Guest post by Srini Rangaswamy. B2B is the new darling of eCommerce. From Forrester Research to Internet Retailer everyone is paying renewed attention to B2B. With Amazon’s growing traction in B2B, the game has gotten more interesting. As business transitions from high-touch face-to-face and phone conversations to low-touch online interactions, it’s challenging to promote relationships. […]
Does your B2B eCommerce Have Integrity?
Huh? What does integrity have to do with B2B e-commerce. Is this just a ploy to read your blog? Yes, I am trying to be clever (trying being the key word). But I also heard this weekend at church that the word integrity has a derivation that leads back to being integrated on the outside […]
It’s complicated: Relationships can be confusing
I hear people tell me “it’s complicated” all the time. Mainly when they are trying to blow me off and not have me pry into the problem. However, I like taking complicated ideas and finding easy ways to communicate them by breaking a complicated problem into a number of simple problems. E.F. Schumacher said Any […]
Who cares about the “Add to Cart” button?
The phrase “B2B e-commerce” implies a transaction. E-commerce IS about customer acquisition, conversion and average order value. But it also serves a bigger long term purpose. Customers are in more control than ever before. Customers want more online services and tools. As a result, we are witnessing the convergence of customer portals, marketing, social, […]
B2B eCommerce should be about Relationships
In a recent post, we learned that e-commerce within B2B is often not about customer acquisition and conversions but about building customer loyalty. The traditional approach of B2B e-commerce is product or cart centric. However, I would suggest that we should go beyond product centricity, and that we should start focusing on Relationship-Centered e-commerce. Malcolm […]
