From product discovery to contract negotiations, check out how email marketing can help navigate your prospects through the complex B2B procurement process, convert them into buyers and retain them as loyal customers
If you are a B2B manufacturer, marketplace, or merchant, eCommerce isn’t a newfangled trend you need to think about.
It’s already here, and according to one estimate by Vantage, the market is growing at 18.3% CAGR from $6.92Tn in 2021 to $18.97T by 2028.
User behaviour has also drastically moved in favour of online purchasing, mostly because the buying cohort has gotten younger.
This makes stats like 70% of B2B buyers willing to spend $500,000 on a single eCommerce transaction a massive loss of opportunity if you are not investing enough in eCommerce.
That said, you can’t just spin up a Shopify site and call it quits: unlike B2C, B2B needs plenty of existing and legacy systems to talk to each other in order to deliver the appropriate user experience.
In this post, I will restrict myself to email marketing’s role in improving your user’s experience throughout their buyer’s journey.
Why care about email marketing with B2B eCommerce?
Forget expensive apps or fancy website features: 64% of B2B buyers want campaign emails, according to Adobe.
Figuring out email marketing for your B2B eCommerce site can help make the overall eCommerce experience better for your buyers AND deliver the results of that improved experience.
Here’s how:
- Email can help collect browsing signals and zero-party data like user demographics and preferences that help you design and tailor your offerings.
- You can use that data to create segments and highly personalized messaging through paid, owned, and earned media (including email)
- You use email to A/B test your pricing and product, collect user feedback and get more sophisticated about your marketing and messaging.
- You also use email to engage and educate your users and drive sales and re-sales.
Overall, the typical buyer journey for a B2B eCommerce brand looks like this:
At most stages, email can boost your chances of making a sale (compared to a competitor who hasn’t gone all in on email) because it can deliver consistent, contextualized, and personalized messaging.
How to use emails across each stage of the B2B eCommerce buyer’s journey
Here’s a breakdown of what your B2B e-commerce emails should include in terms of content and design at various stages of the buyer’s journey:
1. Research & Product Discovery:
These emails are primarily educational and designed to help recipients understand the product better. The personalization should be based on the recipient’s role (buyer/user/decision maker etc) as well as the company size.
Based on pre-existing data, this would be akin to a welcome flow that DTC brands send and should have anywhere between 3-6 emails (test this out)
Content recommendations:
- Targeted Product Recommendations: Highlight specific products or categories relevant to the buyer’s browsing history or collected zero-party data.
- Educational Content: Offer valuable insights through articles, white papers, or case studies that address common industry pain points and showcase how your products can help.
2. Account Setup & Login:
Emails in this phase should be a variation of the welcome email, with the benefit of even more customization based on data shared during the account setup process.
This email should have the account details the user can refer to at any time.
Content recommendations:
- Welcome Message: Personalize the emails with the buyer’s name and thank them for creating the account.
- Platform Introduction: Briefly introduce key features and benefits of your B2B eCommerce platform.
- Setup Assistance: Offer resources like FAQs or video tutorials to guide users through the account setup process.
3. Order Configuration:
Most B2B eCommerce buyers require detailed customization of their orders in terms of SKUs and quantities. This can complicate the ordering process (for instance, one SKU might not be available or delayed), which is where email shines at keeping stakeholders updated.
Content recommendations:
- Customization Reminders: If customization options are available, remind buyers about them during order configuration and highlight potential benefits like bulk pricing.
- Inventory Availability Updates: Inform buyers about potential stock limitations or delays for high-demand items they’ve included in their orders.
These emails can also work in the form of checkout abandonment emails, and the CTA should link to the cart page.
4. Checkout & Payment:
Checkout issues are a huge sticking point for B2B buyers. According to a Hokodo survey, 98% of B2B buyers face problems at checkout, and 83% of B2B buyers abandon checkout if they don’t see payment terms.
Think of this email as a checkout abandonment email.
Content recommendations:
- Order Summary: Briefly summarize the order details, including product names, quantities, and pricing.
- Secure Payment Options: Reassure buyers about the security of your payment gateway and highlight available payment terms and methods like proforma invoices, deposits, split payments, credit cards, ACH transfers, or purchase orders.
5. Order Confirmation & Tracking:
This isn’t different from B2C eCommerce order confirmation emails, except that customers can choose to place part orders, pre-order, or back-to-back orders.
And you can’t skip the tracking information since many of the products ordered would be business-critical.
Content recommendations:
- Order Confirmation: Confirm the order details with product names, order numbers, estimated delivery dates, and shipping information.
