Gone are the days when Business-to-Business (B2B) meant doing manual research by physically visiting market stores and talking to sales representativesfor hours before making a buying or selling decisions. Today, the journey has shifted from the traditional activities to completely digital from researching about the product on mobile devices and conducting the buying or selling process through online carts.
B2B marketing has changed drastically over the years with millennials comprising over a half of the B2B buyers and sellers. Mobile e-commerce has now become a part of everyday lives and around 67 % of B2B buyers are influenced to make their purchase decisions merely based on digital information. (Google, 2019)
As a result, we are seeing the emergence of a new type of shopping behaviour with B2B mobile e-commerce which is majorly concentrated on performing extensive Google Search, scrolling through online catalogues and social profiles or visiting brand websites. The time between starting the research process and finalising the buying or selling is not very long anymore as mobile e-commerce helps people make decisions and act on it much quicker.
B2B buyers are always on the lookout for multi-channel retailing experience on B2B platforms that allow them to transact from multiple points especially mobile commerce apps. There are multiple benefits that mobile commerce canoffer to add value to B2B businesses to engage customers and offer experiences
Let’s have a look at some of the most common advantages of m-commerce below
Faster & Convenient Navigation:
Majorly all websites have an optimised mobile version that are generally 1.5 times faster in loading and delivering search results. Customers can browse categories and make transactions quite easily with features like add to cart and checkout. Since the decision-making positions in the B2B industry is mostly occupied with millennials who are default smartphone users and engaged in intuitive mobile browsing for all their business requirements, they prefer quick results and easy to use features on-the-go.Positive Customer Experience:
Most people are already well-versed with how smartphones work and hence find it much easier to navigate for their desired product search and B2B buying and selling within a few clicks. Offering a smooth customer experience often equals to better conversation ration and thus sales revenue. From a user perspective, the biggest advantage of mobile commerce is anytime access, faster speed and convenience coupled with exclusive features like interactive AI chatbots, notifications, best deals etc.).Personalised Direct Communication:
Mobile app allows to deliver personalised content based on individual user preferences and shopping patterns with information like location, interests, category preference, search history, etc. is all used to combine and tailor data foreach user from the moment you are in the app. This translates into better engagement, expanded reach, more visitors and customer retention.Artificial Intelligence Powered:
Artificial Intelligence enable mobile apps have a significant impact on users’ interactions and has opened up a new plethora of possibilities for innovation improving the overall search experience. Most business in the B2B sector have already integrated AI in their mobile apps for enhancing customer engagement based on user behaviour patterns and thus escalate their business growth. The addition of AI chatbots in mobile apps has further made it possible to offer them round-the-clock assistance and deliver better user experience.Realising the importance of mobile commerce and its relevance to the Generation Y (millennials), Excess2Sell, leading online B2B marketplace in India has also introduced a mobile app which offers multiple benefits for buyers and sellers to sell excess inventory and buy wholesale products. The app provides them with the best bulk deals on various product categories ranging from laptops & accessories, mobile phones, security surveillance, home furnishing, lifestyle and more. It provides an opportunity to the buyers to reduce their cost per unit and sellers to release their blocked capital due to the stuck inventory. There is also a newly added feature of AI driven Smart Business Assistant called ‘E2S Smart’ which is developed to give 24x7 chat support. Mobile e-commerce offers tremendous opportunity for B2B buyers and sellers who are looking to connect on a wider level. With increasing number of people doing e-commerce on mobile phones, there is an evident need for all B2B companies to offer the same m-commerce experience as customers are delivered on the B2C mobile platforms. By implementing this, manufacturers, wholesalers, dealers, distributers etc. can add tremendous value to their customer’s journey and gain trust and retention.
