The survey of 403 companies with annual revenue of at least $20 million and located in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden finds that 78% of organizations have an ecommerce site or digital self-service portal.

64% of companies also plan on increasing their ecommerce investment this year while on average about 52% of all sales are digital. “The results paint a picture of a market alive not only to the immediate revenue opportunities ecommerce represents, but to a raft of broader competitive advantages which ambitious organizations can capitalize on in 2023 and beyond,” the report says.

Other findings include:

• The impact of ecommerce extends beyond transactional benefits within the purchase process, and this is reflected in the channels by which businesses receive orders. Online websites are the most popular channel for sales, with 64% of companies with 500 or more employees citing it as the source from which they receive the most orders. By comparison, 49% of businesses with less than 500 employees cited online websites as their top sales channel.
• 83% of companies consider an omnichannel approach as important for their overall sales and marketing strategy.
• 59% of respondents use their ecommerce portal to assist sales representatives.
• More than half (51%) of firms now sell via online marketplaces.
• Businesses using online marketplaces generate half of their business that way and expect those sales to increase by around 40% in the coming year.
• B2B buyers increasingly expect a consumer-grade experience from their purchase experience, including the option to use mobile devices. 72% of firms have responded to the growth in demand for browsing, researching, and buying on mobile devices by adding more tools and features.
• 59% of companies are using a product information management system (PIM) to help manage product information.

“Customer experience is the new battlefield for many B2B firms, and ecommerce – with its potential for 24/7 availability and personalization – is proving a valuable weapon in an organization’s arsenal,” the report says.

The post B2B ecommerce gains ground as a central sales channel appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Experts project business buyers will increase their online purchasing. Research and advisory firm Astute Analytica forecast a 14.1% compound annual growth rate in global B2B ecommerce from 2022 to 2027, reaching $18.8 billion. In the U.S., B2B ecommerce will grow by 10.7% annually during that period and will account for 24% of all B2B sales by 2027, up from 16% in 2021, Forrester Research says.

Given that projected growth, it’s no surprise that B2B companies would put ecommerce platform and applications at the top of their tech shopping list for 2023. That’s closely followed by digital marketing applications and customer and site analytics solutions.

Larger firms are more focused than smaller ones on payment and security investments (28.9% to 15.8%). That may reflect the greater likelihood that larger firms are launching ecommerce sites in new countries where they may need to offer popular local payment options and address new security issues. Smaller companies are prioritizing order management (32.9% to 18.1%) and technology for building their own marketplaces (18.4% to 3.6%.)

It’s a sign of the growing appeal of B2B marketplaces that several vendors have emerged offering software that enables even midsized and smaller companies to invite outside firms to sell on their ecommerce sites. It’s noteworthy that only 13% of respondents are investing in what’s known as “headless commerce,” which separates what website visitors see on a website from the back-end ecommerce systems.

That’s touted to provide additional flexibility in website design. But it adds complexity to site design and management as it requires continual data exchanges between the front-end presentation layer and back-end systems.

The headless approach may be best suited for organizations with the IT resources to ensure the smooth flow of data between systems. In our survey, 14.8% of larger companies cited headless as a priority. versus 11.8% of smaller ones.

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“Polybags are the worst thing in the world. Everyone hates them but they are a necessary evil,” says Steve McCann, marketing director at Toad and Co.

Polybags are the clear plastic bags the nearly all apparel items are shipped in. But brands can’t just get rid of them without a replacement. Retailers need something to shield a garment from the elements as it makes its way through a warehouse on a belt, being picked, packed and shipped and making its way on a ship, truck or van or all three to a store or to a shopper’s doorstep, where it may encounter rain, snow and sleet. If the product gets damaged at any point, it will be thrown out.

“The lifecycle of ruining a garment versus the lifecycle of a polybag is much worse,” McCann says.

Since Toad and Co. started selling online in 2014, the brand went from using one traditional polybag, to optimizing the design to be more sustainable in five different sizes. It aims to eliminate polybags completely by 2024.

