Three ways to capture industrial products buyers in a digital world
The burgeoning business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce market, estimated soon to be twice the size of business-to-consumer (B2C), holds great promise for industrial distributors to reach more buyers. With the opportunity, however, comes a wider range of competitive threats.
UPS found in a recent study that the percentage of buyers purchasing from e-marketplaces has risen to 75 percent today from 20 percent in 2013. That large swing emphasizes a new reality for traditional distributors: The internet has given industrial buyers a direct link to more supplier options, and buyers increasingly are using those options.
If you want to hold on to your share of industrial buyers’ wallets, or grab more of them, take these three strategies to heart.
Help buyers find you.
B2B buyers make personal purchases too, so they naturally bring those consumer habits to their business buying. That includes searching online for suppliers and products. If you don’t appear at or near the top of the first page of search results—either via Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising or “organically” through Search Engine Optimization (SEO)—it’s not likely a buyer will find you.
Getting noticed online requires unique expertise and ongoing optimization that are the lifeblood of any business trying to compete today. Though few companies have the luxury of staffing for such activities, ready-made and configurable solutions are available that can help you and your products become more visible to buyers.
“We have arrangements with technology providers through the UPS Ready® program,” says Simon Bhadra, senior manager of UPS Segment Marketing. “The UPS Ready program offers access to technology providers who can help with something as simple as setting up an online storefront, all the way to continuous optimization of product information to achieve a higher organic search ranking.” He adds, “There is a joke that all the answers to the world’s greatest mysteries lie on the second page of search results—that no one sees. You need to be at or among the top options when buyers are looking for something.”
Make it easy to buy from you.
Once you’ve made it easier for customers old and new to find you, how will you keep them coming back? Three UPS Industrial Buying Dynamics studies since 2013, surveying 1,500 industrial products buyers, consistently show that once fundamental needs for price and quality are met, buyers gravitate toward suppliers who provide an easy and convenient buying experience.
The definition of “ease and convenience” may vary by individual, but the basic tenets are the same. It should be simple for buyers to find product and service information through any channel they want to use, whether a website, mobile application or social media. Buyers also want and expect information across all channels to be consistent and accurate. And they increasingly want the transaction to be simple, with access to negotiated pricing and purchase history, easy repeat ordering and multiple options for mode and date of delivery.
The UPS studies also show the peril of not meeting those buyer demands. In 2017, 80 percent of buyers said they would switch suppliers to get a more user-friendly buying experience—compared to 72 percent in the 2015 study. And millennials, the up-and-coming generation of buyers, lead the demand for convenient buying via mobile devices.
Give buyers more visibility and control.
A purchase is an act of trust by buyers, but that trust can fade over avoidable things like poor communication or lack of visibility into order status. Both buyer and seller suffer the productivity drain of WISMO calls (Where is My Order), as well as the resulting uncertainty in the supply chain.
“Five years ago, most industrial distributors didn’t know they’d face the same challenges as brick-and-mortar retailers trying to grow during an e-commerce explosion,” says UPS’s Bhadra. “But distributors today have advantages that retailers didn’t, such as more and more affordable technology.” He adds, “There are solutions that can help distributors integrate and streamline their operations, and provide nearly A-to-Z visibility of inbound and outbound movements from manufacturer to distributor to customer.”
Bhadra provides an example based on UPS technologies. “Say your customer orders original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts to fit a tight production schedule. If you, your supplier and your customer are integrated with UPS’s Quantum View® technology, all parties could see the order’s progress and receive updates along the way. That trust can be maintained.”
In a few years we’ll see how far—and how well—distributors were able to stretch themselves to meet the ever-increasing demands of their buyers. These days, that means once you meet buyers’ needs for quality and price, you have to be easy to find, easy to buy from and easy to trust. The good news is that it’s no longer necessary to build all those capabilities from scratch. Seek out existing and new business partnerships that can help you capture, keep and grow your customer base in the midst of a digital revolution.
See how UPS can help improve your customers’ online experience.
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