Last week, Litium released its long-awaited report, Nordic Digital Commerce in B2B. It is an extensive study based on responses from 920 B2B companies across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland.
This is the ninth year in a row that Litium has conducted the survey. Many of the questions have remained the same over the years, which provides an interesting basis for comparison. We can clearly see trends and compare them with what companies predicted a few years ago. One example is the use of marketplaces for B2B—where for many years, a major increase was forecasted, but now we see that very little has actually happened.
If you work with B2B e-commerce, I really recommend that you take a quick read through the entire report. At 45 slides, the report may seem extensive, but it’s actually easy to read, with clear conclusions and simple diagrams. And it’s useful to have last year’s report printed out for comparison. If you don’t have time to read the whole report, Litium has also prepared an introductory summary with the key takeaways.
My Takeaways:
The most obvious—and perhaps most important—news is of course that more than half of Nordic companies now offer digital transactions. Previously, many initiated the sales process online, but the actual closing happened offline through personal contact with a salesperson. Now, the closing also happens digitally, which indicates that companies have advanced their system support and that customers increasingly want to place orders themselves.
The important thing here is to offer what customers actually want—not to have an “inside-out” perspective based on one’s own organization. It’s clear that customers prefer a “hybrid” journey, which to varying degrees involves both personal dialogue with sales and self-service in digital channels. This also applies to the actual closing of a deal—placing the order. There is a widespread but unfounded belief that customers don’t want to place orders online themselves. That’s simply not true. Different customers want to act in different ways, and many actually prefer self-service.
Among the companies that offer e-commerce, online sales account for 28% of total revenue. This is important data—since we are often asked: “How much can we reasonably expect to sell directly through our website?” In addition, 69% say they believe revenue from their e-commerce will increase over the next three years.
Of the 471 companies surveyed that do not currently have e-commerce, 11% say they plan to introduce it this year, and another 19% within three years. This is a marked increase compared to last year. Meanwhile, 54% have no plans to introduce e-commerce. Among those, 39% state that their customers don’t want to buy via e-commerce, and 27% say the company itself prefers working with personal sales. This perception should be challenged, as the survey clearly shows that more customers want to buy online as younger and more digital decision-makers emerge—even within technical and complex products.
Only 4% of surveyed companies have a Head of E-commerce, something that is common in B2C. Instead, responsibility most often lies with the CEO (30%), Sales Director (23%), and Marketing Director (15%). While this may seem a bit unclear, it is still an improvement compared to the time when CIOs/IT managers could be in charge of e-commerce.
For Nordic B2B companies, customer service and quality are critical—price is rarely the main factor. It’s therefore not surprising that one in four companies now has a customer portal, where existing customers can access contracts, projects, and orders, and connect with their sales contact.
Finally, I want to highlight the survey’s responses on why companies should invest in e-commerce. Just like last year, both among companies that already have e-commerce and those planning to introduce it, the answer is unanimous: to sell more to new and existing customers and to improve service for existing customers. Exactly as it should be! In addition, many companies that have not yet introduced e-commerce also see value in reducing administrative work for sales.
👉 Read the full report here—happy reading!