“We want to meet the consumer where they are, and they prefer digital experiences — but it’s also really good for our business,” Glaser says. “We get so much more data to inform our future plans and marketing choices from a performance marketing perspective.”

General Mills can be more flexible by offering digital promotions, Glaser says. This includes incentivizing the consumer to take action when they’re most likely to convert.

“How do we build those relationships with consumers?” asks Glaser.

One way General Mills is building incentives for customers is through the Fetch rewards mobile app. Consumers download the Fetch app and create an account. They take photos of their grocery shopping receipts from in-store or online shopping and upload them to the app.

Consumers earn points they can redeem for gift cards. Eligible receipts that have at least one participating brand may receive at least 35 points. Each dollar is worth one point. 1,000 Fetch rewards points are worth $1, for example, and consumers need to reach 3,000 points in order to redeem for gift cards at stores including Starbucks, Macy’s, Amazon, Nordstrom Rack and Home Depot as well as for Visa cards. Fetch charges participating retailers like General Mills a referral fee.

Brand loyalty: What it is and how to build it

There is a lot of data exchanged between Fetch and General Mills, Glaser says.

“We get a ton of data from the Fetch partnership — about 62 million lines of data per day,” he says.

That data feeds into the brand’s customer data platform (CDP), which is a software platform that collects first-party data from multiple sources to help brands create targeted and personalized marketing campaigns.

“Loyalty programs are something that the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space isn’t necessarily ubiquitous — it’s something not all CPGs have nailed,” Glaser says. “We wanted to be intentional. What does that look like? How does it come to life?”

In March 2023, General Mills said it had added 2 million customers to its Good Rewards loyalty program with Fetch within the first six months of launch.

Consumer engagement experience

Fetch has about 18 million monthly active users, with 6 million of those using the app every day, says Robin Wheeler, the chief revenue officer at Fetch. In April 2023, the rewards app said it had surpassed $152 billion in annual gross merchandise value (GMV) across U.S. in-store and online retail sales.

“Fetch isn’t your traditional kind of shopping app,” Wheeler says. “It’s a consumer engagement experience.”

A larger portion of consumers are Millennials and Gen Z, Wheeler says.

“The younger generation is definitely coming to Fetch and I think a lot of that is tied to the experiences they’re seeing on social media,” Wheeler says.

Fetch rewards: adding brands

Fetch shares its general merchandise value scanned daily, Wheeler says. Fetch employees also track potential opportunities.

“We’re reading the trades and keeping up to speed on industries,” she says. “If we’re seeing national brands start to compete with a certain brand of deodorant, for example, our primary goal is to focus on where we’re seeing a lot of activity where we’re not currently rewarding consumers. Because that’s low hanging fruit.”

The company uses this information as it attempts to build relationships with other brands.

“There are plenty of big companies we haven’t started working with, and we need to be there,” she says.

This includes providing carousel information displayed at the top of the app that consumers see when they open it. Whether the promotion is about back to school or another busy shopping period, brands also want to include their offers and create more consumer awareness.

Fetch also has daily spin feature where consumers can obtain a daily reward.

Brands use influencers to reach new customers

This includes learning about the app from social media influencers, Wheeler says.

Fetch can share with brands what consumers are spending based on the receipts they upload to the app. Brands can target consumers, whether they’re loyal customers or “competitive buyers, which you have a to work a little bit harder for,” Wheeler says.

Fetch works with influencer agencies to source talent, Wheeler says. The company monitors influencer content and when it finds the right fit, it reaches out with affiliate links.

While the majority of Fetch receipts are in-store, Wheeler says online receipt uploads are growing.

“We have integrations with Amazon and Walmart,” Wheeler says. “We also have emailed receipts. If we have your email integrated and you order from DoorDash, we’re able to scan and pick up that receipt. So emailed receipts are definitely growing.”

Consumers can connect their Fetch account to their email, Amazon and Walmart accounts to earn Fetch rewards.

Fetch social

• 61% of Fetch monthly active users engaged with social features during July, up from 24% in January.
• Daily Reward launched in December 2022. Consumers have played daily rewards over 222 million plays since then.
• People who engage with social features/in-app games are more likely to scan receipts every day and have retention rates around 4-5 points higher than cohorts that don’t engage with these features.

