Turn Data into Dollars with these 6 Tips on Product Data Governance

Turn Data into Dollars with these 6 Tips on Product Data Governance

by | Feb 5, 2022 | Commerce Strategy, eCommerce Platforms

I’ve been there. You’re staring at a seemingly impossible amount of data in Excel with no idea how to eat the proverbial elephant. You know that you need structure; you know that data is everything to grow your eCommerce channel and maybe you aren’t entirely sure why. You hear experts talk about “data quality” and “data governance” and quite honestly, you just want to sell more of your product and ensure your site is following best practices for your customers. 

Amy Buchanan

Amy Buchanan

Business Analyst

Hi, my name is Amy Buchanan, and I am a product data geek. I have served in various roles in a data steward capacity, and I love to help companies solve the puzzle of their product data. Salsify Certified and experienced in other product data solutions, I am one of many team members at Redstage that can help your company increase revenue, increase conversion, and optimize your systems for success.

It can be challenging to sell process and back-end systems improvements to senior leadership. The systems are not customer facing and they aren’t bringing anything new and shiny to your website to draw in a customer. Yet as everyone knows, if your house foundation is damaged or faulty, you are likely facing some serious (and costly) issues. Maybe not today but in the future, as your business grows, suddenly you find yourself with a huge mountain of data and no way to consistently manage or gain valuable insights. It’s also common that your company has gone through a merger or acquisition and now you’re faced with multiple sources of data with no strategy to consolidate it into a unified experience for your customers.

We’ll get started with a few tips, to at least make your research efforts more targeted. Need more help? Feel free to reach out to our team and we can get you connected to our Redstage experts.

1. Fix the Foundation – Invest in Structuring Your Data

data structure is the foundation of your business

Depending on the current state of your product data and what system capabilities you have today, you may be able to start applying some structure and getting immediate results.

Question:

Do you have product data attributes that you could clean up and make into a drop-down list?

Each industry is different, but here’s an example applied in the clothing industry:

Clothing is often bucketed in size ranges on websites to help customers browse to the section that applies to them. You may see values like:

  • Men’s
  • Women’s
  • Boys’
  • Girls’
  • Unisex

Or values such as:

  • Adults’
  • Youth
  • Kids’

That seems straightforward. However, if your data is not normalized, perhaps from different sources, you may also see values like:

  • Men’s
  • Mens
  • Men

While to a human reading this list, we will interpret these values as the same thing, your systems cannot.  This will lead to miscategorization of the products due to the redundant filter/attribute values.  The customer may be confused, and they may even abandon their session if this lack of organization occurs as a less effective user experience…and that turns into lost revenue for your organization.

2. Call the Experts – Implement a PIM Solution

pim experts

You’ve tried MS Excel; you’ve tried outdated data warehouse tools. Maybe you even tried to build an MS Access database to add structure to your data, and it just isn’t enough. You have too much volume or even too much complexity to your data and you need help and fast. 

There is good news! There are a variety of PIM (Product Information Management) or MDM (Master Data Management) tools out there that will suit your business. The organizations that support these systems have done all the heavy lifting of providing you with a tool to help your business, and all your team needs to do is work with an implementation team to configure and stand one up. Depending on the size of your product assortment and organization, a typical PIM implementation can take anywhere from 3 to 12 months, and it is well worth the investment.

As you stand back and look at the structured data, workflows to review and approve data, various channels you can create to customize data for different sources, you will see how your team will be able to move faster and reach those company sales goals easier.

3. Does Your Data Speak SEO? – Optimizing Your Data for Search

is your product data SEO friendly?

Your website data may be pristine, but if search engines like Google cannot find it, then you will always be chasing how to get more traffic on your website. If you aren’t sure where to start, Redstage can make some suggestions on SEO partners that can help put together a strategy and plan to get your website where it needs to be.

