The driving sentiments in a B2B purchase are strictly need-based and never emotion-based, like B2C. A B2B commerce platform must be designed in a way that accounts for this psychology.
However, with rapid B2B ecommerce growth and evolution, many B2C trends are being demanded in the B2B ecommerce marketplace besides more significant stress on some existing B2B requirements.
A global study by Net Solutions identified omnichannel B2B commerce and customer service, customer-centric data analytics, digital supply chain management, a user-friendly B2B e-commerce platform, personalized customer experience, and integration of mobile wallets as the top necessities to become the best B2B ecommerce platform.
Mobilizing plans and steps for delivering business outcomes to ensure the above will help in increasing customer retention and growing revenue.
One of the most decisive elements in a B2B ecommerce portal that significantly affects customer conversion is the checkout page.
This is the first point where the B2B customer will make a critical decision concerning the value your product will provide to their business.
It concludes the ecommerce customer lifecycle and determines the chances of conversion or churning. An ergonomic ecommerce checkout flow is mandatory if you want to win the loyalty of your customers and see an increase in revenue growth.
If you fail here, you will have no choice but to expect an overwhelming percentage of abandoned carts on your ecommerce page.
Top Reasons for Customers Churning at Checkout
Before we look at solutions to prevent an abandoned cart and customer churn at checkout, we need to identify the top causes when it comes to B2B ecommerce sales. These include:
- Overhead charges and hidden costs that are revealed at the checkout point only
- Limited options when it comes to payout options and payment channels
- Fewer choices when it comes to delivery options and shipping methods
- Mandatory account creation before purchase, especially when the process is unnecessarily long-drawn and difficult
- A complex, inconvenient, and confusing checkout flow that ruins the customer experience
- Technical or performance issues at the checkout step, which can essentially introduce discrepancies in the balances and charges
- Security concerns over the protection of sensitive information
- Ambiguous, incomplete, or unclear policies that customers can fear will cause them to be hoodwinked
- Loss of cart when the customer tries to modify or add products
Checkout Features to Increase Customer Conversion
When it comes to B2B ecommerce, Salesforce has remained at the top in providing solutions that help enforce operational outcomes in business to improve customer experience, owing to its superior expertise and long-sightedness in B2B CRM.
Providing an optimum checkout experience requires a combination of actions in both Salesforce B2B Commerce Cloud and Salesforce CPQ and Billing to produce the desired business outcomes. These are listed below:
1) Identification and Correct Placement Of B2B Customers with CTAs
When your ecommerce shop serves both B2C and B2B customers minimal business ecommerce solutions, many potential B2B customers often sample products on the B2C site first,
if your platform can correctly identify these customers by flagging the product quantity, common-use IP address, or business account usage, you can lead them to your B2B ecommerce software. You can do this by adding CTAs at checkout that promises more excellent value in a B2B purchase.
2) Signup and Registration Of Customers
Conversion of first-time or one-time B2B customers is the best way toward revenue growth, as returning customers are the largest source of income for B2B businesses.
It is essential to maintain balance in the volume of information you ask from such customers in the form of identification credentials.
You do not want to ask for so many details that they get frustrated and leave, nor do you want to miss out on essential information for account creation to influence key business outcomes and help reach and serve the customer better.
3) Autofill Options Per the Customer’s Choice
B2B customers are always looking for a personalized customer experience. At the checkout stage, this can be done for registered or returning customers by providing the option for auto-filling details in subsequent purchases.
However, not every customer will be favourable to this, especially one-time purchasers. Therefore, the best course of action is to make this optional.
4) Credit Detail Specification and Appropriate Action Line
Most of the time, the purchaser is a company representative with a credit limit for spending. They would not like to be blindsided by finding out after the purchase that they exceeded their spending limit.
Therefore, the checkout page must display such limitations and how above or below that limit they are. Moreover, if the buying company has an active credit line or invoices due, you should remind them of that.
Additionally, you can offer alternatives that will prevent them from churning you out to avoid unpaid bills.
5) Addition Of Purchase Order Attachments and Notes
Company representatives often prefer to have purchase order numbers and documents attached to the invoice that would be sent to the account payables department of their company to facilitate the verification process.
They may also want to attach notes to the invoice to guide them further. Allowing these additions at the checkout level makes the process easy and convenient.
6) Direct Billing Provisions for Efficiency
In the same vein as above, representatives may prefer the invoice to be sent directly to their account payables department to reduce the steps and time required.
However, they might also want to route it through themselves for various reasons. It is best to allow them to make a choice themselves to avoid confusion and inconvenience.
7) Targeted and Effective Upsells, Cross-sells, and Complimentary Services
The checkout page is the perfect place to offer discounts, rebates, add-ons, complimentary services, and recommendations.
When customers are on the verge of completing their purchase, a surprise offer or an additional purchase is most tempting. Both result in increased conversions and returning customers.
8) Value Addition Reminders
The best B2B commerce tactic to keep your customers happy is to ensure that they understand you have their best interests in mind and remember your contribution to their business.
You can do this by reminding them of the value added to their organization by your company beyond monetary. Also, notify them of better options that they may get, especially if the price hike is meagre.
9) Transparent Specification Of Policies
One of the biggest concerns for B2B customers is the misinterpretation of policies or missing the fine print to their disadvantage. You can put their fears to rest by providing easy access to company policies at the checkout page with full transparency and clarity.
This way, customers will be able to do a final check before making the final decision without having to go back by multiple pages.
10) Saving and Follow-Up For Abandoned Carts
The last thing any B2B customer wants is to spend hours recreating the cart if they mistakenly exited it. You can prevent this by saving their abandoned cart till their next visit.
If the abandonment was intentional, make use of Salesforce checkout analytics to figure out why and decide upon an appropriate follow-up action.
11) Mobile-Friendliness and Omnichannel Opportunities
By the end of 2020, the percentage of B2B queries made on smartphones is expected to increase from 50% to 70%. Salesforce B2B ecommerce keeps that in mind with fully responsive and flexible pages that adapt to any device and screen size.
12) Multiple Payment, Shipping, and Delivery Options
B2B customers want greater freedom when it comes to payment and shipping. B2B commerce shipping integration for 2-day, same-day, overnight, and expedited shipping, free shipping, LTL freight carriers, and free in-store pickup are some in-demand requirements.
Besides credit cards, business debit cards, wire transfers, and ACH, mobile wallets are also being used nowadays. Real-time total updation is most welcome at checkout. Salesforce to Salesforce integration can also be used for live package tracking.
13) Easy Bulk Product Addition, Product List Modification, and Reorder
You can win customers if your checkout page has shortcuts for bulk product addition and cart modification and returning customers get single-click options for reorder. Saving time and effort is one of the most tempting causes for customers to return.
Conclusion
What makes a B2B customer-friendly checkout experience is an easy puzzle to solve. Salesforce CPQ solutions will satisfy most of these needs; you can achieve the rest with third-party applications using Salesforce integration services. For extra assistance, you can always reach out to Docmation.
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