Despite being uneven across several industries, online B2B sales are expanding significantly. According to DigitalCommerce360, manufacturers increased eCommerce sales by 18.4% to $543.25 billion using their own websites, applications, and B2B marketplaces in 2021. Additionally, the industry is becoming more competitive, and customers are becoming more demanding.
There are two measures that are crucial for assessing a B2B eCommerce company’s capacity for long-term client retention. They are customer churn and retention. According to Bain & Company, a 5% increase in client retention can result in a more than 25% profit boost. Let’s learn about customer retention and churn rates and how brands can reduce their churn.
Customer Retention Rate: What is It?
B2B customer retention rate is measured by the percentage of clients who continue to make purchases from a business over time. In B2B eCommerce, businesses should know what a “retained customer” means. Is it a client who placed an order during the last six months or has made a certain amount of money? Many businesses determine this number independently, whether it’s a revenue threshold or total purchases over time.
Churn and Customer Retention in B2B eCommerce
Where engagement and long-term commitment matters, retention and churn are the KPIs of choice for service providers. For instance, by comparing the number of customers at the end of the month and the beginning of the month, a company may determine its monthly retention and churn rate. B2B eCommerce purchases are far more challenging to estimate because each customer’s needs differ. These KPIs might not initially appear to be relevant to the majority of non-contractual eCommerce purchases.
However, this does not lessen the significance of assessing retention and churn. These are the two most important KPIs that any B2B eCommerce company should monitor. Maintaining an eye on customer retention will help businesses expand their clientele, whether they run an established firm or a budding B2B company with just a few clients. Keeping a customer-centric perspective is essential for churn reduction and building a long-lasting company.
How is Customer Churn Rate Calculated?
Take the number of customers a business had at the end of the time period, remove any new ones acquired during that time, then divide the number by the number of customers the company had at the beginning to find the customer retention rate. This will determine the percentage of clients kept over the course of the company’s period.
Customer Churn Rate= Customers at the end of the Period- New Customers During the Period/ Customers at the beginning of the period
Why Is B2B eCommerce Customer Retention Important?
Larger sales, margins, and growth rates have long been used by businesses that prioritize customer success to differentiate themselves. This is because returning customers make more prominent, more frequent purchases at higher prices. Additionally, it is less expensive to get them.
B2B eCommerce retention techniques are a little trickier than B2C eCommerce retention strategies since good email promotion and affordable prices don’t always work. B2B customers seek strong connections, straightforward price negotiations, repeat business, and flexibility when making company purchases. In addition, losing a B2B customer would negatively affect revenue because B2B relationships are longer, and B2B customers spend more over time.
It’s critical to understand that retention rates for B2B vendors vary significantly across industries. Thus, when customer segmentation is added, the KPI for retention becomes truly important because a business can tailor its marketing messages to different buyer personas and demographics.
How to Boost Customer Retention?
Simply developing a workplace culture that values meticulous, diligent work will not help a business enhance its retention rates. However, if a company truly wants to boost its retention rates, it should consider using any of the following tactics.
Launch a Loyalty Program for Customers
Loyalty programs, points, and other rewards are well received by B2B clients, just like their B2C counterparts. Using CRM software, a business may divide its clientele into distinct groups and send them unique messages based on its incentive scheme. These significantly impact order values, frequency of purchases, and other data that show a strong client retention rate.
Offer Closer Customer Support
Customer success and retention are significantly impacted by offering high and consistent levels of customer service. Customers need assurance that their support requests will be resolved efficiently and accurately.
Customer service is much more than just reducing churn. It’s also an effective technique to communicate to the clients the values and guiding principles of a company. Businesses must ensure that the support staff goes further to help consumers experiencing problems with the product. A business will never know when, just from a basic support ticket, they can discover a crucial functionality insight or perhaps an unexpected possibility for upselling a customer.
Consistently good customer service can have much wider positive results. Nothing is more likely to have a client recommend a product than a positive experience with exceptional customer service, becoming a critical driver of pipeline health.
Improve the B2B experience
Business consumers typically deal with approval procedures and negotiations before a purchase is finished since they buy on behalf of their companies. Decision-makers enjoy viewing their orders and editing fulfillment information as needed. An adaptable B2B e
m can meet these needs, leading to an improved purchasing experience.
Shiprocket Cargo Helping B2B Logistics
Multiple factors decide the numbers for retention and churn rates for a business. It can be a good customer experience, unchallenged customer support, the right technology, and more.
Shiprocket Cargo leverages advanced technologies to offer customers a hassle-free and smooth shipping experience. It offers a single platform that helps B2B businesses carry out all their processes on one platform. RB provides the following services:
- Appointment-based delivery to ensure hassle-free pickup and delivery.
- Real-time shipment tracking: this helps in live-tracking of the shipment to help in a secure and timely delivery
- Wide serviceability- 18k+ pin codes to deliver seamlessly in most parts of the country.
Overall, Shiprocket Cargo helps reduce the common problems faced by B2B businesses and enhances the B2B customer experience.
Conclusion
Businesses should spend enough time, money, and effort on enhancing client retention and lowering turnover. They should find innovative approaches to retaining current and inactive consumers by contacting them through various communication channels, creating customer satisfaction surveys to gather feedback, and continually adjusting their marketing plan.