You can also leverage resources on schema.org to ensure that your website is using the correct markup – that’s the language the SEO Crawler likes best. You can also use the work you put in step one to increase the SEO value of your website. By giving your products the titles that your customers are searching for, you are more likely to increase your ranking in Google Search Results, which means an increase in organic traffic to your website. More customers very naturally lead to an increase in sales!

4. Cross-Selling and Upselling – What does that have to do with Product Data?

selling related products based on customer preferences

While you can manually associate products to one another using your CMS (Content Management System) tool, this can be a time-consuming manual effort. If you have taken the step to implement a PIM solution, many products out on the market will also allow you to create relationships between products.

These relationships can often be created manually or dynamically leveraging how the products are categorized in your PIM. You may have a product that has some accessories you want to suggest to your customers for an upsell opportunity. Or there may be related products (like similar brands or items in the same category) that you want to make available to your customers. Many eCommerce platforms also automatically assist you with this step by offering widgets to display popular products (based on website sales) or even feature new products (based on when products are added to your store) right on your home page, without any additional effort.

5. Use Analytics to Understand Customer Behavior

use analytics to make sure you're servicing customer wants

You probably already have Google Analytics set up on your website, and if you do not, go do that after you read this post!

Question:

How are your customers searching for products?

Make sure you use their words in your website content. Another thing you can do for a quick win is identify which attributes your customers use to shop for your products, and make sure they show up in the filters on your website and are included in your website’s search criteria.

Attributes such as:

  • Size
  • Color
  • Flavor
  • Battery Type
  • Frequency
  • Power
  • Height
  • Width
  • Length

…or whatever attributes suits your products and customer expectations.

Perform some competitive analysis using a tool like Google Trends (for example) or see how your competitors are structuring their data. This type of data can usually be identified from an existing data set if you have written a description of your product on your website’s product detail page. Once you have these attributes separated out, you can also use them to create a more personalized experience for your customer and get them to the content they want, quickly, so they can click “Add to Cart” and make their purchase.

6. Data Ownership – Accountability Ensures Your Business Stays on Track

entrust product data ownership to one person to ensure it gets the care it needs

So, let’s say you perform step 1-5 and you are really proud with all the work your team has put in to get your website product data in good shape. Does that mean you’re done? Unfortunately, not yet.  We would suggesting having someone in your organization to continually monitor your data quality and data completeness, so everything is continuously optimized.

By assigning data owners to different aspects of your product data, you will ensure that someone is continually monitoring and ensuring that your product data meets your company guidelines and fulfills your business goals.

For example, if you have compliance needs, it’s a common best practice to ensure you have a team member that can validate data from a safety and hazardous materials perspective. This may be within your legal department or even an outside agency. Establishing processes to validate new products going to the website can be facilitated by a PIM solution, and periodic review can also be performed to ensure that you catch any compliance concerns before they turn into costly legal issues.

Phew! I know this can seem like a lot and whether you just need some guidance or if you are looking to create a partnership with a team that will be your Sherpa up Mount Product Data, please let us know how we can help you!

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The Hurdles of B2B eCommerce and How to Overcome Them

The Hurdles of B2B eCommerce and How to Overcome Them

by | May 27, 2021 | Commerce Strategy

Large-scale digital transformations, while increasingly necessary in a growingly digital world, can be daunting and nerve-wracking projects that take a lot of time and investment from many different departments of your business. In the B2B world, these initiatives seem to face even more pushback due to the reluctance of change and adoption of eCommerce in many B2B organizations. Many businesses avoid taking the plunge to really invest in their digital channels due to the risks and fear of failing.

 

After over a decade of experience with these large-scale projects, Redstage CEO Adam Morris and Head of Digital Transformation Matthew Jasper know a thing or two about why companies are reluctant to start an eCommerce initiative and why some of these projects do not come to fruition. Having served over a hundred enterprise companies, from small and mid-market organizations to billion-dollar enterprises, they shared with us what obstacles usually keep organizations from succeeding in Digital Transformation and eCommerce projects.

