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B2B Ecommerce Customer Journey: Mapping & Optimization Strategies

9 September 2024

The B2B ecommerce landscape is fiercely competitive. Success involves more than just offering a good product — you also need to optimize your customers’ journey from the first time they encounter your brand to when they become advocates of your business.

Plotting out and enhancing the customer experience throughout this journey can help you close more deals and increase customer retention.

Below, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the B2B ecommerce customer journey, including the key stages and how to effectively map and optimize it.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

B2B Ecommerce 101

Business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce is the exchange of products, services, and information between businesses through an online selling platform. So, in B2B transactions, both the buyer and the seller are businesses.

B2B ecommerce is a popular business model, with a global market size of about $18.7 billion as of 2023.

Some of the biggest B2B ecommerce companies in the world are:

Before we dive into how to map the B2B ecommerce customer journey, let’s explore how it differs from its B2C counterpart.

Differences Between B2B and B2C Customer Journeys

B2B is different from business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce. The latter refers to online transactions between companies and individual customers. Naturally, the buyer’s journey in the two business models is also different. Here’s a breakdown of the main differences.

Number of Decision Makers

B2C ecommerce typically involves one key decision maker — the customer. The purchase process is, therefore, straightforward. Conversely, the decision-making process in B2B ecommerce involves multiple stakeholders, such as managers and representatives from various departments.

Timelines

In B2C ecommerce, the customer journey from awareness to purchase is short, lasting only for a few minutes, hours, or days in most cases.

B2B ecommerce journeys, on the other hand, can take weeks or even months to complete. The research process is typically extensive. Furthermore, B2B purchase decisions require multiple levels of approval within an organization, with each decision maker often needing detailed information and justification for the purchase.

Sales Process

Sales processes in B2C ecommerce are automated to a large extent. They offer options that enable customers to make purchases with minimal contact or interaction with the business’s staff.

B2B ecommerce sales processes are consultative. They typically involve negotiations and other personalized interactions aimed at understanding the unique needs of the buyer. Sales reps play a huge role in guiding buyers through the sale process.

Decision Drivers

The main drivers of B2C purchasing decisions are emotions, personal preferences, convenience, and immediate benefits. B2B decisions are primarily driven by logic, with a focus on solving business problems, achieving a positive return on investment (ROI), and increasing efficiency.

Customer Relationships

B2C sales are mostly transactional in nature. The main focus is on securing one-time purchases. Although some firms may provide loyalty programs to encourage repeat purchases, sellers mainly aim to attract and convert individual customers.

B2B sales are different. B2B companies prioritize building and nurturing strong, long-term relationships with customers to ensure repeat purchases and establish trust.

Why Map B2B Ecommerce Journeys?

Mapping a B2B ecommerce customer journey means visualizing the path a customer takes from initial awareness of your brand to post-purchase activities like advocacy, including all interactions and touchpoints along the way. This process is important for several reasons.

Holistic View of the Customer Experience

Customer journey maps provide a bird’s-eye view of the entire customer experience. You get to see and understand how customers interact with your brand across several contact points. With this insight, you can create solutions that address their needs.

Identifying Customer Pain Points

B2B buyers will switch to a competitor if their current suppliers fail to keep up with their needs. Customer journey mapping can help you avoid such situations. Through it, you can identify bottlenecks and frustrations at different touchpoints that can cause customers to move on to a competitor.

That could include a complex checkout process, insufficient post-purchase support, and a confusing website interface. You can then develop a targeted strategy to eliminate these B2B ecommerce challenges, thus ensuring a smoother, more satisfying experience for customers.

Customer-First Mindset

Mapping the buying journey encourages a customer-first mindset. It forces you to get into the minds of your customers to understand what’s important to them. You then can tailor your offerings and customer interaction points to effectively meet those needs.

Interdepartmental Collaboration

Mapping breaks down silos by bringing together teams from different departments. A shared understanding of the B2B customer journey enhances communication and creates a collaborative environment focused on delivering excellent customer experiences.

B2B Customer Journey Stages

The typical B2B customer journey consists of seven key stages: awareness, consideration, evaluation, decision, purchase, retention, and advocacy. Here’s a breakdown of each stage.

