Search is the Tip of the Spear for Your B2B eCommerce Strategy

Search is the Tip of the
Spear for Your B2B
ECommerce Strategy

B2B search
is specific,
technical and
hard to get right.
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“search” is hard to get right.
vs

Back-end index
complexity and
search terms tied to
inventory issues
require sophisticated
solutions.
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• Painful to implement, operate, and
maintain, especially for custom
catalogs with complex pricing
• Difficult to integrate across all your
customer and employee touchpoints
• Require lots of manual input with not a
lot of drag-and-drop features for
resource-constrained teams
• Are so feature-light they don’t solve
your specific use cases
Your current
solutions are...

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CASE STUDY
Omnichannel search experience
for both sellers and customers
Immediate relevancy improvement
with the application of Fusion signals
Better UX
demonstrated by increase in KPIs
40%
DECREASE IN QUERIES
WITH NO SEARCH RESULTS
10%
INCREASE IN ATC
3%
INCREASE IN
CONVERSIONS

Search is the Tip of the Spear for
Your B2B eCommerce Strategy
Joe Cicman
Senior Analyst

Understand how your customers connect – and be there

10
© Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
Meet the 3D
connected
consumer

11
A buyer’s journey
is non-linear …
and in their control

12
Consumer
experiences
influence B2B
customers’ new
behavior and
preferences

13
13
© 2018 FORRESTER. REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED.
“B2B e-commerce is not a hobby for buyers —
it's often mission-critical. Jobs can be on the
line.”

14
In 2021, US B2B
eCommerce share
reached 17% for
motor vehicles and
parts, growing at
15.5% CAGR
Source: 2022 B2B E-Commerce Forecast, US
15.5% CAGR
12.1% CAGR
11.7% CAGR

15
US B2B
eCommerce will
top a whopping $3
Trillion by 2027
Source: 2022 B2B E-Commerce Forecast, US

16
Shift from selling
“at” buyers to
helping buyers get
the information they
need in the moment
Rethink B2B digital experiences
to meet the consumerized
expectations of modern buyers
48%
of global B2B demand and account-based marketers surveyed
already use AI for
personalization
Source: Forrester’s State Of Demand And ABM Tactics Survey, 2021
This allows marketer and machine to predict and deliver the most relevant
and valuable experiences, connected to and cohesive across tactics and
interactions, to enable a buying group to move together through the
purchasing journey.

17
Among the most
popular approaches
are personalization
based on buyer need,
industry, or persona
…delivered through channels
such as website content
recommendations, automated
conversations, and digital
advertising
use personalization in marketing
Source: Forrester’s State Of Demand And ABM Tactics Survey, 2021 (of global B2B demand and account-based marketers
surveyed)
63%
61%
use personalization in sales activities

18
The building
blocks for
personalization
strategy
…connect audience, content,
and delivery requirements to
tactic deployment
1. Assess the audience
1. Doesn’t always need to be executed at the
individual or known contact level and involve PII
to have an impact
2. Use data to drive delivery
1. Dependent on the data available for each
audience segment and interaction channel
defined by the program play
3. Map and tag content
1. Unless content is mapped and tagged with
metadata, personalization initiatives won’t make
any recognizable impact on engagement and
conversion goals — even with the best
technology, creative, and data strategy

19
Modern B2B buyers expect to be treated as partners,
not targets
Open
Connected Intuitive Immediate
Want connected
experiences and route
choices
Demand instantaneous
access to information
Expect sellers to utilize
digital tools
Want access to digital
tools themselves

20
Enable buyers to
control more of
their purchase
journeys
"The best enterprise marketing today is embracing
digital at scale to do what great salespeople have
always done — personalize their engagement and
offer a great experience”
- VP of integrated global marketing campaigns at a technology company

21
During COVID,
more buyers
needed to work
with vendor sales
reps
67%
Source: 2021 Forrester Buying Study
of B2B sales
• 56% direct
• 11% indirect

22
Buyers spent twice
as much through
“face-to-face”
selling as through
eCommerce
18%
67%
15%
Source: 2022 Forrester Buying Study
of B2B sales
of B2B sales
of B2B sales
• 9% direct
• 6% indirect
• Other 1%
• 8% direct
• 4% indirect
• 7% marketplace
• 56% direct
• 11% indirect

23
Future-proof your
B2B commerce
strategy to meet
customers where
they buy

24
B2B buyers
focused on
purchases that help
them adapt to new
working and
market conditions
Source: Forrester’s 2021 B2B Buying Study Reveals Seismic Shifts That Amplify Long-Term Trends In Buying Behavior

25
A more intense
purchasing process
demanded more
content and
interactions —
both digital and
personal —
throughout the
buyer’s journey

26
Long-term trends
confirm the
importance of
buying groups and
uncover details on
how decision-
making authority
changes with
purchase
complexity

27
Winning providers
must step up to
provide more
digital content and
interactions along
with access to
vendor
representatives
beyond sales

28
Monitor the impact
of content on
buyer engagement
Shift content strategies from
promoting what they do to
providing information that
informs, educates, entertains, or
delivers utility in the customer’s
eyes
1. Capture content usage data
2. Incorporate feedback data
3. Measure your KPIs in real-time
4. Assess content performance in
channels
5. Regularly measure, correlate,
and report on how your content
affects the sales process

29
Marketers must
meet buyers where
they are in the
buying process
Rather than attempt to control
the buying journey
Source: How To Put B2B Personalization In Context

Using new digital capabilities, it’s 10X cheaper and faster
to engage customers, and operate your business…
even among uncertainty

31
Your technology
roadmap fulfills
strategy with
priorities set by
business impact
Implement great digital strategy
with a flexible technology
approach

32
Using your
customer journey
map, evaluate each
interaction using 2
sets of criteria
• Benefit to your customer
• Value to your company

Forget About Buy Versus Build;
Your New Choice Is Customize Or Compose

34
Customize
Customize approaches assume tech
leaders start with a modern packaged
solution and then add configurations,
extensions, and customizations to
obtain the required solution

35
Compose
Compose approaches assume tech
leaders start first with a software
development platform and then add
cloud services (APIs), and/or
prepackaged visual components to
obtain the required solution

36
Forget about build
versus buy; your
choice is
customize or
compose
5 pragmatic solution options for
modern delivery

Thank You.
Joe Cicman
Senior Analyst

Fireside Chat with Joe Cicman
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Search is the Tip of the Spear for Your B2B eCommerce Strategy

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Search is the Tip of the Spear for Your B2B eCommerce Strategy