Make it easy for your customers to do business with you

Pieter Moons is Global E-commerce Manager at Puratos, a B2B company in the food industry with subsidiaries in more than 80 countries. We talked about trends and customer centricity, and Pieter shares his tips on how to succeed in B2B e-commerce.

Puratos is an international group that offers a full range of innovative products and application expertise for artisans, industry, retailers and food service customers in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors. Its headquarters are on the outskirts of Brussels (Belgium), where the company was founded in 1919. We employ over 9,400 people across 80 countries: you could say we're a huge family! (laughs)

A little about myself: I was born and raised in Limburg, Belgium, but I see myself as a citizen of the world. I'm 100% millennial and a triathlete in my free time. I've been working in the digital world for 10 years. I started in digital marketing, and for the last 5 years I've focused on digitalising the full customer journey. My first experience in B2B e-commerce was about 10 years ago at Rajapack Benelux. For the past years I've been at Puratos, which suits my interest in multicultural and international environments.

It definitely had a big impact on B2B companies. Trade shows were cancelled, key account managers couldn't visit the clients that were still open, many customers had to reinvent their business and some, unfortunately, had to close. Many companies pivoted in 2020, and fast. At Puratos, thousands of customers now order online in the 30 countries with an e-commerce solution. That number grew fivefold in 2020.

The great thing about an international team is that you see what's happening in all corners of the world. It's nothing new that, also at Puratos, Asian countries lead when it comes to digital innovation and adaptability.

Our colleagues in China organised a successful e-commerce live show via WeChat. They presented a new ingredient by creating a recipe and organising a taste test afterwards. The whole patisserie community in China was buying the product during the live show! Amazon recently started doing this for B2C as well. I believe this trend will become huge, though it will probably take a while before it reaches the West.

Another project that caught my attention was the marketplace our team in the US created: an industry-wide marketplace focused on healthier baking ingredients. AB InBev rolled out something similar in Mexico and South America. Creating your own marketplace, joining one or co-creating one with a distributor: this trend will grow.

AI will take a prominent place in the future of B2B e-commerce.

We're successfully experimenting with an AI engine that calculates in real time which products a customer is most likely to add to their cart, based on historic data and (regional) consumer insights.

In the short term, B2B e-commerce really has to focus on real-time inventory and transparent fulfilment and delivery. Companies often skip this because of complex processes, but customers and prospects now expect it. And of course, always put your customer first.

Very important. The customer life cycle in B2B is, generally speaking, much longer than in B2C. B2B customers are often more loyal and order more often from the same supplier.

To start, the pre-buy journey has to be smooth: new clients often start as leads before they buy. This part has to be frictionless, and sales shouldn't be too pushy.

Customers also expect the same personal service they get from their key account manager. They know you know them well, and they feel important, rightly so, because they often buy on a regular basis. Your B2B e-commerce journey has to be omnichannel and personalised, so it equals the offline experience. It's a win-win, because key account managers can spend more time on the relationship and on prospecting.

Teamwork. There's no place for silos in marketing or IT when it comes to B2B e-commerce. To create a positive journey, you need expertise from logistics, finance, IT, marketing, product management, legal, tax and so on.

The process is often complex, especially for new clients: you don't know their delivery address yet, and they don't have a (personal) price list yet. To make B2B e-commerce a success, make sure it's high on your organisation's agenda. Revisit your processes based on what your clients expect, today and tomorrow.

Even if you've never met the customer, the most important part of the journey is a personal and fast after-sales service. If you excel there, you're well on your way to a positive experience for customers and prospects.

If everyone responsible for B2B e-commerce had a one-to-one chat with 3 customers every week and based their roadmap on those conversations, it would have an enormous impact on customer retention. Simple as that. Of course, you need all departments to succeed, but if you delight your customers and prospects on your e-commerce platform, you'll excel at keeping them loyal.

Just as important! Business owners and procurement officers don't just work with RFPs anymore.

I see this shift in our sector today. A traditional Flemish bakery has completely different expectations than a donut shop in New York City. Procurement officers and decision makers are used to buying on Amazon or Booking.com in their private life. When it comes to UX/UI, you don't compete with your regular competitors, but with the platforms your customers use every day.

My top tip: have a smartphone day with your entire team. That day, you can't use your laptop: you can only use your smartphone to work and to explore e-commerce platforms, including your own. At work we spend most of our time on a laptop, but B2B customers use mobile for more than 50% of their time too. That forces you to deliver an excellent mobile experience. We've been saying this in the industry for 10 years, but mobile UX is still often not central to decisions.

Globally, B2B e-commerce is good for about six times the turnover of B2C, and yet B2B lags behind in digital marketing, customer experience and UX/UI.

I think B2B customers are more loyal than B2C customers. Changing supplier is often costly, which is why B2B companies spend less time and money (unfairly so!) on their platforms and customer journey. Average order values matter too: some B2B companies generate millions a year with only a few clients. B2C businesses generally have more clients and more transactions, so they have bigger margins and can invest more in customer experience.

I believe the real trap is not starting with e-commerce at all! Start with the basics. Do you want to move existing customers to ordering online? Do you want new customers? Do you want your own webshop, or sell via a marketplace? Do your research: talk to customers and prospects, do market research (local and international), and ask e-commerce experts for advice. They can add real value.

Starting with the basics doesn't mean you can skip nailing them. Be ready to review your entire sales and logistics process and adapt your strategy to what your research shows.

Make it as easy as possible for your customers and prospects to do business with you.

There are many similarities, like UX/UI and one-to-one communication. Both should learn from each other. But B2B e-commerce is a whole different ballgame: individual prices on thousands of SKUs, individual volume discounts, individual production or delivery deals, leads that turn into orders… It's just not the same.

A big thank you to Pieter Moons for sharing his insights and tips. This interview was first published on the B2B Commerce Academy.