ad-624e-44dd-8f5e-98f819438f06"><img src="https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com:443/aa1e286e-6912-0166-621b-5d2a3f9a1a88/0af1cd80-fb90-415f-aff1-b0b4153d9b39/tim-van-der-kuip-CPs2X8JYmS8-unsplash.jpg" data-asset-id="012917ad-624e-44dd-8f5e-98f819438f06" data-image-id="012917ad-624e-44dd-8f5e-98f819438f06" alt="involving your team in e-commerce B2B commerce academy "></figure>
<h3>New role for&nbsp;Sales&nbsp;</h3>
<h4>Integrate&nbsp;your&nbsp;webshop&nbsp;into&nbsp;your&nbsp;existing&nbsp;Sales&nbsp;processes&nbsp;</h4>
<p>When you open a B2B&nbsp;webshop, it mainly has an impact on your&nbsp;Sales&nbsp;team. They are probably afraid of a merciless round of lay-offs, but the reality&nbsp;is that&nbsp;you can perfectly integrate&nbsp;e-commerce into&nbsp;an&nbsp;existing&nbsp;Sales&nbsp;process. For example, you can reward your&nbsp;Sales&nbsp;people if they convince an existing customer to order from the&nbsp;webshop.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>An&nbsp;advisory role&nbsp;</h4>
<p>Another advantage of&nbsp;the automation that comes with&nbsp;e-commerce is that&nbsp;the Sales&nbsp;department&nbsp;no longer has&nbsp;to&nbsp;spend&nbsp;time on time-consuming&nbsp;tasks such as taking orders or answering questions about order status. This frees up&nbsp;countless hours&nbsp;for valuable tasks such as advising, attending training courses to keep up to date with the latest products,&nbsp;or&nbsp;following&nbsp;advanced&nbsp;sales&nbsp;and negotiation&nbsp;courses.&nbsp;Moreover,&nbsp;your Sales staff&nbsp;can gain valuable insights from the e-commerce data, enabling them to advise management on possible new markets or target groups.&nbsp;</p>
<h4>5&nbsp;key&nbsp;takeaways&nbsp;</h4>
<ol>
  <li>Change is inevitable, committed staff&nbsp;are&nbsp;indispensable.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Communication is key in a successful change process.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Start with the&nbsp;<em>why</em>&nbsp;of your change process.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Involve everyone from the start.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Guide sales towards a new, valuable role within the organization.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>

involving your employees in e-commerce b2b commerce academy

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Your entire business is impacted when you dive into the e-commerce pool. Everyone, from Sales to Accounting, has to work differently, and that can cause agitation. How do you get your employees excited about a new, digital story? Success starts with respectful change management. 

