B2B as self-service

A new era in B2B commerce is upon us, marked by heightened expectations for smooth and enjoyable purchasing experiences. This shift is largely influenced by millennials, who are progressively taking on decision-making roles within B2B organizations.

According to Forrester, it’s anticipated that by 2025, 70% of B2B buyers will be millennials. Having grown accustomed to the efficiency and constant availability of online shopping, they are set to drive significant changes in B2B practices.

One of the most notable transformations in the industry is the emphasis on self-service experiences for B2B buyers. Creating intuitive and streamlined self-service storefronts is essential for engaging this emerging generation, as their prior shopping experiences have established this expectation as a baseline requirement.

In this blog, we will explore the reasons why buyers favor self-service options, the advantages these options offer to businesses, and how you can implement a self-service strategy starting today.

B2B buyers prefer self-service

B2B buyers are increasingly favoring self-service options. According to Gartner, 83% of buyers prefer managing their orders and accounts online, and this trend is growing. Even more striking, 100% of buyers want to have the option to self-serve during all or part of their purchasing journey, with 83% favoring digital self-service channels over interacting with sales representatives.

Understanding millennials helps clarify these preferences. This generation grew up with the internet, enjoying its early, open landscape before it transformed into a realm of walled gardens and constant login requirements. They’ve observed the internet’s progression into a highly optimized, user experience-driven, globally connected platform, which has shaped their expectations.

Additionally, millennials are an independent and practical generation, now fully engaged in their careers, families, and personal aspirations. They often lack the time or patience for outdated, cumbersome processes amid a sea of competing media.

Self-service offers two key advantages: it gives buyers more control and free time, while also driving increased sales and customer loyalty for businesses.

Self-service is a valuable asset for B2B businesses, yet many have yet to fully capitalize on its potential, often due to reliance on outdated platforms. Here are some of the primary benefits that self-service can bring to your organization:

Empower Sales Teams

While it may seem counterintuitive, self-service actually enhances the effectiveness of your sales representatives. It transforms their roles into more strategic positions that align better with buyers’ journeys. Although many buyers prefer to handle parts of their purchasing process independently, sales reps still play a crucial role.

This blended approach, combining self-service with occasional personal interaction, allows sales teams to dedicate more time to individual buyers, fostering authentic connections that millennials appreciate. Additionally, platforms like Shopify equip sales reps with essential tools, such as easy reordering and real-time access to product, pricing, customer, and order information. This enables them to engage with buyers at the right moment, ultimately helping to close deals more effectively.

Enhance Customer Retention
While self-service empowers sales teams, it also places greater control in the hands of your buyers, allowing them to manage their accounts, place orders, easily reorder shipments, and access support at their convenience. This increased autonomy leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty among customers.

With the right platform, businesses can provide faster response times and more consistent service experiences, ultimately fostering trust with their clients.

Another crucial element of self-service is personalization. Delivering personalized experiences has always been a cornerstone of exceptional customer service. With an advanced self-service portal, you can customize interactions to address the specific needs of your buyers, making the overall purchasing journey feel more relevant and efficient.

Improve Customer Data Collection

All successful commerce experiences rely on data and insights, and self-service significantly enhances your ability to collect this information. Access to better data leads to deeper insights into customer behaviors and preferences, enabling you to refine your services, anticipate needs, and identify areas where additional support may be required.

When utilizing a platform like Shopify for your self-service experience, you can seamlessly integrate other tools such as CRM, WMS, and ERP systems. This connectivity not only allows for more accurate and comprehensive insights but also streamlines your entire tech stack for improved efficiency.

Reduce Operational Costs
Self-service can significantly help your business lower operational costs. By minimizing the necessity for direct customer service interactions, a self-service experience enhances efficiency, simplifying everything from order placement to issue resolution. This means your staff spends less time and resources on each interaction, allowing you to manage more customers at a lower cost.

Additionally, with a more intuitive process in place, your support and sales teams won’t be overwhelmed by questions that the platform can address. Instead, they can redirect their efforts toward strategic initiatives that positively influence your business’s bottom line.

How to Implement B2B Self-Service

Implementing B2B self-service in your business can be approached in various ways, but here’s a simple and effective strategy to get you started. Here are a few key steps:

1. Invest in an Innovative Platform With the rise of self-service in B2B, it’s clear that customer needs and expectations are continuously evolving. To stay ahead, it’s crucial to invest in a commerce platform that anticipates these changes and builds solutions accordingly.
   
