Take Pinterest, which recently enabled shoppable pins and visual searches to make it easier for users to buy products through photo searches versus text. Data indicated that 80 percent of Pinterest users start with visual search and that increased brand loyalty occurs for 49 percent of users using visual search.

Another way to engage ecommerce customers is through enabling triggered marketing emails, such as a welcome note after creating an account or a friendly reminder after a cart abandonment.

Personalized push notifications tailored to a customer’s specific needs, co-browsing during checkout and AR-enabled apps to mimic the in-store shopping experience can also improve the ecommerce customer experience. Read on in Multichannel Merchant for more detail.

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• Easy Returns Process Crucial to Ecommerce Success: UPS

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Over half of B2B online shoppers use loyalty programs, optimizing benefits both for the company and employees.

Fifty-six percent of global businesses are members of loyalty programs, according to the 2019 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper. Benefits in 73 percent of these businesses go to the company itself, while 36 percent said benefits went to employees and 23 percent to customers. Only 16 percent of respondents with loyalty memberships said the benefits went to the person making the purchase.

B2B respondents to the survey purchase a number of products online. Sixty-two percent purchase office supplies; 55 percent technology and electronics; 46 percent cleaning and maintenance supplies; 39 percent apparel, footwear and accessories; 33 percent heavy goods; 24 percent packaging; 23 percent entertainment items; 22 percent groceries; and 21 percent components and materials.

Not surprisingly, 88 percent research items before purchasing online, with the majority going to a merchant’s website (45 percent) or search engines (42 percent). Price comparison websites (35 percent), Amazon (23 percent) and procurement portals (16 percent) are also resources.

Product quality was the most cited aspect of choosing a supplier (64 percent), a variable that went up even more if a business was purchasing goods for resale (71 percent). Supplier reliability (47 percent) and low cost (43 percent) were also important.

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Respondents weren’t afraid to look outside of their home country to get what they wanted. Sixty-three percent said they had made an international purchase in the last 12 months, with 44 percent citing better prices as the reasons they shopped outside their borders. Forty-three percent made an international purchase because a product they wanted wasn’t available in their country, and 32 percent were looking for something of higher quality than what was on-offer domestically. Total cost and delivery time were the two most important factors in international online buying, cited by 97 percent.

The 2019 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper B2B survey data was collected from a total of 897 participants across 14 countries in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas.

B2B buyers are looking for the same conveniences as their B2C counterparts: Over 44 percent of B2B respondents wanted to shop with online sites that saved their basic log-in information, payment details and delivery preferences.

“What B2B buyers are looking for in their online experience underpins the point that their B2C consumer experiences are shaping their work-time B2B expectations,” said the report. “Though there will be unique capabilities required in delivering an optimal B2B experience—specifically with how businesses manage their budget and quantities—their online expectations are very much aligned to typical B2C expectations.”

Depending on what the type of purchase, businesses indicated they would be willing to accept a slower shipping option in exchange for lower delivery costs (46 percent) or a credit (32 percent).

“Goods that are critical to the business, such as goods for resale or assembly components, are much more time-sensitive than are cleaning products or office supplies purchased for the business,” said the report.

In the event that it is necessary to return something, B2B online shoppers a streamlined process. Seventy-one percent cited simplicity as a top concern, followed by a clear returns policy (67 percent) and free returns (61 percent).  More than a quarter of businesses believe the supplier should pay for returns, even when the return is simply the customer’s decision and not due to a problem or defect.

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The ability to easily make returns plays a huge part in where online shoppers decide to spend their ecommerce dollars, according to a new report from UPS.

Globally, 36 percent of online shoppers have returned an item in the last three months, and 73 percent said the returns process affected whether they would shop again with a retailer, according to the 2019 Pulse of the Online Shopper report.

The study, conducted in early 2019 by PwC, surveyed more than 18,000 shoppers in 15 countries and regions. Fifty-six percent of online shoppers track their deliveries, with Americans being the most active trackers.