- Tracking Information: Include a link to the order tracking page or provide a tracking number for buyers to monitor shipment progress.
Because many B2B buyers still like to place orders offline, your order confirmation emails might need to be fired manually as well (and not just tied to online payment mechanisms).
6. Warranty and Returns:
Unlike most B2C products, warranty or annual maintenance requirements play a critical role in B2B ordering. Therefore in the post-purchase emails, you need to provide as much information about warranties as possible.
Content recommendations:
- Warranty Details: Clearly outline the warranty terms and conditions, including coverage duration, exclusions, and claim procedures. Make it human-readable.
- Claim Initiation Instructions: Provide clear instructions on initiating a warranty claim, including any required documentation or contact information.
- Downloadable resources: Link to a page where users can download the complete warranty (and returns policy) as a PDF document.
Returns are also a critical aspect of the whole B2B order process, and your post-purchase flow should absolutely have a dedicated email on how to initiate returns.
Content recommendations:
- Return Policy Summary: Briefly summarize your return policy, including eligibility criteria, timeframe for returns, and instructions for initiating the return process (sometimes even beyond the warranty process).
- Step-by-Step Guide: Offer a step-by-step guide on initiating returns through the platform, including links to relevant return forms or resources.
- RMA System Integration: These emails can also come from the Returns Merchandise Authorization system to initiate the return, deal with payments, or, depending on your policy, exchange one product for another.
7. Reordering & Additional Considerations:
Depending on the product (for example, consumables), B2B buyers would order the same SKUs over and over again, and offering an easy way to reorder can be excellent for retention.
These emails can be automated to fire at around the time when customers typically need to place the reorder.
Content:
- Personalized Suggestions: Based on past purchase history, recommend products for reorder or suggest complementary items that might be relevant to their previous purchases.
- Highlight Benefits: Briefly mention potential benefits of reordering, such as faster checkout or volume discounts.
- Direct CTA: Link the CTA to a pre-loaded cart with the previous order that can be completed with a single click.
8. Approval Workflows:
For purchases above a particular threshold, B2B buyers might require approval from managers or senior executives. Your site or platform should make it easy for buyers to initiate approval request emails.
Content recommendations:
- Order Details: Include clear details about the order, such as product names, quantities, pricing, and the requesting department or individual.
- Actionable Link: Provide a link for designated approvers to access the order and review details online.
- Approval Status: Inform buyers and relevant parties (purchasing manager, sales representative) about the approval status of the order via email.
- Next Steps: If the order is approved, provide further information on estimated delivery timelines or next steps in the fulfillment process.
9. Contract Management:
Many B2B buyers would prefer to use contracts to reduce risk and improve compliance.
However, contract management can be challenging, especially when contracts are complex and involve multiple stakeholders.
Hooked up with your eCommerce platform through APIs, contract management software can drastically improve the entire workflow, save time, and reduce back and forth between different teams.
Emails can also help smoothen the contract modification process, especially during reorders.
Content recommendations:
- Reminder emails: Send a friendly reminder email prompting buyers to upload the contract if the platform allows it within the buying process.
- Benefits of Uploading: Briefly mention the benefits of uploading the contract, such as faster order processing or clearer communication of terms.
- Amendment Notification: Clearly notify all parties involved (buyer, seller, relevant internal teams) about contract amendments made during negotiations.
- Updated Version Attached: Attach the updated version of the contract with a clear identification of the revisions for easy reference.
- Downloadable Resources: Link to a page where users can download the signed contract.
Notes on email design
Email design for B2B eCommerce isn’t that different from B2C eCommerce emails and needs to follow design best practices. Your emails need:
- To be mobile-first and compatible with dark mode (no janky colors)
- Clear, consistent, and branded designs that highlight important content like order number
- High-contrast CTA buttons that would link out to product/return/shipping update pages
- Clear visual cues to indicate product availability or otherwise.
- A clear layout to visually highlight steps in the order/checkout/return/refund process
- Icons, trust badges, etc., to highlight different payment, order, and shipping options
- Buttons or easy navigation links to the account management page, order details, or support.
Email Marketing for B2B eCommerce: Your secret weapon?
The B2B eCommerce segment is going to be extremely cut-throat, as customers expect quality products, faster delivery times and favourable payment terms.
In a world where multiple websites offer the same product, how else can B2B eCommerce brands differentiate themselves from the competition?
One way is by going all-in on email marketing and using it as a complementary channel with other online and offline sales channels.
Deployed effectively, with adequate segmentation and personalization, and integrated with different backend systems, email can help make the user’s journey much more frictionless for the customer, 24/7/365.
That’s how you win at B2B eCommerce.