“Content is king.” As a marketer, I’ve heard this phrase repeatedly over the last several years. But does the same idea apply to B2B eCommerce? According to DemandGen, the stats to support the importance of content and commerce are telling:
82% of B2B buyers said the winning vendor’s content significantly influenced their decision
87% stated a better mix of content helped them make a decision
When creating an omni-channel experience, you gain consistency by reusing and repurposing content across sales channels. And valuable content is one of the key differentiators that support B2B commerce purchases. The more informed your buyer is, the more quickly they can make decisions and purchase more products.
In part two of this series, I’ll address the top questions our clients ask when building or improving upon their B2B eCommerce sites.
Who uses the content within the organization?
In B2B commerce there are many different consumers of content. Distributors need to leverage content for their websites. Marketing departments consume content for print publications and other types of promotions. Then, there is the eCommerce team and customers who buy from your site.
Whether your customer is a consumer or specific B2B buyer such as an engineer or a business user from the purchasing department, they demand three things from your commerce site:
- Product specifications (i.e., weight, diameter, length, amperage, etc.)
- Easy search
- Robust product information (i.e., applications and uses)
Is it better to choose a best-in-breed solution or a multi-domain approach?
Before selecting a technology solution, start by creating an implementation strategy, or work with a digital consulting firm that has a deep understanding of strategy, UX, design, and technology to develop one.
You will want to think about the road map that outlines how all of the data will flow from the bottom up to the different users and specifically consider:
- Different sites and needs of the personas with which your company engages
- What each persona needs to perform better
- Various data tiers inside your company
- User experience layer (marketing, content management, promotion)
- Middle layer for commerce functionality that manifests on the UX layer
- Back-end core system layer (PIM, ERP, and CRM)
In many cases an agile, best-of-breed approach may work well if the PIM and commerce software have the following traits:
- Easy to integrate with any system or channel
- Quick to implement and simple to use
- Supports parallel workflows across all processes
- Ability to upgrade without affecting surrounding systems
Learn more about the path to creating an omni-channel experience with PIM and eCommerce in our latest guide.
