How to Sell B2B Ecommerce and Take Your Business to the Next Level

April 21, 2021/in E-Commerce, Small Business /by Kevin Richards

What is B2B e-commerce?

B2B e-commerce, short for business-to-business electronic commerce is the sale of goods or services between businesses via an e-commerce portal. Because orders are processed digitally, buying efficiency is improved for wholesalers, manufacturers, distributors and other types of B2B sellers.

Businesses often buy goods in bulk for a lower price and turn around to sell them at retail value. The goods are usually purchased directly from the manufacturer or distributors. This is wholesale, and is a popular form of B2B.

Manufacturers produce finished goods on a large scale by utilizing parts and raw materials in combination with manual labor and machines. In a B2B model, the finished goods are sold to other manufacturers or wholesalers.

A distributor is a person who works closely with manufacturers in an effort to bring visibility to the goods they are producing, with the goal of increasing sales. In an e-commerce model, the logistics of the sale happen online, often through an e-commerce platform. Many manufacturers work with distributors, and taking things digital creates a greater opportunity for growth. Just like other B2B models, distributors are working to shorten the lead time from sale to delivery and create a customer experience that beats customer expectations.

B2B and B2C e-commerce may look the same, but they are quite different. Business buyers and retail consumers have different purchasing needs. Here are some differences:

Buying Impulsively vs. Buying Rationally – B2C buyers will buy on impulse and make one-off purchases, B2B buyers plan for purchases and make recurring purchases
Single Decision Maker vs. Multiple Decision Makers – B2C purchases are decided upon by the buyer, B2B purchases often involve several layers of approval and may involve different departments
Short-term Customer Relationship vs. Long-term Customer Relationship – B2C purchases are often one-off purchases, B2B purchases are based on long-term and on-going relationships

Why should you have a B2B e-commerce website?

You can reduce the overall cost of selling your product to customers, and B2B can even allow you to also move into B2C to sell directly to retail customers.
Your sales will increase tremendously. According to nChannel, B2B eCommerce is predicted to reach $1.8 trillion and account for 17% of all B2B sales in the US by 2023. The industry is twice as big as B2C. And just like B2C, more sales continue to shift from in-person to online.
B2B also increases order values and higher conversion rates. Since they buy in bulk, an average order value of a B2B transaction is around $491, opposed to $147 for B2C. And, conversion rates are higher. B2B websites report average conversion rates at 10%, while B2C experiences are around 3%.
You can grow your customer experience. With an entire catalog of products online, customers have access to more diverse product options than they did before. This also makes it easier to compare and contrast products and provides them access to earlier versions of products to test and trial before purchasing.
Lastly, you have the ability to sell to a lower margin, which allows you to gain smaller clients, and reach more customers.

What to look for in a B2B e-commerce platform

Price lists: Provide “members only” pricing, manage lists of pricing at SKU level, and give wholesale customers a discount when buying in bulk.
Group pricing: Apply discounts only to select groups across categories and certain products.
Manage your customers by location, behavior, etc.
Faceted search: Allows merchants to refine product searches based on multiple attributes like price, color, size and reviews.
Restricting users from being able to access certain content, which will help prevent competitors from seeing the pricing.
Allow customers to quickly reorder when they need to.

B2B e-commerce is still a small part of the overall B2B market but is fast growing. If you don’t set up at B2B website your competitors eventually will. Now is the time to move and be first or early to market.

Ventura Web Design & Marketing has been offering e-commerce and digital marketing services since 1997. Along the way, we have learned a thing or two about how to sell items online. Our dedicated design, development and marketing team would love to work with you.

Contact us online or by phone to find out how your business can take advantage of B2B e-commerce. The phone number for our Tampa office is (813) 556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas office is (702) 515-2057.

2020 Holiday Marketing Trends And Planning

August 28, 2020/in Marketing, Small Business /by Kevin Richards

How 2020 Holiday Marketing and Shopping Are Different

Moved Up Timelines

We see companies release holiday-related products in August. Expect to see holiday campaigns ramp up in September. Get your holiday campaign together now, so you’re prepared for the accelerated timeline.

