Why ecommerce leaders must be agents of change

Getting ahead in B2B ecommerce is hard and it is even harder do it alone. The key to success is developing the right partners both inside and outside the enterprise.

That is part of the key advice and best practices Justin King, vice president B2B and chief strategist for Salsify, told attendees at the B2B Ecommerce Forum on Monday in Gold Coast Australia, an event built by a strategic partnership between iMedia and the B2B Ecommerce Association.

B2B buyers have a growing appetite for doing more of their organization’s corporate purchasing online, King says.

For example:

• 93% of B2B buyers prefer to buy online once they know what they want to purchase.
• 82% of buyers say they’ve used Amazon to make purchases for work.
• 70% of customers that use B2B distributors are buying products weekly online.
• 69% of B2B customers cite lack of images as a major problem on websites.
• 67% of buyers cite inadequate product content on their distributors’ website.

Within the organization, ecommerce leaders are not just managers that implement and manage digital commerce, he says. “If you are in a digital role, you are a change agent,” says King, author of the book, Digital Branch Secrets. “If you are in a non-digital role, your job is to create a digital strategy.”