EP067 B2B Ecommerce Success: Navigating Trends and Overcoming Challenges
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[00:00:00] DARIN NEWBOLD: Alright good day and welcome once again to Commerce Today. My name is Darin and as always, Josh is here with me and we have, we have as always a fun Commerce Today topic. We're talking B2B eCommerce success, navigating trends and overcoming challenges. Now this is about an upcoming guide that has that title, Josh.

So, we're kind of teasing them here.

[00:00:30] JOSHUA WARREN: We are, yep. We're going to share a little bit about, B2B ecommerce. we have a 4, 000 word guide coming out in a couple of weeks. And don't worry, we're not going to throw 4, 000 words

[00:00:40] DARIN NEWBOLD: counted all those words?

[00:00:41] JOSHUA WARREN: podcast. Well, my computer did, so. so yeah, wanted to highlight, pull out some of the highlights, some of the most interesting things, kind of give everybody a, a taste.

Glimpse into that guide. And then, if you follow me and creativity on LinkedIn, you'll have an opportunity to get that guide for free. probably about a week after this episode comes out. 

[00:01:01] DARIN NEWBOLD: Excellent. So yeah, definitely, definitely take advantage of that. So you can get the, get the whole guide, but let's kind of dig into it.

Kind of, since it is a teaser, let's, let's at least keep going here. So what are some of those emerging trends in B2B, in B2B ecommerce that you're starting to see?

[00:01:20] JOSHUA WARREN: so I guess first of all, I just wanted to cover some of those emerging trends because, there's a lot of information out there about how to do B2B ecommerce.

Everybody has a guide. I wanted to do something a little bit more modern and up to date. And so we looked at some of these emerging trends, the first of which doesn't feel like it's quite as emerging anymore. I think it's here. And that would be the rise of B2B marketplaces. And the biggest one and probably the one that surprised me and probably shouldn't have, but surprised me the most thinking back five years ago is Amazon business.

[00:01:52] DARIN NEWBOLD: Really? So what, what's kind of the big, the big numbers that are coming out of that Amazon business and what's made it kind of stand out for you? 

[00:02:02] JOSHUA WARREN: you? Yeah.

So, a lot of people didn't think that A marketplace like that would work for B2B that, everyone wants to buy from their specific vendors or their product lines are too niche and too specific.

So no one's going to go to Amazon for it. Everybody goes to Amazon. And so it is a 52 billion marketplace. Now it's actually projected to surpass Amazon's B2C marketplace. Interesting. 

[00:02:27] DARIN NEWBOLD: are there, are there any specific challenges or any specific opportunities that people need to be aware of here?

I know we've, we've talked about this through some past episodes as well.

[00:02:36] JOSHUA WARREN: Yeah. So we talked about this through the lens of B2C, but some of the challenges are real similar for B2B. Amazon does have their requirements as far as product data, product images, et cetera. and still even in 2024, I find a lot of B2B struggle with having.

unique, high quality images for all their products. And so that can definitely be a challenge at times. I think the biggest challenge though, for most B2B brands and embracing Amazon business is, being open to it. It's actually more of a internal resistance to change. And I thought of, Oh, I don't want to, you know, You know, I don't want to give this data to Amazon.

I don't want to go to Amazon. I would rather keep it all on my own website, but you got to realize you got to go with the customers are and B2B buyers are on Amazon.

[00:03:22] DARIN NEWBOLD: They have built it and they are coming. Well, one of the next, trends that, it looks like you had seen, which is kind of a little bit of the alphabet, B2B to B, I mean, B2B to C, basically that direct to consumer sales.

tell me a little bit more about that.

[00:03:40] JOSHUA WARREN: Yeah, so this is when a B2B brand also starts selling to consumers, can be on the same website or on a different website. really, this is something, again, we've seen for a while, but it is really taking off now.

I think I saw a lot of these projects, you know, some time ago just because, I started with the Magento platform and Magento has always been well known for being able to serve a B2B site and a B2C site all on the same instance. but we're seeing this beyond the Magento world. We're seeing this throughout B2B ecommerce now.

it is challenging for some brands to offer B2B to C. Usually the challenges I see are in fulfillment. B2B brands, typically their warehouses are set up to ship B2B products. You're shipping freight loads. You're not shipping individual items. you have to start breaking those pallets, figuring out how to ship smaller orders.

sometimes, you know, they don't have a good, FedEx contract, for instance, for shipping small parcels because they're doing everything via freight.

