Should B2B Merchants Sell on Amazon or Their Own Web Store?

While manufacturers and distributors have been selling online for over 20 years, many merchants are still trying out eCommerce for the first time. Selling online today is more challenging than ever. Buyers want more than a simple online portal for repeat purchases. Instead, they’re demanding sophisticated online shopping experiences not far from what they’re used to for personal purchases. B2B merchants should look to build out an eCommerce presence that acquires new customers, serves existing, and overall creates a healthy revenue stream.

eCommerce is a strategic investment that takes considerable time and resources, not to mention it’s usually a cultural shift for a B2B organization too. One of the first decisions you might make is whether to sell on a marketplace like Amazon or make the investment in your own branded web store.

This guide walks you through the differences of these go-to-market eCommerce strategies and why the answer is probably that you should be selling on both.

Top Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Brands

Direct-to-consumer brands are disrupting the retail landscape both online and in-store. These digital native merchants have strong brand identities that resonate well with their audiences. Their hyper-focused on the customer experience, changing the way retailers should think about customer interactions. Most importantly, they’re taking control of their consumer data allowing continuous innovation and improvement.

Direct-to-consumer is a winning formula in retail right now and more brands are popping up than ever before. Look at why this retail model works and some of the top DTC brands out there now.

5 Challenges of Endless Aisle for Retailers

(This post was last published on May 4th, 2016. It’s been updated for accuracy and completeness.)

Retailers are missing out on nearly $1 trillion in in-store sales because they don’t have on hand what their customers want to buy. When customers can’t find what they want on your shelves, they’re quick to shop online or with one of your competitors.

There’s a lot of reasons why your shelves might be empty like miscalculating labor costs, customer satisfaction, and poor communication between vendors and retailers. To combat this problem, retailers of all sizes are turning to technology to ensure their shelves stay stocked, or appear to have an endless aisle of products consumers are looking for.

Implementing this retail strategy isn’t easy though. This article discusses some of the common challenges of deploying an endless aisle program.

2019 Holiday Shopping Predictions

The holiday season is almost here. Retailers have only a few weeks left to finish their to-do lists to prep their stores, online sites, and marketing campaigns. Deloitte predicts overall holiday retail sales to increase between 4.5% and 5% this year, passing $1.1 trillion in sales from November to January. They expect eCommerce sales alone to increase 14% to 18%.

See more holiday shopping predictions for this holiday season below.  

How to Run Smooth Online Flash Sales

Online flash sales are a popular strategy to drive revenue. Successful sales can increase a merchant’s sales from 50/day to over 10,000 in a single 24-hour period. This is great for your revenue, but can undoubtedly put major stress on your operations during and after the sale.

When not handled properly, flash sales can quickly turn into disasters for merchants. Your website can crash or stall. Orders can take forever to process. Inventory can oversell. Once disaster hits, it’s hard to see why you wanted to run a flash sale in the first place. When poorly executed, sales can lead to upset customers, lost sales, and erode your brand image.

While the risks of failed online flash sales are real, they can be avoided!

See how theBalm Cosmetics upgraded their technology stack and worked out important backend processes so they can run smooth flash sales multiple times a year.