Adrien Nussenbaum, co-CEO, Mirakl

2023 marked a “year of maturity for Mirakl,” says Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and co-CEO. “Not only did we significantly increase our annual recurring revenue … but we are now financially self-sustaining.”

Nussenbaum adds that Mirakl powers ecommerce operations for more than 450 enterprises. They include B2B companies Airbus Helicopters, pharmaceuticals distributor Cencora (formerly known as AmerisourceBergen), Mitsubishi Electric, restaurant supplier Parts Town and Toyota Material Handling. Among its retailer clients, Mirakl counts Macy’s, Best Buy, Kroger and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Mirakl-powered B2B marketplace sales

Mirakl says the gross merchandise volume on the Mirakl Marketplace Platform, which client companies use for first-party and third-party ecommerce sales and drop-shipping, grew 50% year over year in 2023 to $8.6 billion.

In addition, Mirakl generated a 20% increase in annual revenue to nearly $160 million.

Nussenbaum says Mirakl has been expanding and upgrading its digital commerce and marketing products and services in several areas to help online sellers meet rising expectations of personalized and helpful online buying journeys.

For example, Mirakl introduced last year a program for integrating AI technology across several Mirakl technology platforms:

• Mirakl Marketplace.
• Catalog platform for onboarding sellers’ product information.
• Target2Sell content personalization.
• Target2Sell content personalization.
• Mirakl Ads online advertising program for promoting products on e-marketplace pages.

Mirakl says that, through a feature developed on generative AI, Mirakl customers “can enhance the data quality and completeness of product catalogs, boost search engine rankings, and increase conversions automatically by optimizing product titles, descriptions and attributes.”

It adds that Mirakl has also developed AI-powered language translations to help online sellers “expand their business into new territories.”

In addition, Mirakl launched in 2023 the Mirakl Payout for online payment transactions and a global arrangement with marketing and communications firm Havas Group.

In a sign of what it expects more robust growth to come, Mirakl said it achieved a record $1 billion in monthly GMV in November. And it noted that more than 30 Mirakl-powered marketplaces surpassed the $100 million GMV mark last year, including several that surpassed $500 million.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s MSC Industrial report.

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What building trust with buyers means

When it comes to referrals, business buyers who trust suppliers are twice as likely to recommend those companies as buyers who do not trust suppliers, the report says. They are also more likely to pay a premium to collaborate with those companies.

Determining what constitutes a buyer’s trust in a supplier, however, can be viewed as a nebulous and highly subjective process. To bring clarity to what defines a buyer’s trust in a supplier, Forrester identified seven criteria buyers use as suppliers build trust. Those criteria, in alphabetical order, are accountability, competence, consistency, dependability, empathy, integrity and transparency.

A supplier’s competence, consistency and dependability are the three primary criteria most business buyers use to determine the level of trust they have in a supplier regardless of industry, types of purchases made and a buyer’s status within their organization, although the order can vary based on the geographic region, according to Forrester. Buyers in the Asia Pacific region, for example, rank a supplier’s competence first, followed by either consistency or dependability.

While a supplier’s perceived competence, consistency and dependability carry the most weight in building a B2B buyer’s trust in a supplier, accountability, integrity, transparency and empathy also play roles in building trust to varying degrees. Among these secondary criteria, a supplier’s integrity carries quite a bit of weight. Some 45% of business buyers, for example, said that if a supplier acted contrary to their company’s values, they were not likely to forgive the supplier. In comparison, empathy, on which consumers place a strong emphasis when building trust with a merchant, does not rate high with business buyers, according to the report.

Forrester surveyed 1,420 global purchase influencers, which the report refers to as business buyers.

Most important factors in building trusted B2B supplier status

When asked to rank the traits suppliers displayed during the purchasing process that built trust in the supplier, competency ranked first with a score of 18.5%. After that, consistency ranked second with a score of 17%. Dependability ranked third with a score of 16.8%.

