Anyone who has shopped online has interacted with a B2C eCommerce platform. B2C shopping refers to an individual buying products at impulse from an online webstore. Companies also make purchases online, but the needs of the B2B buyer are entirely different than B2C. In other wordss, the B2B buying process is vastly different from that of consumers. What a business needs or expects from an eCommerce platform is not always the same from what a consumer needs.
In this podcast episode, host Dirk Dusharme, Editor in Chief at Quality Digest, interviews Yoav Kutner, Founder and CEO of Oro Inc, about how to deliver the best eCommerce experience for B2B buyers. Yoav also shares an incredible success story of a company currently thriving during the Covid pandemic by having their entire B2B business available online.
Below is a snippet from the interview:
Dirk: Why don’t B2C platforms work as well in the B2B environment?
Yoav: B2C shoppers are typically one time shoppers. Most typically, they shop on impulse for a specific need. Whereas B2B buyers are established customers and it’s a process. We’re talking about something that takes weeks, maybe months, sometimes even years to complete an order. Most importantly, the usually have a relationship with you. They establish a long term relationship with the companies they purchase from. And the experience needs to focus on getting your buyers to efficiently use your website.
Dirk: From the salesperson point of view, the relationship with their client is very important. It seems to me that the more you automate, you’re taking away that opportunity from the salesperson to build a relationship.
Yoav: One thing we really feel proud about is that we’re not killing this relationship. We’re improving it. We’re allowing people to be efficient, multi-task, and order faster. But there is no reason why someone still wouldn’t pick up the phone to assist with orders and continue to build that relationship. But when it comes to doing the mundane day-to-day work, that’s what people expect to be digitalized and that’s what we’re giving them.
Dirk: It seems that the importance is that the entire flow of the sales and purchasing process is digitalized and the tools provided are actually enhancing the customer relationship.
Yoav: Absolutely. A happy customer is a customer that you retain. It’s better to be one step ahead of your customers by having the systems in place to keep them happy. You can always offer them to pick up the phone. We’re enabling the sales team to be more productive to give their customers a better experience.
To watch the full episode, click here.
