The covid-19 pandemic has posed economic challenges to many countries and caused the B2B sales in Southeast Asia to decline. Border restrictions make the Asian B2B companies unable to perform their usual sales approach and force them to adopt B2B online Asia strategy.
Covid-19 Impact in Southeast Asia
Many Southeast Asian countries need to face a hard time because of the pandemic. The Philippines’ GDP, for example, fell 8.3% in 2020 and it is expected to contract around 6% in 2021. Meanwhile, the GDP of Thailand dropped by 7% in 2020.
The economic slowdown also happened in the trading partners of SEA countries, such as Japan, China, and the US. In consequence, the B2B industry in SEA suffered from a sales decline. Based on the B2B Digital Sales Report, the demand for Vietnamese textile dropped by 70% in the 2nd quarter of 2020.
In Indonesia, palm oil exports to the US fell by 64% and by 30% to the EU. Moreover, there was a decline in Thailand’s car production. In the first quarter of 2020, it fell by 19.2% and fell by 37% by the end of the year.
The B2B industry in Southeast Asia needs the right sales strategy to recover from this difficult situation. Since it is difficult for B2B companies to meet their potential clients through their usual channels, it is recommended that they have online channels to promote and sell their products.
How the Adoption of B2B Online Asia Strategy Help B2B Companies to Recover
Before the pandemic hit Southeast Asia, B2B companies in this region tend to rely on trade events and other physical meetings in order to meet potential clients. Therefore, most of them are not ready to adopt a digital B2B sales approach.
However, this digital transformation is inevitable and capable of helping the SEA B2B industry to recover during the pandemic. Having online channels will help B2B companies to:
Increase Product Awareness
Promoting B2B products via online channels can generate product awareness of potential buyers. Generating this awareness is quite easy because Asia has millions of internet users. In addition, 94% B2B buyers always try to find more about the products they want to purchase via online.
Promote their Products to Targeted Market and Audiences Effectively
Digital sales channels allow B2B companies to promote their products to targeted markets and audiences effectively. Therefore, they will likely gain their sales easily. To create an effective promotion, B2B companies need to create high quality and effective sales content.
Better Ability to Transform Leads into Sales and Minimize Lead Times
The features in digital sales technology allow B2B companies to have better ability to transform leads into sales. They also allow them to minimize lead times. As a result B2B companies will be able to make revenue more quickly and efficiently.
It is understood that the digitization in B2B sales is a big transformation in the SEA B2B industry and may pose challenges to these companies. However, they can get assistance from a company that has excellent expertise in B2B online Asia to deal with these challenges.