Over 800 responded in Sweden, Norway and Denmark through surveys and in-depth interviews. This year's report also includes a novnew B2B Commerce Maturity Ladder.
Two thirds of B2B companies enable trading through digital channels. An online shop is the most common option, a third have it, while 16% offer to get a quote or price proposal online. 17% have a customer portal. External marketplaces are still unusual, only 5% sell their products through that channel. But 14% of those who do not today plan for it, with Amazon topping the list.
Half of all B2B companies generate over 25% of total sales through digital channels. Of those who sell online today, 27% believe that their digital sales will increase by more than 25% next year.
27% want to offer an online shop within 3 years
There is a clear increase in wanting to offer new digital sales channels, 27% of B2B companies that do not already offer digital sales want to launch an online shop / e-commerce solution within 3 years.
The biggest challenges are stated to be the difficulty of translating personal sales and relationships to digital sales and also the difficulty of integrating with the business strategy. 24% of companies in the manufacturing industry see integration with existing systems such as ERP, business systems, as one of the challenges.
B2B Commerce Maturity Ladder
The maturity steps for digital business between companies divide Scandinavian B2B companies into five different maturity steps, from those that are still in the starting pits for digital commerce to the data-driven companies that work continuously to develop their digital business and their customer relationships. By moving up the ladder, maturity increases not only in terms of digital sales activities and the number of digital sales channels used, but also in how active they are in analyzing their customers’ journey, how they market their offering in digital channels, use different systems to support the digital experience. And how they leverage data to continuously develop their offering and digital channels.
Read more about the maturity steps and download Litium’s report for digital B2B commerce.