[00:04:38] DARIN NEWBOLD: Yeah, that's got to be a huge challenge. Well, definitely tune in and check out our guide for more examples and more things around that B2B2C implementations. So one of the other ones, that you found here was integrating value added services as one of the major trends. And I know, I know we've talked a little bit about this as we've gone through.

So tell me a little bit more.

[00:05:02] JOSHUA WARREN: Yeah. So basically this is just offering, repair, refurbishment, and other services through ecommerce platforms.

There's actually an example we give in the guide of a company that serves and supplies hospitals. And so there's even some certification and safety value added services that they offer. so this is basically through your website. offering those services. So you're no longer just selling the products.

You're also offering the service. this obviously can be a new source of revenue. It also keeps the customer coming back to you instead of going to someone else. So you're kind of reinforcing your brand with them. We actually do have, like I mentioned, a good example in the guide and can already kind of hear and feel a lot of people out there saying, Hey, My B2B brand, we don't have the capabilities to offer these kind of services in house.

you know, we don't have an install team. We don't have a repair team. There's actually been some interesting ways through partnerships, joint ventures, and things like that, that we've seen B2B brands add these value added services.

[00:05:59] DARIN NEWBOLD: Well, yeah, almost the, the Ubering of, of, of adding those services and, and making it, demand generated there. Well, again, again, you want to see the guide, but, another one and this one, I know this is one of your personal favorites, Josh, and, we are, I'm, I am putting a timer on this. So, here you go.

The growing role of, AI and automation.

[00:06:22] JOSHUA WARREN: I want cheers to go off in the room every time someone on the podcast says AI. I think most of you watching probably want jeers and boos for that. But, number one sales tip I read recently is never mentioned AI. Apparently it's gotten to that level of saturation, but anyway, Yeah, AI and automation, have been playing a bigger and bigger part in B2B e-commerce.

obviously there's similar stuff as on the B2C side with chatbots and personalization. Something though that I've found, is more relevant to the B2B side has been process automations, and so actually using AI to automate some of your processes, even figuring out some of those things like I was talking about with the challenges of breaking pallets and kind of optimizing your inventory.

that's a really interesting use case that I've seen some people use AI to improve their B2B e-commerce operations

[00:07:16] DARIN NEWBOLD: seen people use AI to improve their ecommerce operations. As we, as we kind of wrap it all together in a way, this, this guide, what are your, well, let's call it three to four key takeaways that you want people to make sure they get from this?

[00:07:47] JOSHUA WARREN: Yeah, there's, there's really four sections of the guide that I feel like are, the most relevant, most helpful.

and some of them, like we talk about so often, it's, it's simple, but not easy things. And so the very first one is understanding what your business needs. So before you go into either launching B2B ecommerce or replatforming to a new platform, You would think that it didn't have to be said to understand what your business needs, but no, that is, I've seen so many people jump straight to, I'm talking to platforms, I'm talking to agencies, I'm getting the sales pitch, I'm comparing the features, and they don't stop and think, you know, Hey, are we in one country or in multiple countries?

Do we need to integrate with not just our ERP but are there some, you know, key clients that are going to expect to have EDI capabilities with our new ecommerce site? Like just, You Thinking through those things and getting those, questions answered and really putting all that together so that you go into those vendor conversations already asking the right questions is so important because you otherwise seeing brands get sold on a platform they're so excited about then they start implementing it and they realize, oh, this platform doesn't actually fit our business.

[00:08:55] DARIN NEWBOLD: Yeah, important safety tip. Very, very important. So, something else that, that you just spoke of and kind of leading into is selecting that right ecommerce platform. So, as another key takeaway, tell us about that.

[00:09:10] JOSHUA WARREN: Yeah. So finding the right platform is so important. you would think these days that You know, it's it's simple.

You're choosing between one or two different platforms. there's still a lot of fragmentation in the B to B ecommerce space. And I think especially around, when you're looking at different E. R. P. S. To integrate with, different ones will have different levels of complexity for integrating into certain platforms.

I've also seen scalability issues where Again, this is, this goes back to the first takeaway of like, know your business. Do you get very few, but very large orders or do you get, you know, or is your product something that people are actually having a very frequently reorder? that'll change the kind of performance and scalability impact of the site.

