For manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers, the “traditional” system of commerce had always been the first choice.
But now, in an age where every other traditional company is moving towards business process automation, these parties are trying to embrace eCommerce for all its potential; making it a significant business priority.
The shift is not just due to automation alone. Buyers have also contributed to the change. Not only are they making their everyday regular purchases online, but the frequency of online B2B orders have seen a substantial spike in recent years.
In fact, according to a BCG report on mobile marketing, the number of B2B orders made on mobile phones was expected to grow to about 70% by 2020.
With even laptops and tablets taking second place, you can clearly see the case we’re trying to build.
From customer convenience to streamlined communication, the importance of eCommerce for B2B companies is something that has been reiterated again and again.
But while eCommerce adoption has been right, there is still a disconnect between businesses and buyers. For B2B companies looking to ramp up their eCommerce efforts, a wholesale catalog is essential.
This article aims to discuss that importance, and how it can help you boost online B2B sales for your business.
# 1 Reduce business costs
Traditional catalogs come with their fair share of additional costs. Most prominent amongst them being costs incurred in printing and distributing the brochures.
With an online catalog, you don’t have to worry about all of that.
While not recommended, even a static catalog can help buyers view your products, and then make a decision. But it can only go so far since it won’t cater to changing seasons, financial commitments, and trends. This, in turn, would mean relying on a developer or a designer to make edits to the catalog.
Dynamic catalogs help reduce operational costs even further by allowing you to create targeted pricing following various seasonal trends.
# 2 Find new customers
With the internet, staying connected is easier now more than ever. Gone are the days when you had to hire a team of sales reps to visit your prospects and use traditional sales tactics to entice them into the purchase.
Now, your buyers will come to you.
A search engine optimized site combined with a dynamic wholesale catalog enables buyers to view your catalogs at any time, and anywhere. Primarily working as an extension of your business, online catalogs help you keep in touch with existing customers as well as tap into newer B2B markets related to your niche.
#3 Boost customer engagement
The best part about having an online B2B catalog is that you can engage your customers in more ways than one.
Written content, animations, infographics, and how-to videos are just the tip of the iceberg. You can target your customers in any way that makes sense to you. The best part? You can do it at a much quicker rate compared with a traditional catalog setup.
Take infographics as an example. They are a great way to organize your content into small visual chunks for people to consume, and since 90% of the information sent to our brains is visual, infographics can add significant value to the consumer and get them interested in your offering.
But here’s the catch; you have to maintain some level of balance in your multimedia strategy.
The goal is to catch their attention, not bombard them with more information than they can process at one time. For that, you have to essentially “know thy customer” and respond to what they like. Tap into their intrigue, and entice them towards your shopping cart.
#4 Easy to search
No one likes to scoure through a detailed print catalog, make a decision on the fly, and then purchase. All of this is frustrating for the customer.
Online B2B catalogs come with search functionality that enables buyers to search for products that are of interest to them as opposed to browsing through a printed catalog of multiple products.
A simplified product search brings with it the benefit of providing your customers with peace of mind regarding product selection, thereby increasing the probability of them purchasing your product.
#5 Connect and expand your business
You need to make your customers feel special. If you treat them in a befitting manner, then the chances of them staying with you as loyal customers are more.
A customer-targeted catalog helps you achieve just that!
Catalogs tailored to customer needs, geographical location, currency, and language gives a personal touch to the customer experience and helps you target people and businesses effectively.
Using these metrics, you are also increasing the breadth of your businesses to other regions. Additionally, such customizations are less of a burden on your operational budget when compared to tailoring a printed catalog for each customer or demographic.
#6 Simplify your cross-selling experience
Remember the traditional salesperson trying to make that hard-lined sale? Well, the modern customer is wary of such a sale.
To avoid doing that, you need to make cross-selling a basic part of your sales strategy. Cross-selling is basically introducing similar or complementary products with a customers’ purchase. Now, with a printed catalog, you can’t go the distance with cross-selling as you would with an online one.
With an online catalog, you can include animations on the side, introduce pop-up boxes, or the basic “You Might Also Like” or “Frequently Bought Together” pop-up with a purchase.
All of this helps you make the sale without going for the hard sell.
#7 Generate leads
Lastly, online B2B catalogs are a great way to generate leads for your business.
When outreaching a prospective customer online, you would generally want to present them with an online catalog of your products. While you can provide them with a PDF version of your catalog, it’s better to redirect them to your site, where your catalog lies.
Moreover, with a clear and interactive catalog on your site, you increase the chances of generating leads with actual interest in your products.
A good strategy would be to entice the customer into giving you their email addresses for future retargeting with email marketing. But again, you have to strike a balance in what constitutes brand awareness and what constitutes spam.
Interested in getting your B2B venture onto the digital stage? Visit Codup.co