To calculate the scores, Forrester used a MaxDiff analysis (also known as best-worst scaling), which plots rankings based on a 100-point scale. The top three criteria ranked above the neutral share of importance — i.e., the value at which all seven levers would carry an equal one-seventh share of importance, or 14.29%, according to the report. When the scores for all seven criteria are added together, they equal 100%.

“Furthermore, each [trait] distance from that neutral value provides a clear picture of which [trait] has the greatest or least utility in the buying process,” the report says.

Accountability ranked fourth with a score of 14.3%. Transparency ranked fifth with a score of 12.7%. Integrity ranked sixth with a score of 12.1%. Empathy ranked seventh with a score of 8.6%.

Importance of referrals and recommendations

A key part of a buyer’s trust with a supplier comes from gathering information from people, organizations and third parties. When asked to rank the sources of information they trust most about suppliers, 82% of respondents cited co-workers. 82% also cited company management. 79% cited vendors with whom they currently work. 72% cited industry peers. 68% cited industry analysts. Respondents were then asked to rank 10 sources of information.

“Business buyers trust people and organizations they already know and with whom they share a professional kinship. Coworkers and current vendors are among the most trusted sources of information,” says the report.

Surprisingly, vendors’ sales representatives ranked seventh on the list of trusted sources of information. Some 58% of respondents cite vendor sales reps as a trusted source of information. News media (56%), government officials (51%) and social media influencers (44%) rounded out the list.

“Salespeople don’t innately command trust, barely scoring higher than government officials,” the report says. “Vendors should recognize that trusted sources — including their own executives — are more likely to build trusting relationships and should be used to augment and support marketing efforts and sales processes. They should also co-opt more trusted sources of information like consultants and analyst research.”

Attributes associated with most trusted B2B suppliers

When B2B buyers were asked how likely they were to trust a supplier based on a set of 13 attributes, financial security ranked first (81%). That was followed by longevity (80%), innovation (78%), brand awareness (77%) and specialization (76%). Diversity, equity and inclusion (65%), entertainment (61%) and controversial (52%) ranked 11^th through 13^th.

Overall, gaining a B2B buyer’s trust is critical for suppliers looking to establish long-term relationships with buyers. As part of its research, Forrester asked buyers who expressed trust in their supplier, as well as those who did not, a series of the same questions.

Among buyers who expressed trust in their supplier, 85% said they would recommend the supplier to others within their organization. Similarly, 83% said they would continue to do business with the supplier. 83% also said they would recommend the supplier to peers and friends outside their company. In addition, 74% said they would continue to purchase additional products from the supplier, even if those purchases were unrelated to the products or services they currently purchase. Meanwhile, 74% also said they would trust other companies affiliated with the supplier.

Consequences when suppliers are not trusted

In comparison, among buyers who did not express trust in their supplier, 48% said they would recommend the supplier to others within their organization. 53% said they would continue to do business with the supplier. And 45% said they would recommend the supplier to peers and friends outside their company. In addition, 43% said they would continue to purchase additional products from the supplier, even if those purchases were unrelated to the products or services they currently purchase. Meanwhile, 42% said they would trust other companies affiliated with the supplier.

“Trust is an essential ingredient in the business buying process,” the report concludes. “Trusted companies are more likely to win and retain customers, receive the accolades of their peers, and enjoy a strong buyer preference.”

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Millennial and Gen Z B2B buyers are many and demanding online

Annual US B2B ecommerce sales near $2 trillion

B2B electronic sales grow to more than $9 trillion

The long history of Caterpillar’s ecommerce journey

Amazon Business touts $35 billion in annualized gross sales

Digital diversity drives Grainger sales growth in Q2

MSC Industrial cites ecommerce as key to its growth

Fastenal’s Q2 digital sales top $1 billion

Digital now tops half of all sales for MRC Global

More core industries go hard core for B2B digital commerce

The myth busters of B2B ecommerce

How B2B companies build out their ecommerce strategies

Anheuser-Busch InBev pops the cork on ecommerce

Honeywell acquisition of Carrier unit boosts B2B and B2C ecommerce offerings

Walmart Business launches as a B2B ecommerce site

Watsco ecommerce sales top $2.3 billion

Global Industrial hits an ecommerce milestone despite soft sales

Williams-Sonoma is all business about B2B ecommerce

Digital trucking firm Convoy blames ‘perfect storm’ for shutdown

WD-40 Co.: Digital commerce is a “must-win battle”

