Today, every B2B is subject to similar expectations as top-tier B2C brands: providing customers with multiple channels in which to order, more personalized shopping experiences, and quick delivery of information are essential. The B2B brands that maintain customer-centricity will create a competitive advantage.
But unlike most digital-first B2C companies, many B2B manufacturers are lagging behind—without a clear digital strategy.
To compete in today’s digital landscape, manufacturers and distributors must invest in transforming their product information, customer experience and supporting processes. Traditional marketing techniques and in-person sales conversations are no longer enough to attract and retain customers.
Transitioning your catalog business to an optimized, ecommerce buying experience requires significant resources, but the outcome is well worth it. In this comprehensive guide, we discuss the challenges B2B manufacturers face today and the digital solutions available to solve them.
Keep reading this guide to learn:
The B2B manufacturing supply chain involves several parties, each fulfilling a need or contributing value to the customer. The supply chain may consist of producers, vendors, warehouses, transportation companies, distribution centers, and retailers—just to name a few.
Manufacturers have long used B2B distributors as a means of moving products through the supply chain; however, the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) may significantly change this traditional relationship.
Billions of connected sensors and devices have taken the B2B manufacturing world by storm, and are predicted to continue doing so into the foreseeable future. So, what does IoT mean for the traditional supply chain?
To fully realize the value of IoT and tackle the challenges of today’s B2B marketplace, B2B leaders must be prepared to adapt their relationships with suppliers, employees, and distributors.
Today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving digital landscape comes with benefits and challenges for B2B manufacturers. With new technology and software readily available, CEOs and CIOs must take the step to implement it, offering the B2C experience their customers expect.
However, the expectations to efficiently answer questions and fulfill needs faster than ever before have rendered traditional B2B manufacturing models extinct—forcing manufacturers to face the challenges of adopting new tech that requires quality data.
With digital-first competitors threatening to upend many manufacturers’ longstanding business models, business leaders are turning to the latest technology innovations for answers.
Most manufacturers become either overwhelmed or misled when it comes time to choose from the oversaturated B2B technology marketplace. Tools like cognitive computing, AI, and bots may sound promising, but often are not cost effective or aligned with overall business goals.
The challenge for B2B manufacturers is avoiding fragmented processes, content, and data by choosing the technology that is practical to implement and suits their needs.
New technologies rely on complete, organized, high-quality data. And most traditional manufacturers are dealing with disconnected data and processes, built up over years of technology cycles and business evolution.
Today’s constantly connected, multi-channel, multi-device world requires that manufacturers build an information architecture with the ability to support a continuous digital transformation.
When solving these challenges, many manufacturers lean on a comprehensive ecommerce solution for answers.
Manufacturers have long stayed away from the online selling space, concerned that their products and buying processes were too complex for a B2B ecommerce platform. In the midst of the pandemic (think: supply chain disruptions and store closures), however, many leaders began a necessary shift to digital commerce.
In 2020, total manufacturing and distributor sales grew by just 1.5% to $17.5 trillion. But B2B digital sales grew at an impressive 10.9%, generating nearly $9 trillion .
Manufacturers have begun to leverage ecommerce to provide an easier purchasing experience for customers. Here are a few key tools that most B2B ecommerce strategies include.
Ecommerce solutions give manufacturers and distributors direct access to their customers, while also offering significant opportunities to personalize the entire buying experience. In recent years, these B2B solutions have already started to evolve with the introduction of artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies present a wide range of opportunities for B2B enterprises today and into the future. With virtual assistants and chat interactions becoming increasingly popular tools for customer communication, it’s only a matter of time before more manufacturers and distributors embrace smarter technology.
In Artificial Intelligence for the Real World, Tom Davenport and Rajeev Ronanki discuss three types of AI projects that add value to B2B enterprises.
In the age of the Internet of Things, connected devices and artificial intelligence applications have numerous implications for the B2B manufacturing and distribution industry.
While automation and artificial intelligence have the potential to impact B2B operations, they also have the ability to influence B2B marketing strategies—something many manufacturers struggle to implement.
B2B manufacturers are behind many other industries when it comes to marketing, but consider this an opportunity to get ahead of other manufacturers with a targeted B2B marketing strategy.
With a sound digital marketing strategy, manufacturers will be able to reach more potential customers and encourage them to continue coming back. Similar to B2C companies, B2B companies must use marketing to capture their audience’s attention and differentiate their products and services from competitors’.
Unlike B2C marketing , however, B2B marketing strategies tend to focus on logical messaging (rather than emotional) and span across a longer buying cycle.
Key elements of a B2B marketing strategy include:
Deploying a successful B2B marketing strategy can be overwhelming, especially when most manufacturers must also worry about production schedules and ROI. Luckily, there are organizations, like Earley Information Science, that can help B2B manufacturers and distributors elevate their existing ecommerce and marketing initiatives.
At Earley Information Science, our team of experts regularly helps B2B manufacturers and distributors build the taxonomies they need, clean and normalize decades of data, and design the necessary processes to get data from its source to ecommerce platforms.
Establishing a roadmap to digital transformation is worth billions. In the end, a well-executed B2B ecommerce and marketing strategy allows manufacturers to focus on their customers, leading to an increase in ROI.
Ready to offer a world-class B2B customer experience, but not sure where to start? Download our free whitepaper and uncover the secret to delivering a superior B2B shopping experience.