As B2B organizations seek to raise the ROI of digital commerce, measuring the impact of the online channel on offline sales is paramount.
Ecommerce is no longer an optional strategy for B2B companies. Over the past several years, and certainly since the pandemic, ecommerce has proven to be an essential component of the B2B go-to-market motion. As such, B2B ecommerce is starting to be held to higher standards of return on investment (ROI) and profitability, according to the 2024 State of B2B eCommerce Report by Master B2B, supported by Coveo, Optimizely, and SAP.
In their introduction to the report, Master B2B co-founders Andy Hoar and Brian Beck write, “The discussion is no longer about whether to do ecommerce but how to do ecommerce (specifically, how to do so compellingly and cost-effectively).”
Accelerated ROI Expectations in B2B Ecommerce
Master B2B surveyed over 150 executives involved in ecommerce at B2B organizations, and 64% of them say the timeframe in which they need to show ROI on B2B ecommerce has sped up in comparison to three years ago, which indicates that they are feeling a heightened sense of urgency to produce results.
Most surveyed executives are delivering. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of B2B sellers see improvement in per-order profitability in B2B ecommerce, and 63% are receiving more orders from existing B2B customers, who are generally more profitable than newly acquired ones, the report says.
Technology Investments Driving B2B Ecommerce Growth
Companies are also investing in the technological infrastructure for B2B ecommerce, with 48% of surveyed executives saying they are spending on ecommerce platforms and order management systems in 2024. Almost half (45%) are prioritizing multi-channel integrations, which connect and synchronize systems across distribution channels, and 45% are focusing on web content management systems.
These findings build on the inaugural Master B2B State of Ecommerce Report in 2023, which found that technology for site search and/or recommendations was a priority for 38% of B2B businesses.
The Impact of GenAI in Shaping B2B Ecommerce
Meanwhile, interest in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology has reached fever pitch among consumers and businesspeople alike, so Master B2B asked buyers in the 2024 survey how they imagine GenAI would benefit them in the near term. Eighty-six percent of B2B customers say they would be “very” or “somewhat” likely to use a ChatGPT-like tool to help them find information about the products they’re researching on a B2B website.
“Generative AI is tantalizing people with what it could ultimately mean to shoppers and ecommerce leaders,” writes Coveo’s Andrea Polonioli, senior product marketing manager. “But an important factor to consider is that many of these applications are radically new and their commercial application is both unknown and untested.”
In another post, Polonioli points out that “chat-based shopping assistants may look enticing, but they risk simplifying the rich, multifaceted search experience of top-tier websites, which thrive on helpful, rich filters and user control.” For its part, Coveo is leveraging the promise of GenAI without sacrificing the comprehensive infrastructure that powers enterprise-grade search with Coveo Generative Answering.
Complacency is Risky in B2B Ecommerce
In the U.S., B2B ecommerce topped $2 trillion for the first time in 2023, with an increase of 17 percent over 2022, despite the fact that revenues of B2B manufacturing and distribution companies in the U.S. were flat overall, according to the “2024 B2B Market and Customer Experience Report” from Digital Commerce 360.
The $2 trillion figure represents the revenues from B2B transactions that are completed online but doesn’t account for the contribution of B2B ecommerce to the omnichannel buying process, which involves multiple online and offline touchpoints.
In Master B2B’s 2024 survey, one-third say they start their research for purchases of products or services on the website of a vendor brand. The second-most used resource, the Amazon Business marketplace, is the starting point for 19%, followed by general search engines like Google and Bing at 17%.
Being the first place potential B2B customers go for information gives B2B sellers an edge, but they cannot take it for granted.
According to its parent company, Amazon Business, its B2B marketplace, became “one of the fastest-growing ventures in Amazon’s history” since its founding in 2015. Its annualized sales as of year-end 2023 were $35 billion.
Still, Amazon Business has amassed less than 3% market share in B2B ecommerce, as compared to Amazon’s commanding 40% share of retail ecommerce. No doubt Amazon leaders intend to use what they learned in the domination of ecommerce to take a bigger bite of the B2B business with Amazon Business.
The Master B2B report offers tips for B2B sellers who will inevitably be enduring more competition with Amazon Business: “B2B eCommerce teams need to address buyers’ behaviors at every step of the process… For example, B2B companies must position for where customers are beginning to research a product, how they prefer to interact with sellers for customer service, when they place replenishment orders and reorders, and what types of payment methods they require.”
B2B Companies Must Embrace Omnichannel Selling
Complex B2B transactions were once thought to be too unwieldy to be handled online. While this is still true in some cases, a B2B company’s website is part of the decision-making process regardless of whether the sale is finalized online or offline.“
The clearest rationale for accelerating the transition to omnichannel go-to-market is that industry players demand it,” according to a 2024 article from McKinsey. “In 2017, only about 20 percent of industrial companies said they preferred digital interactions and purchases. Currently, that proportion is around 67 percent.”
But there is still a lingering disconnect between how much B2B sellers think ecommerce impacts offline sales and how much B2B buyers rely on the online channel before they make a deal offline.
Aligning B2B Seller Perceptions With Buyer Behavior
In the Master B2B survey, only 32% of executives at B2B businesses say that more than half of their offline sales are influenced by the online channel. In contrast, 64% of B2B buyers say they research more than half of their purchases on the web before finalizing them offline.
The report also notes that B2B sellers’ hesitance to show prices on their websites is “mystifying” when a vast majority — 87% — of B2B buyers say their companies are asking them to research prices before making a purchase. The same goes for the user feedback that B2B sellers are reluctant to publish online. More than three-quarters (79%) of B2B customers in the survey say that “their companies encourage them to look at ratings and reviews before making a purchase.”
Final Thoughts
The data shows definitively that a B2B organization’s website is more than just an online store, and its success cannot be measured only by the sales made directly on the ecommerce platform.
“It is imperative that B2B digital leaders work with their finance teams to fully measure the impact of their online channel, accounting for online sales in addition to the direct impact digital has on offline sales. These channels work together, they are not in competition,” the report emphasizes.