The promise of AI and other trends

A large IT distributor re-invents ecommerce with AI and 3D technology

Making Generative AI work for better B2B content

How AI helps manufacturers upgrade their ecommerce operations

Generative AI makes product management inroads

Challenged procurement pros want automation and AI

Three ways generative AI will change B2B marketing

Manufacturers make AI the heart of digital transformation

Xometry touts AI strategy and record Q3 revenue

An AI tool launches to upend online product configuration

Why B2B companies are integrating ERP and ecommerce technology

How manufacturers and distributors collaborate to grow B2B digital sales

Ecommerce drives up US port activity

Manufacturers are ‘bullish’ on digital

How Ecolab figured out an online personalization formula

Manufacturers are ‘bullish’ on 2024 earnings and digital transformation

Digital manufacturer Protolabs scores record quarterly sales

AB InBev reports 27% growth on its digital BEES platform

How a manufacturer planned a B2B ecommerce site project

For a mining equipment manufacturer, ecommerce uncovers new rewards

Distributors roll with ecommerce growth

Bottoms up: A B2B distributor tops $3 billion in digital sales

Fastenal’s Q3 digital sales come in at 57% of total sales

Watsco expands online buyer base, sparks ecommerce sales

Zoro.com appoints Sandy Mattinson as president

Despite a dip, MSC Industrial keeps doubling down on ecommerce

A major building products distributor takes digital transformation mainstream

Food-service distributor Parts Town expands same-day delivery

Data hack problems continue to plague a major distributor of dental products

A tire distributor rolls with more B2B and B2C online orders

The Hot Corner: B2B Marketplaces

Amazon Business, Alibaba, eBay: Where gross B2B sales know no bounds

Amazon Business is all business about its B2B marketplace

Supporting disabled workers, Amazon Business launches an AbilityOne store

A GE marketplace blows its way into the wind turbine business

B2B marketplace’s fast track into mainstream US business sales

B2B marketplaces refine their expansion strategies

Vehicle carrier transport is the next B2B marketplace niche

EnvisionB2B 2023:

EnvisionB2B: B2B companies share their ecommerce growth strategies

EnvisionB2B: Disruption drives ecommerce change for Konica Minolta

EnvisionB2B: Why not all B2B buyers want an Amazon shopping experience

Toyota, Bendix, McKesson and US Foods join EnvisionB2B’s speaker lineup

EnvisionB2B: Global Industrial’s Alex Tomey on sustainability

EnvisionB2B: Performance Food Group revamps the online B2B buyer experience

Perspectives of industry experts

Become Amazon in your space with AI/ML: Using AI-based language transformers to boost sales

Manufacturers’ game plan: Crafting a strong business case for ecommerce

What’s attracting B2B marketplace investors this year?

Generative AI will change the B2B customer experience as we know it

6 ways ChatGPT can enhance supply chains

‘Visual commerce’ — a sharp new focus on B2B

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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The post Editors’ picks: Our top B2B ecommerce stories of 2023 appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Laura Ramos, vice president and principal analyst, Forrester Research

That’s the advice from Forrester Research in the report, “Predictions 2024: B2B Marketing, Sales, and Product,” by vice president and principal analyst Laura Ramos and other Forrester analysts.

Forrester advises that B2B marketing, sales and product teams “face a turbulent year ahead, full of partner-centered growth and productivity ups as well as demand, technology and regulatory/legal downs.”

It asserts that generative AI may broadly impact all teams across marketing, sales and product, “with a mix of both success and failures” throughout 2024.

