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Jun 29, 2023 | 4 minute read
written by Abisola Adeyemo
Envision B2B is a conference hosted by Digital Commerce 360, a global leader in eCommerce research and media. The goal: tackling the most critical issues in B2B eCommerce today. The Elastic Path team was thrilled to attend in Chicago, where we connected with wonderful B2B customers, such as Konica Minolta, Illumina, JSSI, and Johnstone Supply, who were all in attendance and shared how we power composable solutions for B2B brands. We were proud to watch Elastic Path customers, Konica Minolta and Illumina, speak throughout the conference. At our booth we connected with many brands, gave tons of demos, and offered up some fun SWAG for folks to take home, including Yeti tumblers, Elastic Path socks, and stickers. I had the privilege of being on the showfloor and gaining insights from speaking sessions. In this blog, I’ll highlight our customer’s presence and some of my key learnings from the conference.
As mentioned before, our customer’s presence was very significant during the conference. Konica Minolta’s SVP of eCommerce Velinda Cox gave a riveting keynote speech that detailed the entire 150 year journey of Konica Minolta’s strategy from the Industrial Revolution to eCommerce. She emphasized how global market changes, especially during the pandemic, altered customer’s expectations and shifted the way they executed commerce.
Cox said the complexity of their catalog is why they chose a MACH-based solution like Elastic Path. They knew that the flexibility of our architecture is designed for speed and agility, making it easier to support changes down the line. For example, Konica Minolta went live with services and 3rd party products as their products were disrupted by supply chain issues. Then later on, they added their own products, by leveraging Elastic Path Product Experience Manager which helps merchandisers design and launch products quickly.
She also highlighted the significance of personalization for reducing customer acquisition costs and generating revenue and ROI. According to research from Mckinsey, customer acquisition costs decrease by as much as 50%, revenue goes up 5-15% and marketing ROI improves by 10 -30% with personalized customer experiences. In addition, 56% of consumers say they will become repeat buyers after a personalized experience. These findings, in addition to other research, are why evolving customer experiences was so important to Velinda and Konica Minolta holistically.
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Illumina’s Director of IT Ash Trasi presented during a panel discussion called “Why We Chose Headless.” Trasi gave insight into why they chose to partner with Elastic Path to transform their digital commerce journey. The primary reason being that it empowered them to create personalized customer experiences that tailor to their needs. In addition, he said they really valued the agility to make changes down the line with ease and speed.
Trasi shared that before using a headless solution, they tried to fit certain features within their existing platform but it was “brittle.” With Elastic Path, Illumina hasthe flexibility to launch experiences quickly and iterate without any constraints. He said implementing a headless solution earlier would have helped them avoid a lot of pain. Moving forward, they’re exploring whether generative AI is aligned with their digital strategy, along with the potential to sell software.
A prevalent theme throughout numerous sessions in the conference was on aligning business goals with customer needs and expectations.
There is a market shift in which D2C consumer experiences influence B2B buyers’ new behavior and preferences. B2B buyers are now moving toward digitally enabled selling and self-service B2B sales. This means brands must future-proof their B2B commerce strategy to meet customers where they buy. Similar to D2C shopping, 55% of B2B buyers have also done their pre-purchase research by the time they visit a seller.
In a session led by Joe Cicman of Forrester, I was able to learn more about this trend. A key takeaway for me was the top 3 things buyers care about are price, ease of search, and product information. This definitely resonates with what I heard from brands at the booth. In fact, many brands were to understand how we integrated with third parties, such as search and PIM, and how we enabled B2B product experiences with contracted pricing.
There were also discussions about the market opportunity within B2B commerce. Forrester research shows that US B2B eCommerce will reach $3T by 2027 and distributors will capture the lion’s share.
When it comes to B2B strategy, there was a big emphasis on understanding the buyer group since multiple people will influence a B2B decision. Practically, this looks like speaking with your customers, product marketers, and sales team and then ensuring internal alignment so everyone understands the holistic journey for your buyers.
Overally, myself and the Elastic Path team had a wonderful time at Envision B2B. From watching our customer shine, to catching up with old friends, to connecting with new brands, it was a wonderful week.