2. Focus on User-Friendliness As noted previously, millennials are often short on time and tend to avoid outdated experiences. To keep them engaged, it’s crucial to design a buying experience that is straightforward and intuitive. Self-service solutions are key in this regard, empowering customers to manage as much as possible through an easy-to-navigate interface. This not only simplifies the purchasing process for buyers but also saves your back-office team significant time. A user-friendly self-service interface enables any team member to quickly understand your commerce system and workflows, minimizing the need for specialized staff and the extensive training often required.
   
   

3. Customize Wholesale Buying Experiences In the current B2B landscape, customers hail from various global markets and channels, making it vital to provide tailored experiences for effective self-service interactions. While this task may seem overwhelming, platforms like Shopify streamline the personalization process. You can ensure that each buyer receives the correct pricing, currency, and payment and shipping options, equipping them with the necessary information throughout their purchasing journey. Furthermore, Shopify facilitates easy customization of pricing and product availability through its admin interface or custom APIs, making it accessible for all customers.
   
   

4. Tailor Storefronts Since millennials are accustomed to personalized shopping experiences, it’s essential to ensure your self-service platform meets their expectations. By leveraging the data you gather, you can provide customized product recommendations and promotions, as well as enhance your overall marketing and sales efforts. Another way to enhance the personal feel of your storefront is by developing tailored content, such as customized banner messages, blog sections, or promotional alerts that cater to your customers’ specific needs, industries, or geographical areas. This approach helps create a stronger connection with your customers and makes them feel more welcomed, encouraging repeat visits to your site.

Conclusion

We are witnessing a transformative shift in B2B commerce, driven by rising expectations for seamless and enjoyable purchasing experiences. This evolution is significantly influenced by millennials, who are increasingly taking on decision-making roles within B2B organizations. As Forrester projects, by 2025, 70% of B2B buyers will be millennials, a generation accustomed to the efficiency and convenience of online shopping, poised to reshape B2B practices.

A key aspect of this transformation is the growing emphasis on self-service experiences, which are crucial for engaging this new generation of buyers. The expectation for intuitive and streamlined self-service storefronts has become a baseline requirement, reflecting the shopping experiences they’ve come to expect.

In this blog, we have examined the reasons behind buyers’ preference for self-service options, the benefits these options provide for businesses, and practical steps for implementing a self-service strategy. The ability of B2B buyers to self-serve empowers them, enhances customer retention, improves data collection, and reduces operational costs.

To capitalize on the opportunities presented by self-service, B2B businesses should invest in innovative platforms like Shopify, prioritize user-friendliness, customize wholesale buying experiences, and personalize storefronts. By doing so, businesses can align their strategies with the evolving needs of their customers, ensuring long-term success in the new era of B2B commerce.

Related blogs

Navigating B2B Growth and Strategies to Stay Ahead in a Competitive Market

The 11 Leading Benefits of B2B Ecommerce (2025)

If you have questions or need assistance executing these strategies, our team is available at hello@tidalcommerce.ca.

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B2B as B2C

In the world of business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce, there’s much to be enthusiastic about. This channel offers a scalable and cost-effective means to enhance profitability and elevate your brand’s visibility. With B2B ecommerce experiencing rapid growth in recent years, forecasts indicate this upward trend will persist well into the 2030s.

It’s no wonder that many business-to-consumer (B2C) companies are eager to explore the opportunities within B2B ecommerce. For numerous organizations, this transition can be both promising and lucrative. However, ecommerce leaders must recognize that simply adopting B2C strategies for B2B contexts won’t guarantee success.

The B2B customer journey is inherently different from the B2C experience. While B2C businesses cater to a broad consumer audience, B2B firms focus on a more niche, industry-specific clientele. Additionally, the B2B purchasing process tends to be longer and more intricate, often involving multiple decision-makers rather than a single consumer making a quick choice on their mobile device.

The Evolution of B2B Customer Journeys in 2024

In 2024, B2B customer journeys are becoming increasingly intricate, reflecting a shift in expectations as business users seek experiences comparable to those offered by B2C brands. This change is primarily driven by millennials, who now constitute the majority of B2B decision-makers, according to research from The B2B Institute and LinkedIn.

