Scaling for Success: Growth in B2B eCommerce Event Recap
Last Thursday Monsoon Consulting, in partnership with Digital River and Adobe, hosted our first industry event since lockdown. The Scaling for Success morning session brought existing clients, strategic partners, and B2B business leaders together to learn, share experiences, and network over lunch.
We filled the morning with four separate segments; two presentations by our internal experts, Tadhg Bowe and Laura Hodson, one case study from a star F&B client, Ashley O’Brien, and a panel discussion with a variety of industry leaders, all tied together and moderated by our talented MC, Alastair Brodie.
We’ll provide an overview of some of the key points they discussed below.
And stay tuned for the full video of these presentations for more details, or get in touch with the Monsoon team to schedule a no commitment eCommerce Readiness Assessment with Tadhg and the team. They’ll get to know your business, goals, and see what the best solutions are to help you scale.
Ready to transform your site?
Get in touch today!
Tadhg Bowe: B2B eCommerce Trends & Insights
Tadhg Bowe brings nearly two decades of expertise in eCommerce to the table, having led numerous successful Adobe Commerce and Magento projects for prominent brands in the UK and Ireland. As our in-house eCommerce Solution Specialist, Tadhg has his finger on the pulse of where the industry is headed.
While B2B is traditionally a bit slower to shift than B2C, the speed of change is accelerating and these upcoming trends were a great way to set the forward-looking tone of the day.
AI Applications
It’s 2024, so any conversation about trends and the future of an industry must include the impact of AI. While AI tools exist to encompass the breadth of business functions from email optimisation to video and marketing generation, Tadhg highlighted the pieces that relate directly to the website and eCommerce functions, including:
- Fraud Detection and Prevention
- Personalisation
- Customer Service
- Data Analytics
- Content Creation
- Search
Adobe Commerce/Magento is our sole eCommerce platform at Monsoon, so all of our projects are built on it. Under their expanding options, Adobe Experience Cloud is bringing together more data points through Adobe Sensei, that leverages AI to build customised journeys at scale.
Reordering
At Monsoon, we have our own internal R&D team that has been developing our own pre-packaged B2B solution called Apex. Checkout optimisation is a set of key features that have been highly requested by our customers and are extremely beneficial for increasing AOV in B2B eCommerce.
Clients are busy and on-the-go, especially in fast moving sectors like Food and Bev or Construction. This means that making ordering quick and easy is key.
Ordering from the Cart
At Monsoon, we have our own internal R&D team that has been developing our own pre-packaged B2B solution called Apex. Checkout optimisation is a set of key features that have been highly requested by our customers and are extremely beneficial for increasing AOV in B2B eCommerce.
Clients are busy and on-the-go, especially in fast moving sectors like Food and Bev or Construction. This means that making ordering quick and easy is key.
Edit Line Items
While many of a client’s orders may be repeated, they won’t always be exactly the same. By being able to quickly and easily edit individual line items, reducing or increasing the units, customers can expedite ordering significantly.
Your Usual
A favourites section is a key feature we’ve been developing for major clients, especially in the F&B sector. This list is personalised to each customer and can display their most ordered items from a set period of time, for example 5 weeks. All the display and timeframe information is fully configurable from the admin panel.
From this list, clients can easily scan and make sure they haven’t missed out on a common stock item they normally order.
Automatic Reordering
Period Automatic Replenishment (PAR) stock are products that you need regularly and you don’t want to have to order manually each time. For example, this would be particularly relevant for the F&B sector where a restaurant might need a regular shipment of fresh produce every couple of days. By having the quantity already selected, they can easily make sure they never run out or forget to place an order.
Tadhg went on to cover many more trends in his presentation, including:
- Self-service admin
- Account Payments
- Order Management Systems
- Security
- Portal Configurator
- Site Performance
Laura Hodson: B2B UX & Personalisation
Laura Hodson heads Monsoon’s Design and UX team, bringing a sharp eye for user-centric design and a deep understanding of B2B personalisation. Her expertise in crafting user experiences that are both intuitive and impactful makes her a key voice in the landscape of digital commerce.
In her talk, she covered these three main points:
- The new digital landscape and its challenges
- What exactly is personalisation in eCommerce
- How to offer it in B2B eCommerce
Challenges around Data
Data is the name of the game for any online venture, but it comes with plenty of challenges from collecting it, analysing, and through to making decisions to increase performance.
Firstly, collecting data has its own hurdles to overcome, including data silos, GDPR, and just even internal company culture. Once you have the data, you may realise you have too much and it’s just an information overload. This can lead to overwhelm, rather than empowerment.
Defining Personalisation
We’re all accustomed to a certain level of customisation for our online experiences, so it’s clear that this is a huge aspect of B2B shopping now. Be it linked to an individual’s role or the location of a certain brand, personalisation is a key aspect of building out a successful B2B online experience.
Drawing from her points before about the overwhelm of information and Tadhg’s introduction of AI for journey optimisation, she continued to discuss hyper personalisation in eCommerce will rely on advanced data analytics with AI and machine learning that will deliver highly tailored experiences to each individual.
Laura mentions the benefits of this, which include:
- Enhanced customer
- Experience / satisfaction
- Increased conversion rates
- Customer retention & loyalty
- Better customer insights & forecasting
However, she did caution that with more data requirements, privacy concerns and data security become very key issues. Beyond the ethical issues, the integrations and customisations required to set up this high degree of personalisation are very time intensive initially.
