B-to-B Retailers Increase Tech Spending to Keep Pace With Amazon

As Amazon.com grows its business through technology, spending on the latest and greatest tools to optimize the customer experience, from product discovery through delivery and post-purchase, other retailers have been left behind. In order to catch up to and eventually surpass Amazon, retailers are analyzing their own businesses to see where well-spent investments can help move the needle. Customer experience is an area at the top of many of those retailers’ lists.

With that in mind, Total Retail surveyed its audience on their technology spending specifically on customer experience, and segmented the respondents by B-to-C, B-to-B and hybrid (both B-to-C and B-to-B) retailers. The results, which were featured in the recent Total Retail and IBM report, The Amazon Effect: How Retailers Are Adapting Their Businesses to Better Compete With the Industry Leader, were a bit surprising. What we learned was that B-to-B retailers have been more likely to increase technology spending on customer experience compared to their B-to-C counterparts. See the chart below:

Eighteen percent of B-to-B retailers have significantly increased their technology investments on customer experience, and another 50 percent have somewhat increased their investment.

While B-to-B retailers ramp up their spending on customer experience technology, B-to-C retailers aren’t quite keeping pace. According to the survey, 54 percent of B-to-C retailers said their technology investments around the online shopping experience have not changed as a result of what Amazon is doing. This is somewhat surprising considering that 46 percent of B-to-C respondents said they view Amazon as direct competitor, compared to just 32 percent of B-to-B retailers that said the same.

We’ll continue with our coverage of The Amazon Effect report on Thursday, when we look at the different types of technology solutions that retailers are investing in as they battle with Amazon. In the meantime, make sure to download the full report here.