The world has changed. What made your business successful 5 years ago does not necessarily work anymore today. Businesses must renew their right to exist. It requires a new digital sales playbook. 

How do you find the right answers? Past experience is helpful, but practical experience from a wide range of companies from different sectors is much more impactful. Ultimately, you can’t ask yourself a question and be surprised by the answer. The required impetus that businesses need for their future success must come from experts who can provide fresh insights. 

Selling online today is more difficult than ever before

Digital sales and digital marketing pose major challenges for many brands and manufacturers. Businesses must provide future-oriented answers to constantly evolving customer demands.

We have asked company leaders, owners of digital agencies and eCommerce thought-leaders the following key question: 

“What do businesses with a multi-level sales approach need in order to generate predictable online sales?”

Every attempt to find answers showed a conflict in the online go-to-market motion between businesses and their sales partners. D2C online shops and those of dealers naturally compete for the same online customer. All parties depend on visibility on Meta, Google and other gatekeepers. This results in high marketing investments from every business to battle it out. Yes, there is a winner. Unfortunately, it is not you and your company.  For these reasons, we have developed a unique digital sales approach that is different to what has been available today. More on that below.

Manufacturer Online Shops do not work

Businesses face tremendous challenges in achieving a mere 2% conversion rate with an online shop. This means that they are unable to convince 98% of their visitors to make a purchase with them. At the same time, online marketplaces thrive. 

The costs of running an online shop go beyond the initial setup. Costs include everything from hosting, security to integration into the existing IT landscape before adding any marketing expenses to drive traffic. Not counted in yet are personnel or external agencies with the required know-how to build, integrate and manage an online shop. In summary, high operations costs, expensive customer acquisitions and low conversion rates render most online shops unprofitable.

Stop the lead management madness

What value does your website offer? There are three reasons why people visit your website: product information, service inquiry or purchase intent (apart from job seekers, investors, other stakeholders). For businesses that do not have an online shop they instead offer customers to fill in a contact form (or similar) to capture customer interest.

Then the lead management madness starts. A customer becomes a MQL, then a SQL, information is then added to the CRM before the customer gets qualified. It does not stop here. Eventually an offer is sent before the lengthy process comes to an end: closed won or closed lost. That is pure madness. 

The truth is, no customer wants to be prospected or converted. There has to be a better way. The good news is, we invented a much better, if not to say the ultimate Brand Commerce approach for your business. 

Customers want choice!

Have you ever shopped on Amazon, Ebay or Rakuten? What makes online marketplaces so much more successful than online shops? Product selection? Price comparison? It is the choice an online marketplace offers. At the moment of truth customers want choice! 

An online shop can only provide one seller option, meaning one price and no means of comparison.  The lack of transparency and choice is where businesses fail and thus lose customers. This is the killer feature that makes online marketplaces successful. The choice of sellers and with it the option to compare different offers of the same product.

Still, there is one crucial element online marketplaces fall short on. We will get to that in a moment.

Customers love it simple. Just like you!

We have highlighted why businesses should stop the lead management madness. And why most online shops underperform. Interestingly, many businesses do not offer an online shop for the very reasons mentioned above. 

Now you might say, we have a dealer search solution on our website. Yes, and that is even worse. Imagine you enter a store and are asked to leave to get the product at another location because there is no cash desk. Redirecting customers is effectively doing the same. You force your potential customers out of the door to go to your dealer’s website. The customer might buy your product, another brand’s product or no product at all. Well, that is a marketing budget well invested (not!).

Discover the Amazon-like Shop App

Well, what is the answer to all the woes – online shops that do not perform, customers expectations not being fulfilled and dealer search solutions that do more harm than good to your business?

The future is anchored in a brand-led sales approach. A brand-owned sales channel on your website. One that only lists your authorized sales partners and offers customers more choice at the point of sale. A true game changing digital sales approach as it combines your unique brand appeal with the consolidated sales offers of your vendors. 

Say hello to Next Commerce’s “Multi-Seller Checkout”. For the very first time, your customers are being offered the very best brand buying experience. More choice, full transparency and a frictionless buying journey directly on your website. This new brand commerce approach even exceeds the most demanding customer’s expectations and results in an enormous sales uplift.

To all marketers, say hello to your new superpower that helps marketing budgets win new customers. Say goodbye to clueless business impact and question marks. Leverage your marketing prowess with immediate access to analytics and customer data. 

To all sales owners, welcome back in the driver seat with an uncontested sales channel. No competitors and no leads. 100% sales performance for your business.

Just imagine for a minute:

• the Multi-Seller Checkout on your website
• customers browse and select a product
• customers see a list of authorised sales partners
• customers experience a moment of choice
• customers choose the most appealing offer for them 
• customers pay through the embedded checkout (no wasteful redirect!)
• the great customer experience and positive business impact

And now think about your website today:

• a chatbot?
• a contact form?
• a dealer search?

Welcome to the future of Brand Commerce.

Welcome to Next Commerce!