How E-Commerce Can Increase Your B2B Sales

How E-Commerce Can Increase Your B2B Sales

B2B companies have always been a little reticent about putting their wares or services online, because they believed that the internet was still not quite at the level that they required for their complicated business needs. However, e-commerce has altered so much over the last few years that it is now perfectly possible for any sort of transaction to take place online, helping B2B companies to reach entirely new markets all around the world without having to stir an inch.

Of course, there are many benefits to expanding your business into e-commerce. It lowers the number of people that are required to take orders, and can increase your sales exponentially. The size of those sales could also mean that your overhead costs, and cost per unit could be lowered, increasing your profit margins. In fact, a study of one hundred American companies that are become involved with B2B e-commerce since 2007 found that almost all of them have noticed an improvement in their customer retention rate, and 90% of them were able to attract new customers through this new medium.

There really are no downsides to expanding your business into the area of e-commerce, and it is really simple to do. Here are three things to bear in mind as you make this transition:

1. Make goals, and keep them realistic.
Although it is almost certain that your revenue will increase, you should not expect to see unreasonable gains in a short amount of time. If you create goals that are completely unattainable, you will merely worry other members of your company, and make it look as though e-commerce is not a sustainable route. With each month, take a stock of where you have come, and make a new goal.

2. Involve the entire team in the change.
This new area of commerce can be strange for those that have become used to the old ways, but the only way that you can guarantee success is by bringing the entire team into the way that you are altering things. That way, everyone can contribute, and support the changes as they go through.

3. Never be afraid to ask for help.
Sometimes, you will require the aid of an outside source in order to fully commit to the change to e-commerce. There are many people and consultants with experience and skills that you would find useful, so do not feel as though asking for someone else's input is going to be detrimental: it is always beneficial.