4 great ecommerce challenges for manufacturers

11/01/2018

Angela de la Vieja

Many analysts anticipated an exponential growth of B2B ecommerce, with chilling global figures: of 6.7 trillion dollars for the year 2020, according to the consultant Frost & Sullivan. The analysts of Forrester Research predicted a sales figure of almost $ 1 trillion only for the US market in its report 'US B2B eCommerceForecast 2015-2020'.

The data, so far, has not been as spectacular as expected, which shows that the B2B ecommerce is still at a very early stage, pending definitive take-off. Manufacturers are still looking for ways to approach B2B ecommerce and in this search there are several challenges that have still to be overcome. These are the 4 most important challenges they face:

1. Direct the consumer or 'direct ecommerce'

In a scenario dominated by technology, manufacturers can learn much more about the interests of customers, about the products that they really want to buy.

It´s true that many manufacturers are still far from their markets and this needs to change to transform a challenge into a valuable opportunity. In addition, most manufacturers conceive 'direct ecommerce' as a way of generating leads rather than as a model that wants to suppress distributors. This makes distributor’s focus on having more reliable relationships with manufacturers, a new opportunity to build closer and stronger relationships between manufacturers and distributors.

2. The complexity of prices

The processes of elaborating budgets or personalized quotes, common in B2B 'face to face', generate very high costs when you want to replicate them to sell online.

As more and more manufacturers move towards automated purchasing systems, complex pricing models and manuals become more expensive and less efficient. Manufacturers of products with little complexity or well-known by consumers already face the demand of customers who want transparent prices.

The next frontier is the simplification of prices, abandon the traditional models of complexity of prices for more complex than the products they have for sale in their ecommerce. This will allow manufacturers to use competitive price monitoring systems efficiently.

3. The relationship between marketing and sales

B2B businesses are complex enough to also think about the disappearance of the seller's role. But with the growth of the use of marketing automation technologies, personalization tools and lead generation techniques, marketing areas are the ones that lead the customer approach and the detection of business opportunities. The sales areas are on the transformation path, aimed at ensuring customer experience rather than leading it, as they did before in 'offline' environments.

There is a gap between marketing and sales, and the challenge for manufacturers is to harmonize functions to close it, in a way that allows them to move consistently towards more complex multichannel environments.

4. IoT, or the internet of things

The study Unlocking the potential of the Internet of Things of the consultant McKinsey foresees that a third of the economic impact that will be produced by the internet of things will be in the industrial sector. Some of these impacts are already visible, such as vending machines that self-manage the stock or integrated control of machinery. Others we will see soon, since they are still in an exploration phase, such as machine-to-machine connectivity networks.

The challenge for manufacturers is to maximize IoT applications and make them leave the factory to connect with the business globally.

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.