Self-Service Options Keep B2B Sales of Casters Rolling

In an increasingly digital-first world, business-to-business (B2B) buyers may still want to discuss bigger transactions on the phone, but they want to do many of the more day-to-day tasks themselves online.

Seeing this, Caster Specialists provided both options when developing its new online store for B2B sales of casters — those wheel-and-frame assemblies that make shopping carts, office chairs and platform trucks roll.

On the site, buyers and engineers can find a viable product, specify it, make sure it’s right, see the volume discounts that are available and pay for it.

“We’re really trying to take the hands off all that — having to call, email, wait — and make all that self-service,” Brad Kish, director of marketing at Caster Specialists, told PYMNTS. “Then, we’ll reach out and let you know when your order is ready, collect any credit information needed to set up terms, or just process it if they gave us their payment through the site.”

A Checkout Built for Business

The checkout is built for business. One option allows buyers to pay with a credit card, Amazon Pay or PayPal. While many people pay with credit cards, some are using different forms of payment.

“I don’t know if part of that has to do with people working remote,” Kish said. “It’s maybe more efficient, they get reimbursed, we don’t know, but we handle a variety of those standard payment forms.”

Getting B2B Orders Ready

Two other options allow customers to check out without having to put in their form of payment. One is for customers who want to set up terms, while the other is for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other resellers who may be tax-exempt and want to make a tax-free purchase.

In these cases, the customers can create a draft order in the system to get it started, and Caster Specialists will reach out to either set up terms or collect payment and make sure it is tax-free.

In the case of tax-exempt customers, once Caster Specialists has created their account during that first order, they can pay tax-free on future purchases. In both cases, the customer can take care of much of the transaction online.

“We’ve got that order, reach out to them, collect any necessary tax information or just do the credit check and set up the account and get their order ready,” Kish said. “But it really takes the onus off of them having to call in.”

Volume Discounts Visible

Volume discounts too are built into the site so that customers don’t have to call in if they don’t want to. Customers can see on a sliding scale the order volumes they need to hit to receive discounts as well as free freight.

If that price doesn’t work for them or if they have any other questions, there’s a button on the bottom of the page that the customer can click on to get a “quick quote” request form that sends a notification to the Caster Specialists sales department — again, with no need to pick up the phone.

The company is also experimenting with live chat. Throughout the process, Caster Specialists also has people ready to help those who do want to make a call, as customers often do when they’re making a larger purchase.

“The business world is still pretty used to making those phone calls when it’s important,” Kish said. “We’re still seeing that as definitely a primary interaction point, even though we built this to be kind of self-service.”