B2B Chicago 2024

May 06 - 08, 2024

Chicago Marriott Downtown

Whitepaper & Video Center

B2B Online 2019 Innovation Briefing

B2B e-commerce in the U.S. alone is on course to reach $9 trillion in 2018(Forrester). Market pressure is immense as businesses are in a land grab mentality. With a far more complex customer than B2C, manufacturers and distributors must sell to both the person and the business as a whole.There has been a significant amount of digital transformation happening within the B2B space in the last few years. Customers who are responsible for purchasing products and services on behalf of their companies also purchase products online in their personal life.In the B2B Online Innovation Briefing, our aim is to take you behind the scenes at major manufacturers and distributors that are creating valuable experiences and growing in an ever changing digital age. We’ve also included a look into specific strategies that are contributing to the change in B2B marketing.


B2B Value Chains: Who Will Own the Experience Economy?

In anticipation of the dramatic growth, manufacturers and distributors are getting ready to capture their piece of the pie while better serving customers. The question for manufacturers and distributors is: How? As B2B companies endeavor to answer these questions, and overcome perceived channel conflict, they will explore new, cloud-based digital commerce technologies, seamlessly onboard channel partners, and expand their investments in customer experience (CX) initiatives to ultimately become the purveyors of today’s new experience economy.


7 Realities of Today's CIOs (And How OrderCloud by Four51 is Turning CIOs Into Digital Transformation Heroes)

Digital transformation is forcing companies to rethink priorities and to shake-up the C-suite, changing roles and responsibilities to match their vision for tomorrow. CIOs, who once were known as technology gatekeepers or even roadblocks, are now charged with being the driver of innovation and change across their company's infrastructure, people and processes.  This report explores why it's more important than ever for you to identify eCommerce tools and services that enable you to say "Yes!" to solving order management and automation challenges with ease.


Leveraging AI to Increase Efficiency and Improve the B2B Customer Experience

AI is one of the most popular buzzwords in B2B marketing, but not all marketers are bridging the gap between its potential and its best practices. In this 2019 B2B Online report, we uncover how enterprise B2B companies are transforming their market strategies to strengthen customer relationships and identify the practical ways in which AI will help. We investigate where in marketers’ strategies and their companies’ objectives AI is taking root, and how they are experimenting to innovate engagement with customers using AI technologies.


The Evolving Role of CFOs among Manufacturers and Distributors

Access to B2B-related data is improving, making data-driven decisions and awareness across each organization widespread. As this awareness drives upward towards CFOs, they are becoming more involved in business processes across the organization and making practical decisions about the operational futures of their companies. In this report, learn how data technologies help B2B financial leaders connect with operational decision making, visibility, and oversight.


NECXT – Watching the CX Horizon

Mobile, cloud, and social technologies have transformed the world of work and play over the past decade. Smartphones, always-on computing, vast storage, instantaneous communications across networks of connected audiences - together these capabilities wrought change that was beyond imagination ten years ago. They will be far less disruptive going forward because they're now mainstream. Consumers and workers have come to expect them. That begs the question of what's next. What technologies will drive continued transformation? How? When?


Evaluating the Essential Factors in Choosing the Right B2B Ecommerce Platform

Looking to learn more about what your peers consider essential when picking a new ecommerce platform? This new report will help you pick out what to prioritize, and why based on the responses of members of B2B Online's event community. Click the image to claim your copy of this free research!


B2B Online 2018 Highlights Report

B2B Online is the original and go-to event for Manufacturer and Distributor marketers and digital executives. Withcomprehensive programming to arm executives with the best practices they need to implement and achieve more with onlinetechnology, B2B Online celebrated its 5th dynamic year in 2018, in Chicago. The event brought together 800+ eCommerce anddigital marketing executives in the manufacturing and distribution industries. Click on the report to the left to download!


Personalization: The New Foundation of B2B Digital Sales

As manufacturers and distributors transition to digital sales environments, personalization needs to be a top priority and tech investment. Leading industry research shows that B2B companies with effective personalization will outsell less-developed competitors by 30%. In this report, see how leading companies are leveraging data to predict the product interests of their customers, surfacing contextual information to customize interactions, and aiding in customers’ relevant discovery online. 


Onboarding to Digital: How B2B Sales Teams Improve Customer Relationships in Connected Environments

As B2B customers adopt digital interfaces to conduct business, relationships forged by salespeople must graduate to new digital environments. But companies are concerned they will lose customers when deals conducted online become purely transactional. In digital sales, personal relationships salespeople form with customers become all the more important.Onboarding to Digital analyzes industry pain points and directly consults B2B sales leaders to understand how they are approaching their digital transformations. This report uncover how the direct attention of salespeople will remain relevant in a complex, technology-driven sales environment.


