B2B to DTC and Back Again: How Tech Influences the Way Brands Sell

A day of shopping in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley or Austin’s South Congress can make you feel like you’ve stepped inside a millennial’s Instagram feed. Brands like Brooklinen and Warby Parker, previously only available online, have expanded to brick-and-mortar locations in these trendy neighborhoods to grow sales. And it’s clearly working — the now-public glasses brand recently announced that it hit $200 million in annual revenue.

This evolution makes you stop to think about how technology influences how brands sell. Before the mass adoption of the internet, trends were dictated by magazines and movies, and finding the perfect item required a trip to the mall (if you were lucky enough to live near one). By the mid-90s, many homes had personal computers, which were used to discover new products or buy books on Amazon.com, but most shopping still happened in person. A decade later, the iPhone, Shopify, and Facebook launched, signaling the start of e-commerce as we know it. Since then, we’ve seen the explosion of influencer marketing and direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands in every industry, from clothing to consumables.

Today, shoppers can purchase virtually anything online, and the e-commerce experience is better than ever. There’s a wide selection, search results are more accurate, and websites surface personal recommendations. But modern consumers want more, like the freedom to discover products online and try them on in a local store. DTC brands that have expanded their sales channels — both online and in person — use technology to make the shopping experience seamless. Things like localizing search results, enabling buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), and retargeting are essential to supporting consumers wherever they want to shop.

Now, some of these DTC brands are taking it one step further by selling through large retailers. Walmart now carries Brooklinen’s sub-brand Marlow, Target sells Magic Spoon’s keto cereal, and Nordstrom sells Skims, Kim Kardashian’s line of loungewear and underwear. While this approach requires a different set of skills and processes than selling to consumers, tech-savvy DTC brands have an advantage over old-school wholesalers. They understand modern technology and can leverage it to improve the experience for buyers with more powerful search, personalization and product recommendations. To do this, they must adapt their DTC e-commerce strategy for business-to-business (B2B).

Appealing to a Modern Wholesale Buyer

When brick-and-mortar reigned supreme, wholesale buying happened in one of three ways: in person at wholesale markets and tradeshows, via a catalog, or by sitting down with a local rep. While those mediums still exist, online ordering has become much more common. And just like consumers, wholesale buyers want seamless and tailored experiences. A recent report found that 90 percent of B2B buyers expect B2B e-commerce to match their experience on a business-to-consumer (B2C) site. To deliver that, here are some things DTC brands should consider when selling B2B:

1. Provide accurate and powerful search.

Unlike consumers, wholesale buyers often shop with intent. They know what they’re looking for and have a checklist of requirements that keyword search alone may not be able to match. Brands selling B2B should have a powerful search function on their website that combines keyword and vector search to better understand the intent of a query and surface the most accurate and relevant results.

2. Personalize the experience.

Buyers often have their own entitlements and prices, which are easy to communicate via a rep but can be tricky to show online. Creating a personal storefront for each retailer can surface their unique terms, product availability, quantity rules and more, reducing the need for human intervention or manual edits to orders. Saving their information and purchase history also simplifies reorders so they never run out of stock.

3. Make tailored product recommendations.

Dynamic recommendations based on search history, previously viewed items, past purchases and current trends are essential for a B2B e-commerce site. To take it one step further, brands should consider customizing recommendations based on the retailer’s shopper demographics and geographic locations. For example, a swimwear brand selling to a men’s clothing store in San Diego should feature men's swim trunks front and center instead of forcing buyers to sift through bikinis to find what they’re looking for. Product recommendations should also mirror the shopping experience for the end buyer. Therefore, the cross-sell for the men’s clothing store mentioned above should be men’s sunglasses and sandals, not sarongs and straw hats.

The Technology Powering These Experiences

These recommendations may seem like common sense, but most B2B brands lack the technology to make them a reality. And without them, they run the risk of losing the 67 percent of B2B buyers that are reported to have switched to vendors that offer a more “consumer-like” experience.

Just as the introduction of hosted e-commerce sites sparked the DTC revolution, new technology is helping brands improve online B2B sales. One of the foundational components is Shopify’s B2B solution that mirrors its DTC functionality. Brands can build on this using shopping optimization technology to meet wholesale buyers’ expectations for search, personalization and product recommendations. While this motion is familiar to many DTC brands, it’s up to them to bring it to life for B2B. Those that do may be on their way to seeing the massive success of Brooklinen, Skims, and other DTC brands that have expanded beyond the internet.

Zohar Gilad is the co-founder and CEO of Fast Simon, a site search and merchandising platform for e-commerce.