inRiver has published, “How B2B Companies Solve the Revenue, Scale, and Global Challenges.” This third party research analyses responses from more than 1,300 business decision makers across sectors including manufacturing, food and beverage, construction, fashion and luxury goods to identify common drivers of lost revenue, delayed or cancelled product launches, and customer dissatisfaction among global businesses and the impact of consumerisation of B2B practices.
All industries expect an uptick in revenue around a new product launch. However, businesses miscalculate the impact erroneous product information has on revenue potential, critical relationships among distribution partners, a brand’s ability to go to market faster than the competition, or in building and sustaining trust among customers. This new report is part of inRiver’s commitment in educating global enterprises on trends and insights that affect business growth and how to solve them via adaptive merchandising.
Incorrect product information is the leading driver of lost revenue around a launch: 1 in 3 US businesses have had product pulled from shelves or experienced a delayed product launch because of inaccurate or inconsistent product information. In the UK, over a quarter (26 per cent) admit this has happened frequently. This is also a key driver of product returns among German businesses, and core source of customer dissatisfaction.
Competition will continue to intensify: The average business has more than five competitors, and for some enterprises, this exceeds 15 competitors. All global businesses are experiencing greater competition since 2014, and expect this to increase. This is in addition to planning around the “Amazon Effect” and new online channels or distributors. The industries most impacted are construction and industrial manufacturing as syndication of content is difficult for thousands of SKUs and products.
Automation remains a struggle: Keeping track of product information updates is a global challenge as many product detail updates are still manual. In the US, 52 per cent of business leaders identify this as a major pain point, particularly around what information is updated and where. In the UK and Germany, the larger challenge hinges on ensuring product details meet all the standards, formats and compliance standards of a new market or channel.
“When it comes to an effective and profitable product launch or development of a new channel, the devil is in the details,” said Thor Johnson, CEO, inRiver, “Millions of dollars and thousands of team hours are invested into and around the launch of any product, but many businesses struggle in making this process faster, scalable, and a frictionless experience for their buyers. Our latest research spotlights shared headaches among business leaders and offers guidance on how companies can bring new efficiencies to their go-to-market strategies for commerce and merchandising success.”
Share