Whack-a-mole: Navigating the challenges facing manufacturing ecommerce in 2024 

Implementing a successful ecommerce program often feels like a game of whack-a-mole. Every time you think you’ve hammered down all the pain points, another one pops up.

Post-pandemic, the rush to complete digital transformation (to bring offline stores to online channels) was the priority. Volume was key. Manufacturers asked, “How can we ramp up capacity? How can we ship orders faster? How can we meet the buyers where they need to be met?”

That mole? Whacked. Global Ecommerce GMV has doubled from pre-pandemic, going from $13.3 trillion in 2019 to $28 trillion in 2024.

But Ecommerce is dynamic. Buyers’ demands of their manufacturing suppliers are changing. Research uncovered that buyers are feeling frustrated with the buying experience – with 91% of buyers reporting that they have at least one reason that prevents them from ordering online.

91%.

The good news? There’s a lot of room to improve. And purposeful changes go a long way to improving the buying experience.

Here is what needs to change to fix the ecommerce experience for manufacturers and their buyers.

Order accuracy

Imagine going to a restaurant with 6 people. Everyone orders an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert.

Of those 18 dishes ordered, 6 of them came out wrong. One plate is too cold, a salad came with the wrong dressing, the restaurant served marzipan to a guest with an almond allergy…it’s a disaster.

With 1/3 dishes wrong, you would never come back.

Guess what? 1 out of 3 B2B online orders across all industries contain order errors.

Remember, the products they order are critical to their business needs. When an order goes wrong, the down-the-line effects can be detrimental to the buyer’s success.

If we would give up on a restaurant for flubbing up on every 3^rd plate, what makes us think that our customers would stick with us when we similarly fail?

It turns out they won’t.

Research indicates that 74% of B2B buyers would switch suppliers if a competitor offered a better web store experience. In a world where 1 in 3 orders are wrong, the supplier who gets 9 out of 10 correct will command market share.

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Be transparent

No one likes to be left in the dark and ecommerce buyers are no different. If a buyer places an order, but never receives an estimated arrival date or a tracking number, they feel profoundly uneasy. When will my order arrive? Will my supplies get here in time for my contract? The estimated delivery window was two weeks ago! Where is my order? 

Here’s the truth: supply chain kinks and delivery hiccups happen. In Baltimore, the Francis Scott Key bridge collapsed when a cargo ship crashed into it – closing the harbor indefinitely. Those ships already in the harbor? Stuck. Those orders on the ships? Delayed.

Buyers are understanding but they need to be clued in. Ecommerce sellers need to communicate delays, through updates and tracking notifications, to give buyers transparency into the new delivery dates. Communication is key. When your buyer’s shipment is stuck in the Baltimore Harbor, update them. 

Research uncovered that the three biggest hurdles B2B buyers experience when buying online from manufacturers all center around a lack of transparency:

• Lack of accurate information on delivery times
• Lack of accurate pricing information
• Lack of accurate information on stock levels

Just like buyers don’t want to be left in the dark when it comes to when they’ll receive their deliveries, they certainly don’t want to be surprised by a different order price or an unexpected “out of stock” message, post-order.

Sellers must improve accuracy and transparency 

When it comes to improving the Ecommerce experience, suppliers need to invest in improving accuracy and transparency. They should choose scalable solutions that provide the following:

• Down-to-the-second stock accuracy
• Accurate pricing that reflects taxes and local currency
• Online ordering that reflects the agreed-upon pricing structures
• Access to past and present orders and outstanding invoices

In this game of ecommerce whack-a-mole, we’ve already nailed the challenge of order volume. Digital transformation is a done deal. Now, we are faced with new challenges – new moles to whack. The good news is that we know what buyers are upset about, what buyers want, and the solution to this problem. In other words, the mole is right there, and the hammer is waiting to be picked up.

Now, we just need to swing the hammer.

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