Last week, the alumni operation of Vlerick Business School organized a presentation on how to be successful with an e-commerce strategy in a B2B environment. A fascinating evening with three speakers who inspired us on the following questions:
- How do I structure my company and its processes for a B2B e-commerce strategy?
- Which sub-processes do I outs ource or do myself?
- How do I differentiate myself from my competitors and best communicate the needs of today's customer?
The importance of a good strategy
The first speaker was Bart De Waele, CEO of Wijs. From their expertise as a digital agency, he gave more insight into online business. Everything starts with understanding your customer and how to tell a unique story with your product or service. This is how you distinguish yourself from your competitor.
Soon we came to the importance of strategy. Proper strategy ensures that you tailor your product or service to your "unique" customer in your own way. Only then will you fill his need to the maximum. Although this may sound very consumer-oriented?
Today, this is certainly and certainly relevant to being successful in a B2B environment. After all, you don't just differentiate yourself with a product or a service. The experience, or rather the way you add value in the eyes of your customer, is crucial to be and remain successful. As a B2B player, the better you understand what the end customer wants, the better you can tailor your story to your B2B customer. This ultimately allows it to better serve the end customer.
To outsource or not to outsource?
As the second speaker, it was our turn. Before we could offer an answer to the question "Do I outsource or not?", we had to take a step back. After all, you can only answer this question if you have first thought about:
- To what extent are my processes digitized?
- Is my logistics service a core business or not?
The answer to the first question determines whether you can outsource logistics. Outsourcing logistics without sacrificing your own unique operation is only possible if this operation is digitized. That way you preserve your identity even if you outsource.
The second question determines whether outsourcing your logistics is appropriate. We are evolving into a world where companies need to be flexible in order to keep up with changes in the market. And this without losing their added value in the eyes of their customer. If logistics is not a core value, then outsourcing is often the next step to achieve greater customer satisfaction.
If you have a clear view on both questions, then you can start looking for a partner. When choosing the right e-fulfilment partner, always keep in mind:
- Costing and tries to align this as flexibly as possible with order volume.
- The degree to which your partner understands your strategy. The better he understands this, the more likely he too will add customer satisfaction.
- The ability of your partner to change with you if your processes or market changes.
- The extent to which your partner is transparent and communicates clearly. This is often underestimated, but clear communication also means a well-informed client.
Digitization as a "Winning Strategy"
Finally, it was the turn of Nick Boucart, Technology Advisor and Software Engineer at Sirris. He provided insight into how to tackle digitization now and how this will ensure that you have a crucial advantage over companies lagging behind in the future.
A story that connected seamlessly with the two previous threads and where it quickly became clear that:
- Not digitizing is a huge drain because you can add much less value for your customer.
- Digitizing in itself requires quite a bit of preparatory work and goes beyond pure marketing or logistics.
- Setting up a proper digital approach is often presented much more difficult than it really is.
Not digitizing has long since ceased to be a choice. So surround yourself with people who can give you a clear picture of the path to digitization. You will find that it is often much simpler than you initially envisioned. Especially since the benefits it brings far outweigh the costs.
Did the evening now offer a unified answer to the first three questions? Probably not. We do hope that it gave enough food for thought. We left for Genk with a suitcase full of energy! Did we get you thinking as well?
