Just a few short years ago, the majority of B2B buyers still researched and bought from B2B companies via paper catalogs, fax machines, and landline phones. Today, Forrester reports that more than 74% of U.S. B2B buyers research at least half of their work purchases online before buying offline or online. And it’s projected that the percentage of U.S. B2B buyers who will complete at least half of their work purchases online will increase to more than 55% by 2020. That is a significant trend.
As your customer accounts opt to self-serve more and more online, the complicated nature of the buying journey will still cause them to engage in many channels, including online, in-store, and with your sales agents in the field. To provide excellent customer experiences that keep accounts buying from you for years to come, distributors must deliver equally strong experiences across all traditional and digital channels.
How do you deliver it effectively? While there are certainly many areas of focus with regards to your product content, the answer is found in Product Information Management, or PIM systems.
Product information is a key component for succeeding at digital strategies and online sales for all B2B companies. Providing consistent, accurate, and comprehensive information is an essential part of creating a great customer experience, building trust with customers, and giving them the information they are looking for where and when they want to find it.
By researching product offerings online, customers can more rapidly detect differences in prices of commodity products and compare features and differentiated value between products. Therefore, your reputation for displaying accurate information in digital product catalogs is increasingly on the hook.
A PIM (Product Information Management) solution supports enterprises with content creation and distribution by enabling the production and customization of content for any current and future sales channels—both online and offline. With PIM, any distributor can build a robust foundation for high-quality content.
