2016 was an important year for e-commerce in Italy, during which the new concept of cross took hold: cross border, cross channel and cross device, the three points companies must focus on to offer customers the best purchase experience ever. The determining factor for a company's success lies in the ability to react quickly to new needs and anticipate future trends, rethinking business models. This applies both to B2C and B2B companies, whose boundary has over time become increasingly blurred, losing the historical boundaries that have always differentiated the two businesses, today in continuous evolution and often converging, thus creating a new competitive context among companies. This was the theme focused on by "B2B e-commerce and B2Retail: models and success cases", the conference organized by Netcomm and held in Milan on November 29.
More information at http://www.engage.it/ricerche/ecommerce-b2b-italia/90995#WDuOEPiECvh8BYR1.99.
B2B e-commerce can be an important growth factor. Assolombarda and Netcomm, the e-commerce consortium, organized a meeting at the Milan headquarters of the industrialists' association where "B2B e-commerce. Opportunities, tools and success cases in B2B and B2Retail e-commerce", a book that analyzes e-commerce among companies and recounts success cases, was also presented.
As explained by Niccolò Zuffetti, marketing manager of Cribis, today "there are around forty thousand Italian companies that do B2B e-commerce with growth of 55% compared to last year. Of these, about 25% are in the South and Islands, while the main region remains Lombardy followed by Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio and Campania". 38% of companies work in wholesale trade, 30% in industry and other companies work in services. In 73% of cases these are companies with fewer than five employees and 7% with more than twenty employees. Only 6% of companies were active before 1980 and if we add those active before 2000 we are at less than 30%. In practice, historic companies entering this world are few. Companies that do import/export are only 9%, while those with an English website are 30%. According to Cribis data on payments, companies that do e-commerce have better payment terms and a lower average risk. The Observatory of the specialized credit information database also shows that the boundary between business-to-business e-commerce and consumer-oriented e-commerce is increasingly blurred.
B2B and B2C e-commerce, the boundary evaporates
An opinion shared by Roberto Liscia, president of Netcomm, according to whom digital "is putting strong pressure on prices and margins that decrease across the entire supply chain, transferring value to the customer, end user or intermediate company, who at the same price has a greater choice. This is a fundamental element of why the digital transformation of companies is not an option but a strategic survival requirement for businesses". The end customer in the chain has become mobile, cross border, cross device, cross channel and also expects their personal experience to be mirrored in professional activities. "B2B is therefore not only efficiency but also rediscovery of behaviors that must necessarily undergo a behavioral transformation that is already taking place. The speed of supply chains and the ability to react quickly to the needs of intermediate and end customers has become a determining factor. Digital, adds Liscia, has given another way of thinking about time and those who do not adapt lose opportunities and margins. All this is a consequence of the dematerialization of processes with the separation of information from the transfer of data or goods, which has given companies the possibility of new organizational opportunities. In this context companies are led to rethink their business models and the idea of boundaries between B2B and B2C is being lost as they become highly integrated. And models are in continuous evolution, often converging with a focus on efficiency of commercial processes and on qualifying the demand-supply relationship. Wine is an example, with the seller who has no warehouse and products are delivered directly by the producer.
From a quantitative point of view, moreover, in Europe B2B is already more important than B2C. In the UK revenue is seven hundred billion, while in Italy we are at twenty. And forecasts say that in 2020, 27% of total B2B transactions will be digital. A game worth playing.
Source: 01net
Author: Luigi Ferro