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The recent SAP B2B CX Meetup, presented by Enterprise Wide in partnership with SAP, offered a deep dive into B2B Customer Experience (CX) and Digital Transformation.

Ross Bark – Director of CX and Digital of Enterprise Wide led the panel made up of Michael Standfield – Retail Specialist and Enterprise Architect of Wesfarmers Health, Brett Sinclair – Founder and Director of B2B eCommerce Association, Will Santry – Vice President and Head of SAP Customer Experience, and David Scribner – Global CX Director of SAP Customer Experience, all gathered to discuss the unique challenges and strategies shaping the world of B2B Digital Commerce.

A central theme was the critical role of customer-centric approaches in B2B environments, contrasting the more transactional nature of B2C. Michael Standfield shared his ideas of a seamless channel in relation to his work at Wesfarmers Health, “Seamless is basically a good customer experience, it’s about removing barriers. Given that we’re supplying pharmaceuticals to pharmacists, doctors, veterinarian clinics, the things that are important to that customer base is obviously accurate stock, a good price, and search. Search is something that we’re working quite heavily on as a point of differentiation.”

Ross Bark added “And if you can work out how to bring your customers along on the journey, making them more effective at their role, giving them more time to be able to sell, rather than having to manage administration tasks and taking calls from customers who want to know where their stock or order is.”

Will Santry shared the idea of building loyalty and trust in a B2B transaction where there are multiple layers of customers. He said “There’s a few parties involved in a B2B transaction, so it’s not just necessarily one person that you’re dealing with. Understanding the journey that your customers go through is very important because if something goes wrong, how you deal with it in that moment, and being prepared and planned for it, is actually an opportunity to develop more loyalty.”

The panel also discussed key insights from the recent ANZ eCommerce Investment Report delivered in partnership by the B2B eCommerce Association and SAP. Sinclair shared what stood out in that report: “The brands that had been investing in eCommerce for some time had leapfrogged ahead and how optimistic they were really feeling about their future ambitions in the digital space. They’ve gone beyond doing level one capability and now they’re really starting to innovate for their customers, so they’re doing something specific to solve a difficult problem.”

Looking into the next year, David Scribner shared his outlook on the upcoming key trends of the digital landscape and mentioned the importance of relationships and taking it to the next level. “The other stages of the next level of relationship will be the growth areas and the people that will do that properly, will see the growth in their company. Get the transactional aspects that we spoke about, get them best in class, be excellent on them, but it’s that next level of relationship that I think will make a difference.” Scribner said.