Expanding Market Reach with E-Commerce Giants

Expanding Market Reach with Giants An Alternative to Competing with Major Online Retailers www.conexiom.com E-Commerce a publication by ecmarket inc. The Evolution of Distribution The traditional distribution model has evolved. It’s no longer enough to conduct business with just a single channel. What began simply as inbound calls to your team of Customer Service Representatives has now matured into a complex business model that continues to change. Today business happens around the clock. Geographic boundaries have been erased. And technology never ceases to innovate. As a result of these business transformations, modern distributors and manufacturers are facing more pressure than ever to deliver more customer value. From lower prices to deeper inventory to better service, customers are demanding it all. Flexibility is king and the more options, the better. To add to this dilemma, every customer is unique and they are all looking for the easiest way to do business, which comes in many shapes and sizes. Earning their business has become a result of finding the best channel for their convenience or style. www.conexiom.com The Emergence of E-Stores In today’s digital age, geographic limitations no longer pose the barrier to market entry they once did. That means there’s more competition surfacing from even more places. The increased access to information has shifted the balance of power away from sellers into the hands of highly informed buyers. Consumers today are often sophisticated, intelligent, and increasingly demanding. Thanks to the internet, customers can confidently purchase products wherever and whenever they want. Offering e-commerce options is no longer considered a value-added service, but simply a requirement of doing business. To respond to this shifting competitive landscape, many B2B suppliers have chosen to invest in or upgrade their online presence. But investing in e-commerce is complicated at the best of times and to make matters worse, it’s constantly evolving. Even if you’re not ready to launch your e-store just yet, exploring other ways to get involved is a good idea. Online revenue continues to climb and for those that are embracing it, it’s a move that’s paying off. Online is the fastest growing revenue stream for many businesses. www.conexiom.com The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly For many early adopters, the e-store became one of their fastest-growing sales channels. Logically, it’s natural to start wondering what other online channels could create similar success. It seems the web offers limitless potential. And it’s intuitive that expanding the number of distribution points will lead to increased sales, provided the necessary infrastructure is established. Taking cues from market leaders who invested in e-commerce early, the ROI is clear. Last year alone, some of the top distributors reported that one third of annual revenues were derived from online sources. Forrester estimates the B2B market at nearly $570 billion. Every 30 seconds, the global e-commerce market is selling $1.2 million. Frankly, that’s a lot of business to be had. Success is simply a matter of connecting buyers and sellers. The internet opens the doors to many new customers and market segments. But if you’re not maximizing your participation in the online space, you’re likely missing out on market share. And even if you could survive without reaching your full potential, one thing is clear: other online businesses and major e-commerce retailers are making a play for your customers. Every 30 seconds, global e-commerce sells over $1.2 million. www.conexiom.com Major Online Retailers: Friend or Foe? The emergence of major online retailers like Amazon, Google, eBay, and Alibaba in the industrial supply market merely emphasizes the importance of participating in multiple market channels. The threat of third-party B2B websites is real. It’s evident that there’s a market where customers are looking online for products traditionally sold by distributors like you. But rather than building preferred supplier relationships, they’re making purchases online. Trying to compete with businesses that specialize in online retail is a tough proposition. Instead of adopting a defensive strategy, consider a different approach – playing in the sandbox. We know that customers are looking for convenience and some will even jump ship for it. Making yourself available to your customers in their preferred format is critical if you don’t want to lose them. Succeeding is all about making it easy for customers to do business with you, which means being present where they’re hanging out. Launching an e-store is a great start, but what if potential customers don’t know your name? What if they don’t know where to look to find you? What if you want to market in new ways without diluting your brand? Adopting a multi-channel approach by embracing third- party retailers is a win-win. Increasing the number of access points will increase market share. www.conexiom.com E-Commerce Builds Market Share Many distributors are embracing large e-tailers as a new sales channel, which brings many benefits. Selling products on a trusted major e-commerce site exposes you to a huge volume of potential traffic. Amazon alone has 244 million customers to extend your reach and gain market share. Some distributors are choosing to create microsites and even new brands to target a very specific type of customer with niche products by maximizing SEO. Other manufacturers