Awareness

This is the stage where a prospect becomes aware of a problem your product or service can solve. This awareness may result from internal evaluations or even external factors like industry trends and pressure from competitors.

Consideration

The customer begins researching potential solutions to their problem and identifying vendors who offer them. They can gather relevant information through online searches, industry publications, and recommendations from their peers. The goal of this stage is to create a shortlist of viable options that could meet their needs.

Evaluation

The customer then evaluates the shortlisted choices based on factors like price, features, and the reputation of the vendor. During this phase, the customer might ask for demonstrations of the products or case studies to help them choose the best option.

Decision

Here, the client chooses the service provider they think is the best after a thorough evaluation process. They agree to the terms of the purchase and secure the funds they need to complete the transaction.

Purchase

The purchase stage is where the customer submits an official purchase order and makes the payment. After receiving payment, the seller processes the order and dispatches the product to the buyer as per the agreed-upon timelines.

Retention

The customer relationship doesn’t end after product purchase or delivery. Instead, the seller offers continuing support to the buyer with the aim of fostering customer satisfaction and encouraging repeat business. This can be in the form of onboarding assistance, employee training, and technical support.

Advocacy

If the customer is satisfied with the purchase experience, they become brand advocates. For instance, they can leave testimonials on your website or actively recommend your product or service to others.

How to Create a B2B Ecommerce Customer Journey Map in 8 Steps

Looking to create a B2B ecommerce customer journey map but not sure where to start? Here’s a useful step-by-step guide.

1. Conduct Customer Research

Gain a deep understanding of your customers by learning about their behaviors, preferences, and pain points. Tools like interviews, surveys, and focus groups can help with that. Also, consider using web analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics) to get full visibility of the customer journey.

2. Create Buyer Personas

Create detailed profiles of your ideal customers based on the insights and data gathered from the previous step. For B2B businesses, these can be the profiles of the purchasing companies themselves, or the key decisions makers in these companies.

Buyer personas enable you to customize the purchasing journey to suit each customer type, which could help you close more deals.

3. Identify Customer Touchpoints

Understand the methods through which consumers interact with your business throughout the purchasing process. These include online marketing channels like your website or social media platforms and offline touchpoints like trade shows, industry publications, and sales calls.

4. Create a B2B Customer Journey Map

Create a visual representation — e.g., a flow chart — of all key stages of the customer journey and the touchpoints identified in the step above. Highlight the goals of the customer at each stage (such as seeking information, making a purchase, or getting support) and the actions they’ll likely take.

5. Uncover Customer Pain Points

Identify the challenges customers encounter at each stage of the buyer journey. As mentioned, these can include difficulty finding information on your website, confusing pricing structures, long response times from customer service, and complex checkout processes.

You can gather these insights through customer feedback, website analytics, and sales data. Look for patterns in customer complaints, website drop-offs, and sales objections — you’ll find other pain points to address.

6. Brainstorm Solutions

Based on the identified pain points, brainstorm practical solutions to enhance the customer experience. This might involve creating targeted content aligned with different buying stages, improving your website’s navigation, or offering self-service solutions.

Or if the main issue is a complicated checkout process due to using an inefficient ecommerce solution, it might involve switching providers. To that end, check out k-ecommerce’s ERP integrated ecommerce solution, which offers features like single-page checkout, guest checkout, and auto-filled pages for returning customers.

This ensures a streamlined checkout process for your customers and increases your conversion rates.

7. Create an Action Plan

The next step is to develop a clear action plan to implement the identified solutions. This might include setting timelines, assigning responsibilities to team members, and allocating resources accordingly.

Having a clear action plan is vital. It ensures your strategies are executed effectively and within a reasonable timeframe.

8. Implement, Monitor, and Iterate

Using your action plan as a guide, make necessary adjustments to your processes, content, technology, and support systems.

Then, continuously monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and gather customer feedback to gauge the effectiveness of the implemented changes. Use this data to further refine and optimize the customer journey.