That'll even change, you know, which B2B features are most important to So, another key takeaway that, that we want to bring up is managing channel conflict. So how's that? How does that play out?

Yeah. So channel conflict, that's a fun one. and there's really two kinds of channel conflict. There's internal and there's external.

And most people, when they hear channel conflict, I say most people, most B2B people, I think most people are like, what the heck is channel conflict? But most B2B people think, Oh, that's when, you know, I have some, challenges because my customers don't want to buy this way, or my customers are going to be frustrated because now I'm selling via the web.

Direct to customers instead of just through the wholesale arrangement, internal, channel conflict is a big one that I think companies try to steamroll right over. and I think the best way to picture, internal channel conflict is if you're a fan of the U S version of the office, when they launched their first website and one of their salespeople basically says, I'm going to outsell the website.

And it becomes, A comp, an unhealthy competition between the sales team and the website. and you really, you know, we have some, some solid advice in the guide based on our experiences of how to manage that. A lot of it really comes back to trust and safety. transparency, especially the external channel conflict, having a clear pricing policy, and even sometimes with the internal channel conflict, having a clear pricing policy.

So your, your website isn't undercutting your salespeople, your salespeople aren't undercutting your website, your website's also not undercutting your, your people that you're selling to, as well. So that's, that's, you know, one of the ways to manage that channel 

[00:11:41] DARIN NEWBOLD: channel. Sounds, almost sounds complicated. It's great that we have this guy to, to help walk people through it and help them get them, get them, get them pointed in the right direction. Well, the last kind of key takeaway. That we wanted to bring up is prioritizing customer experience.

And I know we've talked about that in a few episodes. So what do you have here?

[00:12:02] JOSHUA WARREN: Yeah, so. Little history lesson. back when responsive design and mobile friendly ecommerce websites were becoming popular B2B brand said, I don't need that because this is B2B and people are never going to order on their phones. They're always going to order on their computer. They're not going to, you know, demand that level of experience.

Well, Fast forward, even just a year or two, and B2B buyers demand that level of experience. I'm seeing the same thing in customer service. There was kind of this thought of, Hey, they're used to kind of, this is the model we work by, take it or leave it. Here's our prices. Here's our process. Not anymore. B2B buyers, especially as the web experience has gotten better.

They expect a much higher level of customer service. They expect basically that, high level consumer experience. there's a reason they're going to Amazon business. Like they want that level of, they know that if they order this, they're going to get it by this date. If there's a problem, it's going to be taken care of.

And if you're not providing that level of customer service, they're going to go to Amazon business.

[00:13:03] DARIN NEWBOLD: Well, I'm being able to have that personalization as well as the the value added content that's there. It all brings that together to prioritize that customer experience. Well, as we, as we kind of close up this episode, just overview, want to remind you definitely reach out and reach out to us.

and be looking for the navigating B2B ecommerce strategies for success. our, this guide that will be coming out, it'll be available. Josh will have it on through his LinkedIn, as well as Creatuity's LinkedIn. And these are all in the show notes that you can grab these different links. So we definitely want you to, take advantage of that and be on the lookout, grab those key pieces.

We definitely, Definitely want to invite you if you're having any kind of ecommerce challenge or are looking to launch any new initiatives We would love to hear from you be able to bring that up into into one of our commerce today Podcasts and share your experiences and what's going on. So as I wrap it up Josh with some last 

[00:14:04] JOSHUA WARREN: So I would actually like to invite our listeners. we are starting to look for guests. I know that y'all love hearing from me and Darin but you would love hearing from some other people as well. So we've had a few episodes where, other Creatuity employees have been on the episode. we're looking to have some people outside of Creatuity now as well.

So if you're working in ecommerce you know, solving some. interesting problems or, you want to even sound out and brainstorm some interesting challenges you're facing, reach out to me, would love to set up an episode, with you on it. And if you're in the Dallas area, you can come by our lovely, but small studio, or we can record remotely.

So we'd love to get some of y'all on the podcast.

[00:14:47] DARIN NEWBOLD: We can accommodate however we need to so as always we really thank and appreciate you guys tuning in Definitely like comment as a, as appropriate. And as always, we look forward to catching up with you next time. And one last real quick, make sure subscribe to our commerce today podcast.

That's one of the key things that will help us out, helps us know that everyone's out there listening. So again, thanks a bunch. We look forward to catching you next time. 

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