are using this avenue to offer private label products without the risk of spoiling their existing markets. The choice is yours. An interesting difference is the type of customer arriving through these third-party retail platforms. They know exactly what they’re looking for and often it’s something very specific. Typically they’re not purchasing these products often or in high quantities. It’s also worth noting that they require little or no support. Although these types of sales can be smaller and are more transactional, with high automation they can be just as profitable or even more so than traditional sales channels. There are many effective ways to channel e-commerce into growth. www.conexiom.com Overwhelmed by Third-Party Orders Figuring out how to efficiently process orders arriving from third-party retailers requires finesse. It demands the right infrastructure be established before orders start pouring in. You can’t wait until orders begin to arrive before figuring out how to handle them. Success can easily become overwhelming and without geographic limitations, hundreds of orders can arrive from all corners of the world in an instant. To make matters worse, each order needs to be fulfilled immediately, often same day. It’s easy to see how an unprepared company could get buried in an avalanche of business. Processing Amazon or eBay orders requires a few extra steps, instantaneous response, and brings increased risk of error due to unique billing and shipping addresses with each order. Managing this workflow effectively takes time that you don’t have and when you only have one chance to impress a new customer, fumbling around in the dark simply won’t suffice. Further, extra processing means higher labor costs, slower cycles, and errors you can’t afford. Why struggle to stay on top of it all when you don’t have to? Consider handing the reigns over to sales order automation. Eliminate extra workload with sales order automation. www.conexiom.com Process Sales Orders in Seconds The good news is that sales orders placed through online retailers can actually be processed without lifting a finger. Sounds too good to be true? Well here’s how it works. When a transaction occurs online, it’s standard practice to receive a notification email containing relevant order details that sets the process in motion. Most likely that means you need to drop everything, log into the online retailer’s website, retrieve the order details, and then rush to start processing the order. But since business never sleeps, are you really prepared to process orders at 3AM? Streamlining order processing makes it easy to grow your business and enter new markets with a solution that scales with you as you expand. The right solution can make embracing major online retailers go from hard to easy in less than 48 hours. The secret is smoothly transferring information from purchase order to sales order without requiring any manual intervention. That’s right. No more late night interruptions. No more data entry. Just seamless orders processing in seconds. And it works with any customer or online e-commerce retailer. Automation helps you process stacks of orders quickly and easily. www.conexiom.com Harnessing the Power of Conexiom Conexiom® simplifies order processing by effectively reducing the number of steps involved. When working with online retailers, the order notification message issued automatically after a transaction has occurred is redirected to Conexiom via email. This message serves as a trigger to retrieve the order details and then we seamlessly translate them into your existing ERP system without any human intervention. Conexiom integrates customer orders immediately as they arrive and in any format. Since each online retailer produces a unique, but consistent order format, the mapping process is simple. It’s like setting up an EDI partner without going through the pain of standardizing documents. Conexiom captures and transforms computer-generated customer orders directly into sales orders automatically. By removing the manual components of order processing, Conexiom allows you to process orders in minutes rather than hours or days. As an added bonus, it frees up time for staff to focus on serving customers rather than entering orders. And with Conexiom’s 100% data capture accuracy, you can enjoy delighting your customers with the right products every time. Conexiom helps you grow your business without the growing pains. www.conexiom.com Ready, Set, Go Are you ready to simplify your business? Are you ready to process orders faster, easier, and better? Ready to say goodbye to manual bottlenecks? Excited to focus on delivering more value beyond processing paper? If you’re ready to embrace e-commerce retailers and expand into new markets, give us a call at 1.866.860.3388 to learn how we can make your life easier. Conexiom® allows manufacturers and distributors to focus on serving customers and managing supplier relationships instead of entering data. The patent-pending Conexiom solution was created by ecmarket, a cloud solutions developer. Conexiom revolutionizes critical sales and accounting business practices by automating manual entry with 100% accuracy. Conexiom effortlessly converts emailed and printed customer purchase orders and supplier invoices into automated sales orders and invoices, enabling companies to focus on driving growth. Conexiom helps organizations across the globe maintain a competitive edge. For more information visit www.conexiom.com www.conexiom.com About Conexiom