Culture Catches Up With E-Commerce, Now B-to-B is Catching Up With Culture

The next question then becomes, how do B-to-B companies match the success of B-to-C e-commerce giants?

The indirect result of an empowered generation of buyers is functionality of the consumer market has begun to bleed into the business world. The same shoppers who enjoy the functionality of Amazon and Alibaba are also business users. They expect that business applications will be as easy to use and functionally rich as those they use in their personal lives, inducing the consumerization of business technology and raising the bar for B-to-B e-commerce solutions. This required an intuitive, agile system that's capable not only of helping users quickly find what they want, but of suggesting new products before they even cross our minds.

While most enterprises are trying their best to sell effectively through all their channels, some of them are stretched beyond their core capabilities. While building a cloud infrastructure to compete with the likes of Amazon may feel as daunting as asking the Michigan Militia to take on the Roman Empire, the good news is that you don't have to be an Amazon to participate in this new era of big e-commerce.

Cloud-based e-commerce delivery models have finally provided enterprises with the necessary economies of scale, specialization and speed necessary to meet the demand of the newly empowered consumer population. Powerful e-commerce apps are built on platforms that leverage the platform's security, scalability and high performance. Designed to fully support complex products and pricing models across multiple channels on a single platform, these apps enable brands to present unique user experiences that boost transaction volume and top-line revenue, delivering seamless buying experiences while harnessing configuration and pricing technology. This means that a $500,000 jet engine part can now be purchased with virtually the same ease as a pair of $30 sandals.