Fetch eReceipts

• On average in 2023, about 10% of all receipts submitted to Fetch were eReceipts.
• About 29% of Fetch users who scan receipts also submit eReceipts.
• Top retailers include Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, Walgreens, McDonald’s, Starbucks.

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“Brands and retailers across categories are scrambling to identify how they can best use AI to elevate their ecommerce customer experience and drive revenue,” Elizabeth Buchanan, chief commercial officer at Rokt, said in a press release. “This research provides decision makers with a roadmap for creating new strategies and implementing advanced tech, such as AI, to significantly help improve the online shopping experience in ways that will surprise and delight shoppers.”

55% of Gen Z consumers in the survey also said they were interested in an AI assistant that could make finding new products simpler. 51% said they would try shopping in augmented reality and virtual reality. 

Gen Z survey respondents also said AI could be used in other ways:

• Compare prices (47%)
• Find deals (45%)
• Receive relevant offers and product suggestions (41%)
• Receive personalized assistance (37%)
• Find reviews (28%)

How will AI change online shopping?

Retailers are already implementing AI to save on costs and improve customer experiences. 

For example, men’s grooming DTC retailer Huron uses AI to automate bookkeeping services. Huron uses AI vendor Finaloop to track revenue across its multiple sales channels and manage inventory.

Online electronics retailer Newegg Commerce Inc. is also implementing AI, but in a way that more directly impacts consumers. The retailer uses generative AI to summarize common points that come up in customer reviews in “Review Bytes.” As of September, 20% of SKUs have AI-generated summaries. 

Google recently released a new AI tool that lets consumers virtually try on clothes. Several brands from Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 online retailers in the U.S. are already compatible with Google’s tool. Consumers can try on clothes from Anthropologie (part of Urban Outfitters Inc., No. 30), Everlane Inc. (No. 271), H&M, and Loft (part of Ascena Retail Group, No. 33). The tool can also suggest specific products based on customer preferences like color and price across brands. 

However, some retailers are more cautious about the changing technology. Dean McElwee, director, global ecommerce collaboration at The Stanley Black & Decker Company, recently told Digital Commerce 360 why generative AI is “still immature” and not ready to be implemented just yet.

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Oro develops open-source software technology designed to let software developers access its core software code to customize it. It provides open-source software for B2B ecommerce and CRM applications.

Oro goes on a hiring spree

Oro has named Sawyer Frank as its new head of sales. Previously, he headed the global sales team at Elastic Suite, where he designed a marketplace product that led to the company’s acquisition by publicly traded Emerald X Inc., Oro says.

Other Oro new hires include:

• Jourdin Lambright as Oro’s new partnerships manager. Jourdin joins Oro from BigCommerce, where she was a senior channel account manager.
• Oro has named John Parker as enterprise account executive. He previously worked at Elastic Suite and holds an MBA in marketing and a Master of Science in business analytics from Syracuse University.
• Cassidy Bryson joins Oro as customer success manager with previous roles at Akeneo and Accenture and expertise with client challenges with new software implementations. She has a long track record of assisting customers through their digital transformation journeys and identifying key metrics for overall platform success.
• Daniel Mester joins Oro as senior solutions engineer. Prior to Oro, he founded and sold a software-as-a-subscription (SaaS) company.

Oro’s clients include manufacturer Dunlop Protective Footwear, chemicals distributor Azelias, and industrial products distributor Lawson Products. The vendor says it has more than 40,000 technology installations across more than 100 countries.

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“I keep an eye on all email-related metrics, but I keep a very close eye on [inbound website traffic from email],” he says.

Cabral is senior manager of email operations and strategy at J. Jill. In July 2022, the retailer completed the last of three email migrations — and experienced a drop in email deliverability.

Michael Cabral, senior manager, email operations and strategy, J. Jill

“We hit an [IP] block over the Fourth of July weekend,” Cabral says.

J. Jill’s consumer engagement in email deliverability went from 99.7% to 96.8%, Cabral says.

“That doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re talking about a high volume of people, it’s actually pretty impactful for us,” Cabral says.

Emails lead to a “very large portion” of J. Jill’s online sales, Cabral says, without revealing more.

J. Jill IP address needed a ‘good’ reputation

The more a consumer clicks and engages with an email, the more emails that consumer receives from the retailer. If interaction declines, J. Jill sends fewer emails.

“If you’re not engaging with the emails, we don’t want to inundate consumers with our messages,” Cabral says. “And we don’t want them hitting the spam button. It’s actually better to opt out of our email program than hit the spam button.”

