What makes some businesses so successful, and others just “meh”? After working with multiple lightning-in-a-bottle B2B eCommerce companies, I’ve observed a few key factors that stood out.
They are:
- Know your market
- Address a neglected or overlooked need
- Adapt to industry evolution
- Specialize in an industry
- Invest in retention
- Build strategic partnerships
Let’s break these down with some examples of successful B2B eCommerce companies.
1) Know your market
The most successful businesses start with a deep understanding of their market (often because they are their market — many companies are born of a founder’s personal frustrations). The ability to spot opportunity is a skill, and having the resources to act on those insights is a privilege.
Let’s look at Deliverr as an example. They understood that eCommerce fulfillment was fragmented and riddled with problems. They also knew Amazon FBA could resolve this for Amazon sellers, but not for the industry as a whole. The result was Amazon offering two-day shipping, with other sales channels being left in the dust.
So, Deliverr built a system that was one of the first to do what, until then, only FBA could. They’re able to look at a merchant’s historical demand and project where their future orders are most likely to come from geographically. They then allocate inventory to best fulfill orders within two days or less nationwide.
Beyond that, their system is so intelligent and seamlessly connected that, if something happened to an item in transit, they could fulfill the same item from one of their other locations, without the customer ever knowing something went wrong. That’s the future of eCommerce — it’s all about optimizing your customer experience.
Deliverr not only understood their market’s problems, but also their motivations. In eCommerce, that’s conversions ($), which means providing the best buyer experience possible. Everything Deliverr does is geared toward providing an outstanding purchasing process that’s still profitable for merchants.
2) Address a neglected or overlooked need
In the eCommerce supply chain, there’s a hidden or “shadow” step that comes between your supplier and the typical 3PL, which most merchants don’t realize until they’re in the weeds: item prep.
Fulfillment providers like FBA and Deliverr won’t accept items that aren’t properly prepped. Items must have the correct labels, packaging, and essentially be ready to hand to buyers. This makes sense because it helps them move faster and more efficiently; it’s in the interest of speed and the buyer experience.
However, most manufacturers don’t pay attention to that level of detail. If you buy 1,000 pens from a supplier in China, they aren’t going to put them individually into nice boxes, stick the right labels on them, and do a drop test to make sure they’re secure.
So, what often happens is merchants wind up on their living room floor with packing tape and a podcast, doing it themselves when they should be focused on other business aspects (for example, finding their next best selling SKU on Wish Wholesale, or, optimizing their buyer experience and suggested product images with Rosetta.ai).
MyFBAPrep fills this overlooked, but necessary need. Whereas many logistics companies won’t accept a jumbled pallet of unlabeled items, with MyFBAPrep, a seller never has to lay eyes on their goods. They run inspections and perform quality assurance, and turn that mess into something ready to go into FBA.
Think about the California Gold Rush: It wasn’t the gold miners who got rich (unless they struck it big) with probability stacked against them and sky-high competition. It was the general store owners who brought flour and toothpaste and other essential goods to support those growing communities.
It’s the same with eCommerce. Some merchants make it big, but there’s an entire layer of tools and services that play in the background, which enable merchants to do what they do — and create a successful business out of it.
3) Adapt to industry evolution
The businesses with the best foresight can position themselves for the future. They’ll stand ready to solve problems their market doesn’t even know they have, or will have.
Let’s look at Pipe17, who does for eCommerce logistics what Zapier does with SaaS apps.
Pipe17 is essentially a new market category — no one else is doing what they do, the way they do it. They build the foundation of the new eCommerce infrastructure, which consists of a highly customized tech stack, made from a huge selection of options.
Think of it this way: eCommerce operators start their day with a cup of coffee and five spreadsheets from five platforms, looking through everything to see which orders got stuck and where mistakes were made. This is how the eCommerce industry has evolved.
When eCommerce was young, you only needed a handful of tools to be the best. As the industry evolved, new players emerged who focused on doing one thing better than anyone else. That’s a valid business model, but what the market got as a result was 10 different repricing tools, dozens of listing tools, and multiple sales channels.
You end up with a huge tech stack and several options for each minute (but necessary) function in eCommerce that don’t necessarily play well together.
