2010 B2B e-Commerce Trends

During this past tax day many restaurants offered freebies like free samples and discounts to promote new products and attract customers as the industry starts to recover from the most challenging period of economic downturn. While I couldn’t find any manufacturer or distributor doing the same, I did find lots of evidence that manufacturers, distributors, and other B2B industries are focusing on e-commerce strategies to position for the economic upturn.

According to the Managing Automation’s recent article on Internet Is Engine of Manufacturers’ Growth, Study Says,

“The industrial manufacturing sector is leading the U.S. economy out of the recession on the strength of a number of key growth strategies … selling into new industries, innovating to develop new products and services, and leveraging the Internet to pick up the pace of business are the top growth drivers. Of the 1,176 respondents to the survey, 71% said their online strategy would be important or critical. The Internet, it turns out, has taken center stage in this recovery.”

In another study by BtoB Magazine on 2010 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans,

“…within online marketing, the top areas that will see spending increases include Web site development (70.7% plan increases), e-mail marketing (68.6%), search marketing (62.3%), social media (60.3%)”

Finally, AMR International study on “Online B2B Marketing in the United States: Assessment and Forecast to 2010” reports an increasing focus on online channel (compared to offline) for lead generation and customer retention.

All the above studies and statistics are pointing towards an essential shift to the online channel. To facilitate this shift the B2B companies need to embrace the following five B2B e-commerce trends:

Interestingly, the recent Forrester report Trends 2010: eCommerce Platform and Technology discussed three trends and one of which is around B2B eCommerce,

“business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce will emerge as a growing and critical component of the overall sales landscape. eBusiness leaders will turn to their eCommerce solution providers to help them maximize these opportunities and drive their customer experience and businesses forward”.

Definitely there is a lot of data and agreement on the importance of B2B e-commerce. May be 2010 will be the new inflection point for B2B e-commerce. What are your thoughts?

Note: The above posting is my own and don’t necessarily represent positions, strategies or opinions of IBM or other companies