Customer Support
Posts by Category
11/15/2022
Sales & Marketing
Most business-to-business (B2B) companies see the need to embrace the new digital reality allowing their customers, resellers, partners, and vendors to interact with them online using a user-friendly and well-designed platform. B2B eCommerce is the transaction of goods or services between businesses through online orders. B2B eCommerce businesses cater not to consumers but to other businesses. While investing in a B2B online solution can be a game-changer for a business, setting your deployment up for success is centered around several key considerations. Companies should consider moving to B2B eCommerce to increase sales, get wider visibility, make transactions easier, and lower costs. Moving to B2B eCommerce can significantly drive ROI and will produce many long-term benefits that create value for your business. Some important considerations for a company making the switch to B2B eCommerce are:
- Deployment strategy
- Personalization
- Order management
- Fulfillment
- ERP integration.
By understanding these key concepts, a company can make a smooth transition to B2B eCommerce and reap the many rewards it has to offer.
How to derive ROI
B2B eCommerce is an opportunity for businesses to drive profitable sales by handling customers digitally. Additionally, it can free up businesses' operations and sales teams to focus on other ways to create value like optimizing processes or opening new markets. Buyers may not use the platform to its full potential if the digital experience is not optimized for them. Choosing the wrong platform or having a solution that does not align with the target market can be detrimental to ROI and increase the overall cost of the solution. To maximize ROI, businesses should select easy to deploy out of the box platforms, understand how to build personalized experiences, have strong operational capabilities, and have solid integration to their enterprise systems. By focusing on the following considerations, businesses can have the opportunity to achieve ROI and attain long-term durable value. Expect a simple deployment strategy. The cloud has become increasingly popular in recent years, as it offers many advantages over traditional software deployment models.
One of the biggest advantages of the cloud is that it can reduce start-up costs at a large scale and provide ongoing updates. This is because cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) solution providers can provide a feature-rich, customizable solution that can be deployed rapidly. Another advantage of the cloud is that providers continually add new features, capabilities, and integration points, making it easy to fit into a company's existing and future infrastructure. This allows for greater flexibility in deployment and features, as well as a predictable cost model that can be easily scaled to support a company's growing business.
For B2B buyers, the cloud offers several advantages, including a full-featured customer experience that can be optimized for most transactions. This can have a big impact on a company's bottom line, as it can save time and money on customer support.
Personalize the buyer experience
When building an eCommerce solution for business-to-consumer (B2C), the actual consumer is the only buyer type that the experience needs to engage. A B2B eCommerce solution can personalize the experience for different buyer types and should be available on multiple channels including desktop, tablet, and mobile, therefore it should be responsive and compatible with different platforms. To get the most value from a B2B eCommerce experience, companies need to design it for direct buyers, salespeople, and resellers who will transact on the digital channel. Each buyer type has different needs and how they purchase from a company can be very different. Typical buyer types for B2B include:
- Direct buyers who need an end-to-end shopping experience that might need a dynamic search and catalog.
- Internal salespeople who use an easy-to-use order entry and purchase journey to maximize interaction with a customer on the road.
- Resellers and partners often require custom catalogs, dynamic pricing, and fulfillment options.
Order management simplified
Being an online merchant means your target audience is all over the globe and you can offer endless variety of products to them. It increases the profit, but it also introduces the complexity of dealing with multiple vendors, thousands of SKU codes, and complex back-office processes.
An integrated order management solution can save a lot of time and money for a merchant. It can automate many of the processes that a brand would otherwise have to do manually like show inventory, accept orders and process a transaction. This can free up time and resources so that a brand can focus on other areas of its business.
An integrated order management solution helps to keep track of inventory and to know when they need to replenish products. This can be a huge assist for a brand, especially if they sell products that are in high demand.
It can also help a brand to avoid mistakes that can occur when manually entering orders. This is a benefit especially if they sell products that are drop-shipped or have multiple vendors. Integrated order management is a requirement for today's global merchants to maximize revenue and control their costs to operate.