Personalisation in Practice
Having wrapped up with the theory behind personalisation and the challenges to be expected, Laura concluded with some key features that the Monsoon team has developed for our major industry players in recent builds.
Dynamic Pricing
In B2B there are always bulk deals, promotions or contracts that result in different pricing structures for each customer. With dynamic pricing built in, each user can see the price that applies to them.
Customer specific product catalogues
Especially in more regulated industries, like Pharma, not all users will have the authority to order all products available. This feature enables visibility to be set at a user level based on certain criteria or categories.
Product Recommendations
Like with B2C shopping, this feature can highlight products that we bought together frequently and provide complementary suggestions to increase AOV.
Notifications
This feature makes it simple to message your users as a whole (if there is a major update that is network-wide) or targeted users with any message you’d like.
Cart/Checkout Journey
Depending on the user, the checkout process may end in the Cart, as discussed previously in Tadhg’s presentation. Or it may require a selection of payment method, a PO number or expedited or standard shipping–meaning the journey will not be a one-size-fit-all.
Cross-sells, Substitutes & Alternatives
Things go out of stock, it’s a reality of trading, however this feature can dynamically showcase suitable replacements for those items, as well as items that are typically purchased together.
Content Personalisation
Most eCommerce platforms double as a content hub to promote new products or applications, so a highly customisable display tailored to particular geographies or tiers can be very useful.
Ashley O’Brien: O’Brien Group Case Study
Ashley presented a great overview of the Odaios and O’Brien Ingredients’ digital journey with Monsoon. While both distribute multi-temperature food and ingredients, the two food brands are distinct: the former catering to the needs of hotels, restaurants, and cafes, and the latter to craft, instore, and plant bakeries.
Throughout the case study, he detailed their journey to developing eCommerce in order to keep up with their plans for growth in the years to come. They realised the need for new and more customers, more products, and more user friendly access to their inventory. The solution was launching an online platform.
Initial Steps
Ashely highlighted the key steps at the outset of the project in 2022:
- Discovery: Presenting the business needs to Monsoon and developing a thorough list of requirements
- Design: Get creative as it’s a new build, but don’t leave functionality until later.
- Preparation: Identify who is responsible for what, leave time for testing, and don’t make any assumptions.
- Data requirements: Prepare and review at the start. Don’t underestimate how much time it will take, so make sure to identify all requirements early.
- Integrations: Review all the third party integrations you’ll need to link up, notably the ERP system and be prepared to make necessary upgrades.
Next Steps
- Testing: Test internally as much as you can.
- Training: Develop SOPs as development progresses and train staff alongside production to ensure ample time to learn the systems before go-live.
Ashley concluded his talk by discussing the soft launch that helped them complete testing and launch once they were all fully trained and comfortable with the new solutions.
After his presentation, we had a very engaged and vibrant conversation during the Q&A session. We’ll release this with the videos of all the talks in a few days’ time.
Panel Discussion
The panel members were a diverse group of eCommerce professionals and thought leaders that wrapped up the day with a 45 minute conversation on a variety of topics.
CIARAN CREAN
Ciaran Crean co-founded MicksGarage.com, one of the UK and Ireland’s largest online retailers of car parts and accessories, with his brother Michael in 2004. The company has expanded its delivery network across Ireland, the UK, and mainland Europe. He is also Co-Founder & CEO at WaveOMS, a SaaS platform that enhances warehouse operations. It optimises the speed and cost-efficiency of order fulfilment, thereby boosting Pack, Pick & Ship capabilities for organisations of various sizes.
SIMON HARKIN
Simon Harkin is the B2B eCommerce Manager at Uniphar, a global partner to pharma and medtech manufacturers focused on improving patient access to healthcare worldwide and long-time Monsoon client. At Uniphar, he manages eCommerce platforms, commercial sales, analytics, and digital solutions, leveraging the company’s strong relationships with over 200 leading pharmaco-medical manufacturers and cutting-edge technology.
ESTELLE DI LUCIA
Estelle di Lucia is the Director of Partnerships at Digital River, a merchant of record solution for cross-border eCommerce. With 14 years of entrepreneurial experience, she transitioned to the corporate sector in 2014, focusing on driving strategic global partnerships. Her dedication to excellence has significantly contributed to expanding business and driving revenue growth through impactful alliances.
BHARAT SHARMA
Bharat Sharma, Founder and CEO of Monsoon Consulting, is a distinguished leader in the digital commerce sector. He is known for his expertise in eCommerce technology and trends. Bharat is an active speaker at European and Indian conferences, often focusing on how digital innovation can transform businesses. His leadership at Monsoon has steered the company through significant growth, making it a trusted partner in the UKI markets.
Conclusion
This event was a fantastic collision of minds across various sectors including F&B, Pharma, Hardware, and technology partners. As our first event post-pandemic, it marked a brilliant start to our upcoming series of gatherings, perfectly priming us for a summer filled with more connections and exciting opportunities.
The discussions around AI technologies and personalised user experiences set new benchmarks for customer engagement and operational efficiency in B2B eCommerce. We’re excited to put these innovative strategies into action and see our clients prosper in a digital-first marketplace.
Keep an eye on our social media for updates and videos on our YouTube channel. If you’re keen to boost your eCommerce solutions or discuss how these insights could work for your business, feel free to drop us a message.
We’re here to build lasting customer relationships and help you thrive online!
