How B2Bs Can Dive Into Digital Commerce, but Stay Human

Business-to-business (B2B) companies are notoriously behind business-to-consumer (B2C) companies in incorporating technology into the digital commerce experience. But as traditional B2Bs begin to catch up, they could alienate their customers by relying too heavily on digital touchpoints. eMarketer’s Sean Creamer spoke with Thomas Prommer, managing director of technology at digital agency Huge, about how B2Bs can adopt technology while retaining important human elements. Prommer was interviewed as part of eMarketer’s March report, "B2B Ecommerce 2018: Transforming Buying and Selling."

In an area like scientific research, for example, that is highly commodified, there aren’t any clear leaders, and the 20 to 30 providers in that market use quite a bit of dynamic pricing. The programmatic buying process becomes interesting to an organization, because it takes a lot of manual effort out of it, while making sure it finds the best price, quality and shipping duration to suit its needs.