7 extra tips to move your business customer from offline to online purchase

In the previous blog I already shared 7 tips that can help you move the traditional business customer to your webshop. The focus was on making a good first impression with the right preparation. In this second blog we look at the next step. We share 7 tips to actually entice the customer to place their orders online, so that you will experience the organizational benefits of a well-designed B2B eCommerce platform.

Tip 1: Support dialing customers online

People are creatures of habit and we like to order in the way we are used to. You can speed up a switch by taking by the hand the calling and faxing customer and going through the registration process together up to including the first online order. The perfect opportunity to point out the many advantages that online ordering offers, such as an up-to-date insight into order statuses and invoices.
The time you invest now in guiding the more traditional customers to the online environment will pay off later because the customer has direct access to all relevant information about his orders without having to contact the office staff.

Tip 2: Make the sales team part of the process

A sales employee can see an eCommerce environment as a threat, because what if he no longer receives a bonus if he does not generate or accept the order himself? And what if there will soon be no more work for him? Therefore, make sure you have the sales team on board by letting them experience the benefits of the webshop themselves, so that they pass it on to their customers.
A good training in the use of the webshop and the possibility to log in on behalf of the customer is a good start. In this way, they see the same information as the customer and the role of the salesperson can shift to an advisor or account manager. 
If you are looking for an extra motivator for the sales team to entice their customers to place orders online, you can consider giving a bonus for the percentage of online generated sales of their customers.

Tip 3: Launch a webshop awareness campaign

You may have thought that the webshop is a major improvement for the customer, but does the customer actually know what the benefits are? You create more support by listening to your customer's experience (tip 6 of the first blog) and by explaining what the webshop provides for him or her. The announcement that a webshop has been launched is usually not enough. 
For example, through a multichannel campaign you can take the customer along in the process of how the webshop was created and what the advantages are of ordering via the webshop. This could look like this:

Mail 1	Mail 2 (shipping time +3 days)	Mail 3 (shipping time +5 days)	Calling (+7 days)
Goal: Make customers aware of the existence of the webshop	Goal: Explain the benefits for the customer	Goal: Convince customer to place a first order online	Goal: Convince customer to use the unique code of mail 3
General introduction launched webshop with beautiful visuals of the webshop.	Summary of the benefits for the customer (personalized based on the role of contact person) with video that explains, for example, placing an order and the self-service part of the webshop.	A unique promotional code that gives the customer an advantage when he / she places the first online order before a certain date.	The salespeople / account managers call the customers with a script in which the benefits for the customer are explained again and it is offered to place the first order with promo code together.

The above campaign is just an example and you can of course expand this even further with handouts that are given to customers at the possible physical location or a flyer that is included standard with the delivery of an order. It's about repeating the message and not throwing the customer in the deep with the risk that he or she will fall back on the well-known traditional ordering method.

Tip 4: Offer a discount for the first online order

A webshop becomes extra interesting for your customers, when they take advantage of ordering online instead of through traditional channels. By offering an exclusive discount for the first online order, you give that extra push that may be needed to move a customer to the webshop.

Keep in mind that a discount does not have to be a convincing factor for everyone. Read again tip 1 from the first blog in this series. It is therefore important that you offer such a promotion to the right contact persons within a company.

Tip 5: DM promotion for offline generated orders

Every order must also be delivered. The perfect moment to take advantage of for a DM promotion. For example, add a card with every offline generated order with a screenshot of the webshop with three to five of the most important benefits for your customer. By adding a QR code you make it very easy to go to the webshop.

For example, if you miss the e-mail address of certain customers, you can promise the customer a discount voucher on the enclosed card after registering and creating an account online.

Tip 6: Add a letter to the invoice

Another fairly simple way to create more awareness for the webshop is to add a letter to the envelope with the invoice. Ordering via the webshop also offers advantages for the financial department of your customer. Think of access to all invoices in the My Account environment. The more broadly you convey the message to your customer, the greater the chance they will take the step to the webshop.

Tip 7: Do not forget the truck drivers

When you work with your own transport, you can also involve drivers in the awareness campaign for the webshop. When the driver delivers the order to the customer, the flyer can be handed together with the overpacking slip, which once again mentions the advantages of the webshop. With this flyer you can put more emphasis on insight into current delivery times in the webshop. Perhaps the webshop offers a live track & trace functionality so that the customer always knows exactly where the truck is at that moment.

The following applies to all mentioned tips; emphasize the advantages of the webshop that apply to your customer. In this way, the message will certainly get across and you will see that the generated turnover gradually shifts from offline to online.