 

In the first part of this in-depth interview, we will discuss why companies have been avoiding starting these transformation initiatives even in the “new normal” of an almost entirely digital world and what to make sure teams focus on to make sure the project reaches its full potential.

 

 

Why Are B2B Organizations Reluctant To Start Digital Transformation Initiatives?

 

 

I think the challenge is that a core function for us as human beings is that it’s difficult for us to act for the future, right? We’ve been discussing the changing demographics and needs of the buyer with our B2B clients, and it’s something that you can’t really see. When you’re not investing in a digital sales channel, and you’re using traditional methods, it’s hard to see that what are the downstream effects of these changing demographics and needs. What are the downstream effects for your customer experience, for digital natives that are coming in to be your main source of buyers? And what happens is this change happens slowly and is sometimes hard to perceive or see coming.

Adam Morris

CEO, Redstage

Yes. I think one key element is, are companies being proactive about going to kind of a digitally transformed eCommerce strategy? Or are they being reactive? And that, I think, is really what has kept most B2B companies on the slow side in the past. Prior to the pandemic, in order to digitally transform their business, they needed to be proactive and build a roadmap in advance to build out an eCommerce strategy. And most of them didn’t do that because they were chasing the latest thing to react to. But with the pandemic, ultimately, the solution has been digital transformation and eCommerce services to help keep the traditional businesses afloat, leveraging web sales and online sales in that respect.

So ultimately, this strategy has to be shifted from a reactive to a proactive one. So obviously, the pandemic has accelerated a lot of those types of initiatives that should have been happening over the course of the last five, ten, even twenty years, which some of these companies have been around for. But, the B2B space has been some of the last industries impacted by digital transformation in part because they were a little bit downstream or a little bit further nested into supply chains and distribution strategies for some of these other companies. So, they’ve been impacted a little bit further behind, as opposed to the business-to-consumer side of industries. But, that’s partially why they’ve been a little bit slow to react, is because they could get by with business as usual for longer.

Matthew Jasper

Head of Digital Transformation, Redstage

So there are three functions at play when thinking about digital transformation; you’ve got driving new revenue, you’ve got cost savings that might be missed opportunities by not investing in the digital channel, and you’ve got customer attrition issues. From the changing demographics and needs of especially the younger generation of B2B buyers, it’s really hard for some companies to quantify, and then the question becomes who owns that change, right?

Normally, if you’re talking about driving new revenue streams, well that’s traditionally the sales team in a B2B environment. The challenge there is the sales team, a director of sales, a chief revenue officer, their job is really mainly building driving sales teams. Personnel and people management. What is the sales strategy? What’s the funnel-managed pipeline? It doesn’t really include the expertise or KPIs around digital sales. It also has operational ramifications, right, so you need to involve operations, even though they don’t have revenue or sales as KPIs. You also have I.T. that might try to get involved, the CIO is really looking at how to enable business strategy and how to reduce costs. So, this is a cross-functional strategy that I think between the difficulty and challenges of quantifying what the digital transformation will hold for the business, as well as not having a true clear owner inside the organization, it makes it really challenging.

And now, we kind of look at the environment sort of in a post-pandemic world, where we’ve seen the conversation change a lot to okay, well we have to transfer. We’ve seen that the world has to have the digital capability, so we know that we need to change. We need to do five years of transformation that we should have been doing, in one year now. But the interesting part about that conversation is if you dig into why we need to change, the answer is sort of simply well because we have to.

Adam Morris

CEO, Redstage

Yes. I just got off a call with an essential client on the sales side, where they were asking this exact question. They said we know we need to build out a digital solution, and we haven’t done it yet. So, should it live with sales? Should it live with I.T.? Should we build a dedicated digital team or a dedicated eCommerce team? What should we do?

