Blog

B2B Online Florida 2025 Blog

AI's Role in B2B Sales and Marketing

Discover how AI is revolutionizing, driving automation, and enhancing personalization to improve B2B sales and marketing.

Getting Internal & External Buy-in Before Building Out Digital Channels

Discover strategies for securing internal and external stakeholder buy-in for new digital channels to enhance your B2B operations and partnerships.

Here's What You Need to Know About Composable Commerce

Composable commerce enhances agility and personalization for B2B businesses. Learn the benefits, challenges, and uses of this framework here.

Elevating the Customer Experience in B2B eCommerce

Enhance B2B customer experience by integrating core technologies, streamlining operations, and ensuring consistent service across all channels.

Treating Search as a Key Strategy in B2B

Every B2B organization needs a strong search engine optimization strategy. Here, we explore how you can improve yours, with an example from Home Depot.

Using Chat GPT for B2B eCommerce Marketing

Having a comprehensive digital marketing strategy is critical to the success of a B2B business, especially as the B2B eCommerce market becomes more competitive. However, B2B marketing is still expensive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. By leveraging Chat GPT technology, B2B marketers have access to an effective tool that can help them provide business customers with a more personalized experience while also achieving other strategic objectives, such as boosting customer engagement and increasing revenue.

How Anheuser-Busch InBev Started Generating Most of Its Revenue Via eCommerce

B2B eCommerce is becoming increasingly popular as more businesses shift their focus online. While eCommerce has been prevalent in industries like technology and manufacturing for years, other industries are also following suit. For example, B2B eCommerce is now a major driver of sales in the food and beverage industry, where Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) has emerged as a leader. AB InBev is the world's largest brewer and has been able to generate most of its revenue through eCommerce in recent years. To achieve this, AB InBev has invested heavily in technology and infrastructure, including an eCommerce platform.

How Millennials and Gen Z are Changing the B2B Buying Experience

The B2B landscape is rapidly evolving, and the shift to eCommerce is no longer a "nice to have.” It's imperative. According to an article by Digital Commerce 360, Millennial and Gen Z buyers now constitute 64% of all business buyers. With Millennials and Gen Z now comprising such a large chunk of corporate decision-making teams, it's critical for businesses looking to stay ahead of current trends in the marketplace to understand how this generation is impacting the way products are bought and sold from one company to another.

Fastenal Demonstrates How a Service Company Can Leverage eCommerce for Growth

Some B2B companies have been hesitant to dive into eCommerce because their business operations don’t correspond with the traditional eCommerce model: the sale of products online through an eCommerce website. After all, how can consultancies and service organizations leverage an eCommerce store for transactions that often involve long contracts and multiple face-to-face touchpoints? One company worth exploring, Fastenal, is well-known for its industrial and construction products. However, it’s also a consultant, a logistics company, and a technology provider. The company has found a way to leverage eCommerce not only for product sales but also for other aspects of the business.

MSC Industrial Direct Grows its Distributor Base and Embraces Personalization

B2B organizations are working overtime to transform themselves through new technology implementations, process automation, and innovative approaches to work. However, there are plenty of other ways companies can transform, and most should take a multi-pronged approach that addresses both internal business processes and the customer experience. MSC Industrial Direct is one B2B company that is attuning its focus to key elements of the business. Namely, MSC has significantly expanded its distributor base and embraced personalization as a means to better serve customers.

How McKesson is Achieving Large-Scale Digital Transformation

As companies around the world begin to recognize the power of digital transformation, McKesson, a company that touches almost every aspect of the healthcare industry, stands out as a leader in achieving success on a large scale. Having embraced new technologies and tools, the company has completely transformed processes and operations across its organization-- other businesses can look to McKesson for inspiration in taking their digital journeys.

Improving Customer Experience with Data

Survey-based measuring systems for customer experience continue to be useful, but modern businesses need a more effective and predictive approach to CX measurement which allows them to better understand and predict customer behavior. In this article, we discuss how advanced data analytics can help B2B brands move from reactive customer experience to a predictive model.

Here’s How Grainger Is Growing Its Ecommerce Businesses Post-Pandemic

As the industrial parts sector recovers from the disruption and challenges of the global COVID-19 crisis, brands need to find better ways of serving customers which is more in line with contemporary expectations. In this week’s article, we discover how Grainger Industrial Parts is coming back swinging with innovative technology and a customer experience mindset.

Personalization and Automation – Differences and Interactions

Personalization and automation can often seem at odds with ones another. After all, how can a personalized service be delivered by, for want of a better term, a computer? However, there is room for the two to interact and help you better market your brand. In today’s blog, we discuss personalization and automation and give examples of areas where the two clash and those where they can work together.