Robust fulfillment capabilities
Fulfillment is an important process as B2B products are typically larger and shipped directly to a business, so the buyer has enough inventory. During the purchase and post-purchase process, it's important for accuracy as it involves compliance like tax rules, product restrictions, SKU codes, shipping labels, and invoicing details. If any of the details are wrong or missed this can cause delays and extra processing time for both parties. Once orders are received there are post-purchase considerations including reverse logistics and financial reconciliation.
B2B electronic data interchange (EDI) is a solution that creates value by managing transactions between trading partners. This is important because it ensures that information flows accurately and is easily verified. The result for the customer is that their transaction is managed automatically and efficiently to ensure orders are accurate and within expectations. This lower cost provides a better experience for the customer.
Seamless integration to ERP
ERP integration is a crucial component of any eCommerce solution. Integrating ERP and eCommerce enables the automation of sales orders, inventory, and customer details between systems. Ultimately, this is the key to achieving accurate and efficient experiences for customers and employees.
ERP integration has many benefits for customers, including:
- Accurate and efficient eCommerce experiences for both customers and employees
- Less time to operate the business
- Reduced cost of doing business
Conclusion Deploying the right B2B eCommerce solution can have rapid ROI, help drive new revenue streams and reduce the cost of doing business. To get these, merchants must focus on the described considerations to deploy a robust, flexible, and easy-to-support solution.
When considering B2B eCommerce merchants need to contemplate:
- What is the optimal deployment strategy?
- Who will use the system and what is a personalized experience for them?
- Order management is complicated and understanding how customers will order and transact is critical.
- Fulfillment is complicated today, and automation is required to make this work well.
- Integration to ERP allows merchants to complete transactions in a reliable and scalable manner.
Companies should consider moving to B2B eCommerce to increase sales, get broader visibility, make transactions simple, and lower costs.
Schedule an appointment with one of our solution experts to help you understand how these considerations can provide the right solution.
02/05/2021
The graphic above illustrates the five fastest growing and declining retail brands, based on market value, from 2019-2020. While some of these placements might come as a surprise, here are some factors that have led to each company's rise or fall.
Amazon
The company has invested heavily in India, where eCommerce currently lags behind the world average. Currently, only 1.6% of retail sales within the world's second most populated country come from eCommerce, significantly lower than the world average. With the eCommerce sector projected to increase by $200 billion by 2026, Amazon's investment is already starting to take shape.
Lululemon
In addition to excellent management, Lululemon has found success in its' "buy online, pickup in store" shopping option. Customers are allowed to combine the convenience of shopping from home, while not having to wait for shipping, as orders are ready within an hour of purchase. This model has become very popular and gets customers in their doors, exemplifying an innovative eCommerce solution.
Costco
According to The Motley Fool, "Costco is starting to deliver on the e-commerce side of the business, showing a 17.9% increase in e-commerce revenue over the 6-month period ending March 1. To help the e-commerce growth along, Costco acquired Innovel Solutions in mid-March for $1 billion. Innovel is a logistics company that specializes in storage, transport, and delivery of "big and bulky" items.
Innovel states that the company can reach "90% of the U.S. and Puerto Rico." This enables Costco to more easily deliver large items to customers, which enhances the opportunities for it to sell bulky merchandise. As the United States and Puerto Rico make up 547 of Costco's 786 warehouses in operation, Costco's large item delivery reaches 70% of the customer base."
Under Armour
Under Armour is getting severely outcompeted by Nike and Adidas, both domestically and abroad. The biggest reason for their decline, however, is their difficulties within the direct to consumer online (DTC) space, where sales grew a mere 1% last year. By comparison, Nike's DTC revenues grew 17% in Q4 2019 alone. The race for DTC revenue is on in the sportsware sector, and Under Armour is struggling mightily.
