Digital channel increasingly important for B2B

Brian Walker, Senior Vice President Strategy at hybris, at the Game Plan B2B E-Commerce Forum in Berlin.The entire results were presented for the first time at the Game Plan B2B E-Commerce Forum, which took place on October 8-9 in Chicago and October 28-29 in Berlin. The forum was organized by Hubris, an SAP company and provider of a commerce platform. Various companies presented their B2B eCommerce solutions, among others the Swiss wholesaler Electro-Material AG.Develop strategiesThe study shows that the B2B sector is undergoing a fundamental change process in terms of customer acquisition and retention. In fact, B2B eCommerce in the U.S. already generates $559 billion annually - more than double the B2C business. It's also interesting to note that B2B players who don't jump on the online and mobile bandwagon risk losing market share in the short to medium term, and their ability to compete in the long term. "B2B companies need to develop effective eCommerce strategies as soon as possible, otherwise they risk seeing their customers migrate to competitors who are already further down this path," said Brian Walker, Senior Vice President Strategy at hybris. "Once they realize the potential and market value of online sales, however, B2B companies will quickly realize how useful eCommerce is for customer acquisition and retention."Most important resultsThe top three findings of the study, titled "Online and Mobile are Transforming B2B Commerce," are:

• Sales via the online and mobile channel open up attractive new opportunities for B2B companies.
• B2B companies that wait too long to enter eCommerce are taking a high risk.
• Self-service offerings are leading to a completely new type of interaction between B2B customers and their suppliers.

MethodologyFor the study, Forrester surveyed 717 executives from B2B companies in the three economic regions of North America, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and the Asia-Pacific region; around 240 participants came from each region. Nearly 50% (353) of the total participants reported already selling directly to business partners via the online channel (B2B). The study was conducted between May and July 2013.The complete study is available Download ready