B2Bs are flocking to omni-channel in the search for digital growth. It’s little surprise considering 90% of consumers want an omni-channel experience, and omni-channel customers spend 10% more online than their single-channel counterparts.
B2Bs of the past tended to focus on a single channel. This channel was usually direct sales (with or without a lackluster attempt at B2B eCommerce on the side). But today’s B2Bs are hungry to cover all the bases, which means capitalizing on every channel, model, and opportunity, including omni-channel B2B2C sales (B2B2C.)
Keep reading to find out:
- Why omni-channel B2B2C sales is such a lucrative model.
- Whether B2B2C is right for your business.
- Which software solution you should implement to put omni-channel B2B2C sales into action.
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What is Omni-channel B2B2C Sales?
Multi-Channel Vs. Omni-Channel?
Before diving into B2B2C, let’s take a quick look at multi-channel sales and its integrated cousin, omni-channel sales.
Multi-channel sales is the process of selling your products across multiple channels. For today’s B2Bs, these sales channels might include sales reps, distributor networks, marketplaces, B2B eCommerce, AI chatbots, mobile apps, call centers, social, and more.
By opening up new channels, B2Bs can reach more customers more quickly. They can interact with buyers any time, any place, through any device. They can provide the convenience and flexibility that today’s B2B buyer has come to expect.
But problems arise when channels become silos – separate entities that operate independently from one another. Today’s B2B buyer wants to interact with sellers across multiple channels, often in a single transaction, and a lack of integration leads to a frustratingly disjointed experience. Cue omni-channel.
Omni-channel is a multi-channel framework centered around the customer. Omni-channel sales and marketing software creates a friction-free experience for customers, wherever they begin or end their buyer’s journey (and however many touchpoints they interact with along the way.)
How do B2Bs achieve such a level of cross-channel consistency? They do it with omni-channel software and integrated back-office solutions, both of which are discussed later.
What is B2B2C?
B2B2C is a hybrid of the traditional B2C and B2B sales models. Often poorly understood and undoubtedly underutilized, it has the potential to deliver large swathes of new customers for a remarkably low CPA.
In the most basic terms, B2B2C involves three parties: the B2B (manufacturer), the B2C (retailer), and the end-customer. Under an ordinary channel partnership, B2B manufacturers white label products and sell them to a B2C. The B2C then brands these products and sells them on to the end-customer for a profit. So far, so obvious.
But in this omni-channel world, full of opportunities to reach customers in new and exciting ways, some manufacturers have become dissatisfied with the standard channel partnership arrangement. Why? (1) They want to build awareness of their own brand, and (2) they want to collect precious customer data generated from sales of their products.
With more customer data, manufacturers can:
Launch new products faster and more successfully- Personalize their marketing efforts
- Drive customer satisfaction and retention
- Identify new customer segments
- Build brand awareness
- Profit from selling data to third-parties
- Capitalize on direct-to-consumer sales (maximizing their margin)
In a nutshell, with B2B2C, manufacturers can:
- Sell through rather than to retailers, acquiring new customers in bulk
- Build their own brand
- Collect more customer data
The best way to illustrate this sounds-too-good-to-be-true model is with an example.
The Pros and Cons of B2B2C
There’s no doubt B2B2C is excellent for customers. They get even more choice and convenience over when and where they can buy. But for the B2B and the B2C, some risks have to be weighed against the upsides. Here’s a summary of the pros and cons:
With B2B2C, the B2B gains:
Access to new customers- Higher sales
- Economies of scale
- Greater brand awareness
- More customer data
With B2B2C, the B2C gains:
- A share of the profit with minimal outlay
- More product choice for customers
- Differentiation from competitors
- Higher sales of complementary goods
With B2B2C, the B2B risks:
- The Potential loss of profit from B2C sales
- Control over how their products are bought and sold
- Control over how their brand is represented
With B2B2C, the B2C risks:
- The potential loss of profit from white-label sales. (Ultimately, B2B2C works best when the B2C has no interest in ever selling what the B2B is manufacturing.)
- Sales and support issues and costs
- Damage to their brand image if the B2B fails to deliver on its promises
Some more (totally different) omni-channel B2B2C solutions
Alex Rampell, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, identifies three more, serving to demonstrate the breadth of opportunity here. In each case, the supplier sells through rather than to the retailer, interacting with customers under their own brand.
1. Affirm: “Pay at your own pace.”
Financial technology services company, Affirm, provides “buy now pay later” installment loans to consumers at the point of sale. Customers can go to the Affirm website, where they’ll find a wide range of desirable products for sale, but to purchase, they have to click through to the suppliers’ website. The customer selects Affirm as their payment method and secures a loan instantly.
2. Instacart: “Grocery delivery you can count on.”
Instacart is a grocery delivery and pick-up service that operates across the United States and Canada. Customers go to the Instacart website, where they can order from a local grocery store. Instacart serves as the intermediary.
3. OpenTable: “Find your table for any occasion.”
Diners wanting to book a table at their favorite restaurant can book on the OpenTable website rather than through the restaurant itself. By booking with OpenTable, they get reviews, recommendations, and a streamlined, reliable customer experience.
B2B2C Integration is vital
If there’s one thing that should be clear by now, it’s that B2B2C arrangements come in all shapes and sizes – there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. However, the beauty of omni-channel is that you can leverage multiple B2B2C arrangements simultaneously and incorporate them seamlessly into your broader omni-channel strategy.
Integration lies at the heart of every successful omni-channel business. With B2B2C, it’s even more vital: Not only do your back office system and processes have to integrate, but they have to integrate with your B2B2C partners’ systems too.
A lack of integration can bring your entire omni-channel infrastructure crashing down. Duplicate orders, inventory shortages, and communication challenges can make it more hassle than it’s worth. But if your ERP, CRM, CMS, CPQ, and eCommerce platform are integrated and connected via APIs, then you can add and remove B2B2C channels with relative ease.
Is there an omni-channel B2B2C Salesforce solution?
For manufacturers of complex, customizable products hoping to leverage B2B2C, KBMax is the ideal solution. With KBMax, you can centralize sales reps, distributors, end-customers, and future B2B2C partners around a visual product configurator and a shared set of product and pricing rules. Users can configure products in 3D with the visual product configurator by clicking, dragging, and dropping around an intuitive 3D interface.
You can position devices running your visual product configurator inside physical stores, boosting sales and brand awareness. And thanks to its integrated CPQ (configure, price, quote) capabilities, you can connect KBMax to all major business systems, including Oracle and SAP, as well as CAD software like Solidworks (for design automation.)
For the 100,000+ Salesforce customers, KBMax connects effortlessly to Salesforce CRM and augments Salesforce CPQ. With KBMax, Salesforce users can manage their B2B2C leads in Sales Cloud and supercharge CPQ with 3D visual product configuration, advanced product rules, and CAD and design automation, all of which are lacking in Salesforce’s standard offering.
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