Shipping a ‘better’ polybag

The brand’s first iteration of making its polybags more sustainable was shrinking the standard width of each polybag to better fit its garments. What’s more, instead of using one larger polybag that would hold any of its products, it invested in polybags of different sizes so that each bag fits the garment, reducing the plastic required. It also thinned out the plastic to further minimize the amount of plastic used.

Steve McCann, marketing director at Toad and Co.

In addition, Toad and Co. changed the location of the airholes on its polybags. It moved them from the bottom of the bag to the top and alerted shoppers these polybags could be reused to pick up dog waste, McCann says.

And even after all these efforts, the retailer is working to eliminate all these polybags.

One alternative packaging retailers use is a compostable polybag made out of plant-based materials. These bags, however, have mixed reviews from vendors and merchants. While compostable materials could be better environmentally than single-use plastic, it’s challenging for consumers to get the bag to the proper facility. A consumer would have to drop them off at a collection point that takes this specific material. If a consumer throws out this material it could emit more methane in a landfill than other types of trash, according to several vendors, analysts and retailers. And if a consumer puts the bag in the normal recycling bin, it could clog and contaminate the normal recycling process, causing the entire batch of recycling to end up in a landfill.

Toad and Co. switches to paper polybags

Because of these issues, in 2020 Toad & Co. started working with packaging vendor Vela to pilot its paper polybags. They are made of  Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper and can be recycled with mixed paper. This makes them much more likely to actually get recycled than a compostable bag. FSC is a nonprofit organization that ensures the paper is from a forest that is responsibly managed for environmental, economic and social benefits.

After piloting the paper polybags with a few products, the retailer confirmed they were sturdy enough to protect its garments and of the same quality as a traditional polybag, and began rolling them out across all of its products. Once the brand hits a certain minimum order volume of products at each of its factories, it makes the switch to using this product. As of Q2 2023, about 82% of its products use the alternative polybag and by spring 2024, 100% of them will, McCann says.

Toad and Co.’s shoppers have not commented on the switch in materials, but its wholesale accounts have reacted positively, McCann says. When brands ship items to stores, just like to a shopper’s home, each garment is encased in a polybag. Store employees open each bag and hang the garments up.

“They see it more so than anyone else, this is so much waste and so much plastic,” McCann says.

About 50% of Toad and Co.’s sales are direct-to-consumer online and the other half are wholesale to retailers, he says.

A more dramatic alternative: reusable packaging

To further lower its carbon footprint, Toad and Co. also gives shoppers the option to have their orders shipped in a reusable package. With vendor LimeLoop, Toad and Co. rents weatherproof bags. The bag are made of recycled polyester, mostly old billboards, on the outside. They have a zipper closure instead of tape and are recycled cotton on the inside.

For each LimeLoop medium bag, a retailer reduces 92% of carbon dioxide emissions and 99% of water use compared with shipping that order in a medium size cardboard box, according to LimeLoop. Similarly, for each LimeLoop small bag, a retailer reduces 42% of its carbon dioxide emissions and 9% of its water use compared with a polymailer plastic bag, according to the vendor.

The retailer piloted LimeLoop in 2018 and was one of its first clients. Its relationship ebbed and flowed throughout the years, as Toad and Co. has paused and resumed the service as it replatformed its ecommerce site and moved warehouses.

Here’s how it works: On the checkout page, shoppers can choose four shipping options, free standard, free standard with a LimeLoop mailer bag, paid second day or paid next day. If a shopper selects the LimeLoop option, her order will arrive in a reusable bag with instructions on how to return the bag. Once the shopper decides if she is keeping her entire order or is returning items, she visits ToadandCo.com to print a free return label. She puts the label it in the front sleeve of the bag and can drop it off in any U.S. postal service mailbox.

Toad and Co. commits to less packaging by sending orders in reusable bags.

