Buying and selling healthcare products and services is both cost and time sensitive. You need to respond quickly to changing customer needs. From new applications for existing treatments to remote patient monitoring, digital adoption is increasing across the sector. An annual growth rate of almost 8.5% is projected to 2029, driven by increased consumer spending, telemedicine and innovation.
Overall, increased availability of healthcare products and services that empower consumers to manage their wellbeing is contributing to growth. This shift brings higher expectations for seamless online purchasing for both consumers and B2B buyers. This is changing the face of the healthcare product market and to keep pace you need a consumer-centric focus.
As online procurement of healthcare products expands you must deliver seamless customer experiences and transparent procurement and payment processes. Are you keeping up?
From hospital equipment to vitamins, you can simplify your healthcare product sales with Cloudfy. It’s a purpose designed business to business (B2B) ecommerce platform in the cloud. You benefit from intuitive self-service ordering, mobile apps for your customers and field sales reps, and pre-built enterprise (ERP) system integration.
As more people take responsibility for their personal health and wellbeing, you can also sell directly to consumers (D2C). You don’t need a separate site; you can control it all from one easy to use administration dashboard.
Key sales challenges in the healthcare products sector
The landscape is changing as healthcare products, technology, personal health and wellbeing merge, regulation increases and innovation accelerates.
Customer engagement
Effectively reaching your target audience is becoming more complex. You need to engage decision-makers, healthcare professionals, procurement managers, and consumers. Delivering the right content requires a strategic approach to meet customer needs, making digital channels a top priority.
Trust
Trust and credibility are critical in the healthcare product industry. B2B healthcare buyers want to make evidence-based decisions. You need to provide accurate information that demonstrates reliability and effectiveness. Like most B2B buyers they will start their research online so they must find your content quickly and easily. Your content must provide clear, concise and accurate data to give them confidence.
Value
Once you’ve established the quality of your products and services, your customers want to know they will receive excellent value for money. You must showcase your products, customer testimonials and real-life case studies to support their research. Transparent pricing, research data and proof of concepts will give them confidence to place their orders.
Regulation
Regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the US are essential to protect individual health information. However, international variations make standardization and control a major challenge. Streamlined product data management and communication are needed to meet these legal requirements consistently.
Top ten B2B ecommerce features for healthcare product businesses
You can quickly launch new products and reach new markets online. Powerful B2B ecommerce features and business system integration allow you to simplify and streamline operations for your healthcare product business. Here are ten we think you need to have on your checklist.
Customer experience tools
B2B buyers are busy people and they expect outstanding purchasing experiences. They know from their own online shopping that personalized journeys help them find exactly what they’re looking for. They expect the same easy navigation, useful product data and streamlined checkouts when they’re procuring healthcare products. To speed up the process they want filters based on treatments, brand names or use cases. You can help narrow down their choices with options such as product type, price, ratings, or attributes. You can even provide bespoke menus based on their ordering history.
Branding
A key B2B ecommerce feature is flexible, responsive page design. Your brand helps you build trust and customer loyalty so presenting it effectively online is increasingly important. B2B ecommerce website design is all about delivering customer satisfaction by simplifying the buying process and building new business relationships. When people visit your site it must look professional and clearly demonstrate they have come to the right place. You need powerful tools to manage your product information, images, videos and documents. And everything must work quickly and effectively on all types of devices.
Automated order processing
When you integrate your B2B ecommerce platform with your ERP system customer orders are captured immediately. You can create automated order workflows to save time and improve inventory and warehouse management. You will improve customer experiences, reduce operational costs, minimize errors and increase efficiency across your organization.
International sales
With the right certifications and approvals, you can sell your healthcare products anywhere in the world. With B2B ecommerce multi-site functionality you can create tailored product catalogs suited to different countries or regions. You’ll increase conversion rates when you use relevant languages, sell in local currencies, and offer preferred payment methods. You can simplify local tax and compliance requirements and create niche sites for specific customers.
Marketplace connectors
To take full advantage of growth in your market you will want to explore new sales channels. Working with channel partners can open up new opportunities but can also add unwanted complexity to your business. With tried and tested connectors for the world’s leading marketplaces you can easily showcase your products and increase sales. You’ll have access to global B2B marketplaces and retail partners. You can manage all your marketplace orders and product listings from an administration dashboard and fulfill orders efficiently.
Mobile sales
While online customer self-service is transforming sales in the healthcare product sector, building relationships remains important. You can support your skilled field sales team during conventions and customer visits with a field sales representative app. They can access real-time data and valuable insights to improve performance. Working on or offline, they can review product information, stock levels and customer-specific pricing wherever they are. With a customer ordering app, you can also help clients place their orders when they’re away from their desks.
Data analytics
If all your operational information needs synchronization across multiple business systems your efficiency is affected. Data duplication and inconsistencies are almost unavoidable. Integrating financial records, product information and customer relationship management systems with your B2B ecommerce platform simplifies everything. You can collect and analyze data to improve your understanding of customer behavior and make better decisions.
Restricted catalogs
You might want to control what you sell according to location, volume or product combinations, for example. With restricted catalog tools you can control product sales and availability based on a range of criteria. You can also improve traceability of batches and even individual products with serialized inventory and order management. It’s straightforward to attribute unique serial numbers and track critical information like batch numbers and expiration dates.
Document downloads
You can simplify sharing key product data with easy document downloads. Customers can login to their easy-to-use dashboard to view, print and download key product information. They’ll always have access to your latest data so you’ll simplify your safety and compliance processes.
Subscription ordering
For recurring deliveries subscription ordering makes everything faster and more efficient. Your customers don’t have to repeatedly add the same product details and order processing is faster for your administration team. Once orders are set up with the required frequency, quantities and duration everything runs smoothly. If authorization is needed before dispatch, you can simply send an automated approval message.
Helios distributes natural and organic beauty and self-care products throughout Australia. To improve customer service and efficiency the company chose Cloudfy when it was time to replatform to a new B2B ecommerce solution.
Transforming your healthcare products business with B2B ecommerce from Cloudfy
With significant growth predicted in the healthcare products sector you need a scalable B2B ecommerce solution. With the latest B2B ecommerce technology from Cloudfy you can respond quickly and effectively to changing market requirements.
Real-time inventory visibility and tailored pricing increase customer satisfaction and optimize your performance in a dynamic market. Seamless ERP integration helps to streamline and simplify sales and you’ll always have a clear view of your operations.
You’ll improve customer service, increase loyalty and minimize costs, helping your business to grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Regulations for healthcare products are so stringent they can slow down your drive for digital transformation. National and regional variations add complexity and hinder cross-border transactions. A purpose-built B2B ecommerce solution simplifies data collection, tracking and monitoring, helping you meet regulatory requirements.
Yes. Pricing for healthcare products requires careful management to ensure affordability and profitability. With materials shortages and supply chain disruptions you need a dynamic pricing strategy. Your B2B ecommerce platform allows you to share real-time price information with your buyers. They can carry out cost comparisons more easily and make better informed decisions.
From cutting-edge innovations to tried and tested healthcare solutions, purchasing decisions are still based on careful research. Major orders can take months to complete but B2B ecommerce helps to accelerate the sales cycle. By providing detailed product data, smoother checkouts and streamlined customer journeys, you remove many of the pinch points.
Like many other B2B buyers, your healthcare product customers are happy to use online self-service. By presenting clear and useful product information and shipping options you make their jobs easier. B2B ecommerce-ERP integration allows you to maintain a single source of product information and stock availability. Your site is updated in near real time, so your customers can place their orders with confidence.
