Enhancing the B2B Buying Experience with Personalization – Certona

Enhancing the B2B Buying Experience with

Personalization

THE B2B ECOMMERCE LANDSCAPE

“B2B buyers are now taking a digital-first approach to discovering and making purchases.” – Forrester

Worldwide United States

B2B eCommerce Sales from 2015 to 2020 (in Trillions U.S. Dollars)

$6.7 Trillion by 2020 $1.13 Trillion by 2020

WHY PERSONALIZE B2B? IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BUYER EXPERIENCE

1. https://www.schubertb2b.com/2016/05/6-b2b-ecommerce-stats-you-cant-ignore-in-2016/

70% of B2B purchase decisions include at least two decision makers.

Almost 30% of B2B transactions include more than five decision makers. This makes it critical that B2B websites serve multiple buyer personas.1

80% of companies implementing B2B eCommerce believe that their customer expectations have changed due to B2C practices. 1

57% of the buying process is done prior to engaging with the sales team. B2B sites should be sales tools assisting the buying process. 1

68% of B2B buyers say they’re unlikely to return to a website that does not provide a satisfactory customer experience.”Forrester’s North American Technographic, Customer Lifecycle Survey

B2B CHALLENGES

B2B Businesses B2B Buyers

Product Discovery

Inventory Management

Maximize Resources

Cost Reduction

Customer Lifetime Value

Unique shopping process

Contract pricing/compliance

Account/role based Purchasing

Regulatory restrictions

Content availability

CHALLENGES

WHAT IS PERSONALIZATION?

Gartner defines personalization as, "a process that creates a relevant, individualized interaction between two parties designed to enhance the experience of the recipient. It uses insight based on the recipient's personal data, as well as behavioral data about the actions of similar individuals, to deliver an experience that meets specific needs and preferences.“*

Why Personalization for B2B?

• Leverages behavioral data and predictive analytics• Simplify and enhances buying process• Improve product findability and discovery• Account/user-based content & product recommendations• Increase customer loyalty and retention• Eases replenishment and re-ordering process• Optimize merchandising and field sales productivity• Better support procurement and supply chain process

HOW PERSONALIZATION IMPROVES THE B2B BUYING EXPERIENCE

• Personalize experiences based on account and user role across channels

• Enhances product findability and discovery

• Personalize content (data sheets, buying guides, product videos)

• Streamline replenishment and simplify re-ordering

• Increase visibility and sales for private label (proprietary brands)

• Increase loyalty/retention with personalized emails

• Increase product knowledge and productivity of field sales reps/call center agents (cross-sell, upsell, introduce new products)

HOW DOES PERSONALIZATION HELP B2B?

Product Findability & Discovery

Enhance visibility to new product lines and product-related content through:

• Homepage Personalization• Visual Search• Visual Navigation• Account-based recommendations• Product finder tool

Inventory Management

Reduce inventory related buying and fulfillment challenges with Certona’s API solution.

• Real-time inventory visibility (for on-time delivery)• Alignment of contract pricing and inventory by customer• Leverage internal and 3rd party data to enrich buyer profile• Relevant out of stock replacements• Increase visibility and sales for excess inventory• Recommendations based on account and user location for fastest delivery

Real-time Inventory& Contract Validation

Identify ClosestWarehouse

QuickDelivery


Cost Savings & Increased Profits

• Reduce manual merchandising efforts with personalized product listings and recommendations• Reduce time to find and purchase products• Reduce product returns• Increase product discovery and upsell/cross-sell opportunities• Increase visibility and sales for private label (proprietary brands)

Hard to find the right products

The Personalized Way

vs

The Old Way

The right products come to you


Contract Governance & Role-based Buying

• Dynamic (tiered) pricing based on customer and buyer role• Unique content based on account/buyer role• Filtering out restricted products• Identifies and leverages brand preferences• Incorporate offline order history online

JohnProperty Manager

Near San Diego Warehouse

Tier 3 Pricing

Frequently OrdersPhilips Light Bulbs and Behr Paint

Master Account User

Geo Restriction onGas Products


Empowering Your Sales Team

Equip mobile enabled sales team with:

• Customer purchase history

• Online behavior

• Inventory visibility

• Increase upsell/cross-sell opportunities

• Help with new product discovery


15 EXAMPLES OF B2B PERSONALIZATION

Personalized Content

Recently Viewed Categories

Personalized Promotions

Replenishment Messages

B2B PERSONALIZATION EXAMPLES

Homepage

Type-ahead suggested terms

Account-specific recommendationsbased on search terms


Enhanced Search (Visual Search)

Category and Product Listing Pages (Auto Discovery)

Personalized category pages based on:• Browse behavior• Previous purchase• Business objectives• Account/user role


Recommendations based onbrowse behavior and pastpurchase history withinNavigation menu

Enhanced Navigation (Visual Navigation)


Recommendations based oncompany approved product list

Reduce time to discover products

Category Page


Product Detail Page

Account based promotionsand offers

Recommendations based on:• Browse behavior• Previous purchase• Business objectives• Account/user role

Content Personalization


Shopping Cart

Personalized Recommendationsbased on:• Browse behavior• Previous purchase• Business objectives• Account/user role

Replenishment Message


My Account Page

Recently Viewed or Bought

Account-based Cross-sell Upsell

PersonalizedContent


Product Finder

DrillFinder

BulbFinder

• Increase site engagement and conversion

• Enhance product discovery

• Reduce product returns

• Enrich customer profiles based on answers


Engage buyers with relevant content where they need it based on account or user role.

• Data sheets• Buying guides• Case studies• Product videos Legislation

Message

GreenAlternatives

BrandPromotion


Content Availability

• Increase brand loyalty through personalized offers and promotions• Re-engage and recover sales from cart/browse abandonment

Re-engage with Relevant Alternatives

Upsell/Cross-sell Based on Purchase


Customer Lifetime Value

Email Personalization – Remarketing – Transactional - Marketing

Re-engage with Relevant Alternatives Upsell/Cross-sell Based on Purchase


Mobile Sales Empowerment

Ease replenishment

Cross-sell & product discovery

Upsell based on online behavior


Contact Center

Upsell accessories relatedto current order


Packing Slips

Personalized Recommendationsbased on:• Browse behavior• Previous purchase• Business objectives• Account/user role

Personalized Promotions• New product discovery• Merchandising goals


KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Personalizing the B2B buying experience is possible with the right strategy

• Leverage customer and role-based information to deliver the most relevant experiences

• Personalizing the buying experience improves customer lifetime value

• Personalization empowers the sales and customer service teams

• Don’t be afraid to test and try new ideas!

THANK YOU!

Contact Certona to learn more aboutpersonalizing the B2B buying experience.

[email protected] US: 858.369.3888UK: +44.845.121.5155

Technology

Enhancing the B2B Buying Experience with Personalization – Certona