B2B buyers very much want to make their purchases online. However: the experience on B2B websites is often so frustrating that they are forced to pick up the phone anyway. That's according to a 2019 study by Sana Commerce.

Sana Commerce surveyed the behaviors, preferences and challenges of 560 B2B organizations that purchase from wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors. Some insights from this study:

• B2B business is conservative. For years, B2B buyers mainly ordered by phone, fax or e-mail. In 2019, this attitude has reversed. Of the surveyed organizations, 71% use online Web shops the most for placing orders.
• Despite this, only 30% of B2B buyers say they would like to order everything online. And only 20% of all B2B buyers do. The reason for still regularly falling back on traditional sales channels is that web shops of B2B companies regularly show errors, falter or are not user-friendly.
• Online B2B buyers would like easier and faster checkout, easier repeat order, faster delivery and better online traceability than they have now.

Basic level of buying convenience

Sana Commerce concludes that the basic level of online buying convenience wins out over poor experiences with web shops. Even when buyers regularly have to look offline for answers to their questions, the webshop remains a favorite.

In all, a whopping 98% of respondents reported that they regularly encounter problems during the process of ordering online.

A whopping 98% of respondents said that they regularly encounter problems when placing an order online.

Even after placing the order go, the suffering is not over. As many as 58% of B2B buyers surveyed say they face online ordering errors monthly, bi-monthly, weekly or even daily.

Lack of experience

The fact that B2B buyers need offline help to order online has everything to do with lack of experience, both on the part of the buyer and the seller.

The link between the webshop and other software is also quite often the problem. The webshop does not or not directly communicate with the ERP software used. This easily leads to errors, delays or incorrect information on stock, delivery speed and product details.

ERP is the foundation

Sana Commerce advises companies that supply products to B2B customers to take their ERP package as the basis of their online sales activities.

Sana Commerce advises companies that supply products to B2B customers to take their ERP package as the basis of their online sales activities.

Don't just see your ERP system as a hub for your business logic and data: it also contains a lot of information that online buyers need.

Smart links make this data available online in your webshop and ensure that the buying experience of B2B buyers is optimal. In this way, you can achieve the following goals:

• Cost savings

  Every webshop helps save costs by eliminating the time and resources required to take offline sales orders and enter them manually.

  If you choose an e-commerce solution that is integrated into your ERP package (such as the one from Sana Commerce), you can save even more far-reaching costs because you also no longer spend time synchronizing the data from your ERP package and those from the web shop.

• Efficiency

  One conclusion of the survey is that most of the challenges B2B buyers face revolve around information availability, detailed data and order errors. ERP integration is the answer to that.

  By using SAP Business One with Sana Commerce, you can retrieve real-time ERP data and use it to keep your customers informed 24-7. With rich and complete product data, order errors such as incorrect product selections, stock display or account data entry can be minimized.

• Customer Satisfaction

  Of course, there will always remain questions that cannot be answered online. You can never make all information on every subject available online. There will remain customer-specific questions for which the customer will continue to call you.

  Therefore, it is important to develop an effective omnichannel strategy. In this, you think about the combination of offline and online sales channels and help customers switch between the two when necessary or desirable.

More insights on B2B customer behavior, challenges and trends

Want to know more about unmet demands of B2B buyers and how you can meet them? Then download Sana Commerce's research for the latest data and insights on B2B buyer behavior.