In wholesale distribution, offering customers a seamless digital experience – both pre- and post-sale – can give you a competitive edge.
For years, buyer expectations in wholesale distribution have been consumers enjoying the convenience of online shopping. They now expect the same experience when they make business purchases.
Providing your customers with a seamless digital experience is more important than ever – especially as millennials take the lead on purchasing wholesale goods. According to Pew Research Center, this generation now makes up the largest percentage of the workforce. Meanwhile, 73 percent of millennials are involved with corporate buying decisions.
But it’s not just millennials. All buyer expectations are changing. Today’s B2B customers are used to doing everything online – from banking to managing a business. Their reliance on technology impacts how they purchase wholesale goods.
“By 2020, B2B buyers will make more than half of their purchases online.”
For example, more buyers are using self-service portals to make purchases and monitor their accounts. In fact, 86 percent of B2B buyers prefer to use self-service tools for re-ordering, versus ordering through a rep. Meanwhile, Gartner predicted that 85 percent of all customer interactions with an enterprise will be done without speaking to a human by 2020. This means that you must not only have a user-friendly e-commerce site but also a portal that makes it easy for B2B customers to manage their accounts and payments.
And, since 70 percent of B2B buyers have increased their mobile usage significantly over the past two years, your online portals must be accessible on all devices. According to research from Google, mobile usage currently drives or influences more than 40 percent of B2B revenue. As B2B mobile usage is expected to increase, this channel may drive more revenue in the future. Providing customers with a seamless mobile experience can give you an edge.
Distributors’ websites are often limited in their e-commerce and customer support capabilities yet today’s B2B buyers want to go online – from any device – to manage their relationship with you.
Transforming your post-sale experience can help you retain customers, boost referrals, and drive revenue.
By fully understanding the challenges preventing wholesale distributors from achieving financial goals, you can begin to address them – helping you improve your customer experience, gain a competitive advantage, and optimize your cash flow. Changing Buyer Expectations in Wholesale Distribution to Make the Customer Experience Your #1 Differentiator .
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