As digital natives, millennials are accustomed to cloud-based software and collaborative tools, which have significantly shaped their expectations for B2B products and services. They demand streamlined self-service transactions, allowing them to choose a plan, complete payment, set up an account, and proceed without needing to interact with sales representatives. In fact, a Gartner study reveals that 44% of millennials prefer to avoid engaging with sales reps for B2B purchases.

The influx of innovative digital products, AI-powered tools, and new brand concepts has further transformed their experience, aligning more closely with consumer-oriented services like Uber and Airbnb. To meet these expectations, B2B companies such as Basecamp, Stripe, and Slack have adopted marketing strategies that emulate popular lifestyle apps, focusing on visually appealing aesthetics and an emphasis on user experience.

The landscape of post-sale interactions is also evolving. With the growing prevalence of “everything-as-a-service” models like SaaS, businesses face the challenge of encouraging customers to renew their subscriptions, whether monthly or annually. This shift highlights the importance of engaging customers continually throughout the service and loyalty phases, necessitating robust customer retention strategies.

Moreover, the traditional methods of B2B sales, characterized by phone calls and face-to-face meetings, are dwindling. Gartner forecasts that by 2025, % of 80 B2B sales interactions will occur through digital channels, which means buyers will increasingly navigate the early to mid-stages of their purchasing journey independently.

To cater to these modern buyers, it’s essential to understand their preferences: over 70% of today’s B2B buyers are millennials who expect fast, seamless experiences akin to their B2C shopping encounters. They appreciate engaging call-to-action prompts and immersive visuals, but what truly resonates with them are features that adapt to their business’s unique needs and preferences.

Transform Your B2B Sales Process Using Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping is a valuable tool for gaining insights into the behaviors and preferences of modern B2B decision-makers. Just as a product roadmap lays out your strategy for product development, customer journey mapping provides a structured approach to navigating each phase of the customer lifecycle.

Understanding Customer Journey Mapping

Customer journey mapping is a technique that outlines the steps a customer takes while interacting with a business, represented visually. This mapping process enables organizations to comprehend the buyer’s experience during the purchasing journey and how prospects evolve into customers.

Creating a customer journey map allows businesses to pinpoint pain points and areas for enhancing the customer experience. It provides valuable insights into customers’ needs, behaviors, and motivations, which can lead to improved marketing strategies, higher customer retention, and increased satisfaction.  

Steps to Create a Customer Journey Map

Define Buyer Personas and Identify Touchpoints: Begin by establishing buyer personas that detail your target audience’s goals, behaviors, and motivations. This understanding helps tailor solutions to meet their needs effectively.

Conduct Research: Use surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather insights directly from customers.

Map Customer Journey Stages: Outline the various stages of the customer journey, analyzing potential pain points and behaviors along the way.

Set Clear Objectives: Determine your goals for the journey mapping process. This could involve improving the buying experience or launching a new product, helping to keep the project focused.

Build a Customer Backstory: Collaborate with your team to create a backstory for your target persona, identifying their reasons for engaging in this journey. Gather and categorize their pain points and requirements.

Map Thoughts and Feelings: As you visualize the journey, document the customer’s actions, questions, and decisions at each step. Highlight the channels used for interactions, which may include websites, emails, or social media.

Identify Pain Points: Review the journey map to highlight areas of frustration or obstacles that customers may encounter. Discuss the significance of each pain point to understand its potential impact.

Chart a Sentiment Line: Optionally, plot the emotional journey of your persona to observe fluctuations in their feelings throughout the process.

Analyze the Big Picture: Take a step back to assess trends and patterns in the customer experience, identifying areas for improvement and potential opportunities to simplify processes.

Validate Your Findings: After mapping, it’s crucial to return to your customers for validation to ensure the accuracy of your insights. If necessary, be open to revisiting and refining your journey map.

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Conducting a Customer Journey Analysis to Boost Sales

After identifying key customer segments and potential action plans, the next step is to engage in data analytics. Here’s how to begin:

Collect Data:

• Utilize heat maps, Google Analytics, and other resources to gather insights.
• Employ data-driven methods to better understand customer behavior and interaction trends.
• Heat maps and Google Analytics can reveal important information regarding user demographics, effective lead generation channels, and frequently visited pages.
  