About two out of three shoppers (63 percent) ship ecommerce returns directly back to sellers overall. A delay in getting a refund (25 percent) was the biggest returns issue cited by shoppers, followed by having to pay for a return (24 percent) or a delay in receiving an exchange or replacement item (21 percent).

The biggest element in a positive returns experience was free return shipping, cited by 42 percent of respondents. Next was a hassle free returns policy (28 percent), automatic refunds to credit or debit cards (24 percent) and easy to print returns labels (21 percent).

Not surprisingly, 90 percent of online shoppers do research before making a purchase. The most important factors to research were price (79 percent), product details (43 percent) and delivery costs (43 percent).

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Ninety-five percent expect to see all shipping fees and taxes totaled before they complete the purchase. To cut down on those fees, many online shoppers are drawn to rewards programs. About one in five surveyed (19 percent) have more than five loyalty memberships, citing free shipping, members-only discounts and rewards points as their primary reasons for joining.

While shoppers do want convenience, they don’t want to pay for it. Respondents liked next-day deliveries, but will consider incentives for slower shipping. Millennials were the most likely to opt for accelerated shipping, while online shoppers in general showed a low propensity for paying for shipping. Adding items to the cart (36 percent), choosing the slowest transit time (32 percent) and searching for a promo code (32 percent) were among the actions shoppers took to avoid shipping fees.

Nearly six percent of online shoppers have used a marketplace, according to the report; 36 percent of consumers and nearly half of businesses said they intend to purchase more on marketplaces in the next year. Globally, 48 percent of consumers impulse buy on marketplaces.

The most used marketplaces in the Americas are Amazon, Walmart/Jet, eBay, Best Buy and Mercado Libre. Amazon matters tremendously for consumers, even if shoppers don’t decide to buy there: more than half of shoppers with Amazon Prime (56 percent) start their research there, as do 40 percent of shoppers generally. Prime membership is linked to higher average orders as well: the average order cost of all online purchases in a three month period was $207 for Amazon Prime users; $142 for shoppers who buy from Amazon but don’t have Prime; and $131 for those who do not shop on Amazon.

Small businesses are also drawn to marketplaces for low prices (73 percent); shopping efficiencies such as one-click purchases or saved payment details (42 percent); and better return policies (43 percent).

‘The growth of digital marketplaces is extraordinary,” notes Kevin Warren, CMO of UPS. “As recent as the mid-1990s, ecommerce barely existed. Today, it’s a $2.9 trillion industry, growing 24 percent annually. “

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Creating a B2B ecommerce portal highlighting the breadth and depth your products and services increases the number of overall web pages on your site and thus the number of pages accessible to search engines, notes Rilind Elezaj in an article for Multichannel Merchant. Those pages represent future business opportunities as well as sales.

Another added benefit is improved transaction history management for both suppliers and customers, he notes. Customized portals can offer customers easy access to their browsing history, as well as transactions, shipping and tracking data. For B2B marketers, an ecommerce system can enable an easy view into what inventory is on hand and the number of orders coming in.

“It’s a win-win,” writes Elezaj. “They will have more control of the entire process [as well as increased] efficiency and transparency. And, it also eliminates the need of calling to talk to someone just to ask for an update of an order.”

The sales team will as well merit from the launch of the ecommerce effort, he adds. “The B2B ecommerce portal or site will boost the sales teams’ visibility towards the client orders, history and pricing on the road or working from remote locations.”

Before creating a new B2B ecommerce initiative, brands should be clear on what they hope to to accomplish. For example, are you looking to shift existing customers online, or capture new business?

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“For many distributors, shifting current buyers online makes the most sense, as they can achieve immediate cost savings and operational efficiencies,” writes Suchit Bachalli on DigitalCommerce360. “Once they’ve become comfortable with establishing the ecommerce business, they can move on to incremental growth.”

Other points to consider, says Bachalli, include whether you can shift your value proposition successfully online, whether you want to be a partner to an established platform like Amazon Business or strike out on your own, if you can effectively integrate your online and offline buying channels, and, importantly, the options to monetize your ecommerce presence.

