5 proven modernization strategies for manufacturing commerce

Manufacturers pride themselves on designing and producing quality products both sustainably and profitably. However, when it comes to the latter, overreliance on traditional commerce channels can result in margin erosion.

Given the continuing disruption to global supply chains and rising energy costs, the challenge isn’t likely to go away any time soon. To thrive during times of crisis, it’s time for manufacturers to level up their commerce initiatives.

In this guide, we’ll dive into some proven strategies for accelerating manufacturing commerce.

1. Enhancing team collaboration

Digitization isn’t the sole responsibility of IT. You must ensure all relevant parties are involved in the decision-making process from the outset.

Any successful digital transformation project — be it implementing an ecommerce platform or anything else — requires close collaboration. If you’re rolling out a B2B ecommerce platform, you’ll want to get the IT, sales and operations teams involved at the very least. If you’re launching an eLearning portal to help buyers get more out of your products, you’ll likely want to get your R&D and customer support teams on board, too. Whatever the project, ensure everyone’s aligned with the same vision.

With customer-facing initiatives, such as ecommerce acceleration, it is important to get customers themselves involved. The easiest way to do that is to incorporate feedback mechanisms in your self-service portals that allow customers to leave ratings and reviews and flag potential issues. This feedback will support continuous improvement on your end, and customers will feel appreciated knowing that they’re being listened to.

2. Overcoming data challenges

There’s a common link between fragmented commerce processes and siloed data. Data that supports sales initiatives is often locked away in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other systems, which sales teams might not readily have access to. The problem tends to be more severe with larger manufacturers, especially those operating globally across many branches and production and logistics facilities.

Disconnected data systems are a common source of friction both for sales and service teams, not to mention the customer experience itself. Things like pricing and shipping, where customers expect transparency, often end up being inconsistent and notoriously difficult to manage at scale. Managing inventory and streamlining production to meet demand is another challenge, potentially resulting in understocking, overstocking or increased waste.

When any of these issues arise, revenue leakage becomes an inevitability. To stop that from happening, your first task is to unify customer data on a single, centralized platform. That way, it will be easier to access and manage while minimizing the risk of inconsistencies and human error.

Once you’ve got your data in order, you’ll be prepared to layer on machine learning and artificial intelligence to better understand what customers want.

3. Integrating new technologies

Delivering a cohesive user experience, both to your employees and your customers, demands moving away from the inflexible, monolithic technology infrastructures of old. These systems typically lack integrability with modern solutions and services, such as cloud-hosted commerce platforms and mobile-accessible shopping experiences.

This starts with creating a lean back end. In manufacturing, we typically see a lot of legacy systems still in operation. Also, as many manufacturers grow by acquisitions, there also tends to be many different solutions that need to be consolidated. Everything needs to work together to ensure a seamless operation.

The next step is to implement a front end that’s fully connected with the back-end infrastructure. The front end is what end users interact with. For customers, the front end might take the form of a self-service ecommerce portal, where they can browse products, check inventory levels in real time, customize their orders and complete transactions.

For any of those things to happen, the front end must be fully interconnected with the back end. That’s where application programming interfaces (APIs) and microservices architectures come in. They provide a flexible approach to implementing and integrating new technologies.

4. Crafting omnichannel experiences

Today’s B2B customers typically expect the same degree of responsiveness and convenience that they’re used to as consumers. That means, regardless of which sales channels you’re selling through, you also need to be able to support different purchasing habits. Moreover, you need to consider the entire customer journey, from initial awareness to post-sales support, across the product’s operational lifecycle.

Unfortunately, many B2B ecommerce platforms fail to provide the seamless experience that customers expect. Their user interfaces might be clunky and difficult to use on a small screen. Disconnected systems might not provide accurate or timely information to end users. Pricing and shipping information might be inconsistent between regions and customers. The list goes on.

It's critical to harmonize your operations by not only integrating your systems and addressing data quality issues, but also by thoroughly mapping out the customer journey.

Consider, for example, how a particular customer — such as a direct buyer or a reseller — prefers to engage with your business. How do they like to get their information? What are the barriers getting in the way of a seamless experience? By answering these questions, you can start building out highly effective omnichannel experiences.

5. Using predictive analytics

By adopting the aforementioned strategies, you’ll have the infrastructure needed for predictive analytics. Predictive analytics are the holy grail of business decision-making. They allow you to react quickly to change and make decisions based on hard data rather than guesswork. You can apply predictive analytics in nearly any area of business, such as demand forecasting, workforce management and for accelerating ecommerce initiatives.

For example, predictive analytics can help you identify which buyers have the highest growth potential. These insights can be informed by many different data sources, including internal ones like previous purchase history and external ones like firmographics and market trends. Equipped with this information, you’ll know which customers your sales representatives should prioritize.

Another way to use predictive analytics for commerce acceleration is to improve the processes that commerce operations themselves rely on. For instance, predictive maintenance solutions can monitor equipment performance and predict maintenance needs proactively to minimize downtime and help you keep ahead of your delivery schedules.

Similarly, analytics can predict supply potential supply chain disruptions, allowing you to take corrective action before they impact sales. This works by combining data from both internal sources like supplier risk assessments or historical data and external sources like economic indicators or geopolitical events.

Once you’ve reached that stage, you’ll have everything you need to drive a culture of continuous improvement — and that’s what will keep your commerce initiatives healthy for years to come.

Are you ready to take the next leap in B2B manufacturing? Download Valtech’s latest report to explore actionable strategies and expert insights from four of Europe’s industry leaders.