B2B and B2C will approach each other more and more, because not companies, but people do the purchasing. Namely those people who buy their clothes from Galaxus, order their TVs from Digitec and do the weekend shopping on LeShop. The same users also buy on marketplaces like hystrix medical. What changes in comparison to private purchasing are the quantities, strategic shopping cart compilations and corresponding individual customer conditions. But not the expectations: The familiar convenience of B2C dictates what is expected in the business customer segment – speed, transparency and comfort; the three characteristics of hystrix medical.

As the large B2B study 2017 by Carpathia (2017), The private customer in the business customer sector, http://blog.carpathia.ch (14th November 2017) has shown, there is still much need for action in the B2B environment around the potential to fully exploit digitalisation and to minimize the dangers arising from it.

Conclusion

The hurdle of negotiating prices with existing providers or catching them up via auctions instead of immediately benefiting from competitive and transparently digitally presented net terms and conditions of new providers is becoming ever more stringent for hospitals. This raises the question of whether a highly complex discount system is still timely. So, being a supplier, it’s high time to actively reconsider your own pricing strategy. Additionally, the aspects of a new marketing channel need to be considered. If customers do not see Innovation, technical support services and quality, sometimes supported by clinical data, they will tend to buy less or not at all – in line with their B2C experiences and expectations.