The commercial conditions of the B2B (Business to Business) scenario are different from those of B2C (Business to Consumer). Thus, it is necessary to implement different strategies to achieve the desired results. The focus here is to describe the most common promotions in B2B.

First, it is important to highlight that in B2B, e-commerce is used for Promotion and Campaign Audience cases, since ERP is not agile enough for this demand. Second, the main goal of promotions in B2B is to convert the high volume of orders on the platform into sales.

The retailer needs to keep in mind that some actions should be recurrent to guarantee this amount of orders. Here are some of the actions that can be taken:

• ERP defined and integrated trade policies for e-commerce.
• Daily promotions to maintain attractiveness.
• Guarantee an inventory flow.
• Minimum quantity per order or minimum value for free shipping.

Retailers must be careful not to carry out promotions that can harm their business. Thus, retailers should think about whether the promotion fits any of the following cases:

• "Old" inventory (or inventory aging): even if the product is not perishable, it is necessary to keep in mind that the retailer is paying to maintain products that are sitting on shelves. In addition, some products can become obsolete. Each market and product segment analyzes its own aging control methodology, however it is essential to carry out promotions in accordance with this policy;
• Anticipation of receipt: cash flow is another essential factor in corporate management. Offering customers payment in advance options can increase your profit and allow investments in new products;
• Supplier rebate: credit offered to the store by the supplier that will be transformed into a discount for the end customer. This allows for a more competitive price without compromising margin and profitability;
• Increase in your contribution margin: Promotional actions must always be in line with the store's EBITDA growth (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization).

Promotions

Promotions can help move your inventory. Keeping an old inventory for a long time can make you lose sales of new products.

The retailer can apply discounts from a certain amount of products within a purchase, encouraging greater consumption of that item. An example of this type of promotion is the Progressive Discount.

Another option is to make promotions for batches of products. It is a way to guarantee that a certain product’s old inventory will be sold.

First, you need to determine what the aging limits are, considering your product and segment features. Sometimes products whose maintenance has been causing loss need to be sold at cost or even below cost.

In this scenario, a comprehensive Regular Promotion should help the operation to burn inventory. You can select specific products or categories with surplus stock and apply percentage (e.g.: 20%) or nominal (e.g.: $ 100) discounts in bulk. The goal here is to recover credit to put it back into the operation.

To calibrate the extension of the promotion, you can use the restrictions and usage limitations area to define, for example, if the promotion will be applied unlimited times or if there will be a maximum number of uses.

The payment for a B2B transaction has an invoice time according to its segment. A common example is a payment made within 28 days. You can encourage other forms of payment by associating them with promotions and discounts.

A common case is the prepayment in full, which anticipates the receipt. The retailer can offer a percentage discount on the total purchase price and, depending on the category, increase and decrease the discount according to the volume of the purchase.

Another way to implement promotions is through an one-off agreement with retailers. It consists of agreeing to a discount on each invoice for products sold below their normal prices. This rebate is applied when the price of the product is higher than the amount paid by the final consumer.

In addition, if the manufacturer grants a rebate credit, this discount can also be included in the one-off agreement. Thus, the manufacturer bears the cost of the discount.

The mix margin is the combination of at least two products. For example, let's take a promotion with 2 products - one with a higher contribution margin and low sales volume and the other with a smaller contribution, usually having higher sales volume.

As an example, imagine a notebook that has a high sales volume and a low margin due to competition. A backpack, on the other hand, can sell less and have a slightly higher margin.

The idea here is to offer both items together as a promotion. This way, the retailer guarantees that the customer will buy related products that will bring a higher aggregate margin. This is done through cross-selling promotions.

Buy One Get One promotions and offering bundles are the main strategies for this scenario.

Thinking about customer profiles is a good way to apply promotions efficiently. It is important to group customers by segment and region, considering taxes and interests as a basis for discounts and promotions.

If the retailer has a rebate from a manufacturer, it is worth focusing on the segment that consumes that product. It is another way of delimiting the categories that will receive planned discounts.

Check out our article on how to create a benefit for a cluster of customers to learn more on how to implement this method.

Another way to attract customer interest is with a promotion that offers free shipping. Retailers can determine a minimum number of products or a minimum total value for the purchase, in order not to harm their business by covering the total shipping rate.

This strategy can be combined with other previously mentioned ones. You can offer free shipping when the customer buys a large volume of a product that has been in your inventory for a long time, for example. It is also possible to use free shipping as a discount for prepayment in full.

For more information on how to make a free shipping percentage promotion, see the article Creating a Regular Promotion.