Senders are blacklisted when too many people hit the spam button on an email. A blacklist is a collection of IP addresses noted as sending out spam. Blacklisted email addresses are either blocked or messages are routed to the recipient’s spam folder.

J. Jill used Everest tools from Validity, a data quality and email marketing software platform, to see which emails are approved and unproblematic, he says.

Cabral and his Validity account manager determined that the retailer was targeting every email on its list as if they were engaged recipients that regularly clicked open emails.

“That was an issue because of an Apple iOS update for pre-caching, where everyone was considered an open email even if you didn’t open the email,” he says. Pre-caching is where software stores or caches a consumer’s web browser data in advance so when the time comes to email a consumer, the retailer can deliver it to them faster.

Warming up the IP address

In early 2021, Apple’s iOS 14 changes gave customers the option to opt out of activity tracking. This makes it harder for marketers to track web users and create personalized advertising campaigns.

At a certain point, J. Jill emailed people that were identified as having opened an email.

“But because of Apple iOS 14 changes, we were unable to truly know if it was an opened email,” Cabral says.

When J. Jill or any retailer completes an email transition to a new vendor, or changes the companies it sends its emails to, the retailer has to build up its IP address to get a “good reputation,” Cabral says.

To do this, J. Jill “warmed up” its email IP address, he says. Warming up the email IP address allows it to “get a good reputation,” he says. IP warming is the practice of gradually increasing the volume of email sent with a dedicated IP address, typically over a few weeks.

“To get a good reputation, you need people to open and close your email to show you’re a trusted sender,” Cabral says.

Gmail and Yahoo monitor email IP addresses to ensure recipients are not receiving spam messages. To avoid being blacklisted, Cabral first sent emails to its most engaged audiences, he says.

Once J. Jill consumers clicked through and engaged with emails, the IP block lifted, Cabral says.

“We started getting more and more people to click and open emails,” he says.

Enticing shoppers going forward

Now that emails are reaching the intended audience, Cabral says J. Jill prefers to promote the “newness” of its merchandise over discounts, Cabral says. That’s what’s relevant to customers, he says.

He knows this because he tracks what the email open rates tell him.

“That tells me that anything that’s new or just arrived was really a peak request,” Cabral says. “Those get the open rates. So I take advantage of that.”

J. Jill mixes up its messaging.

“Even when you’re talking about the same product, send one (email message) and then another two weeks later,” Cabral says. “I think that keeps the customer engaged in making a purchase.

J. Jill shoppers also go as far as emailing customer service if they’re not receiving messages, he says.

“I think our customers are very engaged with our email program,” Cabral says.

The retailer also emails customers with news of delayed shipments of new or popular-selling items. When a customer views an item that is delayed, J. Jill emails them that they will be alerted once the item is available, he says.

Since iOS changes, Cabral says website visits are down. However, the time users spend on site has lengthened.

“Our engaged customers are still coming [to the website], and they’re actually spending more than they previously had,” Cabral says.

J. Jill ranks No. 245 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest North American e-retailers.

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The tool uses generative AI to “reflect how [a clothing item] would drape, fold, cling, stretch and form wrinkles and shadows on a diverse set of real models in various poses,” senior direct of product for Google Shopping Lilian Rincon wrote in a statement. Rincon says the tool is inclusive of a wide variety of shoppers, with “ different skin tones, body shapes, ethnicities and hair types.”

Several brands from Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 online retailers in the U.S. are already compatible with Google’s tool. Consumers can try on clothes from Anthropologie (part of Urban Outfitters Inc., No. 30), Everlane Inc. (No. 271), H&M, and Loft (part of Ascena Retail Group, No. 33). More brands will be added in the future, Google says.

Experts predict fewer returns

Virtual try on tools could significantly cut down on returns. Fewer returns might lead to savings for ecommerce retailers, CEO at ecommerce growth agency Heur Chris Raven says. 

“Not only will this help brands cut costs and free up time, it will also be positive for the fashion industry’s negative impact on the climate,” he said, due to less waste of returned clothing and savings in shipping costs. 