  

Gather Customer Feedback:

• Analyzing customer reviews provides valuable insights into the buying journey, helping to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement.
• Conducting user surveys can yield feedback on specific touchpoints in the customer journey.
• In-depth client interviews can uncover their motivations, emotions, and challenges related to your product or service. For instance, you might discover that your newsletter has been effective in converting high-value customers, or that introducing specific offers could encourage more frequent purchases.
  
  

Examine Customer Behavior and Pain Points:

• Identify bottlenecks in the customer journey that create challenges or frustrations. Consider developing an omnichannel strategy to ensure all channels collaborate effectively for a seamless customer experience.
  
  

Be mindful of common pain points in the B2B customer experience, such as:

• Sales processes lacking direct seller involvement
• Complicated buying procedures
• Insufficient engaging and accessible content
• Trust issues between businesses
• Difficulties with order fulfillment and tracking
• Ambiguous product and pricing information
  
  

Measure and Enhance the Customer Journey:

• With feedback and data collected, it’s time to implement changes. This is an ongoing process—keep the following in mind:
• Monitor and analyze the progress of the customer journey.
• Track specific metrics aligned with your business goals at each journey stage, focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) for B2B ecommerce.
• Use data to identify drop-off points for potential customers and areas for improvement. For example, if you see high rates of abandoned carts, investigate site lag and other potential checkout friction.
  
  

Leverage Customer Feedback for Improvement:

• Gathering customer feedback helps you understand experiences with your brand across various touchpoints.
• Use this feedback to identify challenges faced by leads and address their concerns.

Continuously Improve the Customer Journey through Data Analysis:

• Keep collecting feedback from new customers to identify additional changes needed.
• Regularly review analytics to find areas where customers tend to exit the sales funnel.

To thrive in the evolving B2B ecommerce landscape, businesses must adapt to the unique needs of modern buyers, particularly millennials who favor seamless, self-service experiences. By utilizing customer journey mapping and data analytics, companies can identify pain points and enhance engagement. Embracing personalized strategies and innovative ecommerce solutions will improve customer satisfaction and drive growth in this competitive environment.

Related blogs

Navigating B2B Growth and Strategies to Stay Ahead in a Competitive Market

The 11 Leading Benefits of B2B Ecommerce (2025)

If you have questions or need assistance executing these strategies, our team is available at hello@tidalcommerce.ca.

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In the digital era, shifting from in-store to online sales is no longer a trend but a necessity. With eCommerce sales projected to hit $8 trillion by 2027, businesses that fail to adopt eCommerce risk being left behind. Integrating Shopify and Zuora offers a robust solution for optimizing operations, scaling the business, enhancing efficiency, and improving customer experience. As the digital marketplace is where the future lies, companies must adapt to evolving consumer preferences through strategic eCommerce development.

Ecommerce tools for success: Adapting to consumer preferences in the digital age

The global shift towards online shopping isn’t just about convenience—it’s about meeting consumers where they are. A staggering 56.6% of consumers now prefer to shop online, and this number is only expected to grow. Online shopping appeals to 18.3% of shoppers due to 24/7 availability, home convenience, and access to discount codes. As the digital marketplace grows to 2.71 billion online shoppers by 2024, businesses must embrace eCommerce development to scale.

However, the transition to online stores isn’t without challenges. Customers expect seamless experiences, secure transactions, and timely deliveries. They also demand flexible subscription options for products and services, which can be complex to manage without the right ecommerce tools. This is where platforms like Shopify, Zuora and Tidal Commerce come into play, offering essential solutions for eCommerce development.

Pain points in eCommerce development and how Shopify and Zuora address them

Online shopping can be convenient, but it can also lead to frustration and disappointment for consumers. Designing and planning an online store requires strategic thinking. Some common problems that can make online shopping difficult are:

• Security Concerns: Fraudulent transactions and data breaches can erode trust and damage a brand’s reputation. Recent studies show that customers prefer websites that prioritize security. Robust protection in eCommerce development is crucial for effectively attracting and retaining customers.
  
  
• Complex Checkout Processes: A complicated checkout causes 70% of shoppers to abandon their carts, often due to complex procedures that disrupt the purchase process. Retailers who have streamlined their checkout processes have seen a 28.5% increase in customer spending.
  
