According to a recent report by Accenture, 80 percent of B2B buyers have moved from suppliers who failed to satisfy their expectations. According to the poll conducted over two years, uncompetitive pricing, long lead times, and missed delivery dates were the most prevalent reasons purchasers offered for abandoning B2B connections. 

On the other hand, buyers are increasingly citing insufficient technology and a refusal to alter sales procedures to meet their digital procurement needs. As we start with the year 2022, the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of digital procurement in overcoming them are having a significant impact on buyer perceptions of B2B interactions. 

The following are the most common complaints: 

•  Procurement procedures that are difficult to understand (23 percent ) 

• Integration between sales channels is lacking (20 percent ) 

• A shoddy webpage (15 percent ), 

• All purchases must be made through a sales representative (15 percent ). 

Suppliers who ignore buyers’ technological needs risk upsetting long-standing B2B partnerships and losing new business to the more forward-thinking competition.

What Makes a Good Business-to-Business Relationship? 

Buyers in the B2B world make decisions based on logical, quantitative criteria. Reliability, product quality, product range, warranties, and support are all crucial factors. All of these elements are still necessary for long-term B2B interactions. Buyers, on the other hand, expect providers to update.

In the past, most buyer-supplier interactions were handled by the supplier’s sales team. Buyers today are considerably less likely to rely on salespeople. They desire self-service solutions that provide a shopping experience similar to that of a consumer. 

This is supported by a McKinsey poll conducted in late 2020. Buyers prefer not to deal with sales departments in greater than 30% of cases. Even for larger purchases, 99 percent stated they were glad to use a digital self-serve channel. 

Suppliers must compete not only on price but also on product quality and lead times. They must also provide the purchase experience that clients desire. The quality of your digital sales channel may determine the longevity of your B2B connections. But, in 2022, what will the ultimate digital sales platform look like? 

Improving Supplier Relationships 

Buyer-centered digital purchase experiences are the foundation of long-term B2B interactions. That includes eCommerce, eProcurement, and integration in 2022, with procurement automation tools, purchase order automation, and electronic invoicing like HubBroker’s Solutions. 

 Transparency 

When purchasers intended to make a purchase, they would telephone the sales department of a potential supplier. They now expect to get product information in the same way that they acquire other types of information—through the internet. 

Transparency in information is important to buyers. Product information, pricing, discounts, policies, lead times, and other information should all be accessible over the internet. 

One of the advantages of B2B eCommerce is its transparency. Buyers want detail, openness, and flexibility from an eCommerce business with B2B-friendly features. A digitized, integrated B2B purchase experience is likewise built on the foundation of eCommerce. 

Digitization 

To digitize and centralize procurement, B2B buyers use eProcurement solutions. Buyers can use eProcurement to cut procurement costs, eliminate rogue spending, and guarantee that personnel follow procurement standards. 

Many eProcurement capabilities, on the other hand, are reliant on supplier cooperation: they can only function if the buyer’s eProcurement system is linked to the supplier’s eCommerce shop. HubBroker’s Integration solutions help you with that.

Integration 

A buyer’s system and a supplier’s eCommerce shop can communicate through eProcurement integration solutions such as the ones provided by HubBroker. They can automatically transfer procurement documents and data once they’ve been incorporated. 

Integration reduces the need for manual data entry and the errors that come with it. It also offers a slew of automation capabilities that boost buyers’ and suppliers’ procurement productivity and efficiency. 

Automation 

To improve the procurement experience, B2B automation uses eProcurement integration. Buyers are increasingly willing to abandon suppliers due to cumbersome procurement processes and unsatisfactory purchasing experiences. 

B2B transactions are greatly simplified by procurement automation. When a buyer’s eProcurement platform is linked to a supplier’s eCommerce shop, they can take use of automations such as:  

• HubBroker’s eCatalog Solutions 

• Purchase order automation 

• eInvoicing 

• eQuotes 

Suppliers can use HubBroker to connect to any buyer’s eProcurement, ERP, Accounting or any other business system. All eProcurement systems and eCommerce stores are supported by our B2B Integrated Platform as a Service (iPaaS). You may send eCatalogs, purchase orders, eInvoicing, and more to any buyer once your eCommerce business is integrated with our iPaaS. 

Buyers want providers to expand on the progress gained in the last two years of the pandemic as we approach 2022. Digitization and automation in procurement are here to stay. The HubBroker iPaaS handles data sharing and program compatibility, enabling quick, low-cost, and dependable integration. Through integrated digital procurement and procurement automation, HubBroker’s iPaaS assists suppliers in developing long-term partnerships with customers. 

Contact us today to learn more about how HubBroker can help you provide the superior procurement experience that your buyers want.