Toad and Co. shoppers use LimeLoop

About 12-15% of Toad and Co.’s online shoppers select the LimeLoop package option, and 20% of those who chose LimeLoop as their fulfillment method, choose it again, McCann says. These are healthy numbers, McCann says, especially when considering how many new customers Toad and Co. has, he says without revealing more. For non-LimeLoop orders, Toad and Co. ships products in a 100% recycled paper mailer with water-based inks to ensure shoppers can recycled the bag.

Unlike thinning its polybags and increasing the number of polybag sizes it uses, the LimeLoop sustainable packaging is highly visible to the customer and something Toad and Co. receives a lot of positive feedback on, McCann says.

“It’s something that people when they look out their window, they get it. They get how many boxes they get from Amazon that you can’t even fit it all in your recycling bin anymore,” McCann says. “[Shoppers] understand it’s an issue, but they don’t see anyone doing anything about it. But they also love the convenience of [online shopping] and are not willing to change the convenience aspects. I think when brands have an option and it’s different and it’s addressing the issue, they love it and grab on to it.”

Printing the return label is a barrier for shoppers to using the service, McCann says. It is still working on the logistics of getting its systems to talk to each other to include the label with the package and how that would work if a shopper decides to return any number of items. LimeLoop says most of its clients include the return label with a package. LimeLoop has 45 online retail clients, mostly small businesses with annual revenue less than $5 million.

Challenges in getting the LimeLoop bags back

It takes about two weeks from when Toad and Co. ships an order to when it receives the bag back, a speed the retailer is continually trying to get faster, McCann says. The more it can reuse the bags, the better.

If Toad and Co. can use a LimeLoop package twice in one month, it breaks even in cost compared with traditional packaging. Otherwise, this shipping method is more expensive, McCann says without revealing more. LimeLoop rents the bags to retailers for about $1 per bag per month, and they can be used at least 200 times, the vendor says. So far in 2023, Toadandco.com has hit the twice-a-month frequency for each bag.

“Our benchmark KPI is that turnaround time,” McCann says.

When Toad and Co. first started using LimeLoop bags, it had trouble getting shoppers to return the bags, as some thought they were theirs to keep.

“The biggest part of the pilot learning was about the returns and how to communicate with customers,” McCann says.

In surveys, Toad and Co. learned that shoppers may take a few days to open their package once it arrives and then a few days to try on items and then decide what they want to keep. Then they have to print a label, which they may have to leave their house to do, and then put the bag in the mail. This all takes time.

About 12-15% of Toad and Co.’s online shoppers select the LimeLoop package option.

Toad and Co. learned that it needed to communicate urgency about returning the bags and educate shoppers in its emails about the importance of sending the bag back quickly in order for the process to be a sustainable option.

Communication with customers

In the five years since piloting the feature, industry standards have changed around communication with shoppers, McCann says. Previously, Toad and Co. hesitated to email customers more than three times a week, but now it has no issue contacting shoppers every day, McCann says. It can automatically send reminder emails via LimeLoop, as its systems know which customers haven’t returned their bags yet.

The vendor says some of its clients charge a few dollars as a deposit to customers to use the LimeLoop bag that retailers refund once they receive the bag back in the mail.

“This helps to keep the reusable packages always in motion and many clients utilize this feature,” a LimeLoop spokesperson says.

Bernardine Wu, executive managing director of digital strategy at digital consultancy OSF Digital, says LimeLoop is an interesting packaging vendor to watch, as it provides a sustainable packaging initiative that can scale and make an impact.

Integrating LimeLoop

It took a few months to integrate LimeLoop into all of the systems, McCann says. The retailer has done this twice, once when it launched, and then again in 2022 after a few months of program pause while it replatformed to a Shopify ecommerce site and moved warehouses.

When a shopper selects LimeLoop, the warehouse needs to know which order is selected for that package, as does its ordering platform, and shipping and return vendors. All of these integrations have to be built into its systems.