Walgreens
Forbes writes that the Walgreens, "Retail segment, which includes the company's retail sales of prescription drugs, and consumer healthcare products, saw sales decline from $40 billion in 2016 to $39 billion in 2019, and it will likely decline to less than $38 billion in 2022". Similarly to the rest of the decliners, retail sales are down and the company must look to eCommerce in order to stabilize and grow going forward.
01/10/2021
In an age where Instagram influencers, TikTok personalities, and Youtube bloggers are among the world's most famous celebrities, advertising is constantly evolving to maximize reach. A recent trend in the incubation stages in the U.S. is interactive, live advertising and shopping. This form of advertising has influencers promote and use products on a live feed, interacting with viewers by answering comments and often giving away samples. For the same reasons that Twitch streamers and Youtubers are able to sell merchandise and subscriptions, live advertising has been relatively effective at reaching and selling to a target audience.
Already a large market in China, where live advertising has been responsible for over $65 billion USD in revenue to date, Amazon launched its live platform in November 2019. Influencers are encouraged to apply, where they are accepted or declined based on social media followers and engagement rates. These influencers are live for up to 8 hours a day, where they work for a small base salary plus commission for products sold their live streams.
While not a mainstream promotional method yet in the U.S., live advertising has seen impressive results overseas and offers a relatively inexpensive method to reach a segmented audience.
Already a large market in China, where live advertising has been responsible for over $65 billion USD in revenue to date, Amazon launched its live platform in November 2019. Influencers are encouraged to apply, where they are accepted or declined based on social media followers and engagement rates. These influencers are live for up to 8 hours a day, where they work for a small base salary plus commission for products sold their live streams.
While not a mainstream promotional method yet in the U.S., live advertising has seen impressive results overseas and offers a relatively inexpensive method to reach a segmented audience.
12/30/2020
1. Ecommerce sales have grown 40.3% from 2019-2020 in the U.S.
2. 2020 Ecommerce sales are projected to be $839B in the U.S.
3. Ecommerce sales have accounted for 21% of U.S. retail sales.
4. In 2020, Ecommerce sales have surpassed 2025 projections from 2019.
5. Dropshipping has become the biggest ecommerce trend of 2020.
6. Major companies such as Amazon and Walmart have relied on dropshipping to cut overhead.
7. Free shipping is become widely expected by consumers.
12/23/2020
2020 will be remembered as a memorable year for many reasons. However, among other things, 2020 has been the year of eCommerce. During the pandemic, eCommerce sales and activity have skyrocketed to levels ahead of 5-year projections. As the new year approaches, here are some website aspects to differentiate in the increasingly-mainstream ecommerce world.
1. Integrated Web Apps
Have a business that required good weather? Include a forecast widget. Does your company have a strong social media presence? Include a twitter stream. Including information that prospects might wonder about removes the need to leave your website and increase conversion rates.2. Sharp Design and Snappy Maneuvering
The days of getting by with average website design are over. There is a reason successful Silicon Valley startups all seem to have sharply designed websites integrated with company branding. Your website design is a chance to built your brand and attract prospects. Furthermore, quick, easy load times and maneuvering on websites today is a must. People do not have the patience for poor design and long load times.3. Free Shipping
For non-service providers, free shipping is a must. Whether your clients are businesses or consumers, the expectation is that shipping will be free. Surveys repeatedly reveal that customers are more likely to purchase items with free shipping than significantly higher markdown values.4. Fast, Secure Payments
Identity theft and credit fraud are legitimate concerns. Even the appearance of a non-secure checkout process might be enough to deter prospects.
12/03/2020
Simply put, Black Friday 2020 was great for commerce, posting record activity and sales. Here are some key statistics:
As anticipated, the ecommerce holiday season is having an incredible start, serving as more of a reason why having a strong ecommerce platform is essential in today's market.