“B2B sellers need to put themselves in position to handle channel shift, capture incremental business, and more importantly, compete on the same level of some of the bigger online sellers pushing into the market,” says Bachalli.

The post Using B2B Ecommerce to Boost Global Reach appeared first on Chief Marketer.

An integrated online B2B ecommerce portal is helping United Rentals increase equipment rentals and engage with new customers.

UR One went live about a year ago, to help better integrate the company’s disparate online presences.

“There was a goal of streamlining transactions and interactions,” says Chris Hummel, CMO. “The idea wasn’t to get every customer using 100 percent digital. We wanted to remove friction from touchpoints. Eventually, people who are [only] paying their bills online will buy online—they’ll see how easy it is as they use it.”

Stamford, CT-based United Rentals is the world’s largest equipment rental company, with 1,000 branches around North America. The 21-year-old business owns over $12 billion worth of equipment and reported rental revenues of $2.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2018. It operates in a number of vertical segments, including land moving, HVAC, pumping and storage, and specialty equipment, as well as advanced technology like VR, drones, robotics and autonomous vehicles.

The company’s B2B customer base is broad, serving everyone from local contractors, electricians and plumbers, all the way up to large enterprise oil, mining, manufacturing and engineering companies.

“Because of the breadth of what we offer, anyone involved in construction and renovation usually comes to us,” says Hummel.

Building Connections

Reaching the decision makers at target customers can be a complex task, he notes. In a smaller company, they might be working with one individual who is the owner/manager/operator, while in larger firms there are multiple individuals involved at numerous work sites, including procurement officers, field superintendents, equipment managers, operations personnel and c-level executives.

Unlike many B2B enterprises, where the buying process might be nine months to a year, United Rentals’ sales cycle is relatively short. “More than half our businesses notifies us less than 24 hours before they need equipment,” notes Hummel. “Then, the relationship is built over time—they might be buying in small amounts over lots and lots of [different] contracts. It can actually be a very consumer-like transaction.”

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While the company is undoubtedly the biggest player in the space, because of the number of players in rental equipment, the company actually only has less than 15 percent market share, he says. “There are potentially thousands of players, some ‘mom and pops’ with only a few pieces of equipment.”

The challenge is to reach prospects who aren’t just sitting at their desk. Customers’ days are usually spent in a truck or on a job site. And, each construction site is a unique environment, notes Hummel. Some might be in remote locations or even underground, making it sometimes difficult to reach them.

Awareness of the brand is high, but the mission to make people aware of the breadth of what the company offers is a never ending mission. “Once we have a conversation with someone, they suddenly notice our stickers on all kinds of equipment all over the place,” he says. “ ‘Oh, I didn’t know you offered that’ is a common refrain.”

Digital and content marketing is a huge part of creating that awareness: Hummel says his company’s research shows two-thirds of the construction industry now goes online at some point in the process of renting, whether to research equipment, get a price quote or actually book a rental.

“[Traditionally,] this type of business was typically done over the phone, with people calling first for information, but digital is growing fast,” he says.

Powering B2B Ecommerce and Engagement

United Rentals worked with Acquia and marketing agency VML to develop UR One, a digital platform to offer enhanced B2B ecommerce capabilities to customers, including automated confirmations for reservations, something which often takes days and multiple touches in the industry.

As the company started the process to develop the system, it realized that it had numerous digital properties—including the main website, a B2B ecommerce system, online training portals and a site dedicated to purchasing used equipment—operating as separate applications. A strategy was needed to create a consolidated online experience where customers could not only arrange rentals but do things like track equipment by GPS, reassign vehicles to different projects and check billing and expenses.

Since UR One went live, United Rentals has continued to build out additional applications to engage users, such as dashboards and benchmarking tools, to help customers track things like how much the equipment they’ve rented is actually being used.

They can compare themselves against their peer group and see averages across the UR customer base to see if they’re following best practices, he says. “It’s a way of driving real business intelligence and insight, to help customers make informed decisions about what they need from us.”

