How to transform your B2B digital commerce business to profitability and grow

More than ever, digital commerce is becoming a greater percentage of overall B2B sales. This means organizations need to shift from an “acquisition at any cost” mentality to a focus on generating sustainable, profitable growth.

The first step is to recognize that not all B2B digital commerce growth is the same; only profitable growth builds lasting true value.

The question is, how? This requires investment in commerce software that ultimately helps deliver bottom-line results and provides agile, intelligent solutions that drive profitable digital commerce experiences.

Modern digital commerce solutions drive sustainable, profitable outcomes by enabling B2B brands to create connected, consumer-grade, and adaptive commerce experiences – even for complex B2B purchases. They provide the flexibility to compose at your own pace, innovate fast, and satisfy customers with differentiated experiences.

Simplify buying for profitable B2B digital commerce

Today’s business customers demand a streamlined hybrid experience – where offline and online interactions blend together seamlessly – combined with personalization and powerful site searches that always deliver relevant, actionable results.

Advanced B2B digital commerce solutions make this possible with functionality that gives customers:

1. A front-end portal that centralizes quotes, orders, subscriptions; shows the location of assets in real time, and provides the current status of quote requests, support tickets, and service requests
2. Simplified information access and ordering – by providing one place to take care of maintenance, claims, invoices, replacement parts, documentation, guidelines, and more
3. A way to provide product feedback that’s routed to R&D and product management
4. Self-service options for B2B account registration and management, helping buyers find and view transactional documents related to their orders, as well as invoices and balances
5. B2B punchout capabilities that allow users to start in their company’s procurement system, punch out to a supplier’s online catalog, and save their cart as a requisition in their company’s procurement system

Grow your catalog and capture more share of wallet

For example, the right B2B digital commerce solution can help you turn aftermarket sales and service into a profit center by analyzing order data and proactively recommending complementary, revenue-generating products, services, and spare parts. Modern commerce platforms provide:

• One source of truth for product information, including actual stock levels and delivery timeframes
• A hassle-free order process like one click to order, schedule deliveries and replenishments, and more
• Low thresholds to sales – for example, by making it quick and easy to request a quote and engage a salesperson
• A centralized tool for managing pricing, product catalogs, and product categories, providing a smooth and consistent experience for customers
• Support for bulk orders that simplify repeat orders, large orders, and quick orders

B2B commerce strategy, digital native style

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Optimize B2B digital commerce with self-service and human support

This requires balancing self-service online touch points with sales-assisted customer-interaction scenarios using digital commerce sites and apps along with digital sales enablement.

Advanced commerce solutions help B2B brands strike a balance by:

• Putting self-service and support at the customer’s fingertips with features such as smooth, relevant, and contextual asset management and information, including serial numbers, locations, contracts, 3D visualizations, documentation, and maintenance plans
• Offering support from the front end with intuitive guided buying and human support whenever it’s needed
• Providing assisted service mode and a 360-degree view, which let salespeople get a complete overview of customers and their needs, provide the best assistance across channels, and align the right field and service reps to respond accurately and rapidly
• Enabling cart-based quotes quickly and accurately so customers can simply accept and checkout or negotiate

Build trust with accurate availability data

When customers know they can trust you to fulfill orders in full and on time, it becomes a competitive advantage that keeps them coming back.

SAP Commerce Cloud takes this to the next level by integrating front and back-office processes. For example, available quantities and delivery information is sourced directly from SAP S/4HANA. Customers also can view future availability of products on product detail pages.

Benefits of ERP integration: Connecting powerhouse frontend to core processes

Integrating operational backend data with frontend customer experiences helps companies deliver stellar results that drive bottom line growth + customer loyalty.

Enable customers to control their spend

When customers have one storefront that includes the information they’re looking for in one place, they can self-service, but also control their spend with a business. Leading commerce platforms provide:

• Budget, buyer, and user rights and roles management that allows customers to track spending and control purchases
• Support for transparent, customer-specific pricing using rules, discounts, coupons, and more, all managed centrally in product information management add-on
• Real-time personalization through intelligent selling services and role-based catalog visibility so buyers only purchase what’s appropriate for them
• Flexibility to work with customers to choose the payment methods for specific accounts

B2B commerce’s digital future

For B2B companies, the shift to digital commerce is accelerating. Forrester Research predicts it will grow nearly 11% annually for the next five years, and account for nearly one-quarter of all B2B sales in the United States by 2027.

Brands that make the right choices and investments now will be able to maximize the potential of digital commerce by building a foundation for consistent, profitable growth.

Diane Cloutier, Global Commerce Cloud Champion, Adoption Office, SAP Customer Experience – CRO, co-authored this article.