$ 270 Billion USD
Is the amount of money that ecommerce generated globally over cyber week, representing a 36% year-over-year increase. (salesforce)$ 60 Billion USD
Is the amount of money that ecommerce generated in the U.S. over cyber week, representing a 29% year-over-year increase. (salesforce)31 percent
Average increase in online conversion rate among retailers offering curbside pickup on Black Friday. (adobe analytics)$ 9 Billion USD
Is the amount of money that ecommerce generated within the U.S. on Black Friday, representing a 22% year-over-year increase. (adobe analytics)$ 10.8 Billion USD
Is the amount of money that ecommerce generated within the U.S. on Cyber Monday, representing a 15% year-over-year increase. (adobe analytics)As anticipated, the ecommerce holiday season is having an incredible start, serving as more of a reason why having a strong ecommerce platform is essential in today's market.
11/25/2020
Everyone knows that ecommerce marketing is a game of numbers. Your company probably has a general formula for how many page visits result in sales for both organic and paid advertisements. Here are three vital ways to increase the number of website visitors become clients.
1. Your website should make an impact on the visitor.
People live fast paced lives nowadays and nobody wants to waste their time. Your website should be informative and provide the viewer with meaningful knowledge about your product or company values. People have a natural inclination to value knowledge and having an informative website will help differentiate your firm, products, and services. Potential customers will be more likely to remember your company, pick it over others, and ultimately flip to clients.2. Make potential customers feel supported
A difficult or frustrating web experience is the number one reason that business is lost in ecommerce. No matter how self intuitive you believe your website is, every potential customer has different preferences and levels of technological skill. It is essential to offer easy to access, live customer support to help combat issues that customers might be having understanding certain aspects of products and services. Doing so significantly reduces the likelihood that customers will leave your company's website frustrated.3. Customers should not have to jump through hoops to make purchases
A clean, easy checkout process is vital in presenting a professional brand image and flipping sales. A poor checkout experience frustrates customers, presents an unreliable brand image, and ultimately increases the number of abandoned checkout carts. Presenting free shipping in the checkout window is an excellent way to encourage purchases and has been proven more effective that significantly higher value discounts. Integrating numerous payment methods is essential in ensuring that all customers have a comfortable way to make purchases.
11/19/2020
Growing an ecommerce business is not easy. Regardless of your company's industry - whether it be retail, manufacturing, healthcare, real estate, etc. - the reality is that ecommerce is not what it used to be. Almost all companies have websites that, at the very least, provide information and branding that helps raise awareness about products and services. The first, and most important, step to increasing business and customer loyalty is having a strong, easy to navigate website with great customer support. After all, companies that do not have this will anger customers and push away prospects. However, getting your beautiful website experience in front of people can sometimes be difficult in today's crowded ecommerce landscape. Here are 5 effective ecommerce marketing tactics to help increase website traffic:
1. Reflect
Understanding your company's current strategic advantages and value propositions is a must. These change constantly, so it is important to reflect on why your customers are loyal regularly. This means conducting scheduled SWOT analyses and other reflectional activities internally. After all, if you don't understand what clients believe sets you apart, you won't be able to articulate a strong pitch.
1. Reflect
Understanding your company's current strategic advantages and value propositions is a must. These change constantly, so it is important to reflect on why your customers are loyal regularly. This means conducting scheduled SWOT analyses and other reflectional activities internally. After all, if you don't understand what clients believe sets you apart, you won't be able to articulate a strong pitch.2. Understand Your Customers
Customer feedback and outreach is crucial, today more than ever. Not only will this make customers feel valued, but understanding the consumer views on every aspect of the way your business presents itself is necessary to maintain an effective branding strategy or make necessary changes. After all, people always want to be heard.3. Understand Your Competitors
Everyone knows the saying, "keep your friends close and but your enemies closer". While competitors are often far from enemies, it is important to regularly monitor what marketing strategies they are employing and if they are successful. Conversely, it can be helpful to understand what isn't working in terms of PR and marketing for these firms. Understanding competition is essential and can be very helpful to help avoid costly mistakes and uncover growth opportunities. Big tech does this all the time!
