5 Ways To Increase B2B Conversions In WooCommerce

by | Dec 6, 2018 | General

Distracted Buyers

Customers live in a world of digital distractions and the last place you want your customers to be distracted is during checkout. Consumer eCommerce has taught the B2B (business-to-business) world a lot about what a distraction free, conversion friendly checkout looks like: we should reference these lessons for best practices. Due to its ubiquity, your wholesale buyers are conditioned to expect a comparable level of service to what  they experience on Amazon in your B2B store. Tactics like 30 day terms, free shipping, and bulk discounts are some of the techniques referenced in this articles but we’ve compiled a few extra that you won’t find on Amazon. Take a look at the 5 creative ways to reduce wholesale WooCommerce shopping cart abandonment, increase conversions, and grow your bottom line.Offer flexible net terms directly in your checkout

1. Offer Flexible Net Terms Directly In Your Checkout

B2B wholesale orders on average are three times more valuable than B2C transactions. As a wholesaler, ensuring large orders don’t negatively impact your customers cash-flow is critical: steady cash-flow and consistent inventory turns increases buyer order volume and order frequency. When you offer net 30 terms, you give customers 30 days to pay their invoice, minimizing the impact that purchasing inventory has on their cash-flow. Exposing terms as a payment method in your checkout is the easiest way to give your customers access to net terms, and increase sales. Gateways like Rumbleship give you guaranteed payment on your sales, eliminating the risk of late and non-payment. Approximately 8% of order abandonments occur due to lack of accepted payment methods. For less than a credit card processor, give your customers more ways to pay with flexible net terms and enjoy the benefits: growing sales, increasing conversions, and reducing cart abandonment.

2. Have a dedicated wholesale store

Many merchants start their wholesale business by distributing coupons to buyers to use in their  consumer store at checkout. Not only does this introduce a host of issues in your backend, including fraud, but it devalues your brand. Give your valuable B2B customers  a dedicated wholesale store, which will add legitimacy and professionalism to your brand by improving their buying experience. Coupons are a patch and only provide a discount, causing problems with order minimums and free shipping triggers. Remember, your wholesale customers will on average spend three times as much as your B2C consumers and they deserve a store where you can provide wholesale-specific information directly to them. Having a dedicated wholesale store also helps protect you from fraudulent orders by removing coupon abuse from the equation. Generating and distributing coupons requires extra work on your part to maintain, if just  coupon falls into consumer hands, your brand could be be materially harmed.

A dedicated wholesale store should house specific packages designed specifically for retailers and distributors. A consumer would not want to order an entire palette of your product, but your distributors will. Special pricing for large quantities should be clearly advertised. We’ll go more in depth on pricing strategy in the last topic. If you need a little inspiration on what an effective B2B WooCommerce store looks like check this out.

3. Line sheet ordering & layout designed for B2B

Giving your customer an easy ordering process is key to improving conversions. The more easily a customer can find new products and reorder what they need, the more frequently they’ll finish placing the order they’ve come to place. This means giving wholesale customers the ability to order both via a detailed (grid) view and via line-sheets. New customers will enjoy the grid view, complete with product pictures that help them find what they came for and explore both the depth and breadth of your inventory. Return customers will appreciate the speed and ease of line-sheet ordering, which enables them to quickly find and order exactly what they need in the fewest number of clicks. The more products you offer, the more important setting up line-sheet ordering becomes: scrolling through pages of product that each only contain 20 items will dramatically increase the amount of time it takes for them to fill their shopping cart, lowering the chance of them finishing their order.

4. Free Shipping

Free shipping is such an ingrained expectation for B2C shopping that your wholesale customers have been conditioned to expect it. Giving your buyers free shipping can give your sales an instant 10% boost and can increase your conversions by 50%! Free shipping encourages customers to buy more product. A great way to ensure free shipping doesn’t hurt your bottom line is to make an order minimum to qualify. Working with your 3PL (third-party-logistics) or shipping provider can help you understand where the break even point is for your business. With that information, you can confidently implement this strategy long term, which will pay dividends immediately and for years to come.

5. Bulk Discounts

B2C shopping experiences are littered with bulk discounts:

“Buy 5 items and get 1 free!”

While a volume discount like this can incentivize your B2B customers to buy more product, but if you don’t carefully consider the costs before you implement them you can put your business at risk. By measuring returns and understanding how discounts change buying behavior, you can decide if this is right for your business. Let’s explore three reasons to offer a bulk discount:

Compete better with competitors who already offer them – Selling the same (or a similar) product at full price while a competitor offers for discounted amounts  can cost you sales. To improve your conversions and win more sales it would be worth considering a similar or better pricing strategy.

Lock in customers – Volume discounts nudge buyers to commit. In highly competitive markets, locking in customers preserves market share and increases barriers to entry for new suppliers.

Encourage larger orders instead of a series of smaller ones – Shipping overhead can be hard to calculate, but everybody agrees that it’s more efficient to ship one large box than seven small ones. Providing bulk discounts helps your customers decide to place bigger orders that are easier to ship. Pair it with a minimum for free shipping, and you’ve got a winning recipe for minimizing your packing-and-picking headaches.