Involving your employees in e-commerce 

<p type="application/kenticocloud" data-type="item" data-rel="component" data-codename="f951fd99_c097_01f5_e676_346302cde472" data-sdk-resolved="1" class="kc-linked-item-wrapper"><blockquote><p>B2B e-commerce has slowly but surely been picking up trends from B2C. But what about Black Friday and Cyber Monday?&nbsp;</p></blockquote></p>
<h3>How Black Friday works&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Black Friday is an American phenomenon that has been making waves in the rest of the world as well. Traditionally, it is the day before Thanksgiving, where shops give big reductions on products and services. Black Friday was first named Black in the 1960’s in Philadelphia, because it resulted in chaos: a huge amount of traffic in the cities, many people running in and out of shops, long waiting lines at the till...&nbsp;</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Cyber Monday used to be the digital sister of Black Friday. The first Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend, e-commerces would give big reductions. Today, both days have shifted towards e-commerce, especially in 2020, where we live with the reality of a pandemic.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>What’s B2B got to do with it?&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a huge trend in the B2C market, so why not think about it when you are in the B2B scope? Set yourself apart by taking part in Black Friday, as little B2B players are doing this.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Even in the B2C market, opinions are divided. Some people are explicitly not taking part in events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Hit or miss, it all comes down to this: even if you don't want to participate, why not thanking your customers for their loyalty?&nbsp;</p>
<figure data-asset-id="32f12ccd-4199-4873-9166-8b4d73384a9d" data-image-id="32f12ccd-4199-4873-9166-8b4d73384a9d"><img src="https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com:443/aa1e286e-6912-0166-621b-5d2a3f9a1a88/8e30ce86-4f5d-4f40-9ccd-df2b69b94a30/cyber-5244032_1280.png" data-asset-id="32f12ccd-4199-4873-9166-8b4d73384a9d" data-image-id="32f12ccd-4199-4873-9166-8b4d73384a9d" alt="Black Friday cyber Monday b2b commerce academy Black Friday and cyber Monday for B2B e commerce"></figure>
<h3>What can you do as a B2B player?&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Have you decided that you want to take part? Here's a few things you could do:&nbsp;</p>
<ol>
  <li>Give personalized discounts, based on account type&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Give your customers a gift-with-purchase on Black Friday and Cyber Monday&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Send out an email to your customers with a coupon code for a free item or a discount code of choice&nbsp;</li>
  <li>If you don't have an e-commerce just yet, why not sending out cards with a coupon code that's redeemable with your customer's next purchase? &nbsp;</li>
</ol>
<p>Make sure to leverage email marketing and social media advertising (we recommend LinkedIn) when you are setting up a Black Friday or Cyber Monday campaign - it would be a waste of budget and energy if it then goes unnoticed. You could even create a dedicated landing page for the campaign, so you can generate leads while you're at it.&nbsp;</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Are you going to take part in Black Friday or Cyber Monday this year? Or will you put it in next year's marketing plan?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/b2b-commerce-academy-" data-new-window="true" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Let's discuss this on our LinkedIn-page.</a></p>

Black Friday cyber Monday b2b commerce academy Black Friday for B2B e commerce

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday: hit or miss for B2B e-commerce? 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday for B2B e-commerce – hit or miss 

<p>Welcome to the B2B commerce academy. If you are reading this, it means that you found our brand-new website. Great! In this first blog post, I'd like to introduce you to our team and website.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>B2B Commerce Academy</h3>
<p>Did you know that the global e-commerce market for B2B was valued for US$12.2 trillion in 2019? That's 6 times more than the B2C market, yet, most innovation happens at the B2C side. We dare saying that the B2B market is lagging behind in many ways.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Introducing... the B2B Commerce Academy. On this platform, we aim to inform, inspire and guide B2B to better e-commerce practices. How? By sharing useful content, of course. We'll provide you with blog posts and e-books that actually add value. You won't find empty commercial content on this site - we promise.&nbsp;</p>
<h3>The team&nbsp;</h3>
<p>Of course, this Academy is not a one-man effort. There's a whole team behind it, working hard on interesting content, industry insiders sharing tips and tricks after working in the field for decades... the list goes on.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If you are successfully navigating our site, it means that our <a data-item-id="18e197ca-1664-4a82-b01d-515490fbb5d4" href="/[lang]/team/robby">Developer Robby</a> did a great job. Just kidding. We tested every little detail to make sure everything runs smooth.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Our <a data-item-id="560a2da2-8a95-4cd7-bef6-d16478b2f0e3" href="">lead copywriter Anouk</a> is in charge of creating thought-provoking content, as well as doing regular quality checks. Her first e-book, Delving&nbsp;into the brain &amp; environmental awareness: 4 trends&nbsp;that will further shape&nbsp;B2B e-commerce in 2021, is now available in our webshop. Just head over to our products page, put the book in your basket, and check-out.&nbsp;</p>
<p>And last, but hopefully not least, there's me: Maaike. Nice to meet you. I'll be the one answering your questions. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, of if you would like to create content for our Academy. You can reach me on hello(@)b2bcommerce.academy.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>I hope you are as excited as we are!&nbsp;</p>
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<p>The B2B Commerce Academy team&nbsp;</p>

B2B Commerce Academy e-commerce platform on MacBook Pro

B2B ecommerce academy blog post introduction maaike.jpg

Introducing... the B2B Commerce Academy. On this platform, we aim to inform, inspire and guide B2B to better e-commerce practices. How? By sharing useful content, of course. We'll provide you with blog posts and e-books that actually add value. You won't find empty commercial content on this site - we promise.