But Forrester adds: “Teams that double down on customer analysis and understanding, address buyer preferences, and enrich collaboration with [channel] partners will find the ride exhilarating.”

GenAI tops the B2B challenges

Topping off the challenges ahead is generative AI, which Forrester predicts will sift through customer data for insights that will direct one in five new product launches. But while GenAI will help make 2024 a bumper year for new products, Forrester warns that “thinly customized GenAI content will degrade purchase experience for 70%” of B2B buyers by failing “to demonstrate an understanding of their organization’s business conditions of needs.”

To deepen understanding of B2B buyers, Forrester says “B2B marketers should invest in fresh buyer and customer persona interviews and use the transcripts to guide AI-generated content personalization efforts,” adding: “We anticipate that one-third or fewer will do so, but those who do will see their investment in AI-generated content pay off.

Among its other 2024 predictions, Forrester says half of B2B companies will boost partner ecosystem technology investment. It suggests those companies consider collaboration in such areas as GenAI, co-marketing and partner-led marketplaces.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Eugene Levin

Company leaders face a frenzy of interest about how generative AI will impact their businesses on many levels. The same can be said for online visibility because generative AI adds another dimension to the complex and competitive online landscape where businesses are constantly fighting for the attention of their target audiences. So, if companies adopt generative AI, will it replace search and the processes that they  rely on to be successful?

The short answer is no. Prioritizing SEO is still extremely important for businesses, and generative AI is another tool in the toolbox that professionals can leverage to stay ahead of the curve, even as the technology evolves. Here’s how.

Experiment with generative AI tools to enhance your SEO strategy but lean into your human expertise.

At this point, business leaders cannot afford to not experiment with generative AI tools. Start by using tools that can make an immediate impact on important SEO tactics, including idea generation and content creation. However, do not simply rely on generative AI results. Generative AI is a tool, not a replacement for the critical thinking and creativity that humans are capable of.

Don’t get lazy and default to trusting these budding tools that are known to cite sources unreliably. Since the recent popularization of generative AI, we are seeing an increase in the creation of poor content that is polluting search engines, making it even harder for users to find quality content for what they are searching.

Quickly and accurately identifying high-quality, trustworthy content has long been a concern in the search space. Most of Google’s major algorithm updates are geared toward exactly that. Generative AI will require search engines to adapt to embrace AI-enhanced features while also vetting content trustworthiness, whether the content was developed by AI or humans.

Stay alert to changes with both emerging search engines and the industry leaders.

Even with the genesis of generative AI, no one is truly challenging Google — yet. But that’s going to change.

Data shows that Google searches for “Bing” are up 29% year-over-year, suggesting users may be curious about its new AI functionality. And as more search engines begin to leverage AI, more competitors will claim market share in the years to come. This competition will be great for businesses because they will be able to show up in and compete for more places online.

However, business leaders must continue the SEO strategies working for them on Google because search likely won’t drastically change as quickly as one might expect. The “traditional SERP” (search engine results page) has been gone for a while, and AI has already become part of search as we know it. There are instant answers, Featured Snippets, and other SERP features that are designed to immediately provide helpful information to users. The use of generative AI in search is a continuation of that trend.

To be aware of the constant changes in search engine algorithms and what Google, Bing and others are doing, trust your SEO team to monitor these changes and constantly come up with ways to adjust their strategies accordingly.

Use generative AI beyond basic search. Take it one step further to improve user experience.

Once your business begins leveraging generative AI for its search strategies, take things to the next level by using it to engage your customer base via automation and personalization. It’s easier than ever to do this, and it will add value to your audience and lead to growth in revenue.

Generative AI can enhance interactions between business owners and customers on several levels. The technology can create responses to business or product reviews in seconds, ultimately reducing reply time and unanswered reviews to nearly zero. This drives better customer engagement, better review scores, increased brand loyalty and incremental sales.