And ultimately, the way which I told them to think about it is you’re building an entire parallel startup that touches all of your business processes. But, there’s going to be somebody who is ultimately accountable for it. Whether it’s the chief marketing officer or the head of product, there’s somebody that’s going to have ownership of this element of the business, but it’s going to touch each individual element of your business. So, if you are the eCommerce operations manager, you might be tasked with figuring out things like how do we get our warehouses or business processes in order to make the digital solution a little bit more efficient? If you are on the marketing side, you might be tasked with figuring what paid advertising solution to use to drive traffic to our website. What does building our marketing pipeline look like on the B2B side of things? What does an Omnichannel marketing strategy look like to drive traffic to our site and then get people to convert? 

So every single element of the business needs to have a stake in the process for a digital transformation when going from a traditional business to a digital one. That comes from buy-in across leadership, as well as accountability for individuals either on the sales or marketing side. 

Matthew Jasper

Head of Digital Transformation, Redstage

Matt, I have something to add there too. You mentioned the word startup, and it’s a very interesting conundrum, and I think this is a blocker for a lot of transformations, especially why B2B companies are so slow to adopt or adapt or transform. We work with mostly larger enterprises, right? And a big challenge is when you’re creating something new, or you’re evolving something that’s in its early stages of maturity, you have to be able to react more entrepreneurial, more agile, right? You have to be able to iterate, you have to be able to test, and you have to move.

So if we’re talking about enterprises, where is this owned? Is it owned by the business unit head? A lot of these business units are mature. You don’t move quickly on purpose, you’re careful and methodical, and that’s going to lead to your success in a mature business. So, how do you balance creating this sort of entrepreneurial iterative culture in conjunction with your I.T. organization that’s going to want to be more methodical? With your business strategy, with your planning and forecasting. All of these things are often at odds with each other, create conflict and create roadblocks. So I think it’s important to acknowledge those issues, and set up a plan and roadmap, and get everybody on board that this is an iterative process. Understand which processes of the core business are going to need to break or need to change, or need to diverge, from what has made us successful to this point.

Adam Morris

CEO, Redstage

Yes, and one last point on that startup mentality versus mature business. Some of our clients have been around for hundreds of years, even. Where they’ve built a model over time by being focused on certain core activities and solving very specific business problems, and building long-term trusted customer relationships with their particular ecosystem. So, given that they’ve been around for so long, they’ve been at a certain scale of business. If you’re generating, you know, a billion dollar’s worth of revenue from traditional models, building a website to sell your products online may disrupt the apple cart, so to speak. Where you lose a little bit of that exclusivity of that trusted partnership with some of your supply chain or your distribution network. So, there’s an element of risk from a B2B customer perspective, whereby opening it up might be weakening some of those ties that have been some of the elements of your secret sauce.

Because of that, you need to navigate that carefully and manage that customer expectation. Where no, you’re not necessarily disrupting your business-to-business network, you’re just trying to support how that buyer wants to do business. They no longer are looking to necessarily be wined and dined in a COVID era, and instead would rather just go to your website and click purchase or maybe get a quote, and then work back and forth via email, instead of even a phone call at times. So, there’s a matter of how do you meet your customers where they are, without necessarily viewing digital as a risk to the business. Which I think is an important point, and maybe some of the traditional hesitancy pre-COVID, to taking your business model and transporting that online.

Matthew Jasper

Head of Digital Transformation, Redstage

 

 

What did we learn?

 

The major factors holding B2B merchants back from reaching their business’s full potential and maximize sales are unexpectedly simple; several departments in your organization need to buy in for a digital transformation to work, yet you need one business head to own the process and see it to fruition. Finally, you need to have an iterative and proactive mindset to these projects, understanding the future benefit while working in the present to see it through step by step. 

 

Often, organizations can see these projects as daunting and too risky to delve into in the middle of the year, or even to delve into at all. Sometimes, you just need an exterior team to evaluate your processes and look at your organization with a bird’s eye view. Contact Redstage today if you need help starting your eCommerce or Digital Transformation journey.

