The business landscape and customer transactions are being altered dramatically by e-commerce. In the business-to-business portion of the market, it has become an even greater consideration since businesses increasingly transact online, automate customer interaction, and reshape supply chain management strategies with digital capabilities. Digital transformation is flowing to achieve higher efficiency and scale and is also expected to respond to the shifting expectations of B2B customers.
Gartner predicts that by 2025, digital channels will account for around 80% of B2B sales1 interactions between customers and suppliers. This shift emphasizes companies’ need to implement digital strategies to remain competitive in the constantly evolving market. HCL Commerce Cloud is an appropriate solution for the business and will be a worthwhile investment in growth and ROI. Let’s look at some developing trends in e-commerce and then delve into how HCL Commerce Cloud can put your B2B e-commerce ahead of the curve.
Global Trends in E-commerce
With massive changes in buyer behavior and increasing technology penetration, e-commerce is in a transitive phase, and it’s for the better. Here’s a look at the overall facts and trends around e-commerce and how they’re changing the landscape:
- Global Retail E-commerce on the Rise: The scope of e-commerce is ever-increasing. As per a Statista report, global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated $5.8 Trillion2 in 2023 and are expected to grow at 39% in this figure over the coming years. This figure is expected to surpass $8 trillion by 2027.
- E-commerce in the U.S.: The revenue in the e-commerce market in the United States is forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by a total of $657.8 Billion3 (+53.79%). After the tenth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach $1.9 trillion and therefore a new peak in 2029.
- Fastest Growing Online Retail Markets: Brazil and Argentina4 are leading the world’s fastest-growing online retail markets. This trend correlates with the constantly improving online access, especially in “mobile-first” online communities, which have long struggled with getting fixed broadband connections6, but enjoy the advantages of cheap mobile broadband connections.
- Experience over Loyalty: As per recent research on B2B e-commerce, 74%5 of the surveyed B2B buyers said they were willing to switch suppliers for a better B2B web store experience, while 87% believe that a bad buying experience impacts their relationship with the supplier to some extent, signifying the importance of a user-friendly web store in an organization’s e-commerce sales.
- Power of AI in E-commerce: Following the increasing focus on tailored user experiences, the scope of AI in e-commerce is increasing. Enterprises are using AI to craft personalized experiences through personalized product recommendations and intuitive cross-selling and upselling and increasing the efficiency of their marketing efforts.
The above trends are just a few in the ocean of many and underline the growing importance of e-commerce for enterprises, which must ensure their strategy is agile and user-oriented, to keep up with the latest trends. Buyers want more than just the product; they want ease of use, accuracy, and great experiences in their purchase.
Staying Ahead with HCL Commerce Cloud: B2B E-Commerce Solutions
HCL Commerce Cloud is an integrated and composable B2B e-commerce solution designed to elevate your e-commerce game. With its extensive suite of capabilities, you can effortlessly integrate new technologies, channels, and partners with unparalleled agility. Selecting the right e-commerce solution is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency and addressing unique B2B challenges. Here are some of the key features it offers:
Post-Order Management
HCL Commerce Cloud empowers businesses to manage the lifecycle of an order and create loyal customers even when everything doesn’t go smoothly.
- HCL Commerce Cloud enables customers and customer service representatives (CSRs) to swiftly and efficiently modify any aspect of an order. This allows customers the flexibility to modify their purchases without effort, increasing customer loyalty.
- Sometimes, things don’t go as planned, and customers encounter issues with their orders. HCL Commerce Cloud covers such situations by providing appeasements such as shipping discounts, product discounts, or personalized offers to keep customers happy.
- When a consumer wants to return a product, HCL Commerce Cloud makes it simple with its Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) feature. This confirms eligibility for returns (configurable at the product level) and initiates the return process seamlessly. You can track returns from start to finish, ensuring customers have a hassle-free experience.
Personalized Customer Experiences With Customer Data
Personalization in e-commerce and precision marketing allows brands to deliver timely and relevant promotions with complete control. This approach is essential for maintaining continuous customer engagement and fostering stronger relationships.
