eCommerce in manufacturing reflects a paradigm shift from pure transactions to experience-driven commerce. Purchasing parts or products online is nothing new but many of the legacy systems bringing products online are unwieldy. However, manufacturers that leverage modern B2B eCommerce solutions can turn this often complicated process into engaging experiences that satisfy their modern customers.
As traditional product-focused companies are becoming more customer-centric, manufacturers are looking for digital solutions that facilitate the change. eCommerce comes with many benefits: improving the accuracy of orders, 24/7 access to order history and account management, and more efficient digital processes, among many others.
What distinguishes eCommerce over other digital solutions is its potential to transform the nature of the manufacturing industry. eCommerce in manufacturing is not simply another digital tool for businesses to add, rather it is a platform that enables manufacturers to move away from their traditional business models and embrace a digitally connected ecosystem of customers, internal teams, data, and systems that they manage through a single platform.
It’s a natural thing to wonder. Let’s take a look at a few of the incredible benefits of eCommerce for Manufacturing to understand.
Going digital is the way forward for any business looking to save money and time.
The cost of order processing, manual entry errors, and customer support are all factors that can easily eat away at your bottom line over time. However, with cutting-edge technologies including eCommerce platforms like Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce, you might just be able to find a silver lining in this dark cloud!
Order processing costs are often overlooked; however, with eCommerce opening up new revenue streams for both B2B and B2C, it has become easier to remove the hidden costs of order processing by automating the associated business processes.
Sales order automation eliminates the extra steps involved in processing. It minimizes the order processing costs by up to 80% by reducing the number of human efforts needed to process an order. Reduced operational costs are a great way to immediately boost a company’s profitability.
Businesses incur huge costs due to human errors. This includes costs not only pertaining to accounting but this can be expensive should there arise any errors in activities related to sales, marketing, promotions, advertising or operations. Digital transformation like an eCommerce store can reduce such errors by up to 90%.
Every distributor incurs a huge cost to process each customer order which includes printing, collecting, distributing, and manually re-keying order data. These costs, when accumulated, range anywhere from $30 – $60 for a single email or fax order. Furthermore, the added costs of filing and storing documents, and the painstaking process of locating originals to
responding to customer inquiries adds up to increasing the printing and other overhead costs.
It takes a lot of time and effort to stay on top of order volumes, especially in the peak season. And, most of the Customer Service Representatives at a manufacturing company are overwhelmed processing orders. Purchase orders need to be processed in the system to become sales orders, however, this manual processing offers little value to your customers and it’s certainly not the best use of your employees’ precious time.
Automating the processes reduces the number of calls for manual order processing and helps optimize the time for other fruitful activities.
Speed and convenience equal higher satisfaction, in turn motivating customers to spend more.
The convenience of online shopping has led consumers to be more satisfied with their purchases, which in turn motivates them to higher spending. Businesses can take advantage of using digital commerce techniques that will enable the sales team to work efficiently while growing revenue at an impressive rate!
Customer service can be enjoyable. However, it’s extremely tiring, and beyond that, it eats up all of your valuable time as a person trying to grow your business. Fortunately, since customers no longer have to rely on your help to order your products or services, thanks to online shopping at their convenience, you’re free to focus on improving your products/services and the actual web experience.
But the automated ordering doesn’t stop the efficiency train there. The automated ordering system eliminates the need to reconfigure any data—basically reducing the possibility of a boatload of errors to near zero.
The world is riding a continuous wave of technological development, and even elders have begun taking advantage of online shopping. So, it’s time to take advantage.
Creating a B2B eCommerce website that has multiple pages casts a much wider net in the world than a store on the main street ever could. After all, a very small percentage of your target audience is walking the street looking for their product—instead, they’re online, skimming through websites and offers from multiple companies. And it’s up to you to meet them there to show what you have to offer.
eCommerce for manufacturing gives businesses the ability to grow and rapidly scale with ease. That will further allow you to meet your customer’s needs and the demands of your given market whenever a change is due. Or even if you just feel like making one.
You can also adopt some great extensive B2B eCommerce solutions that will enable you to change your tired existing technology and marketing capabilities, ultimately—improving many facets of your business.
You’re casting a much wider net with the right B2B eCommerce platform. Consequently, you’ll undoubtedly give your brand the perfect opportunity for a significant growth spurt both globally and locally.
