“The pandemic raises the stakes for getting this right. It’s not a digital-eats-physical world, but it is a multi-channel world going forward. Online and offline are complements, not substitutes.”
B2B brands have been slowly adopting B2C ecommerce practices and ideas in recent years and forecasters have routinely predicted big growth numbers for B2B ecommerce. But old habits die hard.
Surveys of business buyers, academic and industry research and a look at our own behaviors reveal that now is the time for B2B businesses to level up their ecommerce capabilities. Traditional B2B sales is a sales rep- and phone order-driven system and digitization has been slow.
The pandemic made the transformation urgent as business shoppers began working from home and were open to working with brands offering easy, low-to-no contact and fast online buying experiences.
So, where is everything heading?