Setting an Agenda to Your E-commerce Business

8/12/2019 Setting an Agenda to Your E-commerce Business

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Setting an agenda to your

e-commerce businessA primer to help you take your frst stepstowards your online store

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Table of Content

E-commerce for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Three initial steps to ride the B2B e-commerce wave

Making your B2B e-commerce customer feel at home

E-catalog software Opting for the foremost choice

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ability to reach new markets, improved after-sales service capabilities,

reduction in communication costs, and improved lead time and sales,

have only nurtured this condence.

A recent research report states that the potential to grow international

transactions as an additional revenue stream is driving SMEs to extend

or upgrade their e-commerce services to enable easier cross-border

transactions. As a note, although e-commerce is turning effective for

SMEs, it may not be a blanket solution for all SMEs.

Now, to determine whether or not an SME is ready to initiate e-commerce,

there are few criteria that need to be considered under strict priority, as

these may not be applicable to all.

E-commerce for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are incubators for the growth

of innovation and of employment. They not only play an important

role in the United States where they account for 99% of all business

establishments, and have generated 9.8 Million jobs between 1993 and2009, but also contribute a chunk of prot to the global economy. In spite

of this, SMEs face umpteen challenges like non-availability of suitable

technologies, small production capacities, non-availability of skilled

labour at affordable costs, and inability to compete with the marketing

muscle of larger organizations.

On the other hand, SMEs are the biggest beneciaries in the following

ways:

They now have opportunities to overcome geographical barriers.

Wherever they can eliminate middlemen, they can cash in on reduced

business costs and incremental prot margins.

They are able to create added value by producing innovative products

and exibly adapting to new markets and products.

Businesses are now adopting e-commerce due to citeable reasons such

as increasing levels of competition, incessant pressure from partners/

suppliers, etc. There seems to be an observed growth in adopting this

mode of trade which is reected by an increase in SME condence

with regards to e-commerce benets. New age adoption drivers such

as direct/ indirect marketing, strategic relationship building ventures,

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The next step is to choose the appropriate e-commerce solution.

Businesses need to look into the following:

The solution should be sophisticated enough to monitor customer

activity on the site and take action based on the customer behaviour.

The solution should be technically and architecturally sound so as to

provide the business managers with tools such as categorization of

products, development of promotions and campaigns, targeted email

campaigns etc.

The product catalogue should be able to handle different kinds of

products as well the peaks and troughs in demand.

The solution should be strong and exible in order to integrate

seamlessly with other enterprise systems in order to deliver a dynamic

buying experience.

The site should not only be able to capture historical and behavioural

data but also support a compelling and personal search experience.

Considering that many SMEs will not have an in-house capacity to

coordinate e-commerce projects, they would do well to look for a trustedpartner who can expertly guide them through key imperatives for the

organization and external criteria while investing in an e-commerce

platform.

Internal Criteria

Financial resources

Organizational culture

Skilled IT personnel

Appetite for risk

Management support

Organization related:

Business model

Impact on the operations

Integration with enterprise systems

Key performance metrics

Change management initiatives

Technology related: Solutions available in the market and their assessment parameters

Procedure for handling payments

Privacy and security features

Legal related:

Contracts (new or revised) with various parties in the ecosystem

Rules and regulations applicable

External Criteria

Infrastructure for conducting business

Government policies and incentives

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So how can your business compete in this space? Here are three ways

to ensure your B2B e-commerce initiative is on the right path:

Multichannel and Mobile

Enable your online content across various devices and platforms.

Some of the examples are mobile, tablets and computers spread

across operating platforms like Windows, Apple or Android etc. This

will improve availability to your customers and they will be more likely

to spend on your online platform.

This multichannel enablement must not just stop with your customers

and your e-commerce platform, but should be extended to your eld

personnel as well, so that their mobility is ensured and the data

available to them at real-time.

Self care

Reduce the phone calls by providing online self-help for your

customers. You should also enable chat, email or call back options so

that they can communicate with your sales and service teams in case

of difculties while ordering.

This over time will improve your customers experience and will also

enable them to be familiar with your online portal.

Three initial steps to ride the B2B e-commerce waveWith much of the action in the e-commerce space happening in the B2C

area, little attention is paid to how B2B e-commerce has fared and what

is the next big thing in this segment?

In the past couple of years, analysts have predicted tremendous growth

in B2B e-commerce and the sector did perform well. A survey last year

revealed about 57% of the business buyers purchased goods online

and about half of them spent over $5000 for their purchase. According

to Forrester, the B2B market size is estimated to be $599 billion in 2013.

And with more business buyers willing to spend more for their online

purchases, it is poised to grow in line with expectations. In fact, if the

strategies of B2B vendors are aligned with the trend, it may even exceed

the estimate.

Though the market size of B2B is almost double that of the B2C

space, it is not mature. There are a few big name entrants in the B2B

e-commerce space such as Amazon with their Amazon Supply and

Google with their Shopping for Suppliers who draw their expertise from

their successful B2C e-commerce implementations.

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B2B Merchandising tactics:

The B2C segment is more mature in providing personalization and

offers to attract customers. Provide product recommendations based

on customers buying patterns, search and viewing history. Keep

your content clean and categorized so that products can be grouped.

Sometimes, even unrelated products can be grouped based on the

order trends you notice on your system.

Providing bundled deals to your customer will also improve your

engagement with them as well as revenues through cross and up-

selling.

While all these may entail technology and data driven initiatives in

your business which can sometimes be off-putting, the rewards are

enticing enough to invest time and money in these initiatives.

Some of the other steps you can take for your e-commerce store front

are explained in our whitepapers ZMOT and Omni channel.