Even More Emphasis on Online Sales

Shopify broke its 2018 Black Friday and Cyber Monday record with $2.9 billion in global sales. This was pre-pandemic and online shopping has only increased due to safety precautions. It’s not only essential to gear your 2020 holiday marketing to online sales, but make sure your website is optimized to handle an influx of visitors.

Highlight Safety Precautions

In your holiday marketing campaign, it’s important to make customers aware of precautions taking place in the business and if you are offering special services like contactless pick-up or delivery services.

Emphasis on Affordability

It’s no secret that people will be looking for deals this holiday season. You should be tailoring your sales to emphasize affordability.

Experiential Gifts are on the Rise

If you’re a business that can pivot to experiential gifts, it would be the ideal time to do so. Millennials have always loved experiences over tangible things, but it is becoming a more popular trend among other demographics.

Typical Holiday Marketing Timeline

April – July: This is the typical planning phase. This timeframe is where all potential blunders are thought through and mitigated so you can come up with a foolproof marketing plan.

August – September: This is where you start spreading brand awareness with campaigns.

October – December: After you’ve successfully created brand awareness and sales intent, you begin your full-blown holiday marketing campaign to generate revenue.

2020 Holiday Marketing Timeline

Due to quarantine, most companies saw a sizeable decrease in revenue. We’re seeing companies like Starbucks react by releasing their Pumpkin Spice Latte in August, nearly a month earlier than previous years. This is expected to be a trend in the marketing industry to make up for lost revenue.

With this new sense of urgency, it’s imperative to start pushing out a holiday campaign ASAP. Assume the traditional holiday marketing timeline has been accelerated by a month.

Planning Your Campaign

If you need help putting a plan together, we are here to help. We manage various clients’ marketing efforts throughout the year with fantastic results. Contact us online or by phone at (813) 556-7990 to let us know how we can help.

Benefits And Ideas For How To Get Online During COVID-19

August 5, 2020/in Small Business /by Kevin Richards

COVID-19 completely changed life as we knew it. Almost instantly businesses shut down. Gone were the days of running simple errands like going to the dry cleaners or getting a haircut. Grocery stores were still seen as essential, but going seemed like a huge to-do. It required a mask in many locations, capacity limitations, and social distancing practices. All of these changes at the beginning of COVID-19 prompted businesses that had a digital presence to communicate the changes via their websites and social platforms.

As most states are reopening, life as we knew it may not return for some time but it allows businesses the chance to readjust and connect with customers in other ways. With all of these changes and limitations, it is crucial to frequently update your customers. If you don’t have a digital presence you run the risk of losing vital business during this time. This article will discuss how businesses have used technology to communicate, share their safety practices, and manage the perceptions of customers. Learn what you can do to enhance your customer experience during COVID-19 and thereafter.

Benefits Of Having A Website

There are numerous benefits to having a website and social media platforms in general, but it’s especially advantageous during COVID-19. This pandemic requires a company to be flexible and over-communicate to customers’ expectations set by the city and community. Having the ability to update customers on a website or social media outlet is useful since the information is accessible immediately and can be easily amended.

Having a website and social media pages allows customers to find your business easily and makes you seem more credible. According to a Weebly study, 56% of people would not trust a business without a website. Even if you don’t intend to sell anything on your website, it’s still in your best interest to create a website. The website should showcase who you are, what you do, and information people need to know; like where you’re located, and your hours of operation.

Having a social media page allows you to connect with like-minded individuals while a website helps you rank better on Google and other search engines. Let’s use the example of a business mentioned above, dry cleaners. Many cities have multiple dry cleaners within a five-mile radius. When someone searches “dry cleaner in ___” you want to be at the top of that search page. Being at the top makes you more likely to earn someone’s business, not only because you’re the first one they see, but you’re perceived as the better business because you’re in that spot. A Google Mobile Movement Study reported that 88% of people that complete an online search for a business, will call or go into that business within 24 hours. So having an online presence is crucial to bring in more business and improve the way existing customers interact with you.

The benefits of having an online presence include saving on print, collateral, and distribution, improved productivity, and instant and flexible promotion of products and services. When you have a website or social media page the need for print materials is almost nonexistent. The website becomes your print collateral, and social media becomes the distribution of the message.

Productivity will increase when a business invests in a good website and social media presence. The website can serve as an educational tool for customers and employees alike, a well-indexed website will make information easily accessible.

