B2B transactions have generally happened offline, with orderbooks and vendor lists still comprising a large part of this archaic method of transacting. Huge MOQs, lack of transparent pricing, and 60 day invoices all have played a part in keeping companies in their vendor's walled gardens.
That is finally changing. More and more businesses are procuring equipment and products wholesale on vendor websites or industry marketplaces. This will continue to grow and businesses that shell out $15k + for a good B2B Shopify store will capture this dynamic market of business customers looking to handle their business online.
Consumers want to buy things when influenced by their peer groups or celebrities and the best way to capture their wallets is to make impulsive purchasing as easy as possible. This means allowing transactions and orders to be placed directly from Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Twitter, or Pinterest.
Shopify has several plugins allowing your store products, inventory, and pricing to sync directly with these social platforms.
Similar to In-App Purchasing, winning businesses will utilize all possible methods of customer acquistion, and have their product everywhere, all at once.
Again, Shopify makes this easy. You don't want to lose customers because they're on Amazon looking for your product right? Plugins for these marketplaces allow your Shopify store to push your products onto all major platforms, while still using your Shopify dashboard as the nexus of information and control.
The eCommerce space is literally littered with cheap, low-effort Shopify stores built using free or low cost templates with little to no customization. All these stores look the same, and none of them are ever reputable. Customers may have had an unpleasant online purchasing experience in the past, and it's almost guaranteed to have come from a store using a free template. When they see that same template on your store, and remember that previous unpleasant experience, they will hit that back button so fast your analytics might not even register their visit.
Ever seen an eCom site with a Wheel of Fortune pop-up that slows down the whole site and asks you to play to win a special discount on a product before you've even got a chance to see what products the website sells? Bet you didn't make your purchase there. Your customers won't either.
On the flip side, customers who shop online have all had good experiences, probably from larger brands, and recognize the time, effort, and money these brands invested into the design and development of their store. They know it's not a template, they know serious money was spent to give them a quality shopping experience, and that gives them a feeling of trust.
Would you rather buy a grape in a little gold foil cup or a grape sitting on a tissue? We're buying the gold cup grapes, even if they cost a little more.
Our clients often find that they can subsidize the cost of their new Shopify store by raising their prices, as customers are more likely to buy from their new and well designed store even at a higher price. They are also more likely to pay for extras, secondary items, and become repeat customers (the very best - no acquisition cost).
Want to talk about how Nine can design and develop an amazing and branded Shopify store for your business? Email us at contact@ninedigital.xyz for a free consultation.
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