Picture Courtesty of Mein Deal
The digital world is becoming increasingly more competitive as more businesses start to buy their products online.
In the US alone the B2B eCommerce market grew past $1 trillion dollars growing over 11% in 2018. The B2B market is currently 5 times the size of the B2C market with no signs of growth slowing down.
In a competitive B2B world you cannot expect every customer who lands on your website to make a purchase. You need to gently encourage these potential customers into buying from you.
How can you do that? By leveraging conversion rate tactics (CRO) and making some simple changes in your eCommerce site you can have a huge impact on your overall conversion rates.
We are going to point out 7 tactics to increase and potentially double your eCommerce conversions.
1. User personalization
As a B2B eCommerce business, it’s imperative that you establish a relationship with your customers.
Not every customer is going to be calling you to place orders etc. You may have initial contact with them to set up their account etc. but after that, they will most likely just buy directly from the site.
This can create a disconnect between you and your customers who will see themselves as just another person buying from you.
With personalization, you can reconnect with your customers by changing different aspects of your site based on the customer in question.
This isn’t just changing the login name etc. No, it goes deeper than that. Using online tools like Optimizely you can personalize all aspects of the user’s journey.
From personalized content and product offers to email notifications pushed to mobile users these are just some of the features that can help increase your eCommerce conversions.
2. Add to Cart & Checkout Buttons
When you launch your eCommerce website often your add to cart and checkout buttons are small buttons that are obscure and not very prominent.
Also, when an item is added to the cart you may have a popup that displays the cart content and a checkout button but also a continue shopping button.
These are not very user-friendly in the way they are presented.
A quick way to increase your conversions is to increase the size and location of your buttons. Have them above the fold and close to product images as those areas are what the eye is drawn to.
Subtle changes to the color of the buttons can also make a big difference. This study shows how your conversions can increase by simply changing the colors of your buttons.
Lastly, if you do utilize a popup notification when an item is added to the cart, have the continue shopping like a normal link rather than a button. This can prompt customers to checkout quicker.
3. Simplify the Checkout Process
B2B eCommerce websites checkout options come in various flavors. Often before purchasing, a customer needs to be registered prior to being able to buy products.
This process may entail contacting the sales team and being vetted as a B2B customer before they are able to make an online purchase.
Even then depending on the eCommerce platform being used customers may still have to enter there billing details on checkout!
This adds in an extra step that can lead to cart abandonment. If your customers have already registered with you then allowing them to quickly place orders can also increase your conversions.
Amazon is a perfect example of this. There retail and business offerings offer a quick 1-click ordering system without the need to input any details so long as the user is logged in.
4. Improve navigation & Search
Another area that is often overlooked is your main navigation and search box. This can confuse customers who want to quickly find products to buy.
You may have placed your products in categories you think are correct, but customers may often have problems finding them.
Simplifying your main navigation and keeping it minimal will not only help customers to find your products quicker but it will also help when it comes to search engines crawling your website.
Again, take a look at how Amazon does this.
Also having your search bar in a prominent position will help customers find what they are looking for quicker. You can also combine an autocomplete and/or suggestion functionality with your search bar to help customers find the right products to buy.
5. Payment Options
Often a B2B eCommerce site has a limited amount of payment options. Usually, customers are given a credit amount that they can spend.
Although this is good for the customer at times, they may want alternative methods of payment. This may be due to them having spent all their credit or they simply want to pay upfront.
Using a popular B2B payment provider like Klarna will not only allow traditional payment methods as a form of payment but also allows customers to pay later. As a business using Klarna you get the benefit of getting paid upfront however the customer chooses to pay.
6. Display Testimonials
If your B2B business has big corporate customers, then get testimonials off them to display on your eCommerce site.
Other businesses can feel reassured that you’re not just a fly by business who’s here today and gone tomorrow.
Established relationships with other businesses that recommend your business and product offerings will instill confidence and trust in your business. This will encourage new businesses to spend with you and of course, increase your conversion rates.
7. Improve Product Descriptions
One of the areas that generally lacks focus and detail is product descriptions. Usually, this is just a bunch of measurements and metrics that give the dimensions of the product, etc.
The products lack any real information that’s useful for a paying customer. If you think about it your B2B customers will have to sell the product on to consumers.
Providing them as much detail as possible can help them make the decision to buy or not.
If you’re not much of a fan or writing words, then add in a video! A thousand words can be easily put into a 1-2 min video that can showcase your product in extreme detail.
Updating your product descriptions and adding videos could not only increase conversions but also the quantities that are purchased from you.
In conclusion, although the changes that you can make are relatively small the improved user experience can help to increase conversions as well as the quantities that are ordered.
Author Bio
Alexzander Caine – Alexzander is a content coordinator for valendigital.co.uk who loves all things tech. His experience includes Laravel programming, web development, and content marketing. In his spare time, he loves to binge-watch Netflix and is a huge Marvel comic book fan!
