In short: Scandinavian B2B Commerce report 2020

Welcome to Scandinavian B2B Commerce 2020, Litium's annual report on digital commerce between companies (B2B). In this fourth edition, the report includes Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Here is a brief summary of the results:

Scandinavian B2B companies believe in digital commerce

  • Almost half (42%) of the surveyed B2B companies offer online commerce via webshops, EDI, purchasing portals or external marketplaces. However, there are great differences between industries: While as many as 75% of wholesalers and 59% of distributors/resellers sell digitally, only 29% of consulting and service companies do. 46% of manufacturing companies use digital commerce.
  • The study also reveals clear differences in digital maturity based on company size. Larger companies are ahead in their digital efforts as 59% of the companies with sales over 200 million (in local currency) work with digital sales channels, only 26% of the smallest companies do.
  • Most companies offer a combination of different options for their digital sales with an average of 1.8 channels. The most common is a webshop where customers and retailers log in to shop, which is offered by over half (53%) of the companies, while 39% have a webshop open to anyone.
  • Digital B2B commerce is clearly seen as a commercial responsibility. In most companies head of marketing, head of sales or the company CEO is responsible for the company’s digital commerce. A quarter of respondents have a dedicated e-commerce manager, which we see as an indication of the organization's maturity.

 

Digital commerce offers new ways to scale internationally

  • Scandinavian B2B companies remain positive about the growth of digital commerce. 80% of the companies in the survey expect that their digital sales will continue to increase in the next three years. Wholesalers are the most positive, with as many as 89% confident in increased digital sales.
  • For many B2B companies, increased digitalization provides an opportunity to reach new geographical markets. 81% of companies that use digital sales channels already sell through these channels also outside their home country. In three years, this number is expected to increase to 86%.
  • B2B digital commerce in the Scandinavian markets is primarily driven by a desire to simplify administration and streamline sales. Ranked second, is an aim to increase the service level for existing customers. Surprisingly perhaps, the wish to increase sales to existing and new customers is ranked third and lower.
  • Established procedures and practices is considered the biggest challenge for digital B2B commerce, both among companies that sell digitally and those who do not. Companies with digital commerce rate an internal gap in digital skills second, followed by the challenge of capturing the complexity of B2B sales digitally. Companies that do not yet sell digitally, face the challenge of integrating a digital sales model with their existing business strategy.
     

    If you want to read the full report, download it here.

About the report: 

 

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