Consumer Goods and the Great B2B Digital Acceleration
What 500 consumer goods leaders have to say about digital transformation in the B2B route to market.
When the world came to a halt in 2020, a massive wave of digital adoption allowed consumer goods (CG) companies to merchandise and sell products directly to consumers as they flocked online to purchase the essential goods they needed. But digital adoption in the consumer goods industry didn’t just impact the business-to-consumer (B2C) space — it also affected the vast business-to-business (B2B) ecosystem of manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers that work together to get essential goods to your local storefronts.
Organizations acted quickly to adapt to these new market conditions. In our survey of the industry, nearly all (99%) CG companies accelerated digital transformation in their B2B route to market.
99% of CG companies accelerated digital transformation in the B2B route to market.
- Telesales and digital customer service
- Trade promotion management
- Opportunity and account management
- Marketing resource management
- Joint business planning
- Engagement planning
- Cross-channel service and support
- Self-service digital commerce
- B2B marketing
- Partner loyalty management
Respondent profiles
Digital acceleration drives industry-wide B2B maturity
How many years of B2B digital transformation did you accelerate in 2020?
Respondents say that without the digital investments made in 2020, they would have been less successful during the pandemic.
What impact did digital transformation have in 2020?
Digital investments streamline account management
Telesales paid dividends for CG companies to manage their route to market in an environment where agility mattered and new relationships and contractual agreements became necessary in a remote environment. If we take a look at the best performers during 2020, the companies that implemented telesales early benefited the most, with 73% of CG leaders that implemented this capability prior to the pandemic seeing more than a 25% growth in sales.
Retail and field execution goes virtual
Flexibility, transparency, and responsiveness of the retail distribution network was critical in getting valuable merchandise to stores in the face of erratic demand. Field representatives still made in-person store visits, but they did so at a greatly reduced pace as CG companies worked to keep frontline workers safe. At the same time, retailers minimized unnecessary in-person contact to protect shoppers so field reps had limited time in-store for merchandising.
To maintain engagement from afar, CG companies introduced remote store visits. Field reps checked shelf-compliance and conducted merchandising activities remotely, while retailers were able to interact directly with reps to get what they needed to support shoppers.
Now, CG companies are embracing remote work for the long term and pivoting away from traditional field operations. Forty-four percent of CG leaders are looking to adopt more remote-based retail and field execution technologies in the next 3–5 years.
This includes real-time shelf-monitoring (40%), the Internet of Things (IoT) for merchandising audits (39%), and object and facial detection (37%) to support tasks like shelf audits and planogram compliance.
Investments in B2B digital commerce heat up
There was a monumental shift to digital in the B2C space during the COVID-19 pandemic — and the same is true for B2B digital commerce. 2020 was the year when the vast ecosystem of manufacturers, distributors, and large retailers used B2B digital commerce channels to browse products, receive quotes, and make large purchases online.
Eighty percent of all B2B organizations are moving or have moved to digital commerce. In looking closer at the CG industry, nearly half (48%) of respondents implemented self-service B2B digital commerce solutions in 2020.
Companies with revenue of $1B or more adopted self-service tools at an even greater rate (52%) than those with revenue of less than $1B (48%). A cohort of this size likely has electronic ordering in place through an electronic data interchange (EDI), but the increased investment in B2B commerce could indicate that even large businesses are modernizing with self-service channels versus traditional EDI processes.
It should be no surprise that as B2B commerce becomes a more important engagement channel, B2B marketing is also bubbling up as a spending priority. Targeting buyers with direct marketing and increased trade spend, including promotions, was also a priority along with new product introductions.
In the great B2B digital acceleration of 2020, CG leaders have invested in critical areas in order to stay agile and relevant through the black swan event of the pandemic. Results from the survey indicate that digitization of the supply chain, field execution, and customer service was a key indicator of success in 2020 — and will continue to be a priority for leaders in the near future. As CG leaders start to think about where to invest next, one thing holds true: The relationship between the brand and channel partners must be at the center of everything.
TO DIG FURTHER INTO THE REPORT’S FINDINGS, VIEW COUNTRY AND INDUSTRY PROFILES.