The merchant also had to learn how many shoppers would actually choose this option and how that correlates to how many LimeLoop bags it needs. Initially, Toad and Co. had 400 bags and it would frequently run out of them. Then, it couldn’t offer the option to shoppers until it received a bag back. In 2022 it invested in more bags for now a total of 2,800 and it no longer runs outs of bags.

Even though the system seems complex, Toad and Co. is happy with the program and the customer response. When Toad and Co. communicates to shoppers about the program either via email or on social media, those communication pieces always receive lots of feedback, McCann says.

While it wants to encourage more shoppers to choose this option, it is going to leave it at that, an option, McCann says.

“We can encourage and education and let people make an educated decision on what they want to do,” McCann says.

Toad and Co. is No. 1623 in the 2022 Digital Commerce 360 Next 1000.

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American Signature’s current supply chain technology is powerful, as it integrates with the warehouse, delivery and warranty systems, Kiggin said. But, it is outdated and a barrier to growth, customer satisfaction and recruiting top talent to work with the technology, Kiggin told Digital Commerce 360 at Manhattan Associates Inc. Momentum 2023 conference in Phoenix last week.

Inventory accuracy and working with old technology

“Some of the major pain points were inventory integrity and knowing where it was and if it was real,” Kiggin said.

For example, if a shopper wants to order a couch, the associate could look up the inventory level of that couch on his iPad or on the checkout desktop terminal. Often, those inventory numbers didn’t match. These numbers also likely didn’t match the online inventory system.

American Signature always gives shoppers an estimated delivery date for their product. But because it lacked an accurate inventory count, it only met that promise 60% of the time, Kiggin said.

Inventory integrity is important with the furniture category, as the majority of sales for bulky pieces are made in store and delivered to the shopper’s home. Few shoppers buy in store and leave with the product. Kiggin said about 7% of its sales are online, a number it wants to grow.

Kim Huebner, director, store operations said the current supply chain technology is an AS/400 system from the 1980s. She described it as looking like a DOS screen, with function keys and green type, and no graphical interface.

“We were very clear on where we were. That was not the hard piece. The harder piece was defining where we wanted to go and how to get there,” Kiggin said.

American Signature selected and began working on upgrading its system with six of Manhattan Associates’ applications in January 2022. They were: Warehouse management, order management, point of sale, customer engagement, customer service and customer service index reporting suite.

The retailer is currently testing the warehouse management and order management platforms, scheduled to go live in early June. The merchant will test and implement the remaining four applications for the rest of the year and with a go-live date of 2024, Huebner said.

Implementing warehouse management and order management

Of American Signature’s four distribution centers, one of them is currently testing the new Manhattan technology alongside its current technology to ensure everything is functioning correctly. So far, so good, Huebner said.

Training its warehouse employees on the new system only took three hours, and the employees were happy to have a better system, Huebner said. American Signature decided to train employees with bite-sized short videos, instead of long handouts to read. It took about a week, or roughly 40 hours, to train its middle group of above entry entry-level employees. It took roughly 40 hours to train its warehouse leaders on the new system.

American Signature will measure the success of these systems by how much its labor management standards at the distribution center are maintained or improved, she said. These metrics include speed of picking, speed of processing and speed of loading.

“Time is money,” Kiggin said.

With the improved system, the goal for American Signature is to meet its delivery promise at least 85% of the time, Huebner said. While 100% is really the goal, the retailer factors in changes that a customer makes after purchase, such as changing a design element on a custom-made piece of furniture or choosing to switch the delivery date because of their own personal circumstances.

Getting buy-in from employees on the new system

As a family-owned company, Kiggin said it was important to American Signature’s management to incorporate many employees in the overhaul process. This included the end-users of the product.

For all of its new systems, American Signature is pulling employees out of their day jobs to put them on the project. This helps ensure that employees using the software can make it the most functional for their jobs, Huebner said. This also helps with buy-in when the systems go live and some employees might be resistant to change.