Don’t forget to regularly review and update your customer journey map to ensure it’s still relevant and effective in meeting customer needs.

Trends Shaping the B2B Ecommerce Customer Journey

B2B ecommerce is continuously evolving. Let’s explore some major trends influencing the B2B ecommerce customer journey.

Mobile-First Experiences

Modern B2B customers are increasingly using smartphones and tablets to research products and make purchases. Create a mobile-friendly ecommerce website to ensure a seamless experience for customers who interact with your business through these devices.

AI Integration

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technical field that has gained global popularity in recent times. It has transformed numerous industries and sectors, including B2B ecommerce.

For instance, AI can automate routine or repetitive tasks like order processing. B2B ecommerce businesses can also use this technology to provide 24/7 customer support through chatbots.

Furthermore, AI tools can analyze customer data to predict purchasing patterns and recommend products, helping customers to quickly find what they need on your website.

Personalization

According to Salesforce, 56% of modern B2B buyers expect offers from sellers to be personalized. And in another study by Marketing Charts, 57% say they expect personalized content when discovering a company’s products or services.

Personalization means tailoring content, product offerings, and solutions to each buyer based on their preferences and behavior. Fortunately, several tools can help with this activity.

For instance, k-ecommerce’s B2B platform allows businesses to personalize product catalogs and pricing, ensuring that customers see offerings that are most pertinent to their needs.

How to Optimize the B2B Ecommerce Customer Journey

Optimizing the B2B ecommerce customer journey is all about enhancing each touchpoint to create a seamless and satisfying buying experience. Here are a few top strategies for optimizing the customer journey across different stages and touchpoints.

Create Helpful Content

Create high-quality content — e.g., blog posts, webinars, case studies, and whitepapers — that addresses common industry problems. Valuable content establishes your brand as a thought leader in your industry. It also builds trust with prospects and converts them into customers.

Create Comprehensive Product Pages

Optimize your product pages through high-quality images as well as detailed descriptions that highlight features and benefits. Include customer reviews, technical specifications, and usage instructions where necessary. Detailed product pages can speed up the buying process by making sure the customer has all the information they need to make a decision. They can also minimize post-purchase queries and support requests.

Offer Free Product Demos or Trials

Offer free trials, demos and ROI calculators where applicable. These tools allow prospects to experience your product’s benefits, capabilities, and value even before they commit. This increases the likelihood of them completing the purchase.

Provide Personalized Services

Offer personalized quotes, recommendations, and incentives based on customer profiles and behavior. Assign dedicated account managers to prospects or new customers to provide personalized assistance. Overall, personalized services can enhance decision-making and help you close more deals. For example, dedicated account managers can build strong relationships with clients to understand their pain points and offer customized solutions that fully meet their needs.

Create a Smooth Purchase and Checkout Process

Simplify the checkout process by reducing the number of steps required to complete a purchase or by offering multiple payment options. Make sure to clearly communicate order confirmation, delivery timelines, and next steps after purchase completion. Clear communication about order status and delivery timeline enhances the post-purchase experience, encouraging repeat business.

Offer Ongoing Support

Ongoing support via helpdesk knowledge bases and training resources helps customers make the most of your products or services. Schedule regular check-ins to monitor satisfaction and address issues. These actions demonstrate that you’re committed to customer success and increase their overall satisfaction. Additionally, regular check-ins can uncover opportunities for upselling or cross-selling.

Reward Loyal Customers

Implement customer loyalty programs and referral incentives to encourage repeat business and advocacy. These can include exclusive discounts, early access to new products, and personalized rewards.

Final Thoughts: B2B Ecommerce Customer Journey — Mapping and Optimization Strategies

To succeed in the B2B ecommerce landscape, you must optimize all touchpoints and stages of the customer journey. Use the strategies and tips we’ve discussed here to get started.

Remember, optimization isn’t a quick fix but an ongoing process. So, embrace a culture of continuous improvement by regularly assessing and updating your customer journey map based on feedback and performance data.

k-ecommerce empowers you to design a B2B ecommerce platform that creates seamless journeys for your customers. Watch a free demo today to see our ERP-integrated ecommerce solution in action.