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Whether you’re a large corporation with a multimillion pound digital budget or small and medium sized business (SMB), there’s a strong chance that trade customers visiting your website for the first time face a laborious application process before they can complete a purchase.
This could be eating into your conversion rates.
Business owners who have become used to Amazon-style convenience in their personal lives now expect the same buying experiences at work. Perhaps even more so, given that they’re likely to be time-pressured.
Recent research by McKinsey backs this up. Between 2016 and 2019, there was a major shift in B2B sales, moving from traditional sales interactions to online shopping. The majority of companies, when buying stock, equipment or any other goods, now want to self-service without human to human interaction. This extends from product research (up from 35% to 65%) right through to ordering (48% to 62%) and reordering (48% to 61%).
Friction in your checkout experience will harm your conversion rates and sales figures.
How to identify if your trade customer onboarding process needs an upgrade
There are a number of telltale signs that your website is unwittingly turning away prospective customers. In particular, These include manual account registration, limiting accounts to legal directors of the company, and requiring evidence such as notarised documents and customer testimonials.
For many companies, producing and collating a small library of documents is a major logistical headache, particularly if papers need to be sent via post or with courier. It’s the kind of process that undermines agility and will almost certainly create missed opportunities to service clients who need your products or services urgently. It also speaks to your general client responsiveness as a business.
Indeed, manual processes often throw up a range of obstacles to a successful trade account application. For instance, if the applicant is unaware that the company’s registered address is that of the accountant’s rather than a headquarters, it could result in a rejection. The same outcome is likely to occur in the event that a particular document cannot be found. Does your business have a workaround for such situations, or is it simply a case of ‘computer says no’, and the sale is lost?
Now, at this point you might be sighing with relief that manual processes are ancient history at your business. But there is digital danger too. If your customer checkout experience requires users to endure a series of clicks, keystrokes and page redirects, then there’s a chance you’re operating a suboptimal online buying platform.
Ultimately, whatever your approach, the main point is that placing time-consuming burdens on modern businesses is a luxury few can afford in the competitive digital era.
A modern platform to drive more online trade purchases
We’ve looked at some of the challenges B2B businesses face in delivering hassle-free sales to new trade customers. But what are the solutions?
Two has developed technology aimed at empowering SMB´s - in fact, any business - to offer a seamless and quick checkout process to trade customers new and old. Calling on a range of preexisting online data, the platform is able to instantly and securely verify trade customer applications with very little information from the end user. Two can be incorporated into virtually any website to offer an Amazon-like buying experience.
As well as better online conversion rates, Two’s B2B checkout proposition also gives businesses a range of useful controls.
Another key benefit with Two is corporate finance provision in the form of trade credit. This has been designed to satisfy a growing appetite for more payment options. Credit limits in excess of £250,000 are available and have no impact on existing borrowing arrangements.
This will be music to the ears of the one in eight small firms who often resort to personal credit cards for daily business spending and might therefore struggle to secure funds for bigger ticket items, such as vehicles or machinery.
Trade credit enables business buyers to buy now, sell first and then pay later - without the need to seek approval from their bank for a credit line. Importantly, trade credit isn't classed as official credit so doesn't affect credit scores, and it can be extended for the purchase of specific goods or services. This means the company providing the credit line has full transparency over customer spend.
The main takeaway is that Two delivers improved conversion rates by removing all-too-common frictions from B2B online purchases. If you want to give your new customers a better buying experience when they visit your website, then it is worth talking to us, or setting up a no obligation demo of how Two works in practice and seamlessly integrates with your current checkout.
Want to see how Two can help you increase your B2B e-commerce sales? Book a 30 minute demo with us today!✌️
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