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Four Ways to Win at Convenience in B2B eCommerce

Four Ways to Win at Convenience in B2B eCommerce

by | Apr 16, 2021 | Commerce Strategy, UX/UI Design

Megan Wenzl

Megan Wenzl

SEO Content Manager

Megan Wenzl is the SEO Content Manager at Linnworks, a total commerce solution that connects, manages and automates commerce operations. Megan enjoys creating useful, informative stories to help businesses succeed. When not writing, Megan enjoys spending time with her family.

 

 

In the world of enterprise B2B eCommerce, ever-changing consumer trends continue to cling to one constant — convenience. 

 

In fact, a convenient buying journey has become the cornerstone for success in B2B eCommerce. But what makes a buying journey effortless?

 

Keep reading for four ways to win at convenience in B2B eCommerce to increase conversion rates and revenue.

 

 

Focus on a Frictionless Customer Experience

 

frictionless customer experience with advanced search

 

According to research on total commerce by Linnworks, convenience is defined by a frictionless online buying journey. In fact, 58% of consumers have stopped using a website altogether if they find it difficult to navigate, and 90% prioritize a trouble-free experience. 

 

So what can be done to create a frictionless CX? Every interaction a user has with a brand needs to be smooth and quick to avoid abandonment. Two of the most critical touchpoints are search and check-out. (Two out of three consumers have abandoned a purchase over complicated search and check-out touchpoints.) Offering smart, advanced search and check-out features will encourage buyers to stay on your site at the beginning of their journey and complete their transaction near the end. 

 

Speed is also a significant player in the eCommerce experience. No one wants to wait for pages to load. To increase speed, it’s essential to upgrade software, consolidate integrations, and minimize extensions. 

 

It’s also critical to increase product traceability and avoid human errors like over-selling by automating inventory management and similar processes. Automating inventory management will speed up the user experience and minimize errors across all channels, creating a more frictionless CX. (Read more about the importance of inventory management here.) 

Personalization is Key 

 

 

Ultimately B2B decision-makers are searching for solutions to a problem they’re experiencing. The buying journey needs to be as personalized as possible for them to feel like your company has the exclusive and best answer to their problem.

 

Employing AI technology to extract data can help automate this process. AI software gathers analytics from search, recently viewed, and purchase history. It can also collect demographics like location, company, email — and more to determine what problem a B2B consumer is trying to solve. Then, this data is used to create the most customized web-based experience possible that provides a solution. 

 

During a recent website migration, B2B enterprise company Sea Bags added a new AI feature to their website that collects data from previously visited pages and recent purchases to help consumers find recommended products. The addition of AI technology to personalize the buying journey was a significant contributing factor to an astounding 53% growth in revenue in just three months. 

Upgrade the Mobile Experience

 

mobile online shopping buying experience b2b

 

With the upsurge of easy-to-navigate eCommerce platforms, consumers have come to expect a seamless omnichannel experience. According to the research from Linnworks, 81% of consumers want a buying journey to begin on one device and end on another — without interruption. And to increase traffic and conversion rates, this seamless omnichannel experience undoubtedly should include updated mobile channels. 

 

The current expectation is that mobile purchasing should be as effortless as desktop. To optimize the mobile experience, focus on sleek minimalist design with features that surprise and delight your users — more specifically, micro-interactions. These seemingly insignificant moments pack a big punch when it comes to keeping buyers engaged (and coming back). 

 

High-end coffee giant Jura Coffee saw a hefty increase in mobile traffic and conversion rates after updating its mobile channel design. After creating an experience that closely measured up to that of the desktop, they saw a 55% increase in traffic and a 44% boost to their mobile conversion rate! With statistics like that, most companies can’t afford to continue offering archaic mobile buying experiences. 