It can also analyze thousands of customer reviews and feedback inputs across multiple channels, like surveys and social media posts, to unveil themes, strengths, challenges, and areas to improve. The insights can then be applied to engage your audience with updates you’ll know they’ll appreciate. Business leaders should also use these tools to personalize targeted ads and product recommendations based on a customer’s behaviors and preferences even easier than before.

Though we’re watching generative AI technology evolve in real time, business leaders can stay on top of search to stay relevant and visible in the increasingly competitive online space, while also strategically experimenting as a business and improving customer engagement.

It’s imperative to experiment now to find what works for your business and be ready to pivot in the future as additional changes and advancements are made and search inevitably becomes more competitive.

About the author:

Eugene Levin is the president of Semrush, an online visibility management and content marketing SaaS platform.

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That pressure stems from ARG’s role as a light custom-manufacturer as well as a distributor of more than 25,000 SKUs for  industrial hoses, fittings and related products for such industrial uses as oil rigs and fuel-delivery trucks. Most of its business involves replacing broken industrial hoses, and ARG’s sales and product teams often work with customers to assemble customized hose products and systems.

Mike Powers, director, ecommerce and digital, ARG Industrial

“You have to make sure that you’re getting the right data from your suppliers, and also that you’re presenting the right data on these assemblies to your customers,” says Mike Powers, ARG’s director of ecommerce and digital. Ship a hose assembly with the wrong specifications, and the customer could experience severe problems, he adds.

ARG B2B digital commerce sales

ARG is working with the Industrial Distributor Cooperative (IDCO) buying group and product information management (PIM) and other software from digital commerce technology vendor Unilog to expedite how it receives product data from Midland and other critical suppliers.

Ross Baker, director of product strategy, Midland Industries

“It’s the way of the future,” says Ross Baker, Midland’s director of product strategy. “The more distributors that are pulling this data we’re putting into the PIM, the more chances there are for sales to increase on both sides.”

Powers asserts that companies involved in ecommerce face challenges in pulling data from legacy enterprise resource planning systems and integrating that data with a customer-facing ecommerce site.

“They’re realizing that the complexity of integrating legacy ERP and B2B ecommerce is very, very tough,” Powers says. He adds that companies then often find it difficult to find the people with the necessary expertise to work with legacy ERP systems.”

Working with Unilog and IDCO, ARG receives more consistent and helpful product information from Midland and other suppliers.

Midland is now pushing new product updates quickly to ARG, “instead of us waiting 12 months to get a new catalog,” Powers says. “All we need to do is log in.”

Data collaboration results

He says the much-improved product data flow is producing several results, including:

• Increased web traffic through improved keywords and search engine optimization.
• A more useful site search tool and increased sales of newly released products.
• ARG’s enhanced ability to develop a new configurator that lets customers who want to build their own hose assemblies to order an accurate product set.
• ARG’s enhanced ability to provide punchout catalogs that let buyers punch out from their procurement software to an ARG product catalog.

Baker adds that Midland expects to extend the level of product data-sharing it does with ARG to more companies to foster increased revenue for both Midland and its channel partners.

The Cashing in with Digital Channel Partners report is available for a free download.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Bachir Kassir, founder, MyTradeZone.com

“We know that 40% of B2B marketing budgets are spent on trade shows and that over 95% of marketers use social media content in their campaigns,” he says in his promotional material, adding: “So why is there no social network specifically dedicated to B2B trade?”

That’s where MyTradeZone fills the gap in B2B commerce, he adds.

“On MyTradeZone, each business can both market its products/services and source what it needs, all within the same platform,” he says.

Kassir notes that he founded and launched the site quietly several years ago, building a base of about 50,000 users through word-of-mouth.

A toolset with CRM and email marketing

But he recently publicized MyTradeZone’s official launch in a press release and is considering taking on investment partners to spur growth. He adds that he expects the site to begin generating revenue in the first quarter of next year.

MyTradeZone.com provides built-in features ranging from site search, product listings, and online video chats to email marketing and CRM software applications to help buyers and sellers find and build business relationships with particular types of trading partners.

