Our world is surrounded by eCommerce market everywhere and B2B business scenario has earned itself the rightful place of being one of the most successful forms of business. Business-to-Business eCommerce is growing at a staggering pace. The B2B online retail market occupies a $1 trillion+ space currently and is expected to grow towards $2 trillion by 2020, according to Forrester analyst reports. It’s more important than ever for B2B sellers to keep up with the quickly changing landscape.
In the following article, we talk about few of the widely going-to-be accepted B2B trends of 2018 which will gain immense interest.
1. Artificial Intelligence:
AI has been a long sought-after technology by eCommerce and B2B business owners and will shape the online business landscape in 2018. It is already an innate inclusion in many sectors and AI will focus on customer-centric searches in the ecommerce platform. Many businesses are employing AI tools due to their potential to be able to learn from the different scenarios of a business and consequently adapt according to the business trend. With AI in hand, businesses will have the advantage of having new levels of personalization across all devices. The day by day increasing number of online retailers are as of now utilizing AI devices in order to enhance clients’ shopping knowledge, dissect shopping conduct, fragment databases, and even find new leads and so on.
2. Omnichannel/OmniPlatform/OmniDevice:
The ability to be present to a consumer at all points of time, via any device or platform or channel, is one thing B2B retailers are going to dive deep into in 2018. B2B sellers are quickly grabbing pace to be present to their customers (other companies) on all devices – phone, web, mobile and catalog, just like the B2C sellers. It is paramount for the B2B sellers to fulfil the customer expectations and provide them with effective functionality, customer reviews, feedbacks and tools.
3. Mobile eCommerce/ Responsive Device:
As the need for user experience booms, B2B retailers are being more inclined towards the use of mobile devices for their selling. Companies are finding that more and more customers are likely to buy their product via mobile phones due to its ease and convenience – according to Magento, more than 50% of the website traffic would come from mobile applications in 2018. Responsive themes are necessary so that the B2B website can be accessed via any device. As per the most trusted Goldman Sachs forecasts, mobile E-commerce Trends 2018 revenue is all set to match the total e-commerce revenue $626 billion achieved in 2013.
4. Big data:
Big Data is going to play a very crucial role for the B2B retailers who would want to track and examine the issues faced and subsequently churn out larger profits. Real-Time Big Data Analysis (RTBDA) is already being adopted by a number of companies and it is important to note that big data can be used as a tool to predict the future demand, ways to personalize customer experience, and price optimization in order to increase the ratio of sales. Big data and analytics will help B2B retailers identify and categorize customers according to purchase patterns and demographic details – this will in turn allow the business to make target based decisions to maximize their profits.
5. Personalization:
Making the customer feel special via customer-centric personalization is going to be an interesting trend to look at. B2B retailers will let the customers see exactly what they want and this will lead into the trust-building for the company – customers would feel the platform is understanding them in a better way. When customers to a particular B2B online store find the store personalized to them and they get what they want right in their hands, it will be advantageous for B2B companies to nurture and increase sales.
6. Secure payments:
Digital payment processes can be tricky and a risky factor for a B2B business. With a variety of payment methods including e-checks, purchase orders, purchasing or commercial cards, physical checks, etc. the B2B business should be ready to be able to accept all of it. It is known to the B2B business owners that if these payment options are not steadily active, the customer would take only a second to go to another website. Knowing the potential loss, B2B businesses will surely dive deep into the core functionalities of secured digital payments in 2018.
7. New Social Media Marketing Tools:
One major trend-defining phenomenon will be the new social media marketing strategies being adopted by B2B business owners in 2018. Social media marketing has already emerged as one of the most powerful tools for B2B businesses – numerous social media platforms have been adopted by several companies to reach out better to the customers. A B2B business owner must be sure to take full advantage of the social media marketing techniques and should have a clear strategy for it. With a lot in the plate, business owners will have to choose very carefully and we can be assured that we would see a surge in the social media from the B2B business scenario. You can also check out these B2B Marketing Trends to Boost ROI of your Ecommerce Business!
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Apart from all these, there are still many more effective B2B trends ready to set a spot in 2018. It will be interesting to see how the B2B retailers are going to use such trends and consequently increase their business prospects and profits.
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