Episode 18: Marketing A B2B eCommerce Business As A Distributor

Our podcast series continues with another episode of The Hard Truth About B2B eCommerce podcast featuring Tyler Jensen and Beckie Sullivan of Marshall Wolf Automation. Marshall Wolf Automation is an authorized automation distributor for over 50 brands with thousands of items in stock!

Beckie and Tyler have worked at Wolf Automation to build up a strong eCommerce backbone for their company to process new customer orders and existing customer B2B orders. They have spent over a decade as a company building an eCommerce infrastructure that is a thriving part of their company culture. They engage in Google ads, SEO, and other modern digital marketing tactics to drive new business and then use their sales team to drive increase engagement with existing customers that buy online. Hear from a distributor making the most out of eCommerce as a distributor using modern systems and marketing tactics.

Episode 17 featured Ben Rudnick from Fun Hat to share his latest endeavors including a focus that has been applied to the areas of Findability/Search, Merchandising, & Business Intelligence/Web Analytics/Personalization.

Episode 18- Marketing A B2B eCommerce Business As A Distributor

In this episode, co-hosts Isaiah Bollinger, CEO of Trellis, and Timothy Peterson, Chief Marketing Officer of SportsBiz, welcome Tyler Jensen and Beckie Sullivan of Marshall Wolf Automation to discuss:

• As a B2B distributor, what are you seeing in the eCommerce market? Is eCommerce where distributors should be positioning themselves for growth?
• How did your company adopt eCommerce into its culture as a B2B company? Is that still an issue with the company culture and the sales team?
• How is B2B eCommerce marketing different from B2C?
• And what are the differences in B2B Ecommerce, from what we all know as B2C retail Ecommerce?
• What do you see defining the companies that succeed versus the ones that fail with B2B eCommerce?
• What is the biggest challenge eCommerce players will face in the coming decade?

This podcast’s origin story

Podcasts are still a relatively new medium for content, but just because they are new doesn’t mean they lack power. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Podcasts have a unique ability to reach people on their time, whenever it is convenient for them – a way that previously did not majorly exist. Podcaster listeners can take the information wherever they go and absorb it as they see fit. And that’s exactly what we are looking to do here. We want to reach a new audience of B2B eCommerce enthusiasts.

This podcast is all about B2B eCommerce. B2B is a different breed of eCommerce and it needs a different breed of Podcast. We get into the nitty-gritty of integrations, adoption, platforms, data and so much more regarding what makes B2B difficult to make successful for eCommerce!

We noticed that a few B2C podcasts exist on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but nothing designed for the B2B eCommerce community. B2B and B2C eCommerce have a lot of overlap, but even more differences. Each has a different set of requirements and customer demands that impact project scope. Let’s call a spade a spade. B2B is harder, more complicated, and harder to market. But it is also a bigger piece of the pie. The eCommerce B2B roadmap to success is not as cut and dry as B2C and that’s why we have started this podcast.

B2C platforms like Magento and Shopify have large communities that support and have done the entre-level work of most projects. The same community does not exist for B2B, but we are starting to build it. The ecosystem may not be as mature, but as experts in the space, we hope this podcast will help some people wake up and reevaluate their online sales strategy.

The first podcast examines major trends around B2B eCommerce as well as answering all of the above questions.  Take a listen for yourself and let us know what you think!

We will be posting new episodes with special guests weekly. You can listen on our dedicated podcast website and download the podcast on all major channels: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, Podcast Addict, Deezer, Listen Notes, and RSS Feed.