E-commerce is the fastest-growing trend in equipment sales, with explosive growth in customer adoption and staggering sales numbers. For B2B distributor businesses specifically, ecommerce sales have grown by 11% year over year, bringing the total north of $700 billion in revenue. Still on the fence about getting into the digital game? Here’s why you can’t afford to miss out on selling online.
One in Five Sales Happen Online
Current estimates put online sales for 2021 at 19.6% of all retail sales worldwide, which is a huge leap from the 13.8% it accounted for in 2019. In monetary terms, e-commerce in the United States will reach nearly $901 billion—and you can’t afford to miss numbers that include three commas.
In the B2B space specifically, the same data projects online sales will reach $1.5 billion in 2021, a 12% increase from last year. Customers in the B2B space prefer to research their purchases ahead of time. Even in businesses where a fully online purchase process isn’t possible, vendors should focus on becoming ecommerce enabled. Buyers can independently gather all the information they need and then contact a sales representative when they’re ready to purchase.
Not only can moving online make more money, but it can also save you money — marketing, customer service, supplier outreach, and sales engagement can all be done digitally for less money and time. And offering your customers point-of-sale leasing for their equipment purchases spares everyone from enduring the glacial pace of traditional bank loans. Clicklease can seamlessly integrate leasing options into your online product pages for free, and we have reps available to troubleshoot questions and concerns.
Customers Expect an Optimized Experience
Because online retail is so pervasive, most customers coming to you for small business purchases are already accustomed to hyper-optimized B2C shopping. And yet, they find most of their business shopping excursions lackluster: B2B sellers score 15-35% lower on customer experiences than B2C sellers.
What are these dissatisfied customers seeking and failing to find with their vendors? The ability to research options, multi-platform access, responsive customer service, and flexible financing options might sound complicated, but they all boil down to one word: ease. Two-thirds of customers make purchase decisions based on ease. Customers want less hassle and more peace of mind in their purchases, and an online storefront solves several pain points.
One huge B2C perk that buyers love is payment flexibility — 87% of Millennial buyers prefer to finance large purchases with monthly payments. For years, they’ve used point-of-sale financing in their consumer shopping and want the same budgetary safety net for their large equipment purchases. Instead of waiting several weeks to get a manually underwritten bank loan, customers can get approved in minutes with Clicklease when they access it through your digital shop.
The Pandemic Changed the Way We Shop
Online shopping isn’t going anywhere, especially after COVID-19. The restrictions and lockdowns of 2020 permanently altered customer behavior, forcing customers to adjust their expectations and adapt to running their small businesses in a digital environment. And now that they’ve made the switch, they’re reluctant to go back to the old ways of doing business. Only 20% of B2B purchase makers want to return to in-person shopping when the pandemic eases — the rest now prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service. You’ll be missing out on 80% of your potential customers if you can’t offer them an e-commerce solution.
Ready to make the switch to e-commerce? Clicklease makes reaching customers online instant and easy. Let’s start talking today.