Offer Innovative Features

 

innovative eCommerce features shipping inventory

 

At its core, consumer convenience is rooted in innovation. To keep up with the competition and trends in buyer habits, companies have to capitalize on innovation at every turn. Luckily, the fluctuating landscape of eCommerce affords the opportunity to continually offer buyers new and convenient ways to examine products and make purchases with the push of the button. 

 

B2B distributor The Binding Source worked hand-in-hand with Redstage Business Analysts to create a convenient buying experience for their customers with innovative features. Some of the additions to their website that capitalized on convenience were custom product filtering, advanced shipping options, customer segmentation, and payment storage. The addition of these convenient and innovative features helped increase their conversion rate by 170% in just one month! 

2021 MARKET SURVEY

2021 State of eCommerce Report

Answer 5 quick questions for our 2021 State of eCommerce Report to receive a free usability assessment from Redstage!

Learn More

Conclusion

 

To win at convenience in B2B eCommerce, the primary focus needs to be keeping up with innovation and subsequent consumer demand. If you don’t create a personalized and frictionless buying experience or offer innovative features to meet B2B decision makers’ needs, another company will. Contact Redstage to start maximizing convenience for your buyers today. 

Download the Latest Research from Linnworks for More Insights

 

How to Meet B2B Customers New Expectations in a Self-Service World

How to Meet B2B Customers New Expectations in a Self-Service World

by | Mar 25, 2021 | Commerce Strategy, Web Development

In the age of self-checkouts and one-click online shopping, how many B2B companies are still forcing their customers to order and reorder materials and products through an offline, sales rep only model? The answer will surprise you: 37% of B2B companies are primarily selling through in-person means. Meanwhile, only 41% sell primarily through online, eCommerce buying options.

 

Whether over the phone, through fax, or email, the friction of your buying process is losing customers and revenue. In the rapidly evolving and almost entirely online world, how important is it to allow your customers to serve themselves online with eCommerce?

 

The answer? Extremely, the shift is urgently imperative and unavoidable.

 

With 46% of B2B buyers being in the 25-34 age range, and expected to grow to 75% by 2025, the new largest group in the workforce demands the features they’ve come to expect from buying and selling online themselves, at work.

 

They don’t want to talk to a sales rep.

They don’t want to use a fax machine.

They don’t want to go through multiple hoops to get a quote.

 

So, how do you service a demographic that wants fast, direct buying options without the friction of the typical B2B buying experience? Why should you work to provide the experiences and features this group has come to expect, as soon as possible? Let’s find out.

 

 

Why do you need self-service options now?

 

b2b eCommerce self service options

 

Changing buyer expectations, both due to COVID-19 and the inevitable shift of millennials in the buying force, is the biggest reason why B2B companies need to start providing online self-service buying options.

 

“During the pandemic, it was revealed that all communications, even purchasing through a business, can be done digitally,”

– Redstage CEO Adam Morris.

 

Now that these faster, easier, and more convenient channels of selling have been proven to be able to be done, they are now the expectation of buyers. What used to be “nice-to-have” features, like advanced site searching capabilities, product filtering, and shipping options, are expectations for the new generation of B2B buyers. Let buyers speak for themselves, as Demand Gen Report’s B2B Buyers Survey found that 67% of B2B buyers surveyed said they wanted easier access to pricing as one of their top desires in the buying process. It’s never been more important to invest in your online buying portal or eCommerce operations.

 

 

2021 MARKET SURVEY

2021 State of eCommerce Report

Answer 5 quick questions for our 2021 State of eCommerce Report to receive a free usability assessment from Redstage!

Learn More

Another one of the biggest things you’re missing out on but not fully utilizing digital self-service buying options is capturing quality, actionable, and insightful data from your customers. Without this extremely valuable data, outlining how your customers move from product to product, how they interact with checkout, when they checkout, and more, you are unable to optimize the sales process to its full potential. 

