There were more than 1.9 billion online buyers in 2019. This number is likely to increase further in 2020. The booming eCommerce market is definitely making its presence felt.
Read on to find out more about the leading B2B eCommerce trends that are and will continue to have a strong impact on the eCommerce domain.
Persistent Consumer Engagement
A chief B2B eCommerce trend that will continue in 2020 will be consumer engagement that goes well beyond the point o of buying the product/service. B2B online purchasers wish to conduct business with an organization that understands them and knows their needs well. Most of the eCommerce trends in the rest of 2019 and 2020 will likely revolve around building and fostering relationships.
That makes sense from a financial perspective. The expenses of acquiring a new consumer are about six times more than hanging on to an existing one. Some of the most effective and popular strategies for constant consumer engagement include but are not limited to email marketing, advertising, and content marketing.
Email Marketing
Email marketing continues to be a dependable and proven-ROI (Return on Investment) strategy for almost any section of the eCommerce landscape. When blended with an eCommerce online web store, email marketing facilitates your business to reach out to your customers and offer personal promotions, discounts, product recommendations, and much more. Triggered emails are going to be a very popular marketing strategy in 2020.
Targeted Advertising
The popularity of this marketing strategy will continue its upward trend in 2020. The precise profile of advertising mediums will be contingent on the audience you wish to target and your product category. As a case to point, the video element is going to play an instrumental role if you are using or intend to use social media platforms as an advertising medium for your product/service. Recent surveys have shown that almost three-quarters of B2B customers view before they make a purchase. Another study has revealed that around 43 percent of marketers are planning to incorporate YouTube and Facebook videos in their marketing strategies.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) And Content Marketing
SEO and content marketing are exceedingly effective tactics to enhance the purchaser’s experience and win the customer’s loyalty. This, in turn, drives more traffic to your website. As stated above, more than 85 percent of online buyers believe that detailed content matters tremendously in the whole buying process.
Audiovisual and extensive content (word count exceeding 1000 words) became fashionable in 2019 and will be just as effective in 2020 as potential buyers seek more insight into a particular topic prior to making a purchase.
The Rise of Omnichannel Selling
Omnichannel selling is all about promoting your brand and establishing your brand reputation via different channel mediums. These mediums are in addition to your physical business presence and your website store. Apart from this web store, online mediums include social channels (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so forth) and online marketplaces such as Alibaba, eBay, and Amazon. According to a very recent survey, an average B2B consumer makes use of around six channels throughout his/her purchasing journey.
The modern buyers in today’s world are more inclined to pick a brand that has a strong footprint on social platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. Almost seven out of ten people in the United States of America are using at least one social media platform in 2019. There is a strong likelihood that your competition is using social media as well to create brand awareness because 90 percent of the brands worldwide make use of social media platforms for the same purpose.
Organizations will carry on leveraging social media to connect with potential consumers and monitor the various channels to identify industry trends in 2020. Needless to say, the need to utilize social media tools is going to be more crucial than ever in 2020. You can expect several new businesses to jump on the social media bandwagon in the coming years.
Regardless of how many channels you leverage, ensure that you provide a consistent and reliable purchasing experience. To boost your conversion rate, your e-Commerce online store should be of the same class as your advertisements on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels. More than 85 percent of the B2B buyers hold the opinion that detailed content plays a pivotal role in the buying process.
If you are a B2B company, you should also consider becoming an Omni-channel seller via Smartphone applications. Almost everyone in this digital world uses a smartphone. A recent poll has indicated that around 63 percent of the total e-commerce sales will be conducted by the dint of smartphones in 2019 and 2020. Hence, the incorporation of smartphone applications in the B2B landscape would be very common in 2020.
Voice Assisted B2B eCommerce Trends
Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Echo are just some of the hardware and software voice assistants that ease a consumer’s buying experience. It is predicted that by next year, about half of all online searches will be voice-assisted. This makes voice-assisted E-commerce one of the most critical B2B eCommerce trends in 2020 be cognizant of.
Also, online buyers are most likely using mobile devices when using such voice assistants. Therefore, it is more vital than ever that every webpage of your eCommerce site is compatible and well optimized for smartphone experiences.
If leveraged correctly, Voice Assisted B2B E-commerce has paramount potential to boost the scale of your business.
Final Thoughts
In a nutshell, eCommerce will continue to rapidly expand not only in the remainder of this year but throughout 2020 as well. It will only serve your best interests to keep abreast of the latest B2B eCommerce trends and capitalize on these opportunities to drive your organization’s growth.