User experience — Just As Important For B2B E-commerce

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Written by Janita Gaulzetti
It’s a good time to be a B2B business (or is that 2 B a B2B?) – or a partner company that delivers solutions for them.
Conservative estimates from analysts at Forrester Research project B2B e-commerce transactions to reach $560 billion dollars in 2013. Great news, but it also means that B2B firms are under ever more pressure to deliver online shopping experiences that match those of their B2C counterparts. After all, the people making business purchases online are the very same folks that shopped online this past holiday season, in record numbers.  Whether for work or personal shopping, their expectations are high.
An insightful article from E-Commerce Times  does a nice job of describing the challenges facing businesses that sell both direct and through distribution channels, one of which is creating consumer-like purchase experiences on B2B sites. The author stresses the importance of user experience in developing a successful direct online sales program.
“Focus on user experience — create an engaging, interactive experience that spells out business benefits, offers reviews and provides an easy, intuitive purchase process.”
I decided to put one of our own client sites to the test. Because we’re about to buy new branded promotional items, I went to Crestline.com. Crestline.com serves as a direct channel for a large manufacturing parent company that sells through traditional distribution.
Simple. Smooth. Solved. That’s what the Crestline tag line states on the site and that’s the experience I had. I had a couple of promo items already in mind but the clear and simple navigation on the site exposed me to some others I might not have considered otherwise. At just the right time – early in my shopping experience, but not immediately — I was invited to live chat with a customer service assistant. I declined because I really wanted to navigate the site on my own as part of the test. We have a cool twist on a tried-and-true promo item we’re thinking of this year (you’ll have to stop by our booth for a sample) and I was able to find that it was available. I got production, price and timing information, all in a matter of minutes, along with a good sense of what next steps I needed to take. I left the site confident that I could return and quickly place an order.
We’ve worked with Crestline for more than two years and the configuration workflow we developed for their customized products provides an intuitive and easy user experience.