It offers limited access to these features at no charge under its basic membership plan. Premium plans will provide the same features and higher site search rankings for monthly fees from $20 to $50 based on the volume of activity.

In addition, the top premium plan will let participants earn fees from online ads placed on the social network site. MyTradeZone will take a cut of those ad fees.

MyTradeZone.com does not operate as a conventional ecommerce marketplace hosting product and services sales transactions among participating buyers and sellers, who complete those transactions outside the networking site. But it will let users monetize business communities, such as by setting up industry organizations and charging membership fees through the Stripe online payments system. In that case, MyTradeZone will charge a fee based on a percentage of the membership fees.

Kassir says MyTradeZone has been gaining about 100 members daily — a figure he wants to grow to about 1,000.

To get there, he says he’ll continue to invest in “lots of business tools” available to members and offer premium membership deals to trade shows, business networking groups and trade associations. He adds that while he has mostly self-funded MyTradeZone, he may consider outside investors.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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“While there are many short-term opportunities for experimentation with generative AI, businesses need to think about the long-game when experimenting with the technology,” says Chuck Gahun, a principal analyst for Forrester and lead author of the report. “Generative AI is about making value delivery systems more efficient for businesses to impact business outcomes such as efficiency, worker productivity, profitability, and top-line revenue growth.”

Forrester Research study on generative AI

Forrester, which interviewed more than 25 business executives, data scientists, and content management team members, defines generative AI as a set of technologies and techniques that leverage large amounts of data, including large language models, to generate new content such as text, images, video, audio, and code.

Businesses are already adapting generative AI at a rapid pace. 50% of participants polled during a webinar use the technology on a daily basis in an experimental or incidental usage capacity, according to the report. Of those respondents, some 71% were likely to leverage generative AI for content and product information creation use cases. Meanwhile, just 14% use the technology for creative expression or code-based use cases.

Content generation and finding the right tone and voice of copy is a common use case for B2B marketers implementing generative AI. It can help businesses meet the complex content challenges across writers, languages and cultures. Lloyds Banking Group in the United Kingdom, for example, uses Acrolinx to find the right tone and voice for 13 brands. Acrolinx is an AI-powered software platform that improves the effectiveness and consistency of enterprise content.

“We discuss tone and voice standards to teach the tool, such as using the word ‘select’ instead of ‘click’ and following overall design standards [in conjunction with tone and voice],” Chris Whitwam, senior product owner for Lloyds, says in the report. “This is a new learning process for our teams, but they are getting used to managing the tool as it suggests alternatives [and helps reduce the risk of inconsistent content].”

The human element of AI

While the use of generative AI helps expedite copywriting, more time is needed for human copy editing of the AI enhanced copy because of the risk of errors, according to Gahun. Such errors can include using words in the wrong context or poor language translations.

“As generative AI gets put into place, one of the challenges facing businesses is what to do with copywriters as they can become displaced by the technology as it learns,” Gahun says. “One option is to turn copywriters into copy editors.”

Generative AI use cases

Opportunities also exist for B2B marketers using generative AI to personalize content using behavioral data. For example, the technology can create product descriptions that fit the interests of a specific customer segment. As a result, businesses can generate more intelligent product descriptions across multiple layers of the customer base.

Translating copy into new different language to support geographic expansion is another use case for generative AI, although it is in the intermediate stage of experimentation.

“Generative AI capabilities are quickly accelerating beyond traditional translation plug-ins, such as Google Translate, to keep pace with professional translation services that have been providing these services for decades. This reduces the risk of inaccurate translations and simplifies expanding a business geographically,” the report says.

Uploading data into a product information solution is an emerging use case for generative AI as today’s solutions require businesses to map the data provided by the supplier into a predetermined format. This can be a time-consuming task that is prone to error when done manually.

fonQ, a Netherlands-based home décor retail, is using ChatGPT to onboard products. ChatGPT, from consortium OpenAI, is an AI-based chatbot that uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversational. The technology is enabling each of the company’s content specialist to onboard 100 products a week, compared to 30 to 35 per week manually.