  
• Inflexible Subscription Management: For subscription-based businesses, providing value and meeting customer needs are vital to maintaining retention. McKinsey research found that value for price is key to subscription sign-ups, while limited options or inflexible pricing often cause cancellations. Managing recurring payments, upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations can become overwhelming without the right ecommerce tools and infrastructure. Adapting to customer needs is critical to maintaining a solid subscription base and achieving business success.
  
  
• Global Expansion Challenges: As businesses grow internationally, they encounter new complexities, such as currency conversion, tax compliance, and language barriers. Expanding internationally needs a platform capable of handling these diverse requirements effectively and an eCommerce consulting partner to address your business’s unique needs.
  
  

Shopify and Zuora, eCommerce tools, when integrated, provide a comprehensive solution to these challenges with their user-friendly interface and robust eCommerce features.

Shopify allows businesses to set up and manage their online stores effortlessly. With over 5.6 million merchants on Shopify, it’s clear that this platform has become a go-to solution for companies looking to establish a robust online presence.

Zuora, on the other hand, is a leader in subscription management. It offers tools designed to automate billing, manage subscriptions, and optimize revenue streams. By integrating Shopify with Zuora, businesses can provide flexible subscription models, handle complex billing scenarios, and ensure a smooth customer experience. Through its team of experts, Tidal Commerce offers eCommerce website development services to assist with consulting, building, and seamlessly migrating your site.

Success through eCommerce tools: How MarketWise, Ubisoft, and rest thrived with Shopify and Zuora

The power of the Shopify-Zuora integration is evident in the success stories of companies like MarketWise, Ubisoft, and Rest.

• MarketWise, a leading multi-brand platform of subscription businesses, turned to Zuora to enhance its fraud protection measures. The results were impressive: a 37% reduction in disputes and chargebacks and nearly 2,000 fraudulent payment attempts blocked within just 30 days. By leveraging Zuora’s fraud protection capabilities, MarketWise safeguarded its revenue and maintained trust with its subscribers.
  
  
• Ubisoft, a global video game publisher, faced significant challenges in scaling its subscription services. As their business expanded, they needed a partner that could support international growth, manage peak volume surges, and handle complex financial requirements across multiple countries. Zuora proved to be the ideal solution, enabling Ubisoft to automate billing, manage payments, and navigate subscriber volume increases of up to 200%. With Zuora, Ubisoft focused on delivering top-notch gaming experiences without being bogged down by operational complexities.
  
  
• Rest, a bedding brand, demonstrated the value of adopting online sales and strategic eCommerce development by surpassing $30 million in annual sales within two years. By using the company, increase its average order value by 10%, expand internationally, and target niche markets. Shopify enabled Rest to optimize inventory, order management, and customer experience, fueling significant growth.

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Scaling your business: How Shopify and Zuora revolutionize eCommerce development

For businesses looking to scale or transition to online sales, the integration of Shopify and Zuora offers a powerful combination of ecommerce tools to drive growth. Shopify’s ease of use and vast ecosystem of apps allow businesses to customize their online stores to meet specific needs. Meanwhile, Zuora’s advanced subscription management capabilities ensure that companies can offer flexible pricing models, manage complex billing scenarios, and maintain a healthy payments ecosystem.

Zorua’s ability to support international expansion, handle currency conversions, and manage tax compliance across multiple regions makes it an invaluable partner for businesses with global ambitions. Whether you’re a startup business owner looking to grow or an established company seeking to optimize your operations, the Shopify-Zuora integration can help you achieve your goals.

Tidal Commerce—Your eCommerce website development partner

Integrating Shopify and Zuora for eCommerce development requires partnering with experts who understand the complexities of the digital landscape. Tidal Commerce delivers flexible and scalable solutions through cutting-edge headless and composable technologies. As a trusted Shopify Plus partner, we drive measurable business results, ensuring that your eCommerce development investment leads to tangible outcomes.

Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C space, we have the expertise to address your unique needs. Let’s work together to build a robust, efficient, and customer-centric online store that positions your brand for long-term success.

Related blogs

Navigating B2B Growth and Strategies to Stay Ahead in a Competitive Market

The 11 Leading Benefits of B2B Ecommerce (2025)

If you have questions or need assistance executing these strategies, our team is available at hello@tidalcommerce.ca.