When you want to be everything to everyone, you end up confusing your customers. This stems from a lack of focus, direction, and overall brand identity. This is why choosing a solution with features that are tailored to your needs is important. It should enhance what you already do and help you do it even better. Everyone has different priorities for various business situations. An e-Commerce solution should be an extension of your business; you shouldn’t subject yourself to something cookie cutter when your business is unique. Your e-Commerce solution should have features that help you emphasize your values and what makes your business special, be it your unique brand and design, efficiency in delivery and service, or your awesome product lines and expertise. This blog post will help you make sense of the many features and benefits offered in e-Commerce solutions today. Whatever your business priorities are in e-Commerce, here’s what you need to look for in an ERP (Dynamics NAV Business Central) integrated e-commerce solution. Read More
Be the Millennium Falcon of E-Commerce
Lessons in e-Commerce to be learned from Star Wars
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
Many of us are huge Star Wars fans, so we thought of having a little fun and pay homage to this iconic film series by sharing what important lessons and parallels translate to the e-Commerce industry. From understanding the Force to destroying the Death Star to using Jedi mind tricks, we translate it to simple e-Commerce insights and tips you can use. Let us guide you, young padawan.
Changing Business Landscape for B2B e-Commerce
Understanding the trends in business and technology in both B2B and B2C e-Commerce can help us to craft better strategies and more valuable experiences for everyone. E-Commerce is becoming increasingly common and expected for B2B as they desire to grow. As a result, ERP and e-Commerce platforms have to continually evolve for companies to stay competitive. Some trends that have emerged are the growing presence of millennials, advanced technology (in the form of automated personalization, B2B-specific features, ease of use, improved integration, just to name a few), and blending B2C e-Commerce characteristics with a traditionally B2B-style webshop.
Customer expectations are at an all-time high, especially in the B2B sector. With more customer demands, there is an increased need for those in B2B e-Commerce to evaluate the trends and adopt more customer-centric approaches. B2C has taken great strides in user experience and B2B companies would do well to use some of those elements to propel themselves forward. Customers have grown accustomed to the ease and convenience that some B2C webshops offer and find themselves wanting the same in B2B websites.
What lessons from B2C can we apply to B2B?
Some of the most important takeaways from B2C e-Commerce is their ability to understand their customers and their behavior, anticipating their needs, and adapting quickly to trends and patterns. One of the ways B2C is doing this right now is embracing the “millennial” culture. Millennials have had an impact on the retail and e-Commerce model as they spend plenty of time online and use social media while shifting easily to brick and mortar if need be. They’re resourceful when it comes to looking for deals and expect a lot from digital and brick and mortar shopping experiences.
Understanding the Customer
As a society, we’re becoming more tech-savvy, becoming proficient with smartphones, tablets, and apps – we also have the desire to take the business online and out and about. Customers can now make purchases anywhere with their device of choice. Salespeople are learning to adapt to the mobilization trend by using technology that allows them to access relevant information online or through centralized systems out in the field. Taking a cue from B2C regarding this mobile trend, we recognize the need for feature-rich e-Commerce solutions with comprehensive content management. For B2B e-Commerce, this means that sales tools and vital customer data will be easily available to sales agents in the field. Nav-to-Net™ is built with Responsive Design to address the mobile trend in the e-Commerce industry.
Customers Have New Habits
In this day and age, we have developed technology-oriented working habits as well as some unique consumer habits, especially when online. We browse a little more freely with the plethora of options and resources at our fingertips, we use social media, and we revel in the freedom online shopping gives us. In e-Commerce, there is overall demand for ease and convenience, no matter what kind of device we choose to use. Lots of factors that play into how these habits came about, but it can be boiled down to this; customers want simplicity. It’s really as simple as wanting what they want, how and when they want it. It’s up to us as an e-Commerce business to anticipate those needs and create solutions that meet or even exceed those needs.
Technology is Key with Simplifying
Understanding the differences between the complexities of B2B and B2C and identifying gaps and areas that can stand some modification is important. The one thing in common is that customers always want things to be quick, easy, and painless. It may be hard to think of simplicity in a B2B environment when there are so many components to manage. While B2C can seem comparatively simpler being “click and buy”, it’s worth remembering that each situation comes with its own unique intricacies. The goal of today’s e-Commerce technology is to simplify and optimize all business processes including item management, order taking, checkout processes, and more, no matter the industry.
