E-commerce, Internet Marketing - 17 Jun 2021

5 Benefits of Hiring a Digital Agency for your B2B Ecommerce

You may have noticed an emerging trend within the B2B community – an increasing shift toward digital platforms. No, you are not imagining it. While there has been a lot of focus on retail eCommerce, B2B eCommerce sales have also been booming. By 2025, global B2B eCommerce is anticipated to reach over $3,680 billion, overshadowing B2C transactions.

The demographic of business consumers is changing; they are younger, more connected, and show a growing preference for digital platforms.

A recent B2B consumer marketing report showed that a very overwhelming 96% of B2B buyers prefer to do business with manufacturers and distributors through online platforms.

For B2B industries, connecting with buyers online will become increasingly important. This begs the question, given the need to embrace digital technologies, should businesses invest in an in-house eCommerce and digital marketing team, or should they outsource to a digital web agency instead?

Let’s consider both options and see why in the end, a digital agency makes the most sense.

A Digital Web Agency will Result in Lower Overhead

For many businesses, hiring a dedicated team of eCommerce digital marketing professionals is not economically viable. Companies large enough to warrant the investment in wages, office space, and equipment probably already have a team in place. For everyone else, the overhead makes the endeavour financially infeasible.

Even if you were to hire a single digital professional to juggle all aspects of your digital needs, unless there was enough work to keep them consistently occupied, you would be wasting their time and your money.

A digital web agency has the benefit of economies of scale. By working with multiple clients, they can maintain a dedicated team of eCommerce and digital marketing professionals while spreading overhead costs.

Rates with a digital agency are often negotiated at the start, so you know what to expect and plan accordingly. Ultimately, you end up with a team of highly specialized professionals, and it will cost you less than hiring in-house.

Benefit from Team Experience and Efficiency

Getting any team working in an efficient, cohesive fashion takes time and resources – both of which you don’t have to waste if you hire a digital agency instead of hiring in-house.

Whether you are looking to develop a new website or launch a new marketing campaign, having a team in place who already understands the process and has experience creating and implementing end-to-end strategies will significantly improve your overall efficiency.

You will also benefit from fresh ideas. Where an in-house team often works in a vacuum, outsourcing to a digital web agency can provide a fresh perspective. Because they work with many clients across an array of industries, a digital agency can leverage their experience, bringing innovative ideas and proven marketing tactics

Get Better Access to Resources

Keeping up with rapid changes in digital technology can get very expensive. Unless the sky’s the limit in terms of your in-house budget, a digital agency will have access to all the latest tools you may not.

Building an eCommerce site, implementing a long-term digital marketing plan, and monitoring performance is a multi-step process that requires both a plan and the right resources. The cost of these tools adds up quickly and may not make sense financially for an individual organization. A digital web agency will already have invested in these resources, spreading the cost over many clients.

And because a digital agency’s ability to compete is dependent on the service they provide, they are consistently on top of all the latest industry trends. They are continually growing, learning, and improving to offer the latest and greatest in terms of digital technologies to their clients.

A Digital Agency Will Help Grow Your Business, and Grow with You

The hope with any new eCommerce site is that business will expand. As your business develops, whether it’s opening new locations, increasing eCommerce traffic, or a new marketing campaign, a digital agency will scale with your needs.

A good agency will build your digital solutions with scalability in mind. Upgrades down the line can be costly and disruptive, but one of the greatest advantages that a digital agency can provide is the ability to create a product that will grow with you.

With an in-house team, rapidly pivoting needs cannot always be met without onboarding new staff, especially if your team needs to deal with issues they haven’t seen before. With an experienced digital agency there is no need to wait; resources are there when you need them, ready to contribute to your project with insights and solutions.

Build your Brand with Consistency

The ability for consumers to immediately recognize your brand is essential to expanding your market. With a digital marketing agency, you can be confident that all your material – from your eCommerce site, to your content, to your marketing material – will be consistent and on-brand.

Hiring in-house to cover multiple positions could lead to mixed messages or inconsistent material, especially for a team new to working together. A full-service digital web agency, on the other hand, has experience in putting together a comprehensive eCommerce and marketing strategy that will provide consistency throughout all channels.

These are just a few reasons why hiring a digital agency is the right strategy for most businesses.

Ultimately, you benefit from partnering with proven industry professionals who have the skill and resources to deliver exceptional digital solutions, without the need to maintain your own staff, allowing you to focus more on your core business and less on everything else.