Source-to-Pay trends Chapter 4:
B2C experience in a B2B world

Many trends that have become commonplace in B2C will become increasingly expected in B2B environments, particularly in terms of user experience (UX) and user interfaces (UI). Enhanced interfaces will drive productivity and improve adoption rates within companies, as employees come to expect the same high standard of usability from B2B applications that they experience in B2C platforms.

Ultimately, finance and procurement platforms will play a key role in boosting productivity, while also maximising control over spend and minimising supply chain risks, thanks to their experiences with technology. We have established how guided behaviour helps increase order accuracy, but this can also lead to cultural adoption of the electronic P2P – guiding people to accurate supplier content with “less free text” ordering and image-based purchasing. Users can see what it looks like and the price directly from a marketplace. 

Highly intuitive interfaces, including clean, uncluttered screens, familiar layouts, and minimal input requirements, enables employees to effortlessly order what they need, managers to quickly review requests, and department heads to efficiently track spending. This streamlined approach empowers teams to optimise their procurement and finance strategies, delivering better ROI through enhanced efficiency, faster onboarding, and higher user adoption rates.
 


Industry-specific marketplaces

2025 will see a rise in intuitive, industry-specific B2B marketplaces, which allow employees to buy from approved suppliers at agreed prices, providing familiarity to their B2C experiences when, for example, ordering from Amazon. B2B marketplaces are set to transform into platforms with advanced capabilities, including Guided Behaviour, which challenge traditional distribution methods. The growth of consumer marketplaces will lead to greater adoption in the B2B space, providing more efficiency, wider reach, and cost-effective alternatives to conventional sales channels, benefiting both buyers and suppliers. Industry specific marketplaces will drive true supply chain transformations even further.

Service-led organisations will increasingly choose to develop their own preferred supplier models in a way that makes sense to the accessing organisation – to streamline the purchasing process and introduce spend control in a helpful way. With modern marketplaces, categorisation can be specified by the buying organisation and unified with industry-standard classifications, thus presenting a compelling and easy-to-access interface which helps the selection process within the organisation spend management system.

When selecting software, the user interface – and consequently the overall user experience – are critical factors, directly influencing the software’s longevity and long-term value to your company. Finance and procurement platforms must be future-proof, adaptable to evolving user needs and technological advancements. Similar to "everyday" websites, a software’s responsiveness ought to ensure it is accessible across any device, supporting a modern, mobile workforce.
 
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