Winning in B2B E-commerce: How ibSupply Grew Site Search Revenue by 40%

1. [WEBINAR] Winning in B2B e-commerce: How ibSupply grew Site
Search revenue by 40%

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Monal Patel
SVP & CBO, Unbxd
Harley Thomas
Sr. Director, Corporate & Digital
Marketing, ibSUPPLY.COM
GUEST SPEAKER PRESENTER
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3. MEET TODAY’S SPEAKERS
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Harley H. Thomas is a Senior Director of Corporate and Digital
marketing at ibSupply. An award-winning, customer-centered
marketing executive, Harley lends his strategic expertise to drive
business development and marketing communication functions that
increases brand awareness and ensures revenue growth. He is also
the host for ibSupply’s Blind Living Radio Podcast and has over 25
years of experience in the e-commerce and retail industry.
Harley Thomas - Sr. Director, Corporate & Digital
Marketing - ibSupply.com

4. MEET TODAY’S SPEAKERS
At Unbxd, Monal helps eCommerce companies solve their product
discovery problems and create growth by providing new and
improved approaches to decision making. Monal has 15+ years of
experience in the software & retail industry and is a seasoned
speaker at major eCommerce events like Etail West, MivaCon,
Fashion Digital, Etail East, etc. Monal holds a Masters degree in
Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Monal Patel - SVP & CBO UNBXD Inc.
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5. ABOUT UNBXD
LEADING PRODUCT DISCOVERY PLATFORM FOR ECOMMERCE
1200+ eTail customers in over 40 countries. 400+ eTail customers in US.
Over 1.5 Billion Interactions/Month
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CUSTOM

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 On ibSupply and site search
 The higher stakes of B2B site search
 Unbxd’s Site Search solution
 Evaluating and choosing a site search technology partner
 Meeting consumer expectations in the B2B world
AGENDA

7.  Leading office and industrial supplies online retailer operated by ibMilwaukee, which
was founded in 1952.
 $100M revenue. Over 13 stores across different parts of the USA
 Significant portion of repeat customers are from the US Government and Military
 Launched online store (earlier BaseSupply.com) in 2001
ABOUT ibSUPPLY
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8. Why did investing in site search become so important?
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9. B2B SITE SEARCH HAS
HIGHER STAKES
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 Our customers are buyers not shoppers
 Extremely high lost opportunity cost
 Essential to engage potential buyers

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THE GOAL
Delivering a robust search experience
at scale, specifically for B2B buyers

11. What are the key changes that improved site search experience on
ibSupply.com?
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12. THE SOLUTION
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13. DELIVERING THE BEST B2B
SITE SEARCH EXPERIENCE ON ibSUPPLY.COM
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14. Addressing Unique B2B Buyer Behavior
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15. OPTIMIZING THE SEARCH EXPERIENCE
FOR REPEAT BUYERS
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Problem: Part number searches not supported by
standard search platforms
What we did with Unbxd: Supporting part number
searches with Intelligent Visual Autocomplete
 Accomodating multiple errors and variations
common with part number searches
 Reducing the buyer’s path to purchase with
Intelligent Visual Autocomplete
Part Number Search

16. ENABLING EASIER DECISION MAKING FOR B2B BUYERS
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Problem: Numerous product choices with
only slight variation in specifications
What we did with Unbxd: Helping buyers
make informed decisions with relevant
and dynamic facets and filters
 Assisting buyers in identifying
important comparison parameters
 Reaching the right products faster with
easy drill down
Customized Filters for the
Searched Query

17. An End-to-End Superior Site Search
Experience at Scale
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18. AN END-TO-END
SUPERIOR SEARCH
EXPERIENCE AT SCALE
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 Connecting buyers to the right products
 Helping buyers reach these
products faster
 Seamless search experience at scale

19. HOW UNBXD’S TECHNOLOGY
WORKS
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ENHANCING PRODUCT DATA TO IMPROVE SEARCH
RELEVANCE
Examples of Crucial Meta Data in Product
Descriptions
Product data now made searchable:
Thickness property type : Thin
Visual property type : Transparent
Weight type : Lightweight

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MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS MATCH SEARCH QUERY TO
SHOPPER INTENT
Shopper searches for
“Logitech Black Wireless Keyboard”
Stage 1: Query gets split into
Logitech ‘Black’ ‘wireless’ ‘Keyboard’
Logitech ‘Black’ ‘wireless’ ‘Keyboard’
Stage 2: Processing & Data Enrichment
Keyboard : Product Type
Black : Color Attribute
Wireless : Product Attribute
Logitech : Product Brand

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UNDERSTAND SHOPPER INTENT BY LEVERAGING DIFFERENT
QUERY PARAMETERS
Query Spectrum
 Exact Search
 Product Type
 Symptom
 Non Product Search
Query Qualifier
 Feature
 Thematic
 Relational
 Compatibility
 Subjective
Query Structure
 Slang, Abbreviation & Symbol Search – ‘MTB’ for “Mountain bikes”
 Implicit – Search for “brown tops” when in “women’s” category
 Natural Language – “Women’s Dresses for Office”
– “Kitchenaid mixer”
– “Women’s Tshirt”
– “Diabetes”
– “Free shipping”
– “Black dresses”
– “Party tops”
– “Michael Kors Miranda collection”
– “Moto X case”
– “High quality speakers”

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UNBXD’S MACHINE