How is Dynamics 365 Commerce paving the way for innovation in B2B digital selling?
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“A recent study by Forrester commissioned by Microsoft revealed that 83 percent of retail and CPG decision makers agree that delivering a connected and unified experience to customers is vital to business success and that the key to creating those experiences lies with digital commerce.”
Microsoft is announcing the preview of B2B e-commerce capability for Dynamics 365 Commerce, further enabling organizations to expand their digital commerce experiences.
Dynamics 365 Commerce brings together capabilities from both B2C and B2B industries, creating a single unified retail and commerce platform, while enabling a richer, more user-friendly experience for your customers. In addition to being natively built on an intelligent and connected platform, Dynamics 365 Commerce saves your business both time and money with the ability to streamline your buyer’s journey and provide them with an individualized and relevant purchasing experience.
Take a look back
The pivot businesses have had to make this last year has been challenging, creating a catalyst for the need for businesses to step up to the new reality of a global lockdown and contactless shopping. Dynamics 365 Commerce has helped businesses reach new methods of product fulfillment and allowed them to deliver a safe and secure purchasing experience for their customers.
How is B2B commerce changing?
Buyers today have higher expectations, and in general, the buyer, whether in a B2B or B2C space, is increasingly self-educating through online research, peer opinions, and social media.
With the buyer positions changing and more millennials entering the industries, the expectations are also shifting away from traditional methods of B2B sales and more towards self-service options and personalized digital engagements.
B2B marketers who are traditionally focused on providing customers with information are now looking at ways to build an emotional brand connection. On the other hand, B2C marketers are now refocusing their strategies to create more educational and professional content for their customers. What we are recognizing now is that organizations need to be able to do both. Those businesses who are blending both approaches are finding more success in engaging their customer on a deeper level.
It is all about human engagement, and yes, there is a difference between consumer and organization, however in the end, you are simply communicating with people, whether that be in a group, or as individuals.
We can see that buyers are gravitating more toward digital platforms to access relevant information easily, alongside quick purchasing options. In addition, many businesses are realizing the value of enabling B2B buyers to access purchasing options directly from the web, saving them time and money while reducing the need for in-person sales and giving the ability to scale to a wider range of customers.
What is Microsoft bringing to B2B eCommerce?
The biggest change to the B2B landscape over the last few years has been the move to digital selling strategies. Digital is now the preferred contact and buying method for B2B buyers to do research, order products, and schedule service. And like many of the changes we have seen arise in 2020, the digital trend does not appear to be going anywhere any time soon. In fact, according to a study done by McKinsey & Company, 80% of B2B buyers want to stick with digital interactions (remote interactions and digital self-serve) in 2021 and beyond.
It has been a long-established tendency to separate out B2B and B2C commerce solutions, leading businesses to duplicate data, digital assets, and relevant messaging if they operate across both markets.
The conventional perceptions around the B2B buyer journey have caused a lack of transformation and attention to how customers interact with businesses in the eCommerce space. With newer generations of buyers entering the market, it is essential to look past what was traditionally available for B2B eCommerce and introduce smarter, more intuitive buying experiences for customers. This is where Dynamics 365 Commerce is heading. By bringing the heightened innovation and intelligent features of B2C eCommerce to the B2B market, it has allowed companies to provide personalized and relevant content to their customers, leading to deeper customer relationships.
This includes activating capabilities like:
Responsive and modular user experience (UX)
Intelligent and AI-powered recommendations
Context aware and immersive product search
Shared ratings and reviews
Cross channel asset management
Distributed order management
Merchandising capabilities into the buyers digital purchasing experience
Flexible Partner management
Onboarding tools
By utilizing all these capabilities, businesses, and consumers alike benefit from the intuitive integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions. Empowering your business with a robust set of tools to enable your team to reach a deeper engagement with your customers and capitalize on every opportunity.
What to learn more?
Dynamics 365 Commerce delivers a comprehensive, yet composable set of capabilities for both consumer and business-facing organizations seeking to expand beyond traditional digital commerce limitations and improve customer engagement, build brand awareness, streamline purchasing, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
To learn more about Dynamics 365 Commerce contact us today!
What to check out more? See Microsoft’s Blog