B2B Commerce is a pure digitalization of lead to cash process. Organizations need to 'Think Process' not just technology.

In this blog, I wanted to talk about the Process aspect, of Business to business commerce. ?My intent is to find the right alignment of commerce operations, and its monitoring strategy, in context of lead to cash process. ?When we plan a strategic commerce for an organization, we need to understand the fundamentals of the process.

An Outbound marketing or Ad based online promotion, equals a Commerce driven Lead generation step. This is practically the first step, of a lead to cash process. It helps Identify and acquire potential customers, through various channels such as online advertising, trade shows, or referral programs. Similarly, any user onboarding ?equals Commerce driven Lead qualification. It helps evaluate the lead to determine if they are a good fit for the product or service offered, and if they have the budget and authority to make a purchase.

As a second step, within the commerce channel, any Content based Customer engagement ?equals Commerce driven Lead nurturing. It helps build relationships with leads, by providing valuable content, answering their questions, and keeping them engaged with the brand. Analytics based Personalized Profile Attribution equals Commerce driven Lead scoring . It helps assign a score, to each lead based on their engagement, demographics, and other relevant factors to prioritize follow-up efforts. During an engagement, Assisted Sales or Chatbot based Customer Engagement, ?equals Commerce Sales engagement. It helps reaching out to qualified leads through various methods such as email, phone, or in-person meetings to further evaluate their needs and provide a sales pitch.

As a third step, Quotation management equals Commerce Proposal preparation, which eventually leads to an order. It helps Create a detailed proposal that outlines the product or service being offered, its features, and its cost. B2B Cart?equals Commerce driven Contract based Negotiation. It helps review ?the proposal with the customer and negotiating the terms of the deal, including pricing, delivery, and payment terms. Similarly B2B Checkout equals Commerce driven Order Entry process. ?It receives the customer's order, as per customer’s context, their contracted price, their contracted inventory priority and their credit limit. Commerce helps electronically validate the accuracy of the order including the customer's information, product details, and any special requests. Post validation, Order processing equals commerce driven order confirmation . Commerce digitally enters the order into the ERP system, confirming the details with the customer and ensuring that all necessary information is captured.

As a fourth step, Order fulfillment equals commerce logistics integrated product delivery. It enables a digital integration to shipping companies, thereby delivering the product. Most of the commerce are integrated to one or two logistics providers who eventually pick-up products and deliver, at a cost. At the same time, as soon an order is confirmed, it leads to a commerce driven quick invoicing ?. Commerce helps automatically create an invoice for the customer that outlines the amount due, payment terms, and any relevant tax information.

Fifth step, is the Payment collection, which equals cash collection in Lead to Cash process. The platform automatically ?follows ?with the customer credit card company, to ensure payment is received according to the payment terms outlined in the invoice. It supports core ERP for digitally ?Recognize revenue as per the order value in the invoice, updates integrated ERP company's financial records and updating the accounts receivable balance.

Key Performance Indicators

Now since we have mapped the right process elements, we should be able to put the right KPIs for ?this process’s monitoring. ?You will see a lot of detailed web-analytics, PPI and ?KPIs, which does make sense from a ?commerce Channel manager perspective. However, from an investment perspective, a B2B businesses process owner, should actually review a commerce initiative, with KPI like Revenue Realized, Market Penetrated , Customer satisfaction achieved, Throughput time, Order Accuracy percent, Operating Expenditure per million dollar revenue .

Some of the other analytics KPIs, which are essential for commerce daily monitoring needs are - Traffic Sources, Unique Visitors, Page Views, Bounce Rate, Time on Site, Conversion Rate, Average Order Value, Cart Abandonment Rate, Revenue by Traffic Source, Customer Lifetime Value, Churn Rate, Customer Acquisition Cost, Return on Investment, Customer Retention Rate, Average Time to Purchase, Top Landing Pages, Exit Pages, Click-Through Rate, Mobile Traffic, Site Speed?

Summary

When an organization plans an ecommerce operations, they need to step back and see this as a investment into a ‘digital’ lead to cash process. Like any other process, it has its relevant KPIs and hence, relevant business capabilities, constrains ?and persona to deal with.

I will explain different commerce persona, and their key responsibilities in my next blog.

Meanwhile, feel free to reachout and connect for eCommerce queries at email:[email protected] .