11/13/2020
This past Wednesday marked "Singles Day", a shopping holiday of Chinese origin that has spread in popularity across Asia. Based on total sales, this holiday is considered the most popular shopping holiday in the world, dwarfing Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Super Saturday, and Boxing Day. Because of its timing roughly two weeks before black Friday and the official start of the holiday shopping season, Singles Day has been a good indicator of shopping trends. This is especially true this year, as the global COVID 19 pandemic poses the same threats to safety everywhere around the globe.
In the face of the pandemic, ecommerce sales on Singles Day smashed previous records. Alibaba posted its staggering single day sales record of over $75 billion USD, up 26% from last years sales. Other, smaller, firms had similarly impressive results. Consumers from the United States ranked first globally in gross merchandising volume, further suggesting that these record breaking trends will continue during the holiday season domestically.
The ecommerce sector understands the projected spike in demand over the next two months and is preparing accordingly. Roughly one third of Americans indicated that they intend to complete holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. It is essential to make sure that your website can handle a prolonged surge in traffic and sales. Furthermore, shipping information systems and logistics should be air-tight to ensure speedy delivery of products. After all, there is nothing that will turn a holiday customer away faster than the late delivery of a gift.
The surge is coming this season, there is no question about it. Is your company ready? Are you confident in your website presence and capabilities?
In the face of the pandemic, ecommerce sales on Singles Day smashed previous records. Alibaba posted its staggering single day sales record of over $75 billion USD, up 26% from last years sales. Other, smaller, firms had similarly impressive results. Consumers from the United States ranked first globally in gross merchandising volume, further suggesting that these record breaking trends will continue during the holiday season domestically.
The ecommerce sector understands the projected spike in demand over the next two months and is preparing accordingly. Roughly one third of Americans indicated that they intend to complete holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. It is essential to make sure that your website can handle a prolonged surge in traffic and sales. Furthermore, shipping information systems and logistics should be air-tight to ensure speedy delivery of products. After all, there is nothing that will turn a holiday customer away faster than the late delivery of a gift.
The surge is coming this season, there is no question about it. Is your company ready? Are you confident in your website presence and capabilities?
10/28/2020
In an age where Instagram influencers, TikTok personalities, and Youtube bloggers are among the world's most famous celebrities, advertising is constantly evolving to maximize reach. A recent trend in the incubation stages in the U.S. is interactive, live advertising and shopping. This form of advertising has influencers promote and use products on a live feed, interacting with viewers by answering comments and often giving away samples. For the same reasons that Twitch streamers and Youtubers are able to sell merchandise and subscriptions, live advertising has been relatively effective at reaching and selling to a target audience.
Already a large market in China, where live advertising has been responsible for over $65 billion USD in revenue to date, Amazon launched its live platform in November 2019. Influencers are encouraged to apply, where they are accepted or declined based on social media followers and engagement rates. These influencers are live for up to 8 hours a day, where they work for a small base salary plus commission for products sold their live streams.
While not a mainstream promotional method yet in the U.S., live advertising has seen impressive results overseas and offers a relatively inexpensive method to reach a segmented audience.
Already a large market in China, where live advertising has been responsible for over $65 billion USD in revenue to date, Amazon launched its live platform in November 2019. Influencers are encouraged to apply, where they are accepted or declined based on social media followers and engagement rates. These influencers are live for up to 8 hours a day, where they work for a small base salary plus commission for products sold their live streams.
While not a mainstream promotional method yet in the U.S., live advertising has seen impressive results overseas and offers a relatively inexpensive method to reach a segmented audience.
10/06/2020
Everyone knows that ecommerce marketing is a game of numbers. Your company probably has a general formula for how many page visits result in sales for both organic and paid advertisements. Here are three vital ways to increase the number of website visitors become clients.
