Today’s digitally driven B2B buyers use, on average, 7.5 different sales and communications channels to purchase from distributors. However, many distribution companies still operate their sales channels as separated and siloed entities. It’s not a true omnichannel experience.

Editor’s note: The following is a lightly edited Q&A with Digital Commerce 360 and Ajay Kamble. Kamble is a former distributor ecommerce executive. He is now the co-founder and CEO of Revalgo.ai. Kamble offers advice and perspective on turning first-time buyers into long-term and loyal customers.

Digital Commerce 360: Why is it important for distributors to get B2B omnichannel right?

Kamble: Omnichannel has been misunderstood by distributors. Instead of 0mnichannel, most distributors have been providing a multi-channel solution, i.e., solutions that are distributor-centric.

A true omnichannel solution keeps it customer-centric and focuses purely on one factor: customer convenience. Here are a few examples:

• Contractor: If a contractor prefers to email an order but receives alerts through text and wants to be notified through a call for emergencies, the platform should fully automate this process, regardless of when the order is placed. Today, this is possible only if a salesperson is engaged and is extremely manual. This should also be possible for both stock and non-stock products.
• Buyer at a large corporation: A buyer should be able to send a requisition in whatever format they prefer, i.e., email or PDF and receive confirmation on price and availability, whereas the alerts could be sent to the end-user, so the buyer is removed from the administrative tasks.

Digital Commerce 360: What challenges do distributors face in creating an omnichannel user experience for customers. How do they overcome them?

Kamble: There are two challenges distributors face in providing an omnichannel experience. Internal and external.

• Internal: The sales teams have not bought into the digital engagement model and still prefer to be in control of the customer. This is because they question the ecommerce platform’s capabilities, plus their incentive plans are tied to their relevance to the customer. Unless the incentive models are changed, this will continue to be a challenge.
• External: Most distributors’ answer to digital engagement is slapping together an ecommerce site and hoping that customers use it. This is the single largest mistake most of us have made. The current ecommerce experience is broken for several reasons, i.e., expecting the customer to change their behavior or processes, incomplete or inconsistent product content, and forcing customers to use one channel.

The only way to overcome this is to provide a personalized digital platform that allows customers to choose what is convenient for them. These digital platforms should be seamless and invisible to the customers.

For example, product automation tools can provide the same experience a salesperson would provide, except it is digital and can do it regardless of when the orders are placed.

Digital Commerce 360: What is the downside for distributors if they do not offer B2B buyers an omnichannel experience?

Kamble: The downside is that with the generational changes, the current distributors could become less relevant if large marketplaces offer the same personalized service in a digital format.

For example, if large marketplaces build complex configurators and digital assistants that replicate a salesperson in providing the so-called “white glove” service, the migration to Amazon becomes easier.

The other downside is that manual transactions never yield critical analytics that are so important to keep ahead of the competitors. A digitized and omnichannel process captures both the goods and the bads in a process, which should allow a distributor to manage their focus.

Ajay Kamble formerly worked as chief information and digital officer at Turtle & Hughes Inc. He was also vice president of information technology at Masco Corp.

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