 

Australian-based, packaged explosives materials manufacturer Orica has its materials in 1,500 explosions per day. Up until very recently, the data for these materials was kept on pen and paper, according to the Harvard Business Review. Orica decided to invest heavily into digitizing this data into one source of truth, allowing for more efficient model development, post-blast measurements, and product analytics. Their new data hub, endearingly titled Blast IQ, is said to provide “benchmarks and insights to ensure sustainable, cost-effective improvements in performance.”

How Do I Get Started?

 

 

Ultimately, in order to provide a buying process with minimal friction, that captures insightful and impactful analytics, and is easily scalable and sustainable you must invest in digital, self-serving buying options through eCommerce. It begins with overcoming what we call “technical debt” and investing in upgrading your current infrastructure, check out this on-demand Q&A our Senior eCommerce Platform Expert put on explaining technical debt here.

 

This paves the way for implementing digital options like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), or many other digital solutions for complex business operations. Streamlining and automating these processes opens the door to increased flexibility to scale, increased productivity, and revenue growth.

 

 

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8 B2B eCommerce Resources You Need To Bookmark Now

8 B2B eCommerce Resources You Need To Bookmark Now

by | Sep 28, 2020 | System Integrations, UX/UI Design

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”<span class="su-quote-cite">Jeff Bezos, Amazon</span>

eCommerce juggernaut Jeff Bezos knows the importance of the customer experience better than anyone. How does Amazon continue to innovate in this area year over year and lead the pack? For one thing, Amazon acts quickly to move on to new trends in buyer habits. For B2B eCommerce companies, being late to the party means losing authority and customers to competitors.

 

The most pressing questions we get from clients and partners are: How can B2B companies differentiate themselves from the competition? How do these companies attract and retain customers? What trends in the industry should we be aware of and take advantage of? If you share these concerns, look no further!

From eCommerce features that make revenue explode to areas B2Bs are investing for the year ahead, we’ve compiled our top tips and insights from 2020 in our latest B2B Round-Up! Take a look.

 

5 Must-Have B2B eCommerce Features of 2020

 

must have b2b eCommerce features

 

“According to TrustRadius, 45% of the B2B buyer demographic is 25-34 years old. This makes them the single largest demographic of B2B buyers today. But what does this mean for you, the B2B seller?

As buyers grow more accustomed to better customer experiences provided by top eCommerce platforms, there’s a growing number of features this new generation of B2B buyers has come to demand from their suppliers. In order to grow your sales pipeline, retain, and attract these buyers you should seriously consider these 5 must-have B2B eCommerce features.” — Read More Here

 

10 On-Site Search Practices to Boost Your B2B eCommerce Business

 

 

“As far back as 2014, 60% of B2B buyers said an on-site search was one of their top three features, with a further 48% of B2B sellers citing enhanced search as a top technology priority. Shoppers who interact with on-site search are typically 216% more likely to convert and generate up to 14% of all revenue. Make sure you’re paying close attention to the way your B2B operation caters to this profitable segment.

This guide will walk you through 10 ways enhanced on-site search can be used to help B2B retailers earn outstanding ROI.” — Get The Full Guide Here

 

7 Ways B2Bs are Investing In Digital During the COVID-19 Crisis

 

 

“While stock market experts work to price in risk, today’s largest retailers, wholesalers, and distributors are doing the same. What are the risks of doing nothing while we ride out the COVID-19 storm? Where and how can enterprise companies re-focus their efforts to guarantee growth once this is all over?

