What will be negotiated in the future
People or machines? A race to the bottom or race to the top? Major platforms or specialized niche markets? The future of B2B commerce will require us all to make significant strategic decisions.
This Trendreport looks at how innovative technologies and growing consumer expectations are driving changes in B2B retail. Learn about the strategies that companies can use to remain competitive in this fast-paced landscape.
How data is making the customer journey a unique experience
“One-offs” are not just a product these days, but also the journey to the product. Artificial intelligence is allowing sales journeys to become increasingly individualized. There are three pillars of this new type of tailored sales:
People as data sources
The individual (or customer) is at the center of the model and provides data to supply the input for personalization. This data is no longer limited to purchase history and name. Customers provide a multitude of different insights - how they are feeling, what they want, what their opinion is and more - with each interaction, consciously or not.
Technology as data processors
These days, the phalanx of algorithms often understands customers far better than sales professionals. AI-assisted technologies and systems are now capable of gathering, processing and analyzing the legion of data in order to derive actionable insights, for example about the best offer at the best time and with the most effective messaging.
The personalized experience as a data experience
The outcomes of AI analyses: a personalized buying experience with individualized products, services, prices, and offers, the likes of which have never been seen. The journey to the product is now just as unique as the product itself.
What will characterize the B2B marketplace of tomorrow: its price or its value? The future will hold a “race to the top” scenario in which value plays a more significant role than costs.
Download TrendreportThe threefold network effect
What do companies need to do to expand their marketplace from the “standard components” to USPs? They need to understand it as a strategic growth lever in three directions: towards a larger audience, towards more added value, and as a result towards a vastly expanded customer journey.
Because more value can only be achieved through more service
A marketplace in which dozens of players offer the same thing is of no use to anyone in the long run. It hinders purchases and drives down prices. Instead, the focus should be on building a seamless service ecosystem that encourages and empowers businesses to manage the entire supply chain on one platform.
Because a new audience is only possible in a new network
The larger the company, the easier it is to continue to grow. A large marketplace is thus like a symbiosis from which different players benefit from their combined strength. It continually attracts more customers, making it lucrative for new businesses that in turn attract a new audience with their customer base and offer.
Because the customer journey becomes a continuous journey
Each service offered in a marketplace can be the beginning or the end of a customer journey. If a company books the painting service for a new car, this could trigger the next car purchase. The buyer journey, which until now has been linear and limited in scope, becomes a network that establishes a close-meshed, value-creating link between customers, services, and products.
B2B and B2C: different players and different rules
The objective of B2B gamification is a significantly greater degree of integration into workflows and technical processes. It is used for the strategic optimization of sales performance, the introduction of new technologies, and the engaging onboarding of employees. These tasks require a more complex technical setup with its own learning platforms or internal channels.
How people work with machines
The trend towards the autonomous “machine customer”, or custobot, will be one of the most important developments in the coming years, especially in networked machine parks, in which machines are already in constant communication with one another today. But what implications does this have for marketing and communication?
Make benefits precise and transparent
It is no longer enough to claim to espouse values like sustainability, quality, and corporate social responsibility (CSR); they need to be clearly communicated in concrete terms, for example water or energy consumption, thus making them verifiable.
Technology: openness for integration (APIs)
There can be no commerce if machines do not have access. Robust APIs, blockchain integration, and mechanisms for authentication are mandatory components in the catalog of technical specifications in B2B commerce.
Rethinking customer journeys
Should I enable my automated warehouse to independently organize the replenishment of necessary components in the future? Or should I design them to appeal especially to machine customers? Where and how are these purchases made? Machines’ buyer journeys and their integration into B2B value chains will present a challenge for sales and marketing strategies.
Our look at B2B commerce of tomorrow
Navigating tomorrow with MHP: the future decoded. This is the final section of the Trendreport. Here, MHP pros share their own personal opinions about the topics in this issue.
Everything is becoming transparent
ESG parameters, transparent calls for tenders, and supply chain laws are making business processes increasingly transparent and are forcing companies to find new ways to stand out.
Everything is becoming dynamic
Prices (dynamic pricing), contracts (smart contracts via blockchain), and even entire manufacturing facilities will be replaced or adapted at an increasing rate in the future—often automatically. Real-time data processing will lead to increasingly rapid decisions, even when it comes to far-reaching business decisions.
Everything is becoming available
Manufacturing, delivery, maintenance, and other services: the future will bring the “supply chain as a service” model, in which the complete supply chain is offered as a service. “Utility” makes way for “availability”, and OPEX replaces CAPEX.