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Personalized

B2B e-commerce stores need to be highly personalized for each

customer. Here are some ways personalization can be brought in:

Pricing and contracts

Make your online pricing and contract customizable, just as you would

when dealing with physical B2B customers.

User groups

Let organization create user groups so that their entire purchases

department can have access to their specic needs.

Engage

Interact with the customers through social media or your own forum.

Make it simple for them to reach you.

Purchase support

Let customers interact with your sales staff, just as they would at your

physical location. Make your sales representatives available through

live chat.

Payment options

Your customers can come in any size, a small run-from-a-garage start-

up or a global conglomerate, make sure you have payment options

that suit all of them.

Making your B2B e-commerce customer feel at homeB2B E-commerce Must-haves: Improve the Customer Experience

B2B e-commerce is the buzz today, but not every vendor knows what

hes doing. While some vendors have adapted their stores to the modernB2B customer, however, there are others who remain woefully behind.

The following are some of the key pointers to make sure that your store

is all that it can and should be:


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Intuitive

In making an e-commerce site intuitive, a vendor makes it simple for a

customer do what they need to. Heres what should be done:

Call-to-actionWhen the customers are on the website, the call to action buttons

should catch their action. They should know they can nd similar

products, compare, add-to-cart, and purchase at the click of a button.

Interaction

Interaction buttons are those that either help the customer contact

you or the supplier of the product (if youre the distributor), and get

their queries answered. There should be a contact supplier button for

every product, and a button to contact you, the vendor on every page.

Easy

B2B customers are people in organizations doing their jobs, and as the

person who wants to do business with them, it becomes your job to

make it easy for them to work with you. The easier you make it for them

to do their job, the more theyll love working with you:

Search

When a customer starts searching for a product, your auto-complete

feature should save them the effort of typing things out. When they

type in the name of a product, you need to start selling with the search

results provide images/listing of variations, types, same-brand

products, similar products, and related products. Of course dont ood

their search results either, strike a balance between at least three of

these elements.

Tools

Provide the customer with tools to make their product searches easy.

Tools include comparison features and lters. Remember that yourcustomers have almostas much technical knowledge of the product

as the manufacturer, so give them many more lters to work with.

Navigation

Your customer wants to search, nd, evaluate and order as soon

as possible, so make it easy for them to move around. Make your

websites user interface simple and clean, and let customers move

from category to information to comparisons seamlessly. Try to follow

the three-level site architecture rule, i.e., no more than three clicks to

reach anywhere on the site.

Product visualizations

With organizations wishing to look up to date with the latest trends in

both technology and design, there will be customers who will value

the aesthetic appeal of a product on par with its functionality. Give the

customers plenty of product pictures to work with, and have at least

one video for each product.

Innovation is still the name of the game, at least partly, so think like

your customer would and you could come up with your own ideas to

improve your customers experience. Make your B2B store as easy to

love as a B2C store.

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But again, with a heap of options available on the e-catalog software

front, companies must be able to pick and choose the most optimal

t. How does one do that? Here are some points to ponder when

contemplating an e-catalog solution:

Of course, it must be easy to implement and easy to use and supple

and resourceful enough to help customers nd products quicker and

in real-time and able to channelize customers to marketers, adding

value to both sects in doing so.

Shoppers must be able to download product brochures and specication

sheets from web links and have access to detailed information pages

on items. They must be able to control the number of items that they

see in one view to avoid clutter and segregate products by best match

and price differentiators.

Options must be there to put items in a shopping cart for future

references, have access to a recently viewed toolbar, make ltered

searches with product drill downs and access to the closest marketer

in the vicinity.

Sales and marketing should be supported with website branding with

images, colors and descriptions, incorporated price descriptions,

detailed information pages on items and product brochures and

specication sheets.

E-catalog software Opting for the foremost choiceAs a shopper, turning over printed catalogs is tiring and cumbersome,

isnt it? But then, technology ensures that we dont have to anymore with

online catalogs. E-cataloging is revolutionizing the e-commerce sphere;

with organizations universally incorporating e-catalogs as part of theirselling and marketing strategies.



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There must be seamless integration with ERP, MRP, CRM and SCM

applications, security from encroachment and theft, data enrichment

and cleansing options to erase obsolete data, and a supplier portal to

have a real-time picture on the suppliers.

Ultimately, it must embrace web-enabled and cost-effectivedeployment technologies like the Cloud for ubiquitous presence due

to the increasing mobility of customers.

If this checklist has all ticks marked in the right hand column, do not

hesitate, buy immediately!



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About Unilog

Unilog is a global technology and services company that specializes in Big Data Analytics and Product Data Management for e-commerce.Headquartered in Bangalore, Unilog is an ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 8000 certied company that employs over 300 people in its local ofces atMysore and Philadelphia. Unilogs comprehensive, end-to-end data management services cater to the requirements of leading brands acrossindustry verticals including Retail, Telecom, IT, Manufacturing, MRO and Electrical & Electronics among others.

For more information, visit us atwww.unilogcorp.com

Contact UsCorporate Ofce:

Unilog Content Solutions Pvt. Ltd.,#11, 15th Cross, 20th Main, OuterRing Road, J.P. Nagar, 5th Phase,Bangalore 560078.Tel: +91-80-26590721.Fax: +91-80-26710590

Content Development and R&D Center:#579/2, 1st, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Gunamba Towers,D.Subbaiah Road, Lakshmipuram,Mysore 570 004.Tel: +91-821-3092500

US Ofce:

Unilog Content Solutions,LLC, #985, Old Eagle School Rd,Suite 510, Wayne, PA 19087.Tel: +1-412-663-0083
http://www.unilogcorp.com/http://www.unilogcorp.com/

Setting an Agenda to Your E-commerce Business

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