1. Your website should make an impact on the visitor.
People live fast paced lives nowadays and nobody wants to waste their time. Your website should be informative and provide the viewer with meaningful knowledge about your product or company values. People have a natural inclination to value knowledge and having an informative website will help differentiate your firm, products, and services. Potential customers will be more likely to remember your company, pick it over others, and ultimately flip to clients.
2. Make potential customers feel supported
A difficult or frustrating web experience is the number one reason that business is lost in ecommerce. No matter how self intuitive you believe your website is, every potential customer has different preferences and levels of technological skill. It is essential to offer easy to access, live customer support to help combat issues that customers might be having understanding certain aspects of products and services. Doing so significantly reduces the likelihood that customers will leave your company's website frustrated.
3. Customers should not have to jump through hoops to make purchases
A clean, easy checkout process is vital in presenting a professional brand image and flipping sales. A poor checkout experience frustrates customers, presents an unreliable brand image, and ultimately increases the number of abandoned checkout carts. Presenting free shipping in the checkout window is an excellent way to encourage purchases and has been proven more effective that significantly higher value discounts. Integrating numerous payment methods is essential in ensuring that all customers have a comfortable way to make purchases.
1. Your website should make an impact on the visitor.
People live fast paced lives nowadays and nobody wants to waste their time. Your website should be informative and provide the viewer with meaningful knowledge about your product or company values. People have a natural inclination to value knowledge and having an informative website will help differentiate your firm, products, and services. Potential customers will be more likely to remember your company, pick it over others, and ultimately flip to clients.
2. Make potential customers feel supported
A difficult or frustrating web experience is the number one reason that business is lost in ecommerce. No matter how self intuitive you believe your website is, every potential customer has different preferences and levels of technological skill. It is essential to offer easy to access, live customer support to help combat issues that customers might be having understanding certain aspects of products and services. Doing so significantly reduces the likelihood that customers will leave your company's website frustrated.
3. Customers should not have to jump through hoops to make purchases
A clean, easy checkout process is vital in presenting a professional brand image and flipping sales. A poor checkout experience frustrates customers, presents an unreliable brand image, and ultimately increases the number of abandoned checkout carts. Presenting free shipping in the checkout window is an excellent way to encourage purchases and has been proven more effective that significantly higher value discounts. Integrating numerous payment methods is essential in ensuring that all customers have a comfortable way to make purchases.
09/30/2020
Recently, VC companies have been buying many distressed American retailers. In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, co-founder of Retail Ecommerce Ventures, Tai Lopez, claims that the biggest trend among distressed retailers today is, "not betting enough on ecommerce". His firm has recently acquired major American brands such as Pier 1, Modell's Sporting Goods, Dressbarn, and Linens-n-Things. The main part of turning these companies around has been leveraging a trusted brand name while revolutionizing the ecommerce experience for customers. This allows these companies to slash overhead, while modernizing provide a convenient shopping experience for customers.
Over 100,000 small businesses have closed in the U.S. since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. While Lopez works with major nationwide retailers, his blueprint can be scaled down to small and medium businesses. Providing a convenient ecommerce experience to customers helps to keep loyalty while expanding demographics. Doing so is essential to both surviving and thriving under current market conditions. Furthermore, experts claim that these conditions are indicative of the future of business. Many predict that the future of shopping and working has forever been changed in 2020, with many people prefering shopping and working remotely.
Over 100,000 small businesses have closed in the U.S. since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. While Lopez works with major nationwide retailers, his blueprint can be scaled down to small and medium businesses. Providing a convenient ecommerce experience to customers helps to keep loyalty while expanding demographics. Doing so is essential to both surviving and thriving under current market conditions. Furthermore, experts claim that these conditions are indicative of the future of business. Many predict that the future of shopping and working has forever been changed in 2020, with many people prefering shopping and working remotely.