Menswear retailer Otero found success using a different AI fitting room tool from Perfitly. Customers create avatars based on their own body types to try on clothes before adding them to their carts. Otero’s return rate is well below the industry standard at 3%, founder and CEO Steve Villanueva previously told Digital Commerce 360. Villanueva attributes what he calls a “ridiculously low” return rate to Perfitly’s accuracy. There have been some bumps in return rates as Otero and Perfitly tweaked the questions and avatars, he said. But it never exceeded 9% and always settles back between 2 and 3%. That’s far below the industry standard, Villanueva said.

Generative AI can make recommendations to customers

Google’s new AI tool can suggest specific products based on customer preferences. Rincon compared the ability to a worker in a store bringing customers choices based on color, style, pattern, and price. So far, the capability is only available for women’s shirts, Google says, but it can recommend products across brands, unlike in a physical store that’s limited to in-stock inventory.

Google uses AI to recommend similar products across retailers.

“I don’t believe that AI is a passing fad and in order to grow with the current climate, brands must lean into these new technologies and use them to their advantage,” CEO of apparel retailer SilkFred Emma Watkinson said. SilkFred is preparing to launch a similar service that can make outfit recommendations to customers.

Generative AI like Google’s new tool gives retailers the “holy grail” to tailor experiences to clients on a one-to-one basis, Robert Brown, managing director and client executive at digital strategy consulting company BDO, told Digital Commerce 360. AI generates “massive” amounts of data about consumer preferences and needs that retailers can turn into future conversions, he said. The data can also be used to improve loyalty and membership programs. 

Potential downsides

Though innovations in AI could boost sales for ecommerce brands, there could also be some negative side effects. “Many people will be deterred by new technology which could potentially see a brand lose customers,” Raven said. Some potential customers could be intimidated and decide not to learn the new technology, he said.

Otero faced the same issue at first. When it first implemented Perfitly, not many customers used it, Villanueva said.  Making the avatar the entry point of the site was key to fixing the “up-front complexity” in Otero’s products, Villanueva said. Once customers saw how the retailer’s shirts were designed proportionally to fit their body type, they were much more likely to buy, he says. Otero’s conversion rate is 3%, he shared.

Brown points out that the data generated from retailers using AI, which can be a huge boon to retailers, is also a potential downside. Retailers have the opportunity to misuse data and lose consumer trust, he said. “The more you know about customers, the more possibility there is that people will take advantage of that,” he told Digital Commerce 360. 

2023 Top 1000 Report

Analysis of North America’s leading 1,000 online retailers. Includes over 200 charts, rankings by 2022 web sales, benchmarking data, growth analyses by category and merchant type, and a detailed analysis of post-pandemic ecommerce. 

View Details

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B2B sellers make customer expansion and converting sales online priorities

The survey shows most B2B sellers believe they have mastered the basics of ecommerce, such as site search and product reviews. But when it comes to personalized commerce, larger companies are more satisfied with their efforts, while many smaller competitors are investing in this area. Two-thirds of B2B sellers say they are successfully driving online conversions with such widely deployed features as:

• Site search
• Promotions
• Product ratings and reviews
• Showing inventory availability

While companies of all sizes generally believe that personalization is working for them, those with more than $500 million in annual revenue report greater success in several areas. Overall, B2B sellers are seeing the greatest return from tailoring site search results, for example by showing buyers only products they are approved to buy and the prices their companies have negotiated.

But several tactics are working far better for larger versus smaller firms, probably reflecting greater investment. These include personalized site search results, customer-specific pricing and targeting promotions to specific customer segments. Smaller companies are responding by putting some personalization features on their to-do lists for 2023. That includes personalized payment and shipping options (15.8% of smaller firms plan to invest versus 3.6% of larger ones) and personalized product category pages (15.8% versus 1.2%).

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“We needed to have a lot more targeted conversations with each consumer throughout their lifetime with Bark. And we needed to do that efficiently,” he says.

Bark started its business in 2012 selling a monthly subscription BarkBox containing two dog toys and two dog treats in each shipment. The dog toy and dog food subscription retailer expanded its product offerings through the years, including offering dental products in 2020.

Ed Walloga, vice president, lifecycle marketing and ecommerce, Bark

To figure out how best to market to consumers to increase upselling and cross selling, Bark turned to Simon Data, a software tool that allowed the retailer to run comparison tests and see how marketing campaigns perform.

Retaining and building up the lifetime value of its customers is important to the subscription retailer.

