It’s not every day you hear the word “trillion” unless you are in the B2B Online Retail business. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Future of B2B Online Retailing, reveals that B2B online sales will account for close to 27 per cent of total manufacturing trade, which is likely to hit 25 trillion $ by 2020.* And according to Forrester: 75% of B2B Buyers prefer convenience of purchasing from a website vs a sales representative and 93% of B2B Buyers prefer online purchasing vs sales representative. In addition, an omni-channel experience is just as important to B2B buyers as it is to B2C buyers.
As an avid online shopper this number is impressive to say the least. Tomorrow is my birthday and one of my dearest friends shares the same day and when we worked at the same company for many years, we spent 10 birthdays together at some industry event away from family and friends. He always managed to make the day special no matter where we were and it was nice to have someone to celebrate with. My friend has long since retired and lives in the UK and I am late sending a card. A few years ago, sending online flowers or gift baskets from across the pond was virtually impossible. I was pleasantly surprised to go to one of my favorite online gift vendors (1-800-flowers) to learn that not only do they ship to the UK – but my order can arrive in ONE DAY. Thanks to the B2B movement, companies are moving to ubiquitous online platforms that allow buyers and sellers from anywhere in the world to transact goods and services with ease. Thank you B2B!
But successful B2B eCommerce requires more than copying B2C companies. The explosive growth of B2B eCommerce is forcing B2B organizations to invest in online sales channels. While B2B organizations can learn from B2C in terms of user experience, the increased complexity of B2B selling requires sophisticated workflows, pricing, product configurations, approvals and more, managed in a central platform.
With just 11 days to the IBM Amplify Conference in sunny San Diego, this new explosion in the industry makes the event even more compelling to attend with an entire track dedicated to B2B Commerce, the chance to network with over 2,800 industry leaders, execs and practitioners, and over 200 sessions that will share the latest trends and innovative solutions in customer engagement.
One of my other favorite stores that I enjoy actually stepping out in the real world and shopping in their very cool retail stores as well as online is one of our special client speakers at Amplify. Urban Outfitters will talk about how they enhanced the customer shopping experience and how they chose IBM Sterling OMS and Perficient to create a unified order process with flexibility, seamless integration across channels, and a high level of visibility and control across brands.
Other clients joining us in 11 days:
- Varsity Spirit Fashion will talk about the new design studio, delivered by Perficient that has had 100% adoption rate by their sales teams and has been the cornerstone of their digital transformation.
- Carhartt will share their successful B2C implementation journey on iSeries.
- and our very own Pat Garcia was invited to run a workshop on the B2B features in IBM WebSphere Commerce FEP 8
I’m looking forward to a great event!
By the way…I am taking tomorrow off shopping online and in stores, and will finally be enjoying it with family and friends. I wonder how many dollars I have spent online in my lifetime. Not a trillion, but pretty close.
*Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47099425.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
