[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For businesses hoping to stay competitive in a time of unprecedented economic upheaval, buying and selling digitally is no longer optional. As the B2B industry undergoes a historic transformation, businesses who haven’t fully embraced eCommerce should consider this a final warning: the time to evolve is right now.
What’s changing in the B2B eCommerce landscape?
From groundbreaking technological innovations to changing customer behaviors, the B2B landscape has remade itself over the past decade, replacing its expensive and overly complex legacy manual processes with streamlined digital eCommerce solutions.
Now that Covid-19 has all but eliminated in-person sales experiences, even in those sectors where old fashioned paper transactions have held fast (insurance, government, healthcare — to name a few) we are seeing an overnight shift in these formerly entrenched protocols. Digital solutions are dominating in the post-Covid-19 sales era.
Digital Natives and the Millennial Effect
Born between 1981 and 1996, Millennials are omnipresent in today’s global workforce. These individuals, often described as digital natives, have grown up using the technology that’s largely responsible for changing the way we do business — from computers, to the Internet, to smartphones.
With Millennials largely at the helm as the primary B2B decision makers, the industry has seen huge changes in customer behavior — this includes everything from conducting research to engaging vendors to making purchase decisions. Millennials like being in control of their transactions, whether they are searching online, reading reviews, checking out social media, visiting a website, watching product demos, or making a purchase. As a group, the Millennial preference for digital experiences and transactions is beyond dispute.
The Amazon Challenge
Pre-Covid-19, Amazon was already inserting itself into the B2B marketplace in a way that was hurting many SMBs and even many larger players. Why? Because in an online marketplace like Amazon, you have no choice but to sell alongside your competition, with price being the primary differentiator. Today, with eCommerce sales skyrocketing in a post-Covid-19 environment, Amazon’s commanding market share will continue to grow. For manufacturer/vendors’ sales representatives and sales agencies, staying competitive in this radically changing B2B landscape will likely come down to one data point: how well do you sell online?
An eCommerce Answer: Aleran Software
Tech platforms that help sales representatives do their work remotely, which streamline time-consuming administrative tasks, and which allow you to build online marketplaces quickly represent a real way forward for SMBs. Aleran’s software as a service platform was designed to meet the demands of today’s B2B marketplace. That means in addition to helping you run your sales back office and streamline order management, it offers a suite of eCommerce solutions that will have you creating custom websites and clickable product catalogs in minutes. Each part of the platform gives sales agencies, reps and manufacturers/vendors the tools they need to compete and thrive in today’s digital-first sales landscape.
For more information, contact Aleran today to speak with a Consultant or Request a Demo: 952-405-7310.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
