B2B e-commerce: Online buying trends explain what professional buyers demand

The dust has yet to clear from 2016. But if Forrester Research was correct in its forecast, US business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce sales topped $855 billion in 2016, and will exceed $1.1 trillion per year by 2020.

Chalk it up in part to a consumerized buying experience, says Sana Commerce Director of Business Development Giuseppe Ianni. "What people have grown accustomed to as consumers trends up to B2B buyers, including quick access to orders, order history and the ability to reorder off of an old order, so they're not having to generate a 100-line item order."

Whether buying on Amazon.com or from a semiconductor manufacturer, ordering without rekeying has become a measure of buying excellence.

Still, business buyers have requirements beyond those of consumers. Ianni points to predictive ordering - tracking buying patterns and making that information available to a buyer, perhaps in anticipation of seasonal orders, or attached to a similar project. The buyer can use that information as a basis for forecasting and in turn budgeting and planning.

Like their B2C counterparts, "B2B customers are also looking for a user-friendly web experience; not just on a traditional browser, but also opening it up to tablets and mobile phones," says Ianni. But where consumers need only choose shipping and payment methods, B2B customers expect far more from a web store.

Ianni, who will be hosting an MSDynamicsWorld webcast for Sana Commerce on January 10^th titled