Pipe17 was able to build connectors specifically for eCommerce, so that data is updated in real-time after every action, instead of in batch uploads like many of the current “band aid” connections today (which result in things like stocking out or dropping orders).
The more sophisticated eCommerce becomes, the more obvious the need for a connector. You’ll find a growing ecosystem of apps and software, processes will be broken out and fragmented even further, and every merchant’s tech stack will have different pieces. Not only that, merchants will need the flexibility to switch out solutions as they find better fits — and they need to be able to do all of this without breaking their carefully constructed machine.
Pipe17 allows merchants today and in the future to pick and choose what tools they want, swap out their software any time, and keep their data synced seamlessly. Similarly, businesses who want to stay relevant must keep up with the times and plan ahead based on industry needs.
4) Specialize in an industry
Another way to optimize for success is to take an effective solution (like your product) and customize it specifically for an industry.
I’ve seen this play out successfully for two brands: Pipe17 and Shogun. Both companies were able to adapt existing concepts to a new industry, achieving a result tailored for eCommerce merchants as their differentiator.
Pipe17 took the concept of an integration platform as a service (which was rooted in finance) and applied it to eCommerce, where merchants need dozens of tools to keep up with the latest technology and conversion tactics.
Shogun decoupled the front and back end of a website to enable page load speeds of less than a second. Splitting the front and back end of a website is not a new concept in development, but who cares about fast load times? Consumers. So, who has to care about fast load times? eCommerce merchants.
How can you apply this to your own business? Instead of trying to do something for everyone, specialize in a promising industry and use that laser focus in your messaging, how you build and refine your product, and your marketing.
5) Invest in retention
One of the cornerstones of a strong business relationship is longevity. Acquisition earns traction, but retention fuels growth, and sustainably at that.
Thinking of it in contractor terms, the longer you work with a client, the better work you produce for them as you learn their brand, business, and style.
In B2B eCommerce, your long-term customers are the ones who know your solution like the back of their hand. They understand how to best utilize you for max value, and will recommend you to their networks.
This is a lesson learned by every client I’ve worked with. Let’s go back to Deliverr as an example. They have an entire department dedicated to merchant success. This accomplishes two key things: it reduces churn by positioning Deliverr as a partner invested in their success, and grows sales for merchants and, by extension, Deliverr.
If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to customer retention, go back to your customers. Talk to churning customers to find out why they’re leaving (implement customer exit surveys), talk to your long-time customers to learn why they’ve stayed (hold customer interviews), and talk to your favorite customers (measured by revenue, positive feedback, and ICP fit) to learn what else they want.
Customer retention 101: 9 Strategies you can implement this week
6) Build strategic partnerships
Partnerships amplify your reach by many multiples.
When you run a webinar with one brand hosting, your reach is limited to that single brand’s network and whoever is interested in the topic (that the brand can attract).
When you host a panel with five brand speakers, you extend your communications to the audiences of each participating name, multiplying your reach at least five-fold.
Beyond that, partnerships (particularly ones that take some work to get off the ground, like integrations) can turn into a strategic advantage. Done well, they could even shift the industry ecosystem in your favor.
Let’s go back to Pipe17 and how they operate. In order to be valuable as a connector, you need various endpoints.
Pipe17 is effectively building an eCommerce ecosystem where merchants who use them can “shop” for their integrations among Pipe17’s partners, ensuring whatever tool they use will work with their existing stack.
Consider how Shopify merchants can find their next tool in the Shopify app store: They search by functionality, and whatever appears has a working, plug-and-play integration ready to go. HubSpot users can browse HubSpot’s integration library in the same way to build their tech stack around HubSpot.
These partnerships are mutually beneficial, and aid the market involved as well. With the right partners, you stand to reorganize an entire industry around your service.
Wrapping up – Factors that drive B2B eCommerce success
A successful B2B eCommerce business requires more than a bright idea and plenty of capital. These businesses know their market, have excellent foresight, and fulfill an important need — sometimes an overlooked one that no one else is addressing. They also understand the value of retention and invest in strategic partnerships. The best businesses do all of the above, and more.
As a disclaimer, Deliverr, MyFBAPrep, Pipe17, and Shogun are all clients or former of mine. However, my views expressed here are my own, and not affiliated in any way with or representative of those brands.