Manufacturers and electronic commerce: barriers and opportunities

13/12/2017

Angela de la Vieja

Since its inception, electronic commerce was dominated by retail companies. These companies, as solid B2C business models, were the pioneers in looking for that same consumer and new ones on the internet to offer their products and services. It is true that they had to adapt their businesses to the electronic environment, but as consumers matured and adopted online shopping as a routine, ecommerce has been consolidating and growing.

Overcoming barriers: maturity and complexity of decision makers

Now that consumers have matured digitally, it turns out that those consumers of B2C e-commerce have similar expectations when they have a B2B buyer role. And this is one of the motivations for manufacturers and suppliers to accelerate the pace to sell online: B2B buyers want to do online transactions and are prepared for it. The maturity of buyers is no longer a barrier or an excuse for manufacturers not to sell online.

Perhaps the existence of a complex form of decision or, rather, the existence of multiple decision makers is a challenge that many manufacturers must face and is often perceived as a barrier. In a B2B decision-making process, different people may intervene and make different parts of the decision. For example, in a purchase process, there will be a business buyer role that influences the first selection of a product, and perhaps another buyer role with a financial profile that influences the price and delivery time. This usual situation in B2B businesses can be faced by manufacturers with the conceptualization of a very clear purchasing process and with a robust account management, which allows the corporate buyer to define their own purchasing scenario. In this way, the users of a manufacturer ecommerce define the roles, the authorization ranges and even create purchase rules for their own account according to their responsibilities.

Maximize opportunities

The increase in sales is the main benefit of the manufacturers that give way to electronic commerce, but it is not the only one. A solid strategy, the right e-commerce platform and a global vision, can allow manufacturers to take advantage of opportunities that were not within their reach, such as access to new markets.

An ecommerce site built in a scalable way and aligned with marketing efforts is the ideal complement to explore new markets and sell in them.

Xiaomi, the large Chinese manufacturer of mobile devices is a good example of this. Its devices reach the market through its network of distributors, but to consolidate and develop new markets such as Europe, it has recently deployed an e-commerce site in Spain and a whole landing campaign. Their first step to landing on European level.

Another large area of opportunity, sometimes not considered by manufacturers, is the ability to have a complete view of the customer, a 360 degree panorama of the buyer. When the buyers make their purchases in ecommerce site, they have many more than their identifying data, their browsing pattern is obtained on the site and their purchasing behaviour.

This is a very valuable asset to understand what the interests of the buyers that can trigger a purchase action are. From this information, a manufacturer can take advantage of countless opportunities, such as adapting the content according to the type of user, prioritizing products or categories in the navigation or search results, highlighting or emphasizing products similar to those already purchased, monitor Competitor prices, send personalized messages, etc.

11/11/2022

Consumer behavior: How can behavior tracking be effective for setting the right pricing strategies?

Behavior tracking is becoming massively popular today. As a result, pricing strategies born from studying consumer behavior are a merchant's dream come true. If done right, it can conquer every market for the business quickly. With abundant data available, the strategic makeover of the pricing models is becoming easy for companies.

What is behavioral tracking, and how is the data beneficial in pricing?

For a quick understanding, behavioral tracking refers to gaining in-depth knowledge and insights into consumers through their web data. Their browsing habits, spontaneous decisions, shopping interests, and preferences come under behavioral tracking.

How can enterprises use customer behavior data?

Companies can use customer behavior data as a tool to strengthen their hold on the market. A customer’s preferences, values, and tendencies allow businesses to work in sync with them through the collected data. Apart from this, customer behavior can also aid in:

Tailoring customer needs for customer retention

Personalization is becoming the heart of a company’s growth. No matter in which area an enterprise is functioning, tailoring the services, products, and solutions is becoming increasingly crucial. Uniqueness and personalization attract the crowd like no other.

Increasing the overall value

One of the best ways customer behavior data affects a business is by upgrading the value of customers for the business. The customer’s characteristics allow the company to target the people that match the business prospects well.

Optimizing every type of content

Everything that is up for digital display requires content. You must have seen companies unveiling their products or services through advertisements and making the initial public appearance. Two essential sales strategies – upselling and cross-selling comes through content optimization.

Pricing Strategy

Last but certainly not least is the influence of customer behavior data on the pricing strategy. The pricing strategy essentially constitutes content derived from data analysis. Companies need to have a dynamic approach to the pricing system to attract the right customers.

17/02/2015

Saint Valentine’s Day, always a good opportunity

V-Day is looming, a long-awaited date for all and also a good occasion for the eCommerce. According the study conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, it is forecasted the average consumer expense that day will be the highest in last years. Furthermore, 25% of them will buy online, which means an increase of 4% regarding 2014 (The US department of Commerce). This is, therefore, a key date where market competitiveness increase and which could be assumed as a big opportunity for our business or, a big fail if we do not adopt the correct strategies.

How to turn this event into an opportunity? To achieve this goal, we need to adapt our prices to this hostile environment, i.e. we need to develop an appropriate Dynamic Pricing strategy that allows us to adapt our prices to the variations produced in supply and demand and to position us ahead of our competitors. In V-Day, the frequency in changes will be higher, carrying it out each hour or even each minute. It is estimated that 65% of leader retailers have the ability to respond quickly at these variations, such Amazon. For this reason, it acquires great importance the correct use of a software specialised in price motorisation of competitors. Do not miss the time and adapt your business to new adversities.

28/12/2022

Which are the best footwear marketplaces to sell on?

Footwear marketplaces are booming. The last decade has seen the launch of new specialized marketplaces with millions of different users. Among them are Spartoo, Sarenza and Farfetch, portals with international reach. Their main value is that they unite hundreds of footwear brands, as well as offering clothes and accessories. Although each has its own characteristics, they are all vertical marketplaces, i.e., they focus on a specific area, and their sales categories are interrelated. For sellers, these portals provide an opportunity to expand sales channels and drive the globalization of their e-commerce business. We explain how to sell on these footwear marketplaces so that you can assess whether they align with your plans for the future and then start defining a possible pricing strategy.