B2B companies must keep up with a quickly evolving digital commerce environment. For those that fall behind, a digital void can quickly lead to loss of market share and brand image — especially as more B2B professionals born and raised in the internet age take over as buyers for their companies.

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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