Transforming B2B CX with Data-Driven Commerce

In a complex B2B environment, manufacturers and distributors must provide customers with engaging interactions and experiences that delight them. But with outdated engagement methods, disappointing service models, and insufficient resources, how can they create the ideal customer experience? In this report, we uncover how B2B companies are leveraging sophisticated data to predict pain points, increase the efficacy of marketing and sales communications, and reach the future state of customer experiences.


A Digital Journey: Transforming B2B Retail for AmeriPride Services

Click the image on the left to download now! In a webinar hosted on October 25, 2016, Rob Marlotte, Director of Pricing and eCommerce at AmeriPride was joined by Dwayne Doshier, Senior Director, Custom Growth Services at InSite Software to present the details of AmeriPride’s digital journey and success in order to help other B2B sellers achieve the same returns on their B2B ecommerce investments. During the discussion, the partners highlight key applications hosted on AmeriPride’s InSite platform— software for which AmeriPride conducted extensive senior management involvement and a board review, which established the groundwork for a comprehensive approach to implementation. From a leadership standpoint, AmeriPride had to ensure digital and ecommerce objectives aligned with the company’s greater strategy. This paper shares the details of AmeriPride’s collaboration with InSite to reach these objectives on their digital journey, and transform their traditional B2B business into a scalable, leading-edge resource for their customers. Key topics include:Beginning the Digital Journey in eCommerceContinuing the Digital Journey in SalesUtilizing Analytics on the Path to PurchaseBringing Aboard Traditional Customers


Quick Wins for B2B Sellers - Analytics and Digital Marketing Strategies

For B2B sellers, quick wins may sound hard to come by. Developing digital strategies, platforms, and processes to market and sell through multiple channels is about as complex as business marketing problems can get. But there is a path to some low hanging fruit that entails developing and implementing an analytics framework and an associated digital marketing strategy. This might not sound easy, but a smart, directed approach to these disciplines can yield near immediate results without having to settle for limited, siloed mini-optimizations. In fact, this approach helps lay a solid foundation for building superior, complex digital experiences. And, it can be implemented quickly without enormous cash outlays. HS2 recently strengthened its analytics and digital marketing strategy chops through the acquisition of LunaMetrics, bolstering our abilities to leverage analytics to help B2B brands illuminate the bridge between marketing, user behavior, and ROI. The following are best practices our combined company regularly uses when counseling our clients.


The Next Generation of B2B Purchasing: Millennials, Marketplaces and Digital Buying Preferences

B2B salespeople continue to use traditional methods of selling, such as engaging buyers via phone calls or even face to face. But time has become a constraint for buyers, and new digital purchasing channels have emerged to speed up the buying process. In this report, we explore the B2B buyer demand for those digital channels versus traditional channels. Buyers acknowledge the “amazing experiences” sellers can provide using digital platforms, which provide greater availability of more products, easier management of operations and relationships, and successful on-time product delivery. Digital channels, including marketplaces, have emerged as the clear, transformative favorites among the youngest buyers in the workforce—Millennials, born from 1977 to 1995—and as a popular choice among other age groups as well.Mirakl, Oracle, and B2B Online surveyed 200 B2B buyers across Latin America, Europe, and North America. Respondents represent only private companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue. The majority of B2B buyers do business with both manufacturers (86%) and distributors (90%). Each respondent is directly involved in their company’s buying processes and represents one of the three age groups measured in the study.


Defining Omnichannel Excellence in B2B

In B2C retail, an omnichannel paradigm is the new gold standard, paving the way for similar progress for B2B. There are several major benefits to a more coordinated digital strategy, not the least of which is the ability to align channels towards the creation of a cohesive customer facing brand experience. On the back end, the ability to collect customer data and incorporate it into a single view has major potential for brands who can tailor their programs around progressively more segmented insights based on this information.Key points include:Organization of ecommerce and digital marketing strategiesGrowing digital salesNeed to integrate point solutions into omnichannel


Closing the Gap: Digital Leadership in B2B eCommerce

The B2B market has already made significant strides in the adoption of new sales channels, but business buyers have shifted to online research and purchasing more quickly than many vendors have been able to adapt. Effective digital transformation for B2B eCommerce demands successful leveraging of technology and a responsive IT environment, one in which both technical teams and stakeholders collaborate to exploit technologies for business advantages.Key findings include:Fast-tracking digital transformation is a strategic priority on the path to digital leadershipThe biggest obstacle to delivering the best possible omnichannel eCommerce experiences is ComplexityB2B companies must invest in new technologies to support the flexible, personalized omnichannel experiencesClick the image to the left to download now!