Data shows 5.6% of retailers in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 retailers used a subscription model in 2022. That’s down from 6.5% in 2021. That percentage differs depending on the category. 36.1% of Top 1000 food and beverage retailers had a subscription model in 2022. That is up from 27.8% a year earlier. 28% of health and beauty retailers had subscriptions in 2022, and 10.1% of specialty retailers like Bark.

During its fiscal fourth quarter 2022, Bark’s average order value increased $2. Upselling and cross selling accounted for the boost, Walloga says.

“And a huge amount of that was the increase in improving [conversion for] dental Bark Bright,” he says. Bark Bright are products like toothpaste and dental chew treats for dog teeth care.

Bark tests marketing emails for Durable Dental Chew products

In January 2023, Bark tested two marketing email campaigns for its Durable Dental Chew product launch, which is part of Bark Bright.

Bark sent the emails to its regular BarkBox subscribers. These subscribers received plush toys with treats as part of their core subscription.

The other type of subscribers are Super Chewers. These subscribers receive more durable toys in addition to treats as part of their core subscription.

The A/B split tests involved “several hundred thousand in each pool, and the A/B test was an even 50/50 split for each pool,” according to the company.

A/B testing, also known as split testing, allows Bark to test a percentage of its subscribers with two email campaigns to see which results in more opens or clicks. Bark can test different images or language and compare which ones consumers responded to more favorably.

The results showed that BarkBox subscribers were more responsive to the standalone announcement. Conversion rate was 16% higher for those BarkBox subscribers.

Meanwhile, Super Chewer subscribers were more responsive to marketing that highlighted the product collection. Conversion rate for these consumers was 30% higher.

“This was a surprising result, but this is why we test these things,” Walloga says.

Bark believes that because Super Chewer is a more specialized product, consumers liked a side-by-side comparison of original and durable products.

Bark subscribers opt in for SMS texts

There are 2 million BarkBox subscribers receiving a box every month, Walloga says. BarkBox sends subscribers products they can add onto each box. That program includes sending push notifications via SMS, he says.

“We’ve got a very aggressive push notification,” Walloga says.

SMS is an opportunity to “have worthwhile conversations with active and engaged customers,” he says. “That’s where you can apply SMS, and it doesn’t feel like a promotional campaign [to the consumer],” he says.

Bark used Simon Data to launch SMS in July 2022. It currently has 175,000 subscribers opted in to receive text messages. The opted-in base is growing by an average of 35% each quarter, according to Bark.

When customers respond to Bark SMS texts, a Bark employee responds, Walloga says.

“Our customer care team can pick up the [SMS] conversation and respond directly,” he says.

SMS subscribers receive a mix of product availability announcements. These include alerts about exclusive treats, toppers and toys they can add to their subscription box before it ships. SMS recipients also receive order status updates like shipment confirmations and account updates. They also receive marketing messages for “seasonal moments” like Cinco de Mayo or celebrating Star Wars on May 4th.

One of the most successful SMS texts reminds subscribers they have 24 hours left to add to the next box, he says.

Also, Bark is working on using its app to engage with consumers.

“We want to test pushing notifications directly to the Bark app,” Walloga says. According to Walloga, “a vast majority of our users are engaging on a mobile phone or the Bark app,” he says.

Bark adjusts email marketing strategy to retain subscribers

Bark subscribers typically commit to six- or 12-month subscription periods, Walloga says. The retailer reviews data to identify which customers are most at risk of leaving, he says.

“We’ve developed [email] outreach to those customers to remind them of the value that they saw as a Bark user,” he says.

This includes noting purchase history and favorites, he says. In addition to a personalized message, the retailer also sometimes includes incentives. This has allowed Bark to keep subscription renewal rates strong, Walloga says.

Email is still at the core of Bark’s digital marketing tools, Walloga says.

“Email is one of the fastest ways to test and iterate, and it gives you a little more real estate to have a conversation with a consumer,” he says. “But by no stretch is it the only channel we use.”

Personalized communications increases loyalty, Walloga says. Some of the tests Bark tried focused on loyalty, reminding customers of the value Bark brings them.

“If you have a very targeted, personalized conversation with the consumer or subscriber, they will respond,” he says.

Bark is No. 174 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers by web sales.

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“We needed a global overview of our entire [pool] of consumers and their interaction with the brand,” says Yoed Negri, global director of digital transformation, SodaStream.

Yoed Negri, global director of digital transformation, SodaStream International

Negri says SodaStream understands that its customers interact with the brand through more than one channel: email, SMS text and social media posts. But they weren’t sure how those interactions lead to an increase in conversion, he says.

