Enhancing the retail experience for corporate buyers by Jon Hansen

Specifically, people started to ask the question “why can’t we have the same experience sitting at the office as we do at home?”  Consumer experience it is safe to say has forever changed the business world’s approach to B2B engagement. – Ronald Duncan, January 8th, 2014 In The Cloud post

I have with great interest these past few weeks, been following the In The Cloud series by CloudBuy co-founder Lyn Duncan, regarding the evolution of the company’s platform.

Beyond the fact that cloudBuy is one of our New Wave 2014 Companies and was a Finalist in the “A Year in the Life of an eProcurement Start-up” (#YRiLife2014) program, what has been most interesting to me is the company’s continuing maturation process.  Specifically the emerging clarity in terms of how they are integrating the seemingly non-related elements of varied business services into a powerfully cohesive offering.

Of course the connection between a company’s revelational development, and the market’s recognition of same is not usually automatic.  This is why industry markers are critical in terms of serving as “truth of vision” indicators.

For example, a June 4th internet Retailer article by Paul Demery titled “Beware the rise of better e-procurement technology,” made the following reference to a comment from Forrester Research analyst Duncan Jones;

“buyers accustomed to using shopper-friendly e-commerce sites instead of what can be relatively dull and difficult-to-shop procurement systems,” have often been “lured away from the company’s approved suppliers by more image-rich and easier-to-shop e-commerce sites operated by companies outside of the buyer’s company’s approved list of suppliers.”

While this is hardly a ticker tape acknowledgment that cloudBuy’s future as an industry giant is assured, it does speak to the fact that the company understands what makes the B2B eCommerce world tick.  After all earlier this year, cloudBuy Chairman Ronald Duncan wrote about the importance of ensuring that the corporate buyers online “shopping” experience at work, mirrors that of their experience purchasing online as a consumer at home.

It also highlights one of the company’s core strengths relative to its vast supplier pool.

Within the context of the Jones’ statement relating to the reasons why buyers want to access supply options outside of the company’s approved supplier list, cloudBuy’s services ensure that all of their members have the “image-rich and easy to shop appeal” that is critical to enhanced engagement.  Additionally, and because of the pool’s stability and proven performance, corporations can allow this extended access with little or no risk.

As a result, the shackles of the “relatively dull and difficult-to-shop procurement systems” of old as Jones called them, are ceding way to the newer, more “shopper-friendly applications.”   This is because these “new” systems “let business buyers quickly find and purchase what they want, while also providing integration with back-end accounting and inventory management systems to keep the bean counters happy.”

As a result, the timing for the cloudBuy platform, and the clarity of their service offering through Lyn Duncan’s series could not be better.

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