How composable architecture enables promotions for B2B?

This blog post is a guest blog post written by our partner, Voucherify.

Today’s B2B landscape is highly competitive; therefore, businesses constantly seek innovative ways to attract and retain customers. One strategy that has gained significant traction is using promotions and loyalty programs to drive engagement, increase sales, accelerate customer acquisition, and foster long-term relationships. 

In this blog post, we will explore how composable architecture approach empowers B2B organizations to unlock the full potential of promotional solutions.

Understanding composable architecture

Composable architecture is an approach to designing software systems that involves breaking down complex systems into smaller, independent components that can be combined and orchestrated to create different applications or solutions. 

What are some key characteristics and principles of composable architecture?

• Modularity: The system can be decomposed into independent modules with clear boundaries, enabling flexibility and reusability.
• Loose coupling: Components have minimal dependencies and interact through well-defined interfaces, facilitating accessible updates and modifications.
• Reusability: Components are designed to be self-contained and plug-and-play, which allows them to be used in different applications or combined to create new systems. Moreover, they are easily assembled, rearranged, or replaced to meet changing requirements and address specific use cases.
• Composability at multiple levels: The composability can be applied to infrastructure, platforms, and services, leveraging pre-built components, cloud services, APIs, or microservices for modular design and interoperability advantages.
• API-first approach:  With API, composable architectures gain more flexibility and scalability, as various elements can be quickly composed or replaced without disrupting the overall system.

Suggested reading: All You Need to Know About Composable Commerce

Why are B2B promotions and loyalty challenging?

In today’s e-commerce world, there are several challenges that B2B businesses have to face daily when thinking about establishing their promotional architecture and strategy. 

Among other things, B2B promotional market has a limited reach and target audience, as such promotions are often directed towards specific industries or niches, resulting in a relatively smaller audience than consumer-focused promotions. Reaching the right decision-makers within target organizations and capturing their attention can be demanding.

Moreover, as B2B sales are characterized by longer sales cycles and involve multiple touchpoints, consultations, and negotiations, organizing promotional campaigns becomes challenging. Effective B2B promotional campaigns must be designed to support these extended cycles and maintain the buyer’s interest and engagement over an extended period of time. 

B2B transactions also rely heavily on building and maintaining solid relationships. Accordingly, promotions in the B2B context should align with relationship-building efforts, emphasizing trust, credibility, and long-term value rather than short-term discounts or incentives.

B2B contracts typically have customized pricing, and promotions must be applied to these negotiated prices. In such cases, discounts need to be recalculated for each eligible customer. For instance, a promotion may offer a 10% discount on a specific line of products or brand to B2B customers who meet a certain annual spending threshold. However, these promotions must be applied to a customer's custom price list. 

Additionally, the promotion may only be valid if it doesn't exceed the profit margin, especially when the customer's pre-negotiated price is already very low. This complexity arises because the pricing and promotions need to be tailored to individual customers, making it challenging to scale and apply promotions efficiently. In the past, this process required manual updating and recalculation of the price list for each customer before applying the promotion.

Importantly, measuring the ROI and attribution of promotions can be complex due to the involvement of various decision-makers in the B2B environment. Consequently, assessing the effectiveness of different promotions becomes harder without clearly attributing sales or conversions to specific promotional activities.

To overcome these challenges, B2B organizations must adopt a strategic and targeted approach to promotions, focusing on building relationships and demonstrating their offerings' unique value.

This is precisely where composable architecture comes in with indispensable help, allowing B2B organizations to unlock the full potential of promotions and loyalty programs. Only with the right e-commerce architectural solution can businesses create engaging customer experiences and consistently drive growth.

Why is composable architecture crucial for B2B promotions?

Taking advantage of composable architecture, businesses can create highly personalized promotional solutions that work for the comprehensive structure of the B2B world. 

Here are the essential composable commerce features that allow for creating elaborate promotional solutions:

1. Modular and reusable components

   Because of composable architecture, B2B organizations can break down their promotions into modular components. Each component can be developed, tested, and deployed independently, allowing for easier reuse across different promotions and campaigns. The modularity promotes efficient development and accelerates time-to-market for new promotions and loyalty incentives.

2. API-first approach

   Composable architecture follows an API-first approach, providing well-documented and standardized APIs for each modular component. This allows seamless integration with existing systems, such as CRM, ERP, or third-party services, enabling B2B organizations to leverage their existing infrastructure and data to enhance their promotions. 
   
   APIs also facilitate headless commerce scenarios, where the front-end presentation layer is decoupled from the back-end systems, providing flexibility in designing and delivering branded promotions across multiple channels. This flexibility is also useful for auto-updating printable product catalogs or showing different product catalogs for different customers, bringing relevant product data from one source of truth to the front-end while limiting the visibility of specific products and offers to eligible customers across channels.

3. Flexibility and customization

   Composable architecture offers flexibility in designing and customizing promotions for specific B2B business needs. By assembling and integrating modular components, organizations can tailor promotions based on, for instance, customer segments or geographic regions. Configuring and reconfiguring components easily allows for rapid experimentation, iteration, and optimization of promotions, ensuring they remain relevant and practical.

4. Scalability and performance

   Thanks to composable architecture, independent scaling of promotional components is possible. B2B organizations can allocate resources, such as computing power or database capacity, based on the specific needs of each component. The scalability ensures that promotions can handle increased demand during peak periods, providing a seamless user experience and preventing performance bottlenecks that negatively impact credibility and trust, so crucial in B2B sales.

5. Data-driven insights and analytics

   Composability allows B2B organizations to gather valuable data and insights from various elements of their promotions. By integrating analytics modules, organizations can track KPIs, monitor customer behavior, and measure the effectiveness of different promotion strategies. These insights inform data-driven decision-making and allow for iterative promotion improvements, maximizing their impact and ROI.