“Manually uploading products to a PIM requires a lot of human brain power and time,” Gahun says. “Generative AI speeds the onboarding of suppliers and products, can show where there is broken product content, and can enable sellers to expand their product catalog. If sellers have more products, they can increase sales.”

B2B marketers using generative AI

Business applications for generative AI still in the early stages of experimentation include using the technology for creative tasks, such as producing product videos. While generative AI can embed previously approved brand assets within newly generated image backdrops to help enterprises reconcile creative quality with scale and speed to market, one shortcoming of using the technology for creative tasks is that it cannot yet create images. That is especially important for businesses to keep in mind when it comes to using generative AI for the development of brand assets.

“Brands tend to be careful about their brand assets,” Gahun says. “And while generative AI can help content creators stitch together images, it can’t create images from scratch, which raises concerns about its impact on brand assets.”

A word of caution concerning AI

As the potential use cases for generative AI expand, Gahun stresses that businesses need to thoroughly evaluate the speed at which their organization should move from experimentation to implementation of the technology.

“Business context influences which generative AI use cases are most valuable, which is why businesses need to be thinking about what implementation of the technology means to their business,” Gahun says.

Factors such as industry, geography, strategy, client base, and values, can influence the business context, Gahun adds. Forrester interviewed one company that applied generative AI for use on managing one product sold through one sales channel in one in geographic area for six months to see understand the impact of the technology on its operations.

“This was a way for the company to put the risk around the technology into the context of its business,” Gahun. “Companies that research and identify the risks around adding a new technology such as generative AI into their operations can think through their appetite for piloting the technology, then scaling the technology on a trajectory that is healthy for their business. The goal is to be methodical and put more structure around the potential impact the technology can have on the business.”

Peter Lucas is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy.

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The new Digital Commerce 360 report, “B2B Ecommerce Handbook: Formulas for Digital Growth,” lays out many of the steps businesses are taking, from identifying customer needs to managing useful product and customer data and providing a user-friendly, personalized buying experience — and growth in sales to boot.

Case studies in the B2B Ecommerce Handbook

Enzo Rabante, head of digital solutions, Dayco

At Dayco, an international engine parts manufacturer for various industries, “Our customers expect a personalized journey that generates value at each touchpoint, enhancing the brand in every line of business,” Enzo Rabante, head of digital solutions, says in the report.

To reach that point, Dayco gathered specifics on what its distributor customers wanted in an online buying experience, including quick access to product pages and related technical documents. It also determined the kind of customer experience it needed to provide and laid out the key performance indicators it wanted to reach, such as increased conversion rates for marketing campaigns and levels of customer loyalty.

Fine-tuning the B2B marketplace model

Also featured in the report are fast-growing chemicals marketplace ChemDirect and GearSource, a live-events gear supplier.

Dave Haase, president, ChemDirect

As B2B marketplaces expand in number and volume to serve every industry, the companies building and operating them are perfecting their strategies.

ChemDirect, a marketplace for the chemicals industry, last year expanded its catalog to more than 500,000 specialty chemical products. It’s on course this year to triple gross merchandise value to between $40 million and $50 million.

President Dave Haase notes that ChemDirect is backing that growth by addressing two critical needs of chemicals industry buyers: pricing transparency and, through a shipping network developed with trucking company Schneider National, more control over their shipping.

Marcel Fairbairn, founder and CEO, GearSource

If you’ve viewed a Super Bowl half-time show recently, you’ve seen the kind of results provided by GearSource.com, a supplier of lighting, audio and related equipment for live events and clients like Google and Apple.

Recent plans to tap expanded growth opportunities led GearSource to replace its long-running legacy ecommerce platform with a new one capable of handling transactions of complex orders, many of which involved multiple currencies.

Founder and CEO Marcel Fairbairn says the new platform gives GearSource the necessary speed and flexibility to grow and keep its customers’ events on stage and under the lights.