Lastly, if your business chooses to do so, you can sell products online. This can increase your bottom line and expand awareness of your brand to markets other than just the ones your brick and mortar location can reach. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the nation, many store locations were out of stock, and Amazon had reduced sales to only essential items. Many people were home and interested in shopping. However, they did not have many options. Many companies with a robust online presence benefited from increased and new customer sales.

For example, a Winston-Salem based health and supplement small business called House of Health made considerable profits from their website during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. They reached customers in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania whose stores were out of essentials like vitamin C, zinc, and face masks.

How Businesses Are Handling COVID-19 In-Store and Online

Businesses, whether they are essential or not, have posted COVID-19 processes and procedures on their websites and social media pages. Publix, a southeastern grocery chain, has an update banner at the top of their website with COVID-19 news and alerts. Large spaces on their homepage are dedicated to advertising their shop online option where someone can pick out your groceries and you pick them up in-store, curbside, or even get them delivered.

Nonessential businesses, like the Paris casino in Las Vegas, state clearly on their website that they are temporarily closed. They utilize their website to communicate updates on opening dates, safety measures they will, or have taken and link to other casinos that are already open.

Communicating in a timely, clear, and consistent fashion is imperative to keep your customer comfortable during this time. Not only do you want them to know you care, but you want their business when you reopen. If you are open you want to be clear what measures need to be taken for patrons of your establishment.

Assure Your Customers And Your Establishment Is Safe

Many businesses that have remained open or are opening are assuring customers that precautions and cleaning measures are taking place. For example, on many airline websites, they have articles and videos showing the precautions to take when you’re flying as well as their cleaning procedures front-and-center on their landing page.

This type of communication on your website will become the new expectation and norm. As a business, especially one that handles food or requires you to be within six feet of your customer, your website should outline what steps you will or have taken to provide a clean, safer environment for them. Curbside service, delivery, and virtual services are all things that have increased in popularity during the pandemic and should be presented to customers in an encouraging way even if your business is open to the public.

Alternatives To Make Money

If you’re a restaurant try putting your business on meal delivery apps like Grubhub or Uber Eats. Most are offering free delivery or discounts to customers right now, which should be enticing for your patrons.

Many gyms like Planet Fitness are offering virtual classes or workouts through their apps or websites. If your business could offer a virtual service it would be mutually beneficial and retain your current customer base. Who knows? This could open up an additional revenue stream now and in the future.

To gain market share or give back to the community, you could offer this service or advice at a discounted rate or free for an introductory period. Many universities and companies are offering free services during this time.

What Should I Post/Say On Social Media?

What should you post on your social media pages right now? While it’s gauche not to mention COVID-19 and pretend nothing is going on, not every post has to mention it. Keep it a part of your online conversation but also offer a bit of an escape and value to your customers with your posts.

On Instagram, you could have a COVID-19 highlight reel that shows your hours of operation, cleaning procedures, alternative services, and requirements for entry (masks, gloves, etc). Make sure to make posts about important announcements, like reopening or amended business hours so that your followers can be updated in real-time. You could even go Live for important business announcements since research shows people watch Live content for longer. Many sports teams have been going live for player interviews with questions submitted from the audience…when does that ever happen? At least COVID-19 brought us some interactive content!

Hosting Live trade on FB has been very beneficial to eCommerce business during this time.

Keep your messages light, concise, and engaging on Twitter.

Remember social media is an opportunity to build anticipation for reopening or keep your customers engaged so be consistent with posting.

Also, remember when posting about COVID-19 to be empathetic and remind everyone we are all in it together. A positive and supportive tone will go a long way since this is such an unprecedented situation.

Pivoting For Revenue

Can you pivot your business? There’s no secret that certain businesses have boomed as a result of COVID-19. Cleaning services, small grocery stores, meal prep services, and canned food makers are just a few. Does your business lend itself to being able to pivot into one of these categories or another successful one in the short term? This would be something to highlight online or on social media.

A popular example of a company that pivoted, and advertised it was Ford. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, they pivoted their business and started masking masks and face shields in their factory. This was not only helpful to those who needed the supplies, but it fit with their brand. An American company, helping Americans is a great ad. They posted this not only on their website, but social media, and other ad spaces like YouTube and TV.

