The B2B buying experience is changing because of digitalization. Customers in this space are looking for convenient transactions, high levels of customer service, and most importantly, personalized prices and products. Buyers shifting to e-commerce are looking to businesses that are making the same shifts.
A company should not look to these types of changes as bad. The digital transformation may take an upfront investment, but it is sure to future proof the processes that continue success. AI is quickly becoming an essential part of the B2B e-commerce process. Hanover Research found that most B2B professionals indicated that AI could help their business and would be a vital part of it in the near future.
The Right Price for the Right Products
The online economy has placed power squarely in the hands of the consumer. Companies have access to more data than ever in terms of customer needs. This information can be used to personalize sales pitches through more accurate insights into the buyer’s journey.
Personalization is a compelling feature. However, many businesses may not have the experience to understand how to ensure their customer’s personalized prices. E-commerce helps to solve this problem through a more precise product matching process. As an example, businesses can tailor their current product offerings through a customer profile based on previous purchases or page views.
Savvy companies can also expand their scope of business through e-commerce. The world allows for instant scale, which helps companies to cultivate a more diverse customer base while remaining sustainable.
Once customer acquisition efforts are online, a company must then turn to customer nurturing in order to effectively move the needle for profit. For instance, the modern customer usually prefers an à la carte self-service buying feature for pricing and product information. Self-service is one of the best ways to involve the customer in his own personalization efforts. A company can also collect data from this user interface to more accurately predict successful future product offers.
Many companies, however, still doubt the veracity of e-commerce in terms of personalization. Many smaller businesses expressed concerns about being able to maintain competitive pricing. However, personalization helps to create a dynamic pricing model that can help a company achieve price attainment while remaining competitive.
Being able to quickly pivot on a price helps companies increase margins and cut the turnaround time for pricing requests. This is only available through e-commerce for the average business. Additionally, this process has also been perfected and is now quite seamless, especially when AI data-driven solutions are employed.
Smart businesses are always looking for ways to better connect with customers. Implementing AI into a personalized customer journey and monitoring that journey for more data is just one of the ways that AI and personalization can work together for the future of a company.
If you are in the B2B space, AI and personalization are especially important. With the two married, you will be able to personalized offers for more clients across a wider spectrum of industries. Being able to scale without losing cost efficiency is essential to the future of any B2B business.