The B2B Ecommerce Handbook: Formulas for Digital Growth report is available for a free download.

Dave Haase, president of ChemDirect, will speak B2B marketplace strategy at Digital Commerce 360’s EnvisionB2B 2023 Conference & Exhibition in June in Chicago.

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Kathleen Lewarchick

“Visual commerce,” or online buying that uses 360-degree image views, interactive 3D models, and in some cases, augmented reality, has made the jump to B2B ecommerce. Introduced by the gaming world, visual commerce became more mainstream when B2C brands began offering enhanced visual experiences. Think eyewear retailing, where consumers “try on” frames, or furniture buying, where buyers preview products in their virtual home. It was only a matter of time before those experiences appeared in B2B.

How visual commerce helps B2B buyers

Buyers look for clarity as they step through an online customer journey. Ordering and reordering can be straightforward, but increasingly distributors and manufacturers have turned to “solution selling” of interconnected products using a visual approach. Buyers appreciate seeing a more fully integrated list of materials. It removes the guesswork and saves time. Sometimes it even saves them money.

In some categories, visual commerce provides wholesalers (and even their consumers) with engaging experiences. It might be a virtual showroom with curated collections that support full online buying. Other times it is a mixed-use tool, a digital assist: buyers peruse fixtures and materials in a real showroom and place items in an online cart, on a device, as they shop. This can save buyers time and it can be a wonderful way to cross-sell them throughout the customer journey.

New technology tools

One tool — exploded-view diagrams, or schematics showing parts together — was a mainstay for engineers. But they are more common now throughout B2B ecommerce.  Buyers can now see the entire solution, both holistically and individually, and order with them. Per the parts diagram below, the exploded view integrates with the order management system. See a part that you need? Check. See the whole solution? Check, check. In either case, just click and place it in the cart.

An exploded-view diagram, which is becoming more common in B2B ecommerce, lets buyers view and click to buy individual parts of complex equipment.

One B2B company incorporated this technology into their user experience flow. The goal was twofold:

1. to make it easier for B2B sellers in their organization to explain larger, integrated solutions; and
2. to make it easier for their customers, B2B procurement teams, to visualize the outcome.

By creating an integrated visual tied to the company’s order management system, they reduced steps in the customer journey. As the ecommerce manager says, “There’s a wonderful moment when buyers say: ‘Aha! I see how it all works.’ We want to delight and relieve buyers during the process.”

While not all B2B categories are a match for transactional visual commerce, other augmented reality tools are on the cusp of changing the way that overall B2B business performs. Again, driven by experiences in gaming, buyers like MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) engineers can now don A/R headgear or use tablets to “see” solutions in their natural environment.  As a result, they may uncover potential barriers earlier in the buying process, maybe even prior to ordering. This accelerates the knowledge build and helps save time and money with returns.

MRO engineers use visual commerce to view products in their natural environment before placing an order.

Preparing for the future

Visual commerce may never fully replace traditional ecommerce, just as “voice commerce” hasn’t become the dominant way to place B2B orders yet. However, visual commerce will continue to be incorporated into many facets of B2B digital commerce given the appetite that online users have for strong visuals. A great place for your organization to start is with a strategic discussion about use cases. These provide the foundation alongside good product data, and with technologies like Digital Asset Management systems, you evolve toward the Visual Commerce experiences that your customers increasingly expect.

About the author

Kathleen Leigh Lewarchick is the VP of Marketing for Xngage LLC, a B2B digital commerce services company with more than 60 clients across the industrial trades. She is the former PURELL® Hand Sanitizer Brand Director, has co-created automated replenishment products with Amazon Business, and created telehealth solutions for a company that she later helped sell to CVS Health. 

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Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact editor Paul Demery at paul@digitalcommerce360.com and follow him on Twitter @pdemery.

Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 B2B News publishes content.

The post ‘Visual commerce’ — a sharp new focus on B2B appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.