Episode 96: Building The Right Team Structure For B2B eCommerce

The Hard Truth About B2B eCommerce podcast continues with a special episode about the right team structure, challenges of talent hire and onboarding when you’re moving your B2B business online.

Timothy Peterson and Isaiah Bollinger are back for a solo episode on how to craft the right team for B2B eCommerce. B2B eCommerce is complex because it requires integration and leveraging multiple pieces of enterprise software, and interdepartmental collaboration. We discuss which people and departments need to be involved to make B2B eCommerce successful.

Episode 96: Building The Right Team Structure For B2B eCommerce

In this episode, co-hosts Isaiah Bollinger, CEO of Trellis, and Timothy Peterson, President & COO of Speir Digital, Inc, bring their vast expertise in team architecture within the realm of eCommerce and are engage in a comprehensive discussion covering:

Transitioning Online Today:

• Worldwide B2B eCommerce Community
• How to avoid bad decisions when investing in new technology
• What changed in B2B eCommerce from pre-covid
• Building from scratch vs shifting your business to digital
• The concept of culture in digital transformation and how it has evolved
• Why flexibility is key in your approach to digital transformation
• How you can become more efficient with B2B eCommerce
• Challenges of migrating online

Building an eCommerce Team:

• Staff structure needed for a successful B2B digital transformation
• Benefits of a fractional model when you build an eCommerce team
• Agency vs in-house: price, expertise and other differences
• Headless rescues
• Onboarding and internal training for eCommerce teams
• Conferences and events as a free educational tool
• Next big eCommerce event in Boston – Digital Commerce Today Live in Boston

Laying a Solid Foundation:

• The importance of a marketing strategy and planning ahead in B2B eCommerce
• Timeframes for building a solid strategy
• Phases in digital transition
• The importance of constant optimization and analytics
• Best practices of marketing optimization and roadmapping
• Long-term planning vs short-term

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. Podcast 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 entry 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.