“We understood that the current marketing infrastructure we had was not enough,” Negri says.

SodaStream’s marketing software provider, Optimove, offers artificial intelligence software. In 2022, SodaStream began using the capability in six markets, which represents about 10% of countries where SodaStream sells its products, Negri says. SodaStream products are sold in store at retail chains like Walmart Inc., Target Inc., and others, as well as online. The retailer sells directly to consumers in 20 markets online.

Test campaigns show how likely consumers are to convert

One way SodaStream engages with SodaStream drinkers is by sending recipes to customers they know like Pepsi-flavorings, diet flavorings and other options based on past orders. The retailer wanted to see how its customers responded to the recipes when received via email, SMS text or through social media posts, Negri says.

The beverage retailer declined to disclose the specific flavors presented, but Negri says the results showed that ads appealed differently to consumers depending on the channel. For example, for email campaigns, SodaStream saw a 3%-5% increase in conversion and 15% increase in average order value.

SMS text conversion rates were 10%-15% higher compared with email depending on the market, Negri says.

For social media posts, Negri says it’s important to note engagement and conversions.

“We see 7%-10% increases in engagement for personalized content and 5%-7% increase in conversions,” he says.

SodaStream conducted the tests over a period of four to eight weeks in late 2022, Negri says. Optimove’s AI software learns how consumers are responding to ads within six to eight weeks, Negri says.

Using AI to anticipate conversion

When deciding which campaigns to propose to which customers, Optimove’s software uses the data it collected to determine the best campaign for each, says Pini Yakuel, CEO of Optimove.

A retailer might decide to send a marketing campaign or a promotion, such as a birthday promotion, via email, SMS or a combination of both methods. Optimove’s AI determines the best combination for each customer base, Yakuel says.

Digital marketers also use Optimove’s analytics for the following:

• The likelihood to convert.
• The likelihood of becoming a top spender.
• The risk of churn (the measure of how many customers stop using a product).
• Likelihood of reactivating (also known as re-engagement, where retailers reach out to people who have previously expressed interest or engaged but have since disengaged with communications).

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Jason Hein

As B2B distributors have moved further into the digital world, they’ve centered their commerce experience primarily around one critical element: product data.

This strategy makes sense, of course. If you’re trying to recreate the physical buying experience in a digital setting, you need a digital equivalent to the physical features buyers use to make choices — and those features must be explicit. In a store, buyers can pick up an item to feel how heavy it is. Online, you need a field called “weight,” and that field needs to be populated with a logical value.

Ecommerce data

So the past few years have seen B2B distributors (and manufacturers, to an extent) highly focused on creating successful customer experiences through clear, complete, consistent and correct product data. They assumed that if their product data were in good shape, then site search, SEO, and the links between products would remain consistent and minimal problems would arise. Over time, though, it became clear this wasn’t the case. Yet simple as it may seem, getting a handle on product data is much more complicated than many companies initially realized.

For one, the product catalog constantly changes. Distributors often bring in new products or push out others — maintaining an accurate view of the product catalog requires hyper-vigilance. It’s also challenging to keep product information consistent as the business grows or evolves. Consider, for example, a company acquisition or movement into a new vertical. Both instances can substantially change the product catalog, and it may take quite some time to understand the implications of those changes. It’s genuinely difficult to stay on top of a product catalog in a digital environment.

Yet many B2B distributors have remained laser-focused on the perfection of product data as their top digital priority. And while it’s true that product data is important, that single-minded focus comes at the expense of the most valuable data source to B2B companies: the behavioral data of customers.

Most online companies already have this ecommerce data source — they just tend to ignore or delete it. But ecommerce data tells a critical story: how the buyer ended up at their purchase — the entire journey, not just its end point.  How customers engage with your product data can offer incredible insights into user intent and process. What terms are they using to search? What products do they look at after searching for a particular term?

A better way to recommend products

For example, complementary products historically have had to be linked to each other manually, either through hard coding in the site design or via a connection/relationship established in the PIM. But this approach requires significant manual labor to keep all product relationships current, and it sometimes makes inaccurate assumptions about buyer needs and use cases.

