How to Boost Sales on Your Magento Store

Hokodo recently announced a new integration with Magento 2, allowing all B2B stores on the platform to offer customers the option to buy now, pay later, and ultimately increase conversions. In this article, we explore two of the most important ways to boost sales on your B2B Magento store.‍

Provide a seamless user experience

Is your buyer presented with a seamless journey from the moment they land on your homepage through to their order confirmation? If not, you could be inadvertently contributing to cart abandonment rate on your site – but you’d be far from alone: 94% of B2B buyers encounter some kind of customer experience challenge while using e-commerce sites, according to Sana Commerce’s recent B2B Buyer Report.

According to a recent report from Wunderman Thompson, a mighty 90% of buyers expect the same experience from a B2B merchant as they do when buying from a B2C retailer, which means the user experience (UX) of your Magento store needs to be on par with the eBays and Amazons of the world.

But what does seamless UX look like in the world of B2B e-commerce? If you are unsure of where to start, visit your own store and interact with it as a customer would. Where do the problems arise? Although it’s vital to assess obvious things like loading times and mobile optimisation, there are two often overlooked areas which we explore in more detail below.‍

Getting personal

‍Firstly, you need to think about creating a personalised shopping experience for your business customers. 73% of B2B buyers are millennials who are accustomed to online commerce, meaning there’s a high expectation – which is often not met – for a personalised B2C-like shopping experience.

Sana Commerce’s report also revealed that 81% of business buyers are relying on e-commerce stores to make repeat purchases. These customers want to feel like you understand their business purchasing habits and are putting in the effort to make their experience of your store as streamlined as possible.

Of paramount importance here is the ability to leverage insights from past orders in order to provide useful product recommendations, targeted messaging and tailored options like one-click purchases.‍

Intuitive navigation‍

No matter how personalised your product recommendations are, most of your customers will still want to spend as little time as possible on your Magento store. So, implementing an intuitive navigation system is the second part of ensuring your B2B e-commerce site’s user experience is up to scratch.

Ultimately, the goal of a business buyer is to get to the checkout in as few clicks as possible, so you need to implement an intuitive navigation system that helps customers find and buy exactly what they are looking for. This is especially important for merchants operating in complex industries and marketplaces with broad, sprawling inventories.

Enabling search bar autosuggestions and the ability to filter and sort is one of the most effective ways of helping your customers find what they are looking for and reach the checkout in the quickest time – taking us nicely to our second point.‍

Offer a Variety of Payment Options‍

A bad checkout experience is the most common reason (35%) for switching suppliers in B2B e-commerce, so it’s crucial that when your customers go to pay for the goods in their basket, they are presented with their desired payment options. Payment options can be broken down into two key areas: how your customer pays and when they pay.‍

How your customers pay

When we talk about how your customers pay, we are referring to payment methods: all the different ways that customers can choose to pay when settling any outstanding charges. Payment methods include credit cards, bank transfers, direct debit, mobile payments and more.

Why is this important? Put yourself in the shoes of your customer again for a moment. You land on a Magento store’s homepage, navigate to the products you need, fill your basket and click through to the checkout only to find that your preferred payment method is not listed. At this point there’s a good chance your customer will abandon their cart and take their business to a competitor offering their desired way to pay.

To prevent this drop-off, listen to your customers and do your research around the most convenient ways for them to pay. The specific methods you offer will vary depending on factors such as order value, purchase frequency, region and industry. ‍

When your customers pay‍

In order to maximise sales and increase revenue from your Magento store, your customers need to be given the option to pay when it is convenient for them. For business buyers, convenience means being able to defer payment for 30, 60 or 90 days, or it might mean paying in 3 or 4 monthly instalments.

A recent report from Atradius revealed that as much as 60% of the total value of B2B sales in the UK are made using trade credit, meaning that it’s more important than ever to offer your Magento customers the chance to buy now, pay later on their business purchases.

Thanks to Hokodo’s new integration with Magento 2, offering your customers the option to pay later via their preferred payment method is now easier than ever.‍

How it works‍

Our Buy Now, Pay Later solution provides B2B merchants with a safe and simple alternative to traditional payment options. Here’s how it works:

1. Customers visit your Magento store and shop as normal.
2. In the background, Hokodo’s bespoke APIs run real-time checks on the buyer’s credit score and fraud risk.
3. Once they reach checkout, customers see only the payment options they have been approved for.
4. Customers select Hokodo’s payment option and choose whether to pay in 30, 60 or 90 days.
5. You choose when to get paid by Hokodo and your customer pays us back via their preferred payment method in accordance with their agreed payment terms.
   

The best part? We can pay you as soon as the goods are delivered, and thanks to our backing from Lloyd’s of London, you are always protected against non-payments.

Merchants and marketplaces that integrate with Hokodo see on average a 40% increase in revenues, through higher basket sizes and conversions. 

Book a demo to find out how Hokodo can help take your Magento 2 store to the next level with more sales and increased customer satisfaction.