There are several ways that an optimized B2B eCommerce website can quickly lead to higher sales. One of the easiest ways to set yourself up for higher sales in the future is to implement a fast, automated upsell and cross-sell program into your website. That can give your new customers tons of relevant recommendations, which keeps them on your website longer and tempts them to purchase even more products/services.
eCommerce isn’t only about buying and selling online. It’s not just about engaging customers online either. eCommerce should be a business tool and should allow your organization to benefit from larger digital transformation and business evolution initiatives.
For many manufacturers who have already invested in eCommerce strategically, this has proven true:
39% of manufacturers report overall revenue growth as a benefit of eCommerce. Over one-third of manufacturers say that eCommerce improved customer experience 38% of manufacturers report that eCommerce improved their business efficiency.
Moving from being a product-centered business to a customer-centric one is feasible and beneficial using an eCommerce platform. However, simply adding an eCommerce solution to an existing technology stack is not the end-all solution. If implemented successfully alongside a detailed strategy, an eCommerce platform is not just another way to sell but a transformative solution that solves traditional B2B challenges and elevates manufacturers to becoming customer-driven businesses that will ultimately drive long-term success.
Mike Patel is a digital marketing enthusiast, innovator and President of a leading Digital and E-commerce Development Agency in Dallas, Texas. Mike holds a BS, Computer Science degree from Wayne State University and is a key player in the E-commerce development and digital marketing industry since 2004. The scope of technology in his extensive experience of more than 15 years ranges from Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click) management, E-commerce SEO, Google Shopping Ads and more.
Mike Patel
01 Feb 2023Mike Patel
12 Jan 2023Mike Patel
05 Jan 2023Mike Patel
20 Dec 2022Mike Patel
15 Dec 2022Mike Patel
09 Dec 2022Mike Patel
07 Dec 2022Mike Patel
24 Nov 2022Mike Patel
17 Nov 2022Mike Patel
17 Nov 2022Mike Patel
27 Oct 2022Mike Patel
07 Oct 2022Mike Patel
27 Sep 2022Mike Patel
15 Sep 2022Mike Patel
10 Sep 2022Mike Patel
23 Aug 2022Mike Patel
17 Aug 2022Mike Patel
10 Aug 2022Mike Patel
01 Jul 2022Mike Patel
24 Jun 2022Mike Patel
14 Jun 2022Mike Patel
11 May 2022Mike Patel
03 May 2022Mike Patel
29 Apr 2022Mike Patel
27 Apr 2022Mike Patel
21 Apr 2022Mike Patel
13 Apr 2022Mike Patel
01 Apr 2022Mike Patel
29 Mar 2022Mike Patel
01 Mar 2022Mike Patel
24 Feb 2022Mike Patel
15 Feb 2022Mike Patel
11 Feb 2022Mike Patel
04 Feb 2022Mike Patel
27 Jan 2022Mike Patel
13 Jan 2022Mike Patel
10 Jan 2022Mike Patel
17 Dec 2021Mike Patel
13 Dec 2021Mike Patel
30 Nov 2021Mike Patel
26 Oct 2021Mike Patel
20 Oct 2021Mike Patel
05 Oct 2021Mike Patel
30 Sep 2021Mike Patel
21 Sep 2021Mike Patel
17 Sep 2021Mike Patel
08 Sep 2021Mike Patel
11 Aug 2021Mike Patel
05 Aug 2021Mike Patel
16 Jun 2021Mike Patel
03 Jun 2021Mike Patel
06 May 2021Mike Patel
04 May 2021Mike Patel
15 Apr 2021Mike Patel
17 Mar 2021Mike Patel
18 Feb 2021Mike Patel
15 Feb 2021Mike Patel
28 Jan 2021Mike Patel
26 Nov 2020Mike Patel
11 Nov 2020Mike Patel
24 Sep 2020Mike Patel
08 Sep 2020Mike Patel
18 Aug 2020Mike Patel
13 Aug 2020Mike Patel
01 Aug 2020Mike Patel
29 Jul 2020Mike Patel
21 Jul 2020Mike Patel
14 Jul 2020Mike Patel
09 Jul 2020Mike Patel
29 Jun 2020Mike Patel
11 Jun 2020Mike Patel
02 Jun 2020Mike Patel
21 May 2020Mike Patel
24 Apr 2020Mike Patel
14 Apr 2020Mike Patel
26 Mar 2020Mike Patel
24 Mar 2020Mike Patel
10 Mar 2020Get in touch with us if you have a web development or digital marketing project that you would like to get underway!
TOP
Get in Touch