The Benefits of Event Sponsorship at B2B Online Orlando

WBR’s B2B Online Orlando conference is the leading event for forward-thinking manufacturers and distributors. Here’s how event sponsorship can open doors for your organization.

Bulbs.com Is Driving Success Through Better Customer Communication

Communication is key in modern business and the B2B ecommerce world is no exception. Brands need to make sure customer feedback is acted upon and they are able to communicate messaging effectively out to those who do business with them. In this article, we discover how Bulbs.com is driving success and agility through its superior customer communication channels.

Customer Experience vs. Cost – Which Wins Out?

As prices are driven up by soaring inflation brought about by the global perma-crisis we seem to be going through, many brands are wondering whether delivering an amazing customer experience can offset pricing concerns. In this article we answer the question of which is more important to customers out of customer experience and cost and dig up some unexpected findings in the process.

Here’s How Motion Industries Implemented a New AI Product Discovery Platform

06/29/2022

Making sure product discovery and personalized recommendations are accurate and relevant is a core component of the B2C shopping experience. B2B ecommerce brands need to follow suite if they are going to keep step in the modern landscape. In today’s blog, we discover how Motion Industries deployed a new Google powered AI platform to supercharge product discovery and personalization.

Convincing Leadership of the Need for Digital Spend

When it comes to digital transformation, the constant stream of global crises has made it more difficult than ever for advocates to convince leadership of the benefits. Still locked in survival mode, businesses the world over are becoming increasingly apathetic towards technology. In this article, we discuss the impact of the permacrisis on leadership mentality and suggest how digital transformation advocates can break though and be heard.

Here’s How Parker Hannifin Corp. Is Using B2B Portals to Boost Customer Experience

The lines between B2B and B2C are becoming increasingly blurred and many brands in the B2B space are seeking to create customer experiences more in line with their equivalents in the B2C industry. In this week’s article we discover how a subsidiary of Parker Hannifin Corp. implemented a new ecommerce platform which put customer experience front and center.

Accelerating Digital Transformation in the B2B Space

Even now the COVID-19 crisis has subsided, the desire for digital transformation in the B2B space has only grown. Brands operating in this area need strategies to accelerate the process and play catch up. In this week’s blog, we make the case for acceleration by focusing on the key areas which have the greatest impact potential and proceeding in a considered and structured fashion while taking cues from the B2C space.

MSC Industrial’s Mission Critical Initiative Is Bearing Fruit

In today’s fast paced global marketplace, brand need to be constantly evolving and adapting if they want to keep pace. Digital transformation and adaptive strategies are just two arrows in the quiver which can be deployed. In this article, we discover how MSC Industrial’s Mission Critical initiative is helping the business transform into a more agile and digitally capable brand.

Driven by COVID-19, a Shift to Digital is Accelerating B2B Buyer Expectations for Personalization, Agile and Responsive Sales

In our upcoming 2020 B2B Online research report, we uncover how mature B2B sellers define and optimize personalization for their customers. We ask essential questions about their personalization strategies—especially in response to the post-pandemic business climate. Finally, we investigate B2B sellers’ top prioritize for optimizing personalization over the next 5 years, with a focus on the nuances within different B2B verticals.

How To Revamp Your Channel Program & Measure ROI

Controlling the ROI of your channel marketing can mean the difference between success and failure for any business. When you get the balance right however, you will have a channel marketing machine which drives revenue, profit, and a greater understanding of your market and the customers operating within it.

How To Optimize Your Multi-Channel Strategy For eCommerce Success

Long gone are the days when all you needed to run a successful B2B ecommerce platform was a website and an email address. Today online business operates across multiple channels which all need to work in harmony to reach your audience.

Building and Staffing a Center of Excellence to Drive Digital Transformation

Talking about digital transformation, Mount begins by saying that although we may associate technology, processors, Internet of Things and digital layers with the phrase digital transformation, at Ingersol Rand, they focus on the human aspect of transformation.

How To Improve CX By Building A More Sophisticated Customer Journey

The question of how we measure the success of a company's customer experience is also something which is spoken about in this discussion. The main method of gaining feedback is to ask customers to take part in surveys once they have had an interaction with the company in some way.

Digital Transformation Strategies For B2B Manufacturers in 2020

WBR Insights partnered with the Field Service event team in their preliminary research for an upcoming industry study, Digital Transformation: Key Strategies for B2B Manufacturers in 2019 - 2020. The initial survey respondents represent manufacturers and distributors of all sizes, ranging from less than $100 million to over $500 million in annual revenue. Most preliminary respondents are team leaders, managers, directors, and department leaders at these B2B companies.

