Love B2B eCommerce
This guide is part of our Love B2B eCommerce hub - you can find more articles like this one, case studies, and in-depth videos to support your wholesale growth right here! Schedule a personalised, 1:1 consultation with our expert team, and we’ll guide you through every step of your wholesale journey!
Congratulations on launching your B2B eCommerce store! But here’s the big question that comes next: how do you actually get customers to use it?
Even the most feature-rich B2B platform won’t magically turn into a high-performing channel without a carefully considered customer adoption strategy. And, equally importantly, how do you encourage buyers to keep coming back?
At SparkLayer, we work with over 2,500 businesses scaling their wholesale across the world. One of the most common questions we hear from merchants is:
“How do I drive B2B customer engagement in eCommerce and keep my customers loyal?”
In this article, we’ll share six key strategies that will help turn your B2B store into a destination your wholesale customers will use - and love - regularly.
What is B2B eCommerce customer engagement?
B2B customer engagement in eCommerce is all about building long-term relationships with your buyers through your digital store. It’s about getting them to understand your brand, how they can order from you, why they should keep coming back…
Sounds straightforward, but, as any seasoned brand will tell you, there’s a lot of work that goes into creating a successful strategy!
In the B2B world, buyers aren’t making impulsive, one-off purchases. They’re ordering in volume, often repeatedly, which means your goal isn’t just to convert them once. You need to educate them, build trust, and keep them engaged every step of the way.
Why is it so important?
When it comes to wholesale, repeat business is everything. If your customers struggle to understand how to order or find the online experience frustrating, they’re more likely to abandon your platform and take their business elsewhere.
That’s why driving adoption and early-stage engagement is crucial! Not only does it increase repeat order rates, but it also drives up your average order value (AOV) and reduces customer churn.
One great example is Rave Coffee - a SparkLayer customer that successfully scaled its wholesale business by honing in on scalable engagement strategies that encouraged loyalty and increased order size. Inspired by their approach (and many others we work with), here are six practical ways to do the same.
1. Onboard customer for success.
The first step in any B2B engagement strategy? Show your customers how to use your store. It may seem simple, but even if your platform is intuitive, don’t assume new users will instantly ‘get it’. Take the time to guide them through:
- How to register for an account and log in
- How to search for products
- How to create and save a basket
- How to place and track orders
You can deliver this through short how-to videos, email campaigns, or even white-glove onboarding for your VIP or enterprise customers.
If you’ve recently replatformed, remember that even long-term customers may need to relearn your system. Communicate proactively and offer 1-1 calls to ease the transition!
2. Train your internal team
Customer onboarding doesn’t stop with your buyers, and it actually starts with your team. Make sure your Sales and Support staff understand your B2B eCommerce platform inside out. When internal teams are confident, they can:
- Quickly respond to customer queries
- Proactively guide customers through the buying process
- Provide tailored recommendations that drive engagement and retention
An aligned internal team means smoother adoption for your customers!
3. Incentivise early-stage interaction
Yes, we’re talking about loyalty schemes and incentives - in B2B! Typically seen as more of a B2C strategy, these tactics are gaining traction in wholesale, too, as customer expectations evolve. Consider offering:
- Welcome discounts (to get those first orders in faster)
- Early access to new stock (to drive loyalty)
- Free shipping on first orders (to get them bought into your brand)
- Personalised offers based on buyer segment (to keep them coming back)
You could even set up automation to nudge new customers who haven’t ordered yet, like a how-to video, a link to your Support team’s calendar, or a discount code to get them started.
It’s a simple way to reduce early-stage churn and build excitement around your platform. Again, this is a great way to introduce existing customers to a new ordering system if you’re replatforming - it eases the expected stress of transitioning and keeps them loyal during a phase of uncertainty.
4. Offer a personalised experience
The more relevant your platform feels, the more engaged your customers will be. It’s self-explanatory, but this is why it’s a foundation of building out successful B2B eCommerce customer engagement!
B2B buyers want to see the right products, the pricing, payment methods, and the information, all tailored to them. With SparkLayer, you can build bespoke buying experiences that include:
- Custom product and price lists based on customer type, location, or buying history
- Individual pricing tiers or order rules to reflect agreed wholesale rates
- Pre-filled orders or saved baskets from previous purchases
This kind of personalisation not only speeds up the buying process, but also strengthens the relationship by showing your customers you understand their needs!
5. Keep communicating
B2B buyers don’t want to be pestered, but they do want to feel supported. Set up automated communications that offer real value, like: Order confirmation and tracking emails
- Thank you notes after their first or largest order
- Product recommendations based on buying behaviour
- Reminders if they haven’t reordered recently
If a customer regularly buys from you every 30 days and it’s been 40, send a quick nudge. A well-timed reminder, or incentive, could re-spark that purchasing rhythm…
6. Go the extra mile
Want to really stand out? Make the reordering process even easier! Offer to build baskets for customers based on their previous purchase history. This simple gesture:
- Saves them time
- Increases order accuracy
- Deepens loyalty by showing you’re paying attention
With SparkLayer, features like Sales Agent tools allow your team to populate baskets or assist with orders directly - a powerful way to enhance the B2B experience without extra overhead.
Are you driving B2B customer engagement in eCommerce successfully?
Once you implement these tactics, make sure you’re tracking the right metrics. Here are three to start with:
- Early-stage churn rate - are fewer customers dropping off after sign-up?
- Time to first order - are customers buying sooner after registering?
- Repeat order rate and AOV - are loyal customers ordering more frequently and spending more?
These indicators will help you gauge how well your B2B customer engagement strategy is performing and where you can improve!
Final thoughts
If you want more customers placing larger, more frequent orders (and sticking around for the long haul), you need to actively engage them from day one.
With the right tools and tactics in place, you’ll not only drive adoption of your B2B eCommerce platform but also build lasting relationships that support scalable wholesale growth. You can also watch a video version of this guide below.
At SparkLayer, we’re here to help you do just that. If you’re ready to level up your B2B customer engagement strategy, book a personalised demo or check out our latest resources for even more insights.