Increasing B2B Order Frequency

Introduction

Increasing B2B Order Frequency

B2B eCommerce sales are often a slow process—especially when trying to land new customers. The only way to ensure a faster turnover than B2C operations is to increase online order frequency. The way to increase B2B sales with reorders is to take good care of customers and provide them with a convenient and self-service user-friendly ordering experience. Technology, planning, and customer service all play important roles in repeat sales. The big advantage of self-service technology is that customers can reorder without help from the sales staff whenever they want, which frees up sales to nurture new customers.

The simpler the reordering process, the more orders companies receive. It sounds simple—and it is—but the process depends on platform integration and thoughtfully designed reordering conveniences. It takes extra features to increase B2B orders. When Clarity designed the re-ordering feature of their eCommerce platform, they ended up finding several different ways that their B2B clients liked to re-order, so those methods were built into their out-of-the-box functionality. What’s “easy” for one client may be different from another.

Reordering Features that Increase B2B Orders

B2B companies typically enjoy greater customer loyalty and less customer turnover than their B2C counterparts. Taking care of customers is a critical step for companies that want to enjoy these repeat sales for an extended time. B2B buyers are also B2C customers in their personal lives, and they expect the same online benefits that B2C customers enjoy—such as easy ordering and easier reordering, custom product displays, easy access to their account histories, and lots of details about products such as information about the supply chain.

If products are not in stock, B2B customers want accurate estimates of when the items will be restocked and ways to alert them when it’s back in stock. Partial shipments are one solution, and real-time inventory figures simplify the ordering process for customers. Many B2B customers expect B2C shopping and ordering convenience from their B2B suppliers, which shows that a given company values customer relationships. [1]

There are dozens of user-friendly features that make reordering easier and faster. These are technical features that depend on software and/or platform integration:

• The ability to turn shopping lists wish lists, and favorites into orders
• Simplified reordering based on past orders, invoices, or quotes
• The ability to import orders from custom files in .odf, .csv, and XLS files
• Personalized shopping experiences such as custom recommendations, relevant landing pages, and account-specific price quotes
• Extended options for self-service
• Custom product catalogs
• Responsive web design that optimizes the display on mobile phones and other devices
• Increased payment options such as POs, third-party payment companies, ACH integration, customer accounts, credit cards on file, and NET 30, 60, or 90 days
• Highly visible “Checkout Now” button
• One-click duplication of the company’s last order

The Ease of Changing Suppliers

Although B2B customers are more loyal than B2C consumers, that doesn’t mean they’re always 100 percent loyal. B2B buying is longer and more demanding, and it’s easy for customers to research other suppliers during the long sales cycle. About 82 percent of buyers say they are using more sources to research and evaluate products and services. [2] Fortunately, offering a seamless reordering experience can prevent customer migration. If a company platform offers incredible conveniences, it’s unlikely that window shopping at other companies will change customers' minds.

The In-house Benefits of Streamlining Repeat Orders

Integration automates the reordering process to a remarkable degree. Some decision-makers feel that the cost and trouble of building a platform with all the technical features that customers crave might not be worth the effort, but the benefits of an integrated, responsive platform include cost savings, better customer services, increased repeat sales, greater customer loyalty and high sales total averages. Consider these benefits:

Reduced Costs

• Integrated platforms generate cost savings in many areas including streamlined administration, reduced labor costs, less paperwork, and lower costs for customer service.

Faster and Cheaper Ordering and Reordering

• Customers can place self-service orders 24/7/365. They can use their phones to order while traveling, commuting, or working at their desks. Streamlined ordering includes one-click reordering, fast access to ordering history, and specialized catalogs to simplify finding products. These conveniences increase conversions and sales for B2B eCommerce companies.

Manage Multiple Authorized Buyers

• It’s easy to manage buyers from different departments, set user sales, credit, and product limits, and provide customer-specific information to different stakeholders on group buying committees.

Managing Customers Around the World

• An integrated website makes it easy to build a B2B sales portal for each important customer. Portals make it easy for people from different regions and time zones to place their orders on their own schedules, language, and currency instead of only when customer service reps are working. Make sure your platform can handle all of the above, as well as international shipping, VAT taxes, etc.

Interactive Experiences

• Companies can use interactive experiences to increase sales such as 360-degree product views, product configurators, configure, price, quote (CPQ) software, third-party connections to shipping carriers, and other interactive experiences to increase conversions and sales.

Many customers are fully capable of solving problems and service issues on their own with integrated self-service features. [1] That frees staff time to focus on income-generating activities such as attracting new customers, developing new products, and cutting costs.

Simplifying the Reordering Process for Your Customers

The benefits of repeat sales are without parallel for B2B companies—large orders that come in automatically without involving staff assistance. What’s not to love about that? The only problem is ensuring that your website, online sales portal, storefront, or marketplace can provide the kind of experience that simplifies reordering. If you want to increase online order frequency,

Clarity offers a team of B2B and coding experts with experience in redesigning websites for ordering efficiency including one-click reordering, keeping customer “favorites” lists, sending “time to reorder” email reminders, and platform integration services to empower customer self-service. Choosing the right developer can make platform development as easy as ordering products from an optimized B2B website.

[1] blog.apruve.com: 5 Proven Strategies To Increase B2B Retail Revenues By Improving Customer Experience

[2] Fronetics.com: 10 Stats You Should Know about the B2B Buyer's Journey