From remote-teams to supply chain automation and even augmented reality, the value of digital enablement has never been more apparent. In fact, only 12% of B2B companies are taking a “wait-and-see” approach to eCommerce as COVID-19 plays out. Here’s what the other 88% are doing today to ensure success down the line…” — View This Report Online Here

 

How to Stay Competitive in the Shifting B2B eCommerce Landscape

 

how to stay competitive in the shifting b2b eCommerce landscape

 

“B2B eCommerce sales are growing 7X faster than any other electronic channel. Yet, only 73% of B2B sellers sell through eCommerce or online marketplace portals today…

What does this all mean? It means there’s still some room for companies to begin their digital transformation, adopt eCommerce, or build industry-specific online marketplaces… B2B’s digital leaders in eCommerce are vastly outperforming their competitors. Digital B2B leaders who adopted online buying opportunities have reported up to 5x revenue growth, 8x operating profit growth, and up to double their return on shareholder growth.” — Find Out More Here

 

3 eCommerce Technologies B2B Sellers Need

 

3 b2b technologies sellers need

 

“In 2019, customers became bolder with their demands and expectations. You may have learned how to satisfy them with evergreen content, site optimization, and fraud protection. However, as 2020 picks up, merchants need to stay one step ahead of the competition by studying trends and going beyond customer expectations.

These 3 new eCommerce technologies help B2B companies boost sales and improve shopping experiences…” — Learn more about all 3 technologies here.

 

2020 B2B Industry Trends: Marketplace, Customer, and Business IT Insights

 

2020 b2b trends webinar

 

In a webinar hosted by CEO Adam Morris, he helps B2B Digital Leaders determine the new buyer personas they must tend to in the shifting B2B eCommerce market. Also, he demonstrates the newest trends threatening to disrupt B2B companies in 2020 and beyond.

Learn more about how to tend to millennial buyers, how B2B marketplaces are taking over, and insights from real merchants on centralizing and decentralizing data. This webinar is a can’t miss opportunity for growth. — Watch this Insightful Webinar Here

 

2020’s Biggest Threat to B2B Companies

 

 

“In manufacturing and distribution, digital is no longer a nice-to-have, but an absolute necessity to stay competitive. In a digitally optimized organization, front-end customer experiences can connect seamlessly with back-office operations. This produces an extremely fast and efficient business environment that customers prefer. A ‘wait and see’ approach is no longer a viable option. It’s an invitation to customers to abandon ship, and an invitation for the competition to outpace you.”

With insights into the biggest B2B verticals from experts with real-life experience, learn more about how doing nothing to enhance your digital capabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic is the biggest threat to B2B companies in 2020. — View the Report Here.

 

39 Genius Ways Manufacturers and Distributors Can Supercharge Their 2020 Pipeline

 

digital sales enablement guide eCommerce b2b

 

In this huge and in-depth sales guide, we’ve outlined 39 easy and genius ways B2B companies can enable their sales teams with digital back-end processes that better serve their customers and make their sales teams’ job much easier.

“A report published by Forrester in 2015 titled “Death of A (B2B) Salesman” justifies its title with a few key statistics. Forrester’s data illustrates a growing trend wherein 59% of B2B buyers prefer to research potential suppliers online, rather than talk directly to a sales rep. Most buyers prefer not to interact with sales reps because they believe salespeople focus primarily on the sale itself (and the commission), rather than providing value and a solution to problems customers face.” Learn how you can use automation and data to supercharge your sales pipelines in 2020. —Get the Full Guide Here.

 

Final thoughts

 

Throughout 2020 and beyond, Redstage is helping B2B companies become digital leaders in their industries. How? With automation, optimization, customization, and elite B2B eCommerce feature sets. If you’re not matching up to new standards, and not looking for the next big trend to elevate your eCommerce initiatives, you’re already behind on the times.

 

Here’s the fastest way to get your own eCommerce channel up and running: Redstage’s B2B Accelerator

2800+ Magento 1 merchants were left open to a massive cyber-attack in September that compromised the data of thousands of customers. If B2B merchant’s biggest drawback for migrating off Magento 1, or simply getting onto Magento 2, is time and cost, then let Redstage help. Read more here about the robust feature set included in our B2B Accelerator Suite, as well as look at the responsive and optimized theme. Contact us today to get started now.

 

 

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