American Signature gives continual updates to warehouse managers not directly involved in the project. They can still voice their opinions, Huebner said.

Kiggin would not reveal the overall cost but says it is “way over” $1 million.

“It’s a significant investment. And it’s worth every penny,” Kiggin said.

Kiggin described it as a long-term investment, as the Manhattan technology will continue to update and improve alongside the American Signature business.

American Signature is the parent company of Value City Furniture and ranks No. 592 in the 2023 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000.

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Recently, LeafLink, a wholesale cannabis platform, announced it had secured $100 million in financing led by CPMG, L2 Ventures and Nosara Capital, alongside participation from existing investors.

Artie Minson, president and CEO, LeafLink

LeafLink claims to serve 50% of the U.S. wholesale cannabis industry across 30 markets. The new enables LeafLink to “support its customers’ evolving technology and operational needs through enhanced platform functionality.”

“As states across the U.S. continue to legalize cannabis, we’re looking forward to growing our partnership with the industry,” says LeafLink president and CEO Artie Minson. “Our continued goal is to help brands and retailers scale their businesses while operating safely, efficiently and in compliance.”

Connecting 8,400 marijuana merchants with brands and distributors

LeafLink, a New York B2B marketplace founded in 2016, connects about 8,400 marijuana retailers with 3,700 cannabis brands and distributors.

For sellers, the marketplace platform enables them to access a real-time inventory menu, enter orders on behalf of buyers, log sales activities, and receive and approve inbound orders. In addition, sellers can track order status, share details with customers, and track upselling and cross-selling activities and opportunities ,among other features.

For buyers, marketplace tools include order and reorder management, customer support, order-tracking. and the ability to request samples.

LeafLink says it has now raised more than $450 million in investment funds.

The company also says its marketplace platform processes more than one billion transactions annually, valued at about $4.5 billion.

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Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (No. 60)

Abercrombie net sales were up 3% year over year to $836 million. The retailer did not break out ecommerce sales. 

“On digital engagement, our team has leveraged social media platforms to showcase our lifestyle offering, where we are able to highlight key must-win products for us in an authentic way. Social has proven to be a great channel for our target millennial customer,” CEO Fran Horowitz told investors.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (No. 55)

American Eagle ecommerce revenue was down 4% year over year in the first quarter, while in store revenue was up 5%. Overall revenue grew 2%, the retailer reported.

“Customers returned to in-person shopping and demand continued to normalize from elevated builds during the pandemic,” chief operating officer Michael Rempel told investors in a call. Leaders at American Eagle are working on strategies to use analytics to increase engagement, traffic, and conversion, Rempel said.

Bath & Body Works Inc. (No. 57)

The health and beauty retailer finished expanding its BOPIS rollout across the U.S. in Q1, CEO and director Gina Boswell told investors on May 18. Bath & Body Works plans to increasingly connect its digital and in-store offerings, Boswell said, because customers who shop through both channels spend three times more than customers who only use one. As of May 18, just 15% of customers shop through both channels, she said.

Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. (No. 328)

Ecommerce sales were down 18.4% in Boot Barn’s fourth quarter. “We believe these declines are a result of competitors having a stronger in-stock position compared to last year and expect this softness will be transitory,” CEO and president Jim Conroy told investors.

“While our online business declined, that business is cycling two very strong years of 39% and 24% comp growth in fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2021, respectively. Given the extraordinary revenue increase last year, we are quite pleased with these results,” Conroy said. Retail same store sales declined just 3.3% over the same period.

BJ’s Wholesale (No. 69)

BJ’s Wholesale said that digitally enabled comparable sales were up 19% year over year for the quarter ended April 29 ,2023. Online sales made up 10% of total sales in the quarter, CEO and president Bob Eddy told investors. Members of the warehouse club who shop online spend 70% more than members who only shop in stores, Eddy said.