B2B has several parts that need to be addressed; this could include dealers, suppliers, vendors, and a variety of business processes that sometimes differ depending on the account, customer, or even country. The focus of B2B e-Commerce is building valuable long term business relationships with clients while selling a large amount of inventory. The decision process is also a lot more complicated for a typical B2B customer. The goal of e-Commerce technology is to make the complexity of B2B simple, even amidst the many core features, functionalities, and processes you require to run your e-Commerce business smoothly and efficiently.
Customized e-Commerce solutions integrated with your Microsoft Dynamics NAV is key. Nav-to-Net™ B2B is an integrated e-Commerce suite that combines all business elements and your webshop so you will operate efficiently. Take advantage of B2B-specific features like custom product lists and online sales quotes just to name a few! Click below for more information:
Increasing Mobile Conversion for B2B e-Commerce
Customer conversion is an ongoing challenge for e-Commerce merchant, but what happens when you enter mobile commerce to the mix? It makes the issue more complex. While customers are increasingly turning to mobile for their shopping needs and more companies are making their websites mobile-friendly, it does not always result in a sale from that particular device. As a solution, it’s easy to say you need to go responsive for your webshop. Responsive Design allows you to maintain consistency throughout multiple platforms so you can be where your customers are and remain competitive. But it’s important to understand customer behaviour and trends regarding e-Commerce and mobile and how it can affect overall impression and experience of your website. Read More
Going International – Is Your B2B E-Commerce Solution Ready?
Globalization is an on-going challenge for businesses in international markets and e-Commerce adds another layer of complexity and more factors to consider. There is increased reach with the digitalization of the shopping experience, but customers still expect a consistent, though not identical, experience no matter where they are in the world and no matter what device they use. Adapting to different cultures, audiences, trends, local currencies, and holidays takes some finesse, experience, and technical expertise to pull it off gracefully and seamlessly. Read More
Multi-Dimensional Product Variants in e-Commerce
Effective organization and proper product presentation in e-Commerce yields many benefits for your business and customers. Imagine you are looking for a particular shirt in a very messy room with clothes littered everywhere; clothes are hiding in drawers, hanging in closets, strewn haphazardly across the floor. There is no discernible organizational scheme. You would have to look in every spot and check to see if it is the item you want; that takes times and effort just to find the one item.
Excessive clicking makes for a poor e-Commerce experience with many clicks back and forth to find something. To help alleviate this annoyance for your customers, your webshop needs organization through effective categorization, powerful search functions, and clear presentation of your items. This is especially true when your products have multiple variants and they are displayed on separate item pages. Multi-dimensional product variant item pages are a way to mitigate this and help you create cohesive and easy to use pages. Read More
How to Be Fresh in E-Commerce
Modern store display is refreshing for customers.
Love the feeling of fresh laundry? Want a breath of fresh air? We’re always looking for freshness, be it in our food, entertainment, or our surroundings. It imbues a sense of invigorating newness. Fresh is almost always better. With this in mind, there are ways to apply this to e-Commerce, giving your webshop a sense of freshness and new energy.
What makes a webshop feels fresh? How can it benefit both businesses and customers? In order to make things fresh (and keep it that way), we need to lighten up, create positive change, and refresh the foundation so the effects are felt throughout. In this blog post, we outline some ways you can achieve this. Read More
Directions US – Orlando, FL. | October 25-28
Digital Vantage Point is looking forward to attending Directions US 2015. This Microsoft Dynamics NAV event driven by partners for partners is a great opportunity to network, learn, and showcase new solutions. We hope to see you there! Read More
Content Planning for Responsive Design
Taking form and function to the next level, we must pay close attention to content when adopting Responsive Design for our e-Commerce websites.
If you’re considering an e-Commerce website built with Responsive Design, you’re probably in at least one of these situations:
- You need a mobile-friendly site to stand up to competitors
- Your current site and/or platform is outdated and you need a redesign
- You need to push your company forward into the mobile market
Outgrowing your e-Commerce solution can have serious repercussions on your business. Not only do you lag behind your competition, you fail to effectively meet customer needs, business processes become increasingly clumsy, and poor integration will create more problems than it solves. Updating your e-Commerce solution to one that is truly integrated on all levels with your ERP is a step in the right direction. Read More
Responsive Design for B2B e-Commerce
It’s easy to imagine a B2C e-Commerce website built with Responsive Design. After all, online shopping extends to all platforms and can happen at any time. Responsive Design makes it quick and easy for customers to browse and make purchases anytime and anywhere.
But what about B2B?
There is still value to becoming responsive if you run a B2B webshop. With advances in technology, your customers are more connected than ever. They have an immense amount of information at their fingertips and the ability to conduct business anywhere. Mobile sites/apps and integrated technology has changed the way business is conducted. Read More