Accelerating Digital Transformation in B2B Ecommerce

As B2B sales evolves, companies are identifying digital initiatives as part of an essential step towards improving experiences for new and existing customers, as well as differentiating themselves from their competitors. This report identifies how manufacturers and distributors achieve executive support for strategic digital initiatives, and provides insights into key stages of their development, including:Increasing sales through online channels to both acquisitions and existing customers Aligning digital and business initiatives to achieve executive buy-in Expanding ecommerce operations for a greater presence in the digital market


Infographic: Transforming B2B Customer Engagement with Cognitive Capabilities

Take advantage of the insights and discover the priorities of leading customer experience executives as they identify their strengths, digital maturity, and areas of improvement in the new B2B digital environment.


2018 Digital Innovation Briefing

In our reports and conferences, we pride ourselves on showing our audience a behind the scenes look at the most successful manufacturer and distributor marketing initiatives. We’re committed to getting you the tools and insights to help build your ultimate omnichannel experience. As a marketing executive, it’s essential that you know what the industry leaders are doing to enhance their digital strategy. In this brief report, we give a snapshot of how several manufacturers and distributors (of all different sizes) are addressing new digital strategies, customer experience and innovation.


COGNITIVELY APART: Predictive Customer Intelligence in Divisive B2B Markets

In 2018, already competitive B2B companies are tracking industry developments and keeping an eye on the evolution of customer behavior to maintain their competitive edge. According to our findings, 48% of B2B companies are already using predictive technologies as a key part of their business.This report provides a detailed analysis of market disruption, cognitive maturity, and the evolution of customer engagement in B2B markets; and reveals how business leaders are aligning the enterprise to face the market disruptions.


Payment Strategy, A Competitive Challenge for Marketplaces

In just a few years, the entire payment industry went through a number of major structural changes that have called into question the traditional strategy of payment management. These silent changes have had a drastic impact on the competitiveness of online marketplaces: the more successful and internationalized they become, the more critical payment management becomes for profitability. Marketplaces today are dealing with both higher volumes and more complex transactions. Simultaneously, they must broaden their customer base and increase the acceptance of alternative and local payment methods to remain competitive on the world market.In this white paper, we explore the factors of this increasingly important topic. Firstly, the success model is examined because it is intertwined with increased volumes and complexity of transactions. Secondly, a focus is placed on internationalization, due to its involvement in expanding the customer base through the use of alternative and local payment methods. Lastly, the topic of regulatory evolutions is explored: to see if they impose new constraints and how they redefine the rules of the game to accelerate international growth in an unprecedented manner


Payments in 2050 & Beyond

To project to year 2050 and imagine what the payment industry will be like in a little over thirty years, seems ambitious if not hazardous. We haven’t chosen this endeavor randomly. Projecting only 10 years ahead is relatively effortless; quite a few conferences regularly address the subject. 10 years from now is pretty much like today—only a little faster, bigger, more cross-channel, more mobile. But 100 years is a long way off. Now we are talking pure science fiction.Projecting 30 years ahead, on the other hand, is trickier. It requires that we keep one foot firmly in the present, pursuing our current methods, and at the same time project a strong vision into a future that most of us will still be around to experience. 30 years ago we were in 1990—to me, only yesterday. Yet at the time e-commerce was still in its infancy. France, for instance, boasted only the Minitel. Amazon wasn’t created until 1994. Google only dates back to 1998. My first Nokia was a gift in 2000. In a space of “barely” 30 years I lived through at least three major global revolutions in technology.Today, as we approach the end of 2017, Limonetik represents more than 125 international payment methods and handles the payment flows of international B2C and B2B online marketplaces for PSPs, buyers and merchants around the world. Publishing this eBook literally “heightened our awareness” of the key changes and improvements that must be considered when creating our current service offer: the introduction of instant payment; total internationalisation of exchange; generalisation of online exchange platforms (e.g., online marketplaces) in B2B; and disappearance of currencies and of the act of paying.


Going Digital: The race to meet B2B customers' evolving expectations

This paper explores the challenges facing B2B merchants in the digital marketplace era and offers an innovative technology solution.



Want even more reading material? View whitepapers and reports from our 2018 event.

2018 Media Center