Delivering valuable online solutions to outpace competitors and delight customers has become the norm for those working within the Retail market. The B2B Market is now seeing that as Retailers raise the bar on self-service, their own customers are expecting the same. This journey to build and grow a successful modern commerce business requires continuous innovation to meet the constantly changing needs of their buyers. The launch of a new online storefront supported by new digital commerce operations will lay the foundation for innovation, and the journey ahead will require a diligent and practiced commitment to disciplined innovation. Ultimately, it is up to your organization how fast and often you want to innovate- from adding capabilities, features, and optimizations to your commerce business these can all help to remain competitive and prepared for the future.
Where to start? Focus on Your Customer Experience.
Focusing on the customer experience is a crucial factor when it comes to designing a modern commerce experience. And like any profitable sales process, you need to understand how the customer is behaving at each step of their journey in order to know how to meet and exceed their expectations. For example, according to Forrester, 59% of B2B buyers prefer to do research online instead of interacting with a sales rep because they feel reps push their own sales agendas instead of actually listening to the buyer and finding a solution that solves their unique problem. By understanding the entire customer journey, including the research phase of buyers, you will be able to better understand the pain points buyers are facing and biggest opportunities for innovation. This knowledge will help establish clear priorities for understanding what technology can help improve upon this process and how to continually offer a more engaging overall customer experience. By skipping this step, you are at risk of investing in digital tools that won’t meet the buyers needs, forcing you to be reactive and miss out on the opportunities you need to be competitive. Understanding your customer’s journey will help you create a foundation for your modern commerce practice.
By understanding your buyers unique needs and pairing it with some elements of the B2C journey like emotional engagement, it will help create a stand out customer experience.
Moving Towards a Modern Commerce Solution
By developing customer-centric strategies it will help the B2B Market create a modern commerce solution to stand out from competitors. Adopting digital technologies such as advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, optimizing marketing across traditional and digital channels and implementing a streamlined eCommerce experience are all ways to move towards a customer-centric mindset.
An example of a modern commerce solution:
Being able to be agile in your processes, continually change and evolve with ease, but still using the foundation you have built to maintain your core capabilities will allow you to see this success and growth in the near and far term.
By allowing buyers to be served how they want to be, a company is creating a solid foundation for their future growth. The B2B Market is still faltering when it comes to focusing on the right initiatives, how to execute, and making a more strategic use of technology. However, being able to offer this built to order customer experience and continually innovate does not have to be a daunting task with the right partnerships and processes in place. Contact Echidna to discuss creating your seamless customer experience today.