The Right Ecommerce Platform Makes a Critical Difference for B2B

New research from WBR Insights in partnership with B2B Online sheds light on the needs that B2B organizations have when managing their ecommerce operations. What we have uncovered is a moment in time when major changes in technology coincide with the growing importance of developing a high-performing ecommerce strategy.

Research Brief: How B2B Companies are Transitioning to Formal eCommerce Personalization Strategies

eCommerce has become a high performing channel among manufacturers and distributors. Now, these companies are taking an aggressive approach to personalization as they seek to upgrade their current eCommerce strategies and infrastructures.

How Thermo Fisher Scientific Expanded its eCommerce Offering

You can hear Thermo Fisher Scientific's Vice President of Global Market Development Stephanie Pike speak at B2B Online, taking place this November at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami, FL.

Digital Transformation Starts With Leadership

In order to develop digital capabilities across the organization it takes a commitment by leadership to modernize the structure, by using a hybrid model that both upskills existing associates, while engaging external experts. Diversifying talent provides the ability to scale and stay the course to drive market goals

Avnet Is Working with BitPay to Add Bitcoin Payment for Its Customers

In 2017 bitcoin plummet through the floor, leaving many commentators to speculate that the cryptocurrency was coming to an end and the bitcoin bubble had finally popped. However, while the consumer market turned its back on the digital currency, there is an emerging trend in the B2B sector.

How Turtle & Hughes Launched a B2B Ecommerce Platform in 4 Months

As consumers have grown used to seamless, Amazon-like personal shopping experiences, expectations are raised for B2B brands to create ecommerce buying experiences that match up. After all, B2B buyers are consumers, too .

W.W. Grainger's eCommerce Strategy To Compete With Amazon Business

The launch of Amazon business is forcing W.W. Grainger – whose global sales amounted to $11.2 billion in 2018 – to revamp its online strategy to keep up

How MSC Is Helping Customers Streamline Inventory Management

To excel at B2B ecommerce, manufacturers and suppliers need to innovate - to make customer experiences seamless and convenient, to get products in the hands of customers quicker, and to provide services that help customers better manage their operations and their spend.

Here's Why B2B eCommerce Buyers Are Demanding Automation

B2B sellers are expected to innovate to win new business and maintain their existing customer base, and building an online version of your B2B catalog isn’t enough: many buyers also demand automation fueled by integration with their eprocurement, ERP, CRM, and inventory systems.

Developing Marketplace Strategies to Best Serve the Customer

Driven by the convenience and seamlessness of the B2C shopping experience, more and more B2B buyers are now demanding a comparable business shopping experience as well. As such, there is a growing digitalization of the B2B customer journey, rendering B2B marketplaces more and more relevant as time goes by.

Here's How to Create Personalized, Customer Focused Content

Personalized content is all about making your prospect feel special. How can you create that personalized feeling with your content marketing? Well, there are a few different methods.

Developing Online Strategies to Attract and Retain New Customers

There are massive opportunities in the world of B2B ecommerce. Let's consider what it takes for B2B organizations to attract and retain customers in today's increasingly digital landscape.

Implementing A Customer-Centric B2B Omnichannel Strategy

The traditional B2B sales cycle is changing - from one based on time-consuming in-person interactions with sales reps to a streamlined, convenient process with a consumer-grade customer experience that stretches across both offline and online channels.

Transforming Digitally to Meet the Needs of Today's B2B Customer

Digital transformation is redefining how B2B businesses connect with their customers. It's reshaping business models, changing the way value is delivered, and how sales are made. Digital is the future - B2B organizations need to embrace digital transformation and make it a strategic priority.

Here's How Hewlett Packard is Using B2C Techniques to Build a Classic B2B Strategy

B2B and B2C marketing strategies are often quite different. However, Hewlett Packard (HP) is bucking the trend with an innovative B2B multichannel marketing strategy.

Here's How SupplyHouse.com is Using Content Marketing to Create an Award Winning B2B Strategy

Content marketing is the cornerstone of any modern company's strategy, and SupplyHouse.com is plumbing new depths with theirs.

Here's How North Coast Electric and B2X Partners are Building a Community of B2B Success Stories

You can't afford to customize your e-commerce platform until you know what you should be customizing according to your expected return on investment.

Here's How Elevate and PURE are Using Their Digital Presence to Battle 'Greenwashing' in the B2B Packaging and Labelling Industry

Elevate & PURE are using their digital presence to fight back against 'Greenwashing', when companies make misleading claims about the sustainability or eco-friendliness of their products or packaging.

Here's How GE is Using IoT and AI to Lift Inspection Services into the Stratosphere

When it comes to industrial inspections, the minutest attention to detail could make all the difference.

Tema Frank Explores Digital Marketing and the Customer Experience

We get her thoughts on the changing digital world and customer experience model, and what that means for the future of B2B.