Keith Mericle

In the world of ecommerce, personalization is key — and that’s true not just when selling to individual consumers, but also in business-to-business sales. Although businesses are not persons, exactly, the ability to tailor search results to different buyers gives B2B sellers critical advantages for driving B2B sales.

Indeed, search personalization can be all the more important in the realm of B2B ecommerce given the complexity of B2B sales. Buyers may only be able to purchase certain products due to factors like regional product availability or contractual agreements, for example. By making it possible to integrate these considerations into search results, B2B search personalization helps enable smoother transactions for shoppers and increase revenue.

Here’s a look at what personalized search means in the context of B2B ecommerce, why it’s important and how to implement it.

What is B2B search personalization?

B2B search personalization is the ability to customize search results on ecommerce sites based on varying customer profiles and intents. It takes into account a range of factors — like a company’s purchasing history, the buyer’s location and pricing agreements made between the B2B seller and the company — to curate search results that best reflect the needs of a specific buyer.

In many ways, B2B search personalization is similar to personalized search results that a shopper might see in a business-to-consumer (B2C) context. But in the B2B world, personalized search is geared more toward a company’s customers as well as the individual employees at those companies who search for products. That said, individual employee preferences and past interactions can factor into B2B search personalization as well. For example, they can help generate search facets based on those a shopper used previously or enable a fast re-buy experience based on past purchasing decisions.

How personalized search benefits B2B eCommerce sellers

In the realm of B2B ecommerce, personalized search addresses several critical needs and challenges for B2B sellers.

Navigating complex product catalogs

B2B sellers might sell thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of products. On top of that, the inventories can be quite complex. A bolt could be available in multiple lengths, diameters and materials, for example, leading to dozens of variations of the same product. Likewise, in some cases product descriptions include information aggregated from suppliers, which is not always consistent in structure or quality.

With such large and complex inventories, it can be challenging to ensure that shoppers see relevant search results accompanied by accurate information. If B2B sellers display products that are out of stock or show pricing information that doesn’t reflect agreements made with a specific buyer, the chance that a shopper will make a purchase decreases.

Search personalization helps here by allowing B2B sellers to customize results for each shopper. They could display only items that are available in the region where the customer is based, for example, or promote products that the company has purchased previously to the top of search results..

Contract-aware merchandising

In B2B contexts, it’s not uncommon for B2B sellers to make unique agreements with different customers. They might sign contracts that establish custom pricing or delivery time guarantees, for instance. They may also not agree to sell certain items to particular customers due to issues like the inability to support products in a customer’s region.

With personalized search, it’s possible to factor these details into search results. Rather than displaying generic product listings that may not be relevant or accurate for a specific buyer, each B2B customer sees results that reflect unique contractual agreements.

Buyer segmentation

As in B2C ecommerce, B2B buyers often fall into various segments in ways that impact how and what B2B companies sell to them. Some products may only be available to buyers in certain regions or countries, for instance. Similarly, product support or return policies may dictate which items a B2B seller can offer to different customers.

Here again, the ability to customize search results for each buyer is critical for ensuring that shoppers see information that is relevant and accurate for them.

Putting personalized search for B2B into practice

There are several techniques and approaches available for implementing B2B search personalization. Common strategies include:

• Using machine learning and/or rules-based search merchandising to highlight products most relevant for specific customers. B2B sellers can also use these techniques to promote high-margin products, closeout items or other results they want to underscore.
• Generating customized search facets to help shoppers navigate to products relevant to them. This is another area where machine learning can come into play by automatically parsing data like catalog selections and generating dynamic facets accordingly.
• Implementing search autocomplete features to suggest search terms that reflect a customer’s purchasing history, contractual agreements and so on.
• Using search results to promote related products that are likely to interest a buyer based on factors like company segmentation or product availability.

Implementing capabilities like these helps take B2B eCommerce to the next level. Instead of treating buyers as generic, anonymous entities, B2B sellers can address the unique context of each company they sell to, leading to a better experience for buyers and, in many cases, higher sales and revenue numbers.

Driving B2B success with personalized search

In the B2B space, purchasing decisions are often more complex than they are in the B2C world. B2B buyers are typically more focused on finding specific products, adhering to established contracts and ensuring supply chain continuity. Using B2B search personalization, companies can deliver relevant search results that reflect unique factors such as contractual agreements, purchasing histories and regional availability. In turn, they can streamline the buying process, reduce errors and strengthen customer loyalty.

Ultimately, this level of personalization helps B2B companies enhance the customer experience while driving higher conversion rates and encouraging repeat business — all of which are critical to success in today’s competitive digital marketplace.

About the author:

Keith Mericle is the CEO of Innovent Solutions, a provider of search merchandising consulting and implementation services.

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