It’s much easier today to manage recommendations of compatible products by aggregating buyer behavioral data. (E.g., “Customers who bought also bought” or “Customers who viewed also viewed” recommendation widgets.) And distributors can increase the recommendations’ innovation by shifting them depending on the user’s role/persona/industry in addition to the product alone. It’s more of an “actions of the customer” than a “voice of the customer” approach, because what customers actually do is often more accurate than what they say they do.

This composite approach to ecommerce data is critical to building a differentiated customer experience. More importantly, incorporating behavioral data into the experience design is something the vast majority of distributors don’t do now. It represents a path to measurable and genuine innovation.

The positive impact of ecommerce on B2B is undeniable. But businesses cannot grow complacent with where they are today. Digital customers are telling you what they want. They’re showing you how they shop. Embrace and use that customer data to power better digital experiences — the kind that leap ahead of competitors.

About the author

Jason Hein is Principal Strategist for B2B at Bloomreach. Bloomreach provides “commerce experience” products and services designed to help online B2B and retail companies engage their customers. He has spent the past six years consulting for B2B manufacturers and distributors across a range of industry verticals. Prior to consulting, Jason spent five years at Amazon.com launching what is now Amazon Business. Before Amazon, he worked in merchandising for industrial distributor McMaster-Carr. He managed product presentation and differentiation across a wide range of B2B product categories.

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Klaus Werner, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Global Industrial Co.

Ecommerce accounts for more than 50% of all sales transactions at Global Industrial Co., a maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) distributor  with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Here, senior vice president and chief marketing officer Klaus Werner provides insights about digital expansion and personalizing the online purchasing experience.

Werner will speak during the June 20 “Build Customer Loyalty” panel and workshop session and give a featured presentation June 21 on “Driving B2B Success With a B2C Twist” at the EnvisionB2B 2023 Conference & Exhibition in Chicago.

DC 360: What is driving B2B companies like Global Industrial to expand online?

Werner: The increase in B2B ecommerce continues to reflect changes in the market and customer digital trends. Ecommerce remains a strong and growing component of the B2B market. Global Industrial has a long history of ecommerce leadership and a dedicated one-to-one sales team. This combination provides a very compelling and value-additive omnichannel experience to our customers.

DC 360: What are your biggest internal or and external barriers?

Werner: Businesses have faced some challenging external forces the past couple of years, from economic headwinds to inflation and supply chain disruptions. Global Industrial’s ability to navigate these challenges and deliver operational excellence has made it a stronger and more flexible organization. Internally, our daily focus is on delivering an exceptional customer experience and driving continuous innovation. These are the keys to long-term success and allow you to stay ahead of the competition.

DC 360: What are the chief gains you’re realizing?

Werner: We are delivering a fully integrated brand marketing campaign that is enhancing awareness of Global Industrial across industries and activating our “We Can Supply That” tagline with customers. This is allowing us to provide customers with the right solutions to help them address challenges and be successful. We believe this positions us to capture market share through customer acquisition and retention while deepening existing relationships.

DC 360: What is the most valuable piece of advice you have on how to launch online B2B sales or increase them?

Werner: Put the customer at the center of everything you do. Be an excellent listener and execute flawlessly.

DC 360: Looking back over the past few years, is there anything you wish you had done differently in ecommerce?

Werner: I wish we were quicker in driving a personalized ecommerce experience. In our one-to-one sales organization, personal touch comes through a direct relationship, but in a digital world that connection can be lost. The innovative new digital platform we launched last year, which includes enhanced personalization and resources to shop by your industry, significantly strengthens our capabilities. It’s an area where we will continue to be a leader and look forward to bringing further innovation.

DC 360: What excites you the most in new digital commerce technology?

Werner: ChatGPT—it accelerates product descriptions; it will completely transform customer service, and the opportunities are endless.

DC 360: Going forward, what do you see as the most significant commerce challenges and opportunities? 

Werner: Challenge: Driving continuous innovation throughout the organization and continuing to differentiate our brand, products, and value in the market. Opportunity: Enhance Global Industrial’s brand recognition and the market’s understanding of the wealth of services and products we provide. Continuing to grow the customer base, expand our Global Industrial Exclusive Brands product line, and deliver an innovative and personalized ecommerce experience.

Jim Daly is a Mount Prospect, Illinois-based freelance journalist covering business and technology.   

Sign up

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 new Digital Commerce 360 B2B News content is published.

The post EnvisionB2B Speaker Spotlight: Global Industrial’s Klaus Werner on personalization appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.