Canada Goose (No. 135)

The winter wear retailer grew revenue 31.4% year over year in its fiscal Q4, but growth was partially offset by lower ecommerce results, per CEO and chairman Dani Reiss. Canada Goose didn’t share specific ecommerce figures.

The retailer shared plans to “further enhance store productivity and e-commerce performance in the not-so-distant future,” without stating details.

The Children’s Place (No. 124)

Digital sales growth at The Children’s Place “significantly outperformed” in-store sales for the first quarter, CEO and president Jane Elfers said in a statement. 

Online purchases made up 46% of sales in the quarter, compared to 45% in the previous year’s Q1 and just 33% in 2019. Elfers said ecommerce is projected to be 30% of sales by 2025, representing over $1 billion. 

Web traffic was “up double digits,” and 56% of new customer acquisition came through ecommerce, the retailer said. 

“Our millennial moms’ clear preference for the ease and convenience of shopping for her kids online is here to stay,” Elfers told investors.

Dick’s Sporting Goods (No. 32)

The sports retailer didn’t share specific ecommerce figures, but president and CEO Lauren Hobart told investors that “our digital experience remains an integral part of our success,” in a Q1 earnings call. 

Dick’s acquired outdoor retailer Moosejaw in March. Moosejaw primarily operates online, averaging 3 million visitors per month.

“For just over 10 months in 2023, we expect Moosejaw will add approximately $100 million in net sales,” chief financial officer Navdeep Gupta told investors.

e.l.f. Cosmetics Inc. (No. 953)

Beauty retailer e.l.f. grew net sales by 78% in its fiscal fourth quarter, “primarily driven by strength across our retailer and e-commerce channels,” it said in a statement.

E.l.f. began as an exclusively online brand before expanding into stores. Consumption of the brand’s digital content was up 75% in fiscal 2023, CEO Tarang Amin told investors. The retailer’s beauty squad loyalty program grew to 3.7 million members in the quarter, up 25% year over year. Loyalty members were behind nearly 80% of ecommerce sales, along with higher AOV and more frequent purchases than non-members, Amin assid.

Foot Locker, Inc. (No. 52)

Foot Locker reported that comparable digital sales in Q1 were down 16.8% year over year. The footwear retailer also discontinued an ecommerce line called East Bay, and online sales were down 9.5% excluding the brand. That’s still a larger decrease than in store comparable sales, which were down 7.4%. 

Online sales made up 16.3% of sales in the quarter, down from 18% in Q1 2022. Ecommerce sales are starting to pick up, with April sales up year over year, CEO Mary Dillon said. The retailer is on track to reach its goal of 25% online sales by 2026, Dillon said.

Guess Inc. (No. 177)

Online sales at Guess grew in Q1, although more slowly than in store sales, CEO Carlos Alberini said. 

Total revenue was down 4% in the quarter to $570 million, with U.S. revenue declines offsetting growth in Asia and Europe.

Kohl’s Corp. (No. 23)

Digital sales were down 19.6% year over year in Q1, Kohl’s reported. Net sales were down just 3.3%. 

“Our customers continue to shift back towards stores, and we reduced online-only promotions as we work to simplify our value strategies,” CEO Tom Kingsbury told investors.

Online sales made up just over one-quarter of sales for the quarter at 26%.

Ralph Lauren Corp. (No. 75)

Ralph Lauren’s digital sales were up in fiscal 2023, the retailer said. ”Sales in our owned Ralph Lauren digital sites grew mid-single digits on top of 20% growth last year,” chief financial officer and chief operating officer Jane Nielsen told investors in a Q4 earnings call.

“We plan to enhance the user experience with rich digital content and even greater customer personalization in fiscal ’24,” Nielsen said. That includes using generative AI for copy editing, computer programming, and graphics in addition to inventory optimization and forecasting.