The composable AI module in HCL Commerce Cloud empowers businesses to sell more by tailoring personalized experiences using insights based on the customer’s preferences, behavior, and historical interactions and delivering timely, relevant communications and promotions.
B2B e-commerce practitioners use precision marketing capabilities to build, manage, and implement targeted marketing campaigns across direct and extended brand touchpoints based on customer behavior. It creates personalized product suggestions for each visitor based on their current session and previous browsing, shopping, and purchasing history.
Intelligent Search Capabilities
Intelligent search is being increasingly used to identify products and analyze user intent, preferences, and context. These systems combine AI, user data, and advanced algorithms to create a more personalized search experience. They can read complicated queries, rectify errors, and predict user needs based on browsing history.
Selecting the right e-commerce platform is crucial for launching a B2B online business. HCL Commerce Cloud has fully integrated search functionality to enhance the customer experience. It includes advanced features like automatic search term suggestions and spelling correction. Built on industry standards, it offers exceptional flexibility and extensibility, allowing for seamless customization and adaptation.
Innovative site search features provide you with complete control to:
- Add information to your search using your analytical tool
- Decide what shows when
- Add products to the search
- Manage zero results
- Color matchmake
- Visual merchandising
What Sets HCL Commerce Cloud Apart as an E-Commerce Solution?
Organizations are battling with a number of challenges from managing their supply chains, which have become increasingly complex, to making sense and integrating the different sales channels as well as delivering an end-to-end experience for customers. Businesses, which are plagued by legacy systems, high overheads and imperious modernisation needs in order to follow new market requirements.
HCL Commerce Cloud offers customers a more modern yet comprehensive and agile solution that eliminates siloed operations for high resiliency and improves customer experiences significantly while ensuring they grow profitably. It also supports custom pricing models to accommodate high-volume orders and provide personalized experiences for customers.
Comprehensive solution
HCL Commerce Cloud offers various capabilities for B2B, B2C and B2B2C organizations. It unleashes the full potential of commerce by rapidly integrating new technology, expanding into new channels, and collaborating with business partners. B2B e-commerce transactions, often involving a sales rep, require management of complex pricing and bulk orders, emphasizing the balancing act between self-service convenience and the need for personalized support. With this proven solution, you can stay ahead of the competition and surpass customer expectations.
Simplified Commerce Operations
Leverage HCL Commerce Cloud to streamline processes, reduce costs, and focus on strategic growth. It offers reliability, security, and flexibility, enhancing the customer experience while you focus on expanding the business.
Easy to Consume
Unlock revenue growth with HCL Commerce Cloud, which offers a predictable pricing model. Benefit from the flexibility to quickly adapt to market changes, swiftly pivot in response to disruptions, and meet evolving customer needs while achieving your business goals with exceptional agility.
HCL Commerce Cloud in Action
Augusta Sportswear Brands
One of the top sports apparel manufacturers in America, Augusta Sportswear Brands wanted to improve online sales with a single-point solution to orchestrate all brands. They chose HCL Commerce Cloud to build a new e-commerce platform. This made their checkout process easier and created a more intuitive purchase journey. Since the launch of the new design, their online visitors have increased by 4% and on-site sales have risen by 5%.
Indoexpert S.P.A
Indoexpert S.P.A., a logistic warehousing service provider in Europe, found it had scalability issues, and like many others who are not fully satisfied with their e-commerce platform performance or features, ran into a problem. They needed an online sales system that would allow them to handle high transaction volumes as well as provide personalized user experience. With the help of HCL Commerce Cloud, they were able to digitize its digital operations with improved flexibility and speed;as a result, their online performance increased by five times, enhancing customer engagement. This also resulted in faster operations, allowing them to adapt to the market and improve revenue.
Fueling Success with HCL Commerce Cloud
Adopting advanced e-commerce solutions offers significant long-term advantages for B2B organizations. By streamlining processes and providing scalable features, businesses can maintain competitiveness, meet customer expectations, and drive sustained growth. HCL Commerce Cloud delivers more innovation in less time to unlock growth, helps achieve higher ROI and accelerates performance.
Ready to discover how these benefits can transform your business? Schedule a B2B Commerce demo to explore the marketplace capabilities firsthand.
