The worldwide B2B e-commerce market size in 2020 was worth USD 6.65 trillion, and it is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 19.7 % from 20-21 to 2028. More and more B2B brands are now indulging in custom eCommerce development and striving to boost sales through digital means. It is taking place mainly due to the evolving B2B purchaser demographic.
As the common B2B purchaser changes, the sales processes of a business require modification as well. While a Gen X Shopper looks for the handle experience extended by a sales representative, Millennials expect a similar personalized experience via digital and streamlined channels. Deciphering the contemporary B2B buyers' requirements is crucial for merchants, so they need to know about the recent B2B eCommerce trends. In this blog, we will unravel the top trends that will rule the digital commerce space in 2022.
Keeping up with customer demands is crucial for any B2B business in today's time. The digital efforts that merchants need to extend through the implementation of influential B2B eCommerce trends are as follows:
Evolving Audience: The B2B audience before 2020 is composed of generation X members and baby boomers. The latter preferred receiving information from sales literature, product trials, and datasheets, while the former preferred receiving information from conferences and trade shows. But in the present times, 75% of millennials are engaging in the B2B purchasing process. They are growing up alongside advancing technology, and almost 40% of them admit to purchasing the latest gadgets.
Another big reason is how this generation is careful while spending and wants transparency from the brands they connect with. Hence to cope with this evolving audience, brands will need to maintain transparency even more.
Emphasizing Crafting B2C-Kind Shopping Experiences: More B2B customers nowadays prefer buying products digitally. They also conduct extensive research on a particular brand and its services or products before speaking to a sales representative. They perform approximately twelve online searches before making the buying decision from a brand. Alongside 75% of B2B buyers have reported at least researching half of the work buying online.
This shows how important it is to make the website of the brand resonate with B2B customers. It is essential to consider that wholesale customers are similar individuals who buy online for personal products and hence providing them a B2C-like experience can help achieve this.
Merchants and vendors need to emphasize B2B eCommerce trends like prioritizing the user interface and experience. Customers can then quickly discover what they are seeking as most B2B shoppers usually know exactly what they are looking for.
Augmentation of Online Marketplaces: Online marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon, and eBay dominated the entire B2C industry in 2018. This accounts for more than 60% of the worldwide online retail sales. On the contrary, B2B eCommerce sales via online marketplaces and websites are augmenting and growing at all times. Do you know only 9% of B2B purchases are not presently utilizing online marketplaces? And 80% of B2B procurement spending is estimated to occur through an online marketplace within the upcoming five years.
As per a report, the enterprise marketplace is an innovative business model with new capabilities, permits brands to create new revenue sources, and generates broader ecosystems. Marketplaces are much more efficient in cost and time, and these function as a one-stop store for B2B buyers.
The ability to capture the attention of an engaged and new audience is one of the biggest perks of the B2B marketplaces. This addresses more sales and is an excellent opportunity for reaching worldwide markets and examining new products. While engaging in custom eCommerce development, this is the trend that brands must focus on in 2022.
Welcoming B2B Mobile Commerce: 60% of B2B queries are made on mobile phones in the present era. This figure will grow to 75% by 2022. Mobile purchases influence around 45% of revenue in the popular B2B organizations. This data explains that more than getting a B2B business established in the online world, it must be mobile-friendly first hand.
The businesses that are swift in adopting mobile witness more revenue via the channel when compared to the brands that are waiting to catch up. Arguably it is one of the most critical B2B eCommerce trends that brands must focus on. There are already businesses creating a digital commerce application for the B2B buyers. The world is advancing fast, and this calls for businesses to gear up as well.
With the help of the application, buyers can log in and witness their special pricing. They can checkout easily by utilizing a vaulted credit card within a few minutes. And even participate in an app referral program. Now is the time when every brand must start embracing B2B mobile commerce.
Most importantly, not only they but 20% of B2B retailers have also reported utilizing an existing application for their customers. But you might think, why? It is because a mobile application facilitates rapid recurring orders depending on the business account. Alongside, the application can remain connected with the sales team.
Brands need to make sure that they are not jumping on every trend they come across. While a certain trend will be of massive value-add, another trend might be too pricey to execute for the business for maintaining a reasonable return on investment. It is vital to move with the trend that is the correct fit for the brand. Some of the ways of assessing industry trends are as follows:
Staying Updated with Industry Data and Reports: As every industry evolves, staying updated through data and reports is necessary to understand things. This will also help the brand know the trends that are worth the time and effort.
Evaluating the Customers' Behaviors: Brands can utilize customer data to assess whether a trend is correct or not. It is important to employ effective and at least two data-gathering tools to learn the customer trends from varied sources. One can use the numbers to examine the overall trends in the business.
If we look at the overall scenario, the worldwide eCommerce sales are anticipated to reach $5.9 trillion in 2021. This is a 285% increase from 2014. The sector is flourishing and booming. Every brand owner, developer, vendor, merchant, and entrepreneur must implement the aforementioned B2B eCommerce trends to help their brand scale. However, these are only a few out of the several important trends out there. Keep a check on trends while going for custom eCommerce development, as it can enable businesses to sail conveniently through today's competitive business ecosystem.