6. Rapid deployment

   With composable architecture, B2B organizations can rapidly deploy new promotions and change existing ones. The modular nature of the architecture allows for quick configuration and deployment of individual components without affecting the entire system. Because of that, organizations can respond swiftly to market trends, competitive pressures, or customer demands, ensuring their promotions remain relevant.

7. Security and compliance

   Composable architecture enables B2B organizations to implement security measures and compliance requirements at the modular level. Each component can have its own security protocols, access controls, and data protection mechanisms. This granular control ensures that promotions adhere to industry regulations, data privacy laws, and organizational security policies.

Monolithic promotions vs. composable promotions

With the dynamic development of the e-commerce space, many B2B and B2C businesses alike have realized that operating on a single system is difficult if one wants to upkeep with dynamic changes happening in the market. But why exactly is the monolithic approach towards promotions and loyalty programs going out of date, and modular architecture is becoming the show's star?

With a rigid and tightly integrated structure, monolithic promotions make it difficult to change or modify specific components without impacting the entire solution. This does not play well with B2B promotions which often require flexibility to adapt to evolving market conditions, customer preferences, and business strategies. The inability to easily modify or customize promotional elements restricts B2B organizations from effectively tailoring their promotions to specific segments or responding promptly to new circumstances.

Composable promotions, on the other hand, allow for creating dynamic, omnichannel, and easily adaptable promotions within the unique B2B environment that caters to highly demanding professional buyers.

Example of a promotion validation rule built.

In digital promotions and loyalty programs, a microservices-based approach provides the necessary flexibility and control for managing incentives and campaigns efficiently. It enables marketing teams to make quick adjustments without relying on the IT team, saving time and streamlining processes.

Suggested reading: 
Monolithic Versus MACHified Promotions – What’s The Difference?
About MACH Alliance

Examples of B2B promotions that can be carried out using composable architecture:

1. Tiered pricing and volume-based discounts

   By utilizing modular components for pricing rules, it is possible to define discount tiers based on order quantities or total purchase volume. These rules are dynamically applied during the order process, ensuring accurate and personalized pricing for B2B customers.
   
   Keep in mind that the key goal of volume discounting is to incentivize additional purchases. Tailoring volume discounts to each customer can be a challenging task as different customers have varying definitions of what makes a large purchase.

   
   

   Example of B2B promotions powered by recommendation API.

   Many B2B companies also employ a uniform volume discounting plan, typically presented as a table with different discount bands based on purchase quantities. However, this approach neglects smaller customers and tends to provide disproportionately favorable deals to the largest customers who would likely make substantial purchases even without discounts.

2. Account-specific promotions

   By leveraging customer data and utilizing account-specific modules, companies can create targeted promotions for individual B2B customers. This includes offering exclusive discounts, loyalty rewards, or personalized cross-selling promotions tailored to each customer's specific needs and preferences.

   
   Example of a promotion recommendation campaign
   
   

3. Bundle offers and cross-selling

   By analyzing customer purchasing patterns and preferences, companies can create bundle offers and cross-selling promotions. For instance, when a B2B customer purchases a specific product, the system can intelligently recommend complementary products or offer discounted bundles to encourage additional purchases. 
   
   Another popular B2B promotion strategy is offering free products added to the bundle.

4. Time-limited promotions

   By taking advantage of modular components, enterprises can create time-bound promotions, such as flash sales or seasonal discounts. These promotions can be quickly scheduled, activated, and deactivated based on predefined timeframes, ensuring seamless execution and efficient inventory management. 

   Create your loyalty program with the help of composable architecture

   In addition to the benefits of composable architecture mentioned earlier, loyalty programs can also be seamlessly integrated into the B2B promotional strategy. Loyalty programs aim to incentivize repeat business and strengthen customer relationships, which are crucial in the B2B landscape.
   
   Using composable architecture, B2B organizations can develop loyalty programs that offer exclusive benefits, rewards, and personalized experiences to their most valuable customers. By integrating loyalty modules with customer data and account-specific promotions, companies can track and reward customer loyalty based on purchase volume, frequency, or long-term partnership.
   
   On top of that, modular architecture enables the seamless management and integration of loyalty program components with other promotional modules. This allows B2B organizations to create a comprehensive promotional ecosystem where loyalty rewards and benefits are automatically applied and tracked throughout the customer journey.

Watch the demo showcase with our partner, Voucherify, to learn how to build B2C-like B2B buying experience.

https://vimeo.com/837528495 

Summary

Composable architecture offers significant benefits for B2B promotions and loyalty programs. Its flexibility and modular approach enable businesses to create innovative and tailored promotional campaigns, resulting in increased customer engagement, improved customer experiences, and higher conversion rates. 

As B2B marketing evolves, the future of composable architecture holds immense potential for delivering highly personalized promotions and driving sustainable business success. By embracing this approach, businesses can stay at the forefront of B2B marketing and maximize their promotional strategies for long-term growth and competitiveness.

If you want to carry out effective B2B promotions, take advantage of the Emporix and Voucherify integrated solution, which will guarantee the success of your promotional and loyalty campaigns. 

Voucherify offers powerful tools for creating personalized promotions, targeting specific customer segments, implementing advanced rules, distributing promotions through multiple channels, and tracking performance. Emporix, on the other hand, is a leading cloud-native Digital Commerce Platform for B2B, thats support B2B business operations through a set of APIs and an intuitive management dashboard. 

By leveraging the capabilities of both platforms, businesses can optimize B2B promotions, deliver a tailored customer experience, and make data-driven decisions for future strategies.