“Cloud eCommerce ’23” (?)
C-19 challenges are currently all-consuming. But, e-trends continue to accelerate in the background.
How will these e-factors converge in 30+ months (January 1st, 2023)?
- Amazon Business is not sleeping on innovations (nor is Home Depot’s $1.2B DC expansion, etc.)
- Increasing bandwidth with video-clips for everything. (National 5G by ’25)
- Exploding on-line product: information, pricing, availability and buying scenarios.
- Digital-first, millennials taking over B2B buying spots. (Are you rebalancing virtual and facetime calls to every buyer’s liking?)
- Many weeks of current, C-19 virtual – working, socializing, buying, etc. – will shift what e-buying habits and how?
- All legacy channels must shift as best they can into the “Cloud” to reduce AMZ’s cloud-channel, total effectiveness.
- B2B buyers’ first-searches will increasingly go to AMZ.
- B2B brands must then be on AMZ with best, digital-engagement content. If not, the lesser brands and clones of most net-profitable SKUs are already there. Stealing share!
- Because content is only the first step of end-users’ “buying journeys”, how will factories reinvent channel models to give: 24/7/365 e-selling support? Will distributors: collaborate or resist? Be both dis- and re-intermediated?
Distributor Model Innovations
Distributors should collaboratively change to fit into new channel models that will vary by supplier rather than resist. Collaborating partners will trounce lagging, legacy competitors. And, the end-customer will get their way from someone.
And, what other e-selling model changes will B2B buyers reward?
For big buyers, the trend towards – integrated, automated, sole-supply, replenishment solutions – will accelerate and go open-book. C-19 pressures will boost customer consolidation trends. And, the consolidators will, in turn, seek total buying effectiveness with proactive, supplier partners.
These partnerships will: use digital tools; be customized with unbundled-services-for-fees (like 3PLs do); and be open-book to maximize trust with both customers and factories.
Transactional customers will want their preferred blend virtual-first and facetime support as needed.
And, smallest accounts will need to use web-order entry with a build-your-own-order-for-discounts configurator.
Net-Profit Analytics (at the SKU, line-item level) Enables All These Model Innovations!
How exactly? Glad you asked! The answers are all within my 12, new, webinars designed to help ambitious distributors to get through C-19 challenges and on to winning at ecommerce in 2023.