E-Commerce Solutions:
- Creating a B2B Web Site:
- What You Need To Know
This is the year for
business-to-business (B2B) Web sites, because that’s where the revenue
and profits are, according to e-commerce consultant George Matyjewicz.
.
Determine what you want to do
online.
Who is your target customer? Why should
someone do business with you? What differentiates you from online
competition? Where is your sales territory? What is your order
minimum? How do you handle re-orders? How up-to-date are your back
office order processing, inventory and accounting systems?
Don’t rely on your understanding
of the market.
Hold a series of focus groups with your
target audience and listen to what they say they want. Focus groups
are relatively inexpensive -- $5,000 to $7,000 each, and you should do
three. They are among the best investments you can ever make. Ask
participants if they will purchase from you online, how do they find
you now and what would convince them to come to your site.
The Internet is a global market,
which can
potentially give you international
business and create related issues. Do you want that - or do you only
want domestic business? Do you presently sell factory-direct or
through wholesalers or distributors? Are they able to handle a
different mix of customers and orders? Recently online fulfillment
services have emerged, that can fulfill your orders, even if you are a
small manufacturer or distributor. Netship.com, shipper.com and
ifulfill.com are three that will handle companies with less than $10
million in sales (or less than 50 orders a day). For larger companies,
Fingerhut and Ingram are two to consider. For a recent
manufacturer-client in China that sells direct to retailers, we
partnered with USGift.com, an online service that targets retailers
with annual sales between $500,000 and $5 million. That company will
consolidate retail orders, place a larger order, and ship the smaller
orders. Win-win for all.
Your site. Consider what to
include in your site.
Terminology and convenience of use are paramount. Split your site into
two sections: one for those discovering you for the first time, and
one for existing customers who don’t need to see your promotion. Be
sure the buyer using your site can navigate between products and
categories easily. A good rule to follow is "two clicks to find, three
clicks to buy." Focus on your core business and avoid the temptation
to stray -- like accepting banner ads from others.
Communications and support.
Our focus groups told us that the number one concern was
communication, knowing when there were delivery issues, being able to
contact somebody and get a prompt response (preferably from the same
person) by e-mail, fax or telephone. Don’t think that a Web site will
require less support. Since the Net is global, and since folks like
the convenience of "shopping" at their convenience, you may need 24/7
support to answer questions via e-mail, online "live person"
discussions and offline telephone calls. "Live person" technology
allows one of your customer support reps (CSR) to chat with a customer
online, to answer specific questions and pass additional promotional
products to the customer. Two companies offering this service are Live
Person and Pipe Live. It works wonders for supporting and add-on
sales.
Develop a marketing or branding
strategy.
Do you want to sell unique product to
your customers under their brand? Or do you want to promote your
brand? How much of the market do you want to own? (Venture Capitalists
want you to own 30 percent of the market). It’s harder to promote B2B
sites; trade shows and magazines are the two most popular ways. And
don’t forget to build an online community where folks with like
interest can gather and share ideas. Think about having experts
online.
Comfort and trust.
For customers to buy from you, they must be comfortable doing business
with you, trust your products and that you are going to be around for
awhile. Tell them who you are, what you do and why they should do
business with you.
Avoid the latest and greatest.
Content is still king! Customers
would rather know more about you and your products than how pretty
your site looks. Avoid meaningless graphics or "splash pages", i.e.,
pages that come up without any links to other sections, or that only
have a statement or graphic. Also, many people still use slow modems,
and lower capacity machines and cannot tolerate streaming videos or
java scripts. Unless you are selling music, forget sound in a B2B
site. Test your site on different browsers. Netscape works differently
than Internet Explorer which works differently that AOL. Features that
look great on your machine may not work on others.
Confidentiality is a concern,
not only with financial information, but also when they submit an
idea. Make a privacy statement.
Quality products are mandatory
for success. Online customers
cannot touch and feel the products, so you need to convey the fact
that you do quality work and that they can get samples before they
buy. But, control sampling, so you know who ordered what and that they
don’t order more samples. Consider a policy that will apply the cost
of the sample toward the purchase.
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