The annual report from Litium on digital B2B commerce is here, and it's exciting reading as usual. And it makes it clear that when it comes to digitizing sales, a large group is already in the water while another is barely on the starting block.
About the reviewer: Patrik Müller is an e-commerce expert who is passionate about discussing retail, e-commerce, and payments.
Looking at traditional e-commerce (having a webshop with or without login), just under half of all B2B companies have it. And for those with a digital sales channel, e-commerce accounts for less than 30% of total sales.
It's also clear that customers are driving the development. One of the most important reasons for having e-commerce is that companies want to provide better service to their customers. The other equally important reason is to reach new markets - the digital channel makes it easier.
Among the companies that have chosen not to use digital channels, there is one main reason: the difficulty of translating personal sales to the digital channel. Instead, among those who are active, there are 35% fewer who find it challenging.
There are also significant differences in another area. The difficulty of integrating digital sales with the business strategy is mentioned twice as often among those who have not started compared to those who are active.
For me, it's clear, both in the report and from my own experiences talking to B2B customers; often it's as simple as just getting started. Many of the perceived barriers are not significant (instead, it's entirely different things that will be challenging).
A successful entry point for many is to start on a small scale to gain the experiences needed for the organization to understand the opportunities. It may turn out that customers love the self-service option, and salespeople can focus on more complex deals.
There is much more data to delve into - download the report and read!