Urban Outfitters (No. 30)

Apparel retailer Urban Outfitters reported comparable sales grew by double digits both in stores and online for its Anthropologie, Free People, and FP Movement brands. The Urban Outfitters brand’s comparable sales were down, and overall comparable sales were up 5%, the retailer said. 

“The growth in Retail segment comp sales was driven by a high single-digit digital comp and a low single-digit positive store comp,” co-president and chief operating officer Frank Conforti told investors. 

Online rental and resale marketplace Nuuly revenue grew 125% year over year, ending the quarter with 167,000 subscribers. 

Williams Sonoma Inc. (No. 22)

Revenue decreased 6% year over year in Q1, but was up 3.5% over 2021. The retailer did not specify ecommerce revenue. 

Williams Sonoma plans to “optimize our digital spend and customer connections,” per CEO Laura Albner.

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Net sales fell 6% versus a year earlier to $3.28 billion.

Comparable sales declined by 3% across Gap’s four brands. That was due mostly to large drops at Banana Republic and Athleta, while Old Navy fell slightly and the Gap brand posted a 1% increase. The results suggest that Gap will need to do more beyond cost-cutting measures to reposition its brands for longer-term growth.

“We continue to take the necessary actions to drive critical change at Gap Inc., ultimately getting us back on a path toward delivering consistent results long-term,” interim CEO Bob Martin said in a statement.

The Gap is No. 20 in the Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000 database, which ranks retailers by annual web sales.

Gap’s margin beats expectation

Gross margin in the period came in above the average analyst estimate, while adjusted earnings per share were slightly positive, compared with an expected loss. The improvement was due in part to lower air freight expense and fewer discounts, the company said. Gap has also reduced headcount and trimmed expenses.

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The report, B2B Ecommerce Technology Trends + EnvisionB2B 2023 Preview, includes several reviews of B2B companies and a preview of the full EnvisionB2B agenda, which features more than 50 speakers and 25 sessions. EnvisionB2B is scheduled for June 20 – 22 at the Hilton Chicago.

Joe Cicman, senior analyst, Forrester Research Inc.

Joe Cicman, senior analyst for B2B digital commerce at Forrester Research, asserts that B2B sellers must review the functions that address the challenges they face in serving customers, then identify the ecommerce technology platform that covers those functions.

At EnvisionB2B 2023 next month, Cicman will refer to findings of a recent joint Forrester and Digital Commerce 360 B2B Digital Buyer study and discuss with Val DuVernet, senior director of digital strategy at pharmaceutical distributor McKesson Corp., the intersection of online B2B buyer demands and ecommerce technology strategies.

Among the survey’s findings: 70% of B2B buyers will increase their online purchasing of good and services this year, and buyers’ prefer purchasing on manufacturers’ ecommerce sites because of the quality of their product information. Those findings show that B2B sellers must find the right ecommerce technology to offer customers the best buying experience, Cicman says.

B2B companies “should examine potential ecommerce solutions to identify which ones cover the specific common functions they most value,” Forrester says in the March 2023 report, “Demystifying the Technical Functions of B2B Commerce Solutions,” written by Cicman with input from other Forrester analysts.

Some critical functions, for example, can include how ecommerce technology manages customer account hierarchies, contract terms and personalized product catalogs for each customer.

Gene Alvarez, distinguished vice president and analyst, Gartner Inc.

Gene Alvarez, distinguished vice president and analyst covering digital commerce technology at research and advisory firm Gartner Inc., says B2B companies today have plenty options for deploying ecommerce technology based on their resources and their customers’ demands regarding the online buying experience. Alvarez will lead an EnvisionB2B panel discussion and workshop on customer loyalty strategies.

He asserts that, as competition increases in B2B ecommerce and companies develop new and innovative ways to interact with buyers and make their customers’ jobs easier, it will be crucial for online sellers to operate commerce technology they can modify to keep up with new standards.

“As new innovation comes along, you need to” be able to bring about that new innovation because it will be table stakes within a year,” Alvarez says.

Manufacturers and distributors push ahead with ecommerce

Brent Steffen, director of ecommerce, Caterpillar Inc.

“Everything we are doing with digital is about creating integrated and seamless experiences for our customers that help them be more efficient,” says Brent Steffen,  Caterpillar Inc.’s director of ecommerce, who will give a June 21 keynote address about innovation in B2B ecommerce at EnvisionB2B 2023.

With corporate roots going back to 1873 and annual sales of more than $6 billion, Konica Minolta Inc. is well known as a global manufacturer and marketer of digital imaging products used in corporate and institutional facilities worldwide.

But the company is ready to reach and engage more customers more often, which is why it’s forging into B2B ecommerce.

Velinda Cox, vice president of ecommerce, Konica Minolta

“We are in a position of transition, change and transformation,” says Velinda Cox, senior vice president of ecommerce at Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc., in Ramsey, New Jersey, where she is spearheading the global company’s ecommerce strategy. Cox will give a June 22 EnvisionB2B keynote address on developing a new strategy for digital ecommerce and a supportive technology ecosystem.

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The marketplace, Volition, will use the newly raised investment money from Newark Venture Partners and Quiet Capital, with participation from Lachy Groom, Alan Rutledge, Julian Capital, and Humba (Susa) Ventures, to continue expand operations, the company says.

Volition B2B marketplace

Nick Pinkston, CEO, Volition

“Volition is the first marketplace for the $2 trillion industrial components industry that helps engineering and purchasing teams find and buy all of the parts they need to prototype and manufacture their designs,” says CEO and co-founder Nick Pinkston.

The industrial parts market is highly fragmented, with over 500,000 unique suppliers that can be difficult to discover, the company says.

“Prior to Volition’s arrival, there was no way to easily search across all suppliers,” the Volition B2B marketplace says. “Most suppliers are new to ecommerce. And the majority do not currently provide customers a way to search for or purchase their products online, meaning customers must search through a patchwork of options to find what they need.”

Volition says its core B2B marketplace technology directly integrates with suppliers’ databases to maintain updated information and creates automated systems that quickly search and filter parts by exact product specifications, the marketplace says.

The Volition B2B marketplace, on the web at GoVolition.com, is based in San Francisco.

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Namely, small businesses. More than 60% of the businesses that sell on Amazon are small and independent, Amazon says in a new report. Collectively, those businesses in 2022 sold more than 4.1 billion products — or an average of 7,800 products every minute — Amazon says.

Sales per small business store on Amazon averaged about $230,000 per store, according to Amazon’s new report, 2022 Small Business Empowerment.

Dharmesh Mehta, vice president, worldwide selling partner services, Amazon.com Inc.

“Selling in Amazon’s store has enabled independent sellers to employ an estimated 1.5 million people in the U.S.,” says Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Amazon’s worldwide selling partner services. “And during the 2022 holiday season alone, Amazon customers purchased nearly half a billion products from small businesses in the U.S., leveraging Amazon’s significant investments in customer traffic, a trusted shopping experience and fulfillment and logistics capabilities that enable fast and convenient delivery.”

Amazon small business metrics

• In 2022, Amazon and its third-party lending partners lent $2.1 billion to independent sellers.
• The top small business categories include health and personal care, home, beauty, grocery, and apparel,
• The states with the most independent sellers are California, Florida, New York, Texas, and New Jersey.
• The fastest growing are Alaska, Washington, D.C., Mississippi, Maine, and Wyoming.

“While small businesses continue to thrive by selling in Amazon’s store, running a small business has never been straightforward,” Amazon says. “And this past year brought new challenges that businesses of all sizes had to navigate. The economy saw rising interest rates and inflation not seen in nearly 40 years. And many businesses continued to face supply chain issues because of the global pandemic and its aftereffects.”

Amazon.com Inc. is No. 1 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North American web merchants by sales. It is No. 3 in the Online Marketplaces database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces.

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