Hummel notes that as they developed the platform, they considered the usability of other B2C and B2B ecommerce portals, such as Amazon.

“Amazon is a fantastic buying experience but not a great shopping experience—if you know what you want, it’s tremendous. But if you don’t know, it’s a cumbersome process,” he says. “We made a conscious decision to focus on the purchase experience, help people find the equipment they want, check out and get on their way.”

To that end, UR One offers specialty tools to help decision makers consider all the engineering requirements of what they’re in the market to rent. For example, if you’re renting a generator, you need to understand energy, space and logistics requirements.

ROI is judged through overall site transactions, as well as whether transactions are coming from new or existing customers. The company gained more than 10,000 new customers last year through the site.

Moving into 2019, the company is looking at expanding its branding initiatives with new creative agency partner Droga5, and continues to optimize the B2B ecommerce capabilities of UR One with Acquia and VML through multiple channels, including paid search, social and geofenced mobile initiatives.

The post B2B Ecommerce Portal Helps United Rentals Improve Customer Experience appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Think B2B ecommerce is merely the realm of small office supplies? Honeywell Aerospace, which markets parts for fixed-wing and rotary aircraft, begs to differ.

As DigitalCommerce360.com reports, the $14 billion aerospace arm of Honeywell International launched the aviation online marketplace GoDirect Trade last month. Lisa Butters, general manager of the Honeywell B2B ecommerce portal, told the site that six high-profile brands in the space—Dassault Falcon Jet, StandardAero, Turbo Resources, H+S Aviation, Honeywell Inertial Measurement Units and WG Henshen—have already opened storefronts on Honeywell GoDirect Trade. The goal is to expand that to 100 by the end of 2019.

Honeywell looked to B2C sites like Etsy for inspiration when it came to designing the site, Butters said. For example, Blockchain technology was used to give every listing images and quality documents for the exact part being offered for sale. And, notes DigitalCommerce360, every part is immediately available for sale and shipping, meaning no wait for a seller to confirm availability.

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“If a part was previously used by, say, Delta, that history will be part of the listing—it’s similar to what Carfax does for vehicle histories,” said Butters.

GoDirect Trade currently lists about $68 million worth of products for sale, and that’s expected to swell to $100 to $150 million over the next few months. The average product costs $3,000, with prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to over $1 million, Butters told the site.

Sellers pay an annual subscription fee of $15,000, which allows them to build and brand a storefront. They are not charged a transaction fee, and are not given a limit on the number of product listings they can post.

This isn’t Honeywell’s first foray in B2B ecommerce. Last summer, DigitalCommerce360 notes, it launched MyAerospace portal, offering product specs and info on roughly 1.5 million parts in 20 product categories.

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B2B might not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Walmart, but the mega retailer is making a major B2B play in India.

Business Standard reports that Walmart plans to open 50 B2B stores across the country. The company opened a new B2B fulfillment center at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh in India last week, which sources say would help support the retailer’s B2B ecommerce plans and provide support for Flipkart (Walmart has acquired a 77 percent stake in the grocery chain).

Walmart currently has 21 stores in India, and is expected to have 25 by the end of the year, with roughly three million square feet of retail and warehousing space, Business Standard notes. The moves are part of an initiative to tap into the growing business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce business in New Delhi, as Walmart India President and CEO Krish Iyer told the Hindustan Times.

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“We would launch two stores this year, eight stores next year and 10 stores a year after that,” said Iyer, noting the new B2B fulfillment center was creating 1,500 direct and indirect jobs in the local area. “With this initiative we are taking another definitive step towards building an impactful distribution ecosystem by working with our partners.”

Nearly half of Walmart India’s revenue comes from non-stores sales, which includes B2B e-commerce, associate driven sales and call centers.

Having a strong infrastructure in place to support B2B ecommerce sales is crucial, because B2B customers don’t have time to spare and expect increased efficiencies. As Shawn Arnold writes on Practical Ecommerce, “Keep in mind that B2B customers are not leisure shoppers. They are buying with purpose because their jobs demand it.”

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