How We Can Help

Since COVID-19 has hit the economy so hard it is crucial to have a website and social media so you can be found on search engines and seem credible. If you’re not sure where to start Ventura Web Design can help you create a website with all of the COVID-19 necessary features like online ordering, online stores, and COVID-19 update sections. We can help you set up your social media accounts and help brand your business. Call the Tampa office at (813) 556-7990 or the Las Vegas office at (702) 515-2057 or contact us online.

Your Go-To Guide For Holiday Marketing

November 11, 2019/in E-Commerce, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media /by Kevin Richards

Holiday Season 2020 is Here Now!
The Holiday Season is starting early in 2020. Business owners need to plan out thier marketing now to ensure that they’re reaching their maximum potential, and customers don’t shop elsewhere. Below are some of the key dates to plan for.

DOWNLOAD THE 2020 HOLIDAY MARKETING CALENDAR

November 1st-15th
This is the time to ensure all new products are uploaded on your site. It is a great time to review your product categories and organization to ensure that the customer can easily find items in your store. Work with your web designer and marketing team (Ventura Web Design & Marketing) to ensure that all marketing materials are in place and ready to go.

November 15th- November 25th
A few weeks before Thanksgiving is usually when companies begin promoting the deals they will be running the following week. This is the perfect time to start drumming up hype for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions.

Cyber 5 – The Biggest Days of the Year

Thanksgiving Day

November 26th
More companies than ever before will begin Black Friday promotions on Thanksgiving Day. As soon as everyone has enjoyed their second helping of turkey, the race to get the best deals is on. Use discounts, promotions, and scarcity in your marketing to bring urgency to the buying experience.

Black Friday

November 27th
The granddaddy of holiday marketing, Black Friday, is the single busiest shopping day of the year. Your Black Friday promotions should be promoted heavily for a week or two before the actual date. Some businesses choose to extend Black Friday promotions into the weekend, then head right into Cyber Monday. Just imagine that huge stack of orders that will await your team on Monday. Perhaps you should consider asking your team to work Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday to keep up with the orders… That is if you’ve done your marketing in advance.

Small Business Saturday

November 28th
Small businesses can keep the Black Friday hype train steaming ahead to Small Business Saturday. This holiday is a unique opportunity for small businesses to get their holiday sales off to a strong start. Remember to tap into the excitement both online and in person.

Sale Sunday

November 29th
Sale Sunday is a newer date added to the cyber shopping weekend. Many people will be traveling home and searching online for new and interesting gift ideas for those “hard to shop for friends and family.” Experience and personalized gifts will be a big hit in 2020. You may want to promote your specialized gifts that can be personalized on Sale Sunday.

Cyber Monday

November 30th

Another behemoth, Cyber Monday, is the biggest day of the year for online shopping. In 2018, consumers spent over 6 billion dollarson Cyber Monday in the U.S. alone. Much like Black Friday, you should start promoting your Cyber Monday deals at least a week or two beforehand.

Free Shipping Day and Green Monday!

December 14th
Free Shipping Day and Green Monday land on the same day in 2020! Don’t miss out on taking full advantage of this hectic shopping day. This is when the holiday season really gets into full swing. Green Monday is the 2nd Monday of December and is typically the best online sales day for the month. For the last several years, retailers big and small have teamed up to promote “Free Shipping Day.” This year combine them and see the revenue pour in!

Expedited Shipping

December 14th – 20th
Though specific dates may vary among businesses, it’s important to consider the time period where you can guarantee delivery by Christmas. This is an excellent time to run promotions on shipping.

Super Saturday / Gift Card Promos

December 19th
The procrastinator’s favorite holiday! Super Saturday (sometimes referred to as “Panic Saturday”) is the last Saturday before Christmas Day. It’s a good idea to think about running a one day sale specifically tailored to last-minute shoppers. This is the perfect time to offer Gift cards at a slightly discounted rate to bump up your after Christmas sales and traffic.

Christmas Eve & Christmas

December 24th & 25th
For the master procrastinators, this is their last chance to purchase gifts for friends and family.

After Christmas Specials

December 26th – January 2nd
Ring in the new year with promotions for both New Year’s Eve and New Years Day. Promote your clearance sales to make room for your new 2021 products and promotions. Then pat yourself on the back for executing another successful holiday marketing campaign!