B2BecNews interviewed several of the digital commerce experts scheduled to speak at the B2B Next conference in Chicago next week, requesting their views on the biggest challenges in going digital and their advice on how to grow online.
Here’s what they said:
‘Our biggest challenges’
Parvez Patel, President & CEO, eImprovement, Hajoca Corp.—Rather than thinking channels, technology, functions—how do we keep the customer in the center of our decisions? What does their research and path-to-purchase journey look like? How do we provide the best-in-class experience in that journey?
Justin Racine, Director of Marketing and E-Commerce, Geriatric Medical—We have a vast number of customer personas and demographics.We have to focus on making the website a resource for all visitors. Our site is not just an ordering platform; it’s also a research portal, an inventory checker, a budget tracker and more.
Linda Taddonio, Partner, IQAcceleration—B2B organizations must gain executive team alignment on execution. Most B2B companies today are starting to understand that digital initiatives affect the entire organization and are beginning to work in a cross-functional capacity to figure out the best path forward.
Devashis Saxena, Head of Global E-Commerce, Rexel—Even when business leaders want to evolve business processes, these processes often are archaic. Surround that with outdated IT systems, and many people who do not understand why to change, or just plain don’t want to—well, that’s where the fun is!
Jesse Lazarus, chief process and innovation officer, Kravet Inc.—Building a front end that provides content and simple functionality for both education and ease of shopping. Also: dealing with a physical sales organization, complex pricing arrangements, pivoting to a contact center for online help as well as more standard phone/email support.
‘Here’s my advice to grow online’
Marc Kermisch, CIO and vice president, Red Wing Shoe Co.—Technology can’t replace the experience of interacting with a live person. Ensuring that the technology that is enabled is complimentary to the service that your customers are used to is important. You can’t just replace the human touch with technology.
Parvez Patel, President & CEO, eImprovement, Hajoca Corp.—Invest in understanding the customer—the different, and perhaps unique experience needs, based on the industry, product, purchase occasion, buyer and/or end-user, etc. Understand that, and create the right online experience around it.
Justin Racine, Director of Marketing and E-Commerce, Geriatric Medical—Looking at things like cart abandonment rate, average order size, open email rates, products that are frequently purchased together, customer engagement and disengagement rates—all will help you determine what’s going on with your website and traffic.
Devashis Saxena, Head of Global E-Commerce, Rexel—Identify opportunities where you can solve your customers’ problems. Where are the friction points and how can you remove them? Our approach is to really build multichannel relationships with our customers. The focus is not just to grow online sales—but to grow total share of wallet with our customers.
Jesse Lazarus, chief process and innovation officer, Kravet Inc.—It has to be all about the customer experience—the site design, the functionality, etc., all have to be determined by customer needs. This is a continuous improvement initiative—customer needs will constantly evolve, and part of the online plan has to be about how to and keep delivering to the user’s expectations.
Register here for B2B Next.
The conference features:
- 38 Sessions
- 44 Speakers
- 28 Exhibitors
- 9 Networking Events
Learn more at B2BNext.net.
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