Flexible eCommerce Payment Terms Help to Convert B2B Customers

This executive conversation with Credit Key Chief Revenue Officer, Eric Allen was originally published in the DigitalCommerce360 B2B Customer Conversion Secrets Report from May 2022. You can see this article and the entire report here. 

B2B companies today are looking for better ways to serve their customers, and that often means moving away from the traditional B2B selling model. Many are implementing digital commerce capabilities to make B2B shopping more like a B2C experience. To discuss how offering B2B buyers flexible payment options at checkout helps B2B companies better serve customers and boost conversions, Digital Commerce 360 spoke with Eric Allen, Chief Revenue Officer at Credit Key. 

What are some unique insights B2B companies should know that impact conversions?

Allen: In B2C, roughly 50% of U.S. consumers and 75% of millennials won’t complete a purchase if a retailer doesn’t offer pay-over-time at checkout, according to Affirm. The same is true for small-business buyers. Analysis on our own business customers found that more than 35% of them have used consumer pay-over-time solutions. So, it’s no surprise that Reach Envision found that 90% of small business buyers rank a variety of payment options as an important need when purchasing. 

What are the biggest challenges B2B companies face when trying to boost conversions?

Allen: Using their offline processes online. If customers need to talk to sales, fill out a lengthy credit application to make a purchase, there’s a good chance they won’t convert. To increase conversion rates, the goal should be to find out what your customers need. 

What strategies and technologies work best for increasing conversion rates?

Allen: The reason why Amazon Business and our top clients outperform their peers is that they make it easy to shop. Let your customers find the products they need, at a good price with flexible payment terms and deliver on time. It’s just that simple. The goal should be to transfer the B2B sales process to mimic the speed and feel of B2C. 

I’d bet that less than 10% of B2B sellers actually talk to their customers. Start with your customers first, and work backward from there. They’ll tell you what they prioritize, whether thats better products selection on your site, a quicker checkout, or web chat. 

What should B2B businesses do now to improve conversions?

Allen: if you haven’t done customer feedback sessions, do them. Start with 50 customers and categorize the responses - is it a people, product, or process issue?

Maybe you don’t have the products they want. Maybe they don’t like having to call to place an order. Maybe your shipping isn’t as reliable as you think. 

Companies spend a tremendous amount of money on the latest technology with the hope of improving conversions, but these decisions are made without any input from the customer. One thing we’ve seen time and time again is that no two companies’ customers are ever the same.

Two companies might both be mid-size distributors and they might both be in the tool industry, but their end customers are vastly different. So why should the things they do to improve conversions be the same? 

Hint: they shouldn’t. 

Get all the insights from the B2B Customer Conversion Secrets Report at digitalcommerce360.com and be sure to visit Credit Key at Booth #207 during EnvisionB2B June 8-10 in Chicago!