8 B2B eCommerce Trends to Prepare for in 2024
This year brought its unique challenges and opportunities that affected the eCommerce world. While we are facing the consequences of deeply disturbing geopolitical events and the cost of living crisis, on the other hand we observe that everyone’s day-to-day routines and work-related tasks are becoming more and more digital. Businesses that used to manage everything via phone and offline interactions for decades, now see the need to go online.
We created a guide on eight trends and strategies we’ve identified for your growth in 2024, to help you stay ahead of the competition and provide exceptional experiences for your customers.
1. Changing demographics among B2B buyers
According to Forrester, B2B eCommerce sales will be more than $2.3T in 2024, exceeding $3T by 2027. It’s only natural that there will be more Gen Z and Millennials in the workforce, and they will be in charge of purchase decisions.
This audience is comfortable searching for and purchasing products online and characteristically known for not really liking to interact with salespeople too much. On the other hand, business customers expect negotiable prices on large quantities, custom delivery options, and various payment options.
So let’s make sure your eCommerce site is prepared to handle B2B transactions and changing expectations of your target market.
2. Optimised mobile experience
It’s common knowledge that mobile shopping has been increasing for several years now and will continue to do so. B2B eCommerce users expect the same level of experience from B2B as they would from B2C in their personal lives. So the B2C eCommerce platform has to be mobile-friendly and ensure that customers can easily browse and purchase products with just a few taps.
When it comes to adaptive web design, there are some desktop elements that can be tweaked for a better mobile user experience and can affect the sales, for example making the ‘Buy now’ button on the product detail page sticky as the user scrolls down.
Also, customers expect mobile experience to be quick and easy, especially when it comes to mobile payment options (e.g. having Google and Apple Pay) or when paying on account. Ensuring a seamless and high performance integration with payment gateways or ERP systems will be critical to your business’s success.
3. Synchronisation with your social
Having a quick and user-friendly website is a must, but it should go hand in hand with the B2B brand’s social media presence. Customers should know who you are and how you can help them – your content strategy should include product showcases, engaging videos, answered FAQs and influencer collaborations (where relevant).
We recommend taking advantage of social media advertising to reach a wider audience and promote your products or service.
4. AI is here to help
There are lots of ways to use AI to automate certain processes for both yourself and your clients -like using chatbots and machine learning driven search tools. Chatbots will help you deal with rather trivial, but quite common, user requests and questions. AI-based search tools will help your customers find what they are looking for even if there was some mistyping or missed keyword.
AI can be used to simplify and enhance internal processes, admin work, document-related work, managing deliveries, and more.
5. Demand for sustainability
Questions to ask yourselves: can we adopt sustainable packaging materials, reduce carbon emissions from shipping, and source products from ethical suppliers? And when you do so, make sure your website visitors are informed about it.
Dedication to green initiatives will attract environmentally conscious customers and differentiate your business from competitors.
According to The Capgemini Research Institute, almost 80% of consumers are changing their shopping habits based on social responsibility, inclusiveness, or environmental impact.
6. Increase of voice-activated searches
According to the Demansage report, voice search is used by approximately 58% of consumers to find a local business, 41% of the adults in the US use voice search daily, and more than 30,000 smart home devices are supported by Google Assistant.
With the growing popularity of voice-activated searches like Siri, Alexa and Google Home, retailers should adapt by optimising their SEO keywords appropriately. This means focusing on conversational keywords.
7. Rewards for your customers
It’s important to let your customers enjoy discounts, coupons, cash-back rewards, and invitation-only sales. Customers tend to be loyal to brands that appreciate them. These loyalty rewards may not cost much but will bring improved customer retention and increased sales.
8. Quick Delivery
Quick 1-day deliveries became so popular that now we have a term for this – QCommerce. If your business specifics won’t allow you to deliver on the same or the next day, it’s good to make sure the deliveries will still be happening in the shortest possible amount of time and providing transparency on timelines for delivery.
On top of quick delivery, consider also offering free shipping for customers who reach a certain threshold. With speed and cost savings combined, you can stand out from the competition on delivery efficiency.
To sum up
In 2024, B2B eCommerce has to be flexible and user-centred. Users expect a seamless experience of purchasing from sustainable and responsible brands. By investing in your mobile website design, optimising delivery, simplifying search and rewarding your customers, your business will absolutely stay in demand.
Looking for a dedicated team to make your online presence flawless and exquisite? We are here to help!
Monsoon Consulting are Ireland’s only Adobe Gold Solution Partner, focusing on delivering best-in-class B2B and B2C eCommerce solutions to large companies such as Uniphar PLC, Sysco (Pallas Foods), Topline, Heat Merchants Group, One4All and Central Bank of Ireland.
The team at Monsoon provide a full-service offering from business consultancy & strategic planning, UX & UI creative design, development & engineering, Infra & Dev ops to a dedicated Support team, offering 24×7 critical application support.
For more information on how Monsoon Consulting can help your business online, please get in touch with [email protected] or call +353 (0)1 4750066.
