Hokodo, the B2B eCommerce Association, OroCommerce and Greenwood Consulting have released a joint report that explores the habits and e-commerce expectations of business buyers.
Out of the 500 surveyed B2B buyers, 53% of respondents who work in construction building materials noted that they make daily purchases. Over 50% of all those surveyed make purchases a few times per week. This valuable insight reveals that B2B buyers are making highly frequent purchases, often ordering daily from the same websites, making features such as repeat purchase options and one-click checkouts essential for a good user experience.
The report found that the biggest issues facing construction and building materials buyers are a poor user experience (53%), no real-time product availability (33%) and a lack of payment terms (33%). 70% of respondents in this sector even said that they would abandon an e-commerce purchase if no payment terms were offered at checkout, meaning that B2B sellers failing to offer payment terms are missing out on capturing new business and revenue growth.
The majority of respondents to Hokodo’s survey (73%) said that payment challenges at checkout are causing them issues. These include unsuitable settlement methods, or a lack of payment terms on offer. With 79% of construction and building materials buyers agreeing that payment terms are critical for the success of their business in 2024, those that experience payment issues at checkout are far more likely to abandon their cart. An overwhelming majority of respondents in this sector (90%) said that having access to payment terms is either important or very important when choosing a new B2B supplier. For construction companies and other businesses buying building materials, the verdict is clear: payment terms aren’t just ‘nice to have’, but essential for survival.
However, a lack of payment terms is not the only issue that B2B buyers are facing at checkout. In fact, only 2% of all survey respondents said that they face no issues at checkout whatsoever. This suggests that buyers generally have very low expectations of what their suppliers are able to deliver. In turn, low customer expectations can lead to a reduced sense of loyalty, meaning that many merchants risk losing customers to a more reliable supplier.
As well as highlighting the challenges facing sellers of construction supplies and building materials, the new report also makes tangible recommendations that merchants can implement to improve their customer experience.
To tackle the dissatisfaction amongst B2B buyers, the report recommends that sellers request feedback from the customers that use their checkout in order to find out where it can be improved. In doing so, sellers can pinpoint exactly where they’re going wrong and apply new measures to improve the experience – from bettering customer support, limiting checkout complexity or introducing transparency around additional fees, there are several measures suggested in the report that B2B sellers can use to impress and win customers.
Louis Carbonnier, Co-founder and President of Hokodo said:
“The findings of this survey reinforce what we at Hokodo have always known: payment terms are a must-have for construction and building materials B2B e-commerce transactions. We’ve spent the past six years developing and refining solutions that address this critical need, empowering merchants to offer flexible payment terms, instantly, at the point of need, even on a customer’s first purchase.”
Christopher Gee, UK Chapter Lead of the B2B eCommerce Association said:
“This report is packed with insights and data that B2B merchants can incorporate into their e-commerce strategies. To retain customers, B2B merchants need to build and maintain trust at the point of purchase.”
Aaron Sheehan, Director of Product Marketing, OroCommerce said:
“Hokodo’s research is a must-read; it pinpoints exactly where your B2B payments and checkout process need improvement and offers hands-on tips to help you enhance those areas.”
Visit Hokodo to download the full report.
About Hokodo
Hokodo is the leading provider of flexible payment terms for European merchants and marketplaces. Bringing all the elements of trade credit management onto one platform, Hokodo enables business buyers to access payment terms even on their first purchase, while merchants get paid upfront and in full, and remain 100% protected from risk. Hokodo is driven by rich data and backed by Lloyd’s of London to insure payments and ensure peace of mind.