Net Terms: Offer terms directly in your checkout

by | Sep 17, 2018 | General

Net 30 Sales
Your Sales using Rumbleship Net Terms.

Every CEO wants their company’s revenue to grow; after all, it’s one of their primary metrics for success. A sizable increase in sales is not usually easy to come by and executives must employ creative tactics to continue to drive growth. In today’s competitive multi-front business landscape, companies who don’t think outside the box for creative solutions to move the needle will find their days numbered. One simple change every business can make to increase B2B eCommerce sales through every channel is easy to use flexible payment terms. Wholesale payment terms are a little-talked-about secret that breathes life into sales organizations — and the reality is many buyers will expect you to provide them with a terms solution. Giving customers time to pay for products is a time honored tradition that can increase your sales.

Things to consider when offering net terms

Net 30 terms — the practice of giving customers 30 days to pay the full amount of their invoice — is a staple in the North American B2B business model. Terms may be extended at the buyers expense but they are granted 30 days from the day a product is shipped to pay their invoice. This system presents risk to the vendor in the form of late payments and lost revenue. Late payments create huge headaches for accounts receivable departments (AR). Collecting these outstanding payments is challenging and organizations often hire dedicated staff (or in some cases are forced to use their sales people) to call late buyers to collect delinquent AR.

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Solutions exist to mitigate the risks associated with extending B2B terms. One common practice is factoring. Factoring banks will buy your delinquent invoices at a significant discount. They purchase your debt so you no longer have to worry about collecting it yourself. The downside is that they often don’t cover delinquent payments– and if they do, they can be very expensive.

There is a better option to factoring banks that guarantees payment on your sales and eliminates the risk of non-payment, Rumbleship. Rumbleship modernizes the entire process of offering terms, forgoing late checks in the mail and calls to delinquent accounts by providing an automated and scheduled electronic payments (ACH) solution. Rumbleship is an easy to use gateway that solves the accounts receivable problem created by late payments.

Rumbleship allows your sales organization to benefit from extending wholesale payment terms to your customers and eliminates the risk of delinquent or non-payments.

User adoption and cart conversions

Making net payment terms available at checkout increases adoption by your buyers – your customers who couldn’t consider them previously can organically convert during checkout. Seeing them offered during checkout from your eCommerce store encourages them to become better buyers.

A 2017 Baymard Study of eCommerce shopping cart abandonment found that approximately 8% of order abandonments occurred due to lack of accepted methods. Offering terms reduces this risk by offering an additional payment method directly in your checkout. If cart abandonment is a growing problem for your business, implementing a terms solution directly in your checkout flow will improve conversions. Having time to pay for product is attractive to buyers and seeing the option will help them plan their future orders.

3 reasons why flexible wholesale payment terms boost B2B sales.

 

1. Try before you buy

For brands new and old, breaking into a new market is challenging. Whether you’re selling new products to existing customers or you’re trying to enter a new vertical, retailers and distributors are hesitant to commit to buying unproven products. One strategy that will reduce their risk and improve their cash flow is to give them time to pay for product. A 30- or 45-day B2B term will supercharge your sales team by giving them an additional closing tactic. Terms lower the barrier to entry for new markets and instill an additional layer of trust with your customers. Giving your customers time to sell product they purchase from you before paying for it will make buyers feel more comfortable trying new products and taking on brands for the first time.

This isn’t just a tool for new markets and products but an important seasonal sales strategy as well. Many industries have a natural ebb and flow and allowing your terms to be flexible based on your buyers’ needs will help you both. Longer terms on preseason orders will enable your customers to purchase more product in preparation for the busy season ahead and give you deep insight into your revenue forecasts down the road.

2. Incentivize your customers

Not sure your customers will be thrilled at the premise of having time to pay for product? What if you gave them a discount for paying early? Everyone likes cash back, especially your customers! Incentivizing them to pay early on their terms with cash back on their invoice is a great way to get them excited about your brand and in a good pattern of behavior.

Changing consumer behavior is challenging. With a little nudge customers who are seemingly stuck in their ways will be willing to try something new to improve their bottom line. Beyond rewarding your customers for good behavior, when they really need time to pay for product they have it. It’s a win-win for everyone.


3. Double your B2B sales

Combining an eCommerce store with flexible wholesale payment terms can grow a brand’s b2b sales by as much as 2x in as little as two months. Just ask Elephant Brands CFO and Founder Jack Brooks:

“Today, we help 80-90% of our buyers create their orders through the wholesale channel. The terms are determined on a buyer-by-buyer basis. As a result, wholesale has doubled for us over the last two months on a per-week basis.”

-Elephant Brands CFO and Founder Jack Brooks. 

Combining flexible net terms with a dedicated b2b eCommerce channel  will quickly grow your sales volume and average order size.

Use a term solution that doesn’t hinder your sales process. Assigning credit to all of your retailers is hard work. It’s really hard. The ability to extend credit to your buyers is imperative to your growth. You’re in the business of sales and you need tools that let your focus on selling. Find the easiest to use solution that gives your buyers the time they want, and doesn’t impact the cashflow you need. Using a solution that confidently approves your buyers is key to implementing a lasting strategy that your sales executives will be able to use as their ace in the hole.


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