B2B ecommerce companies are turning away from in-house platforms to more sophisticated ones that creat an “Amazon-like experience.” So says the second annual Gorilla Group B2B Ecommerce Benchmarking report.
The report features analysis of ecommerce channels of dozens of industrial and brand manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors.
Key areas of focus of the report include:
- The shift away from in-house solutions to more sophisticated platforms with prebaked functionality
- A rise in the importance of relevant content paired along with commerce opportunities
- An increased focus on presenting ‘Amazon-like’ user experiences
“Since sharing our original research a year ago, the B2B ecommerce space has continued to evolve and grow alongside industry trends. We saw a need to present a fresh look at the trends and data, and inform the commerce community on existing business opportunities and challenges in the market,” said Brian Grady, CEO of Gorilla Group in a statement.
“As part of our evolution as a commerce solutions provider, we strive to provide business leaders with innovative ideas and data to inform decisions and strategy. This benchmarking research includes analysis of data points intended to help business owners enhance their brand, expand operations, and transform the way they do business.”
The report says that only 48 percent of B2B ecommerce sites were built in-house this year, down from 63 percent last year. This decrease in the in-house solutions demonstrates the trend of moving away from legacy systems to industry-tested, stable, customizable platforms wih prebaked functionality and enhancements specifically for the B2B market.
The most prevalent platforms were Magento, SAP Hybris, Netsuite, and IBM Webspere.
B2B sites are catching up to B2C sites in terms of responsive design that is more like the consumer experiences to make business transactions seamless on any device and boost SEO, the report states.
As the CEO of a B2B business in the food industry noted, “One of our largest customers, Whole Foods, empowers employees to replenish product by walking down the aisles of the store and warehouse, iPad in hand, using the sameinterface and code base as our public direct to consumer site. This and the ability to empower the outside sales force with data on the go via their mobile devices will make responsive design a necessity in the future.”
More sites are requiring registration and the number showing pricing before registration dropped slightly to 71.8 percent from 74 percent in 2015l.
Download the full report. http://www.gorillagroup.com/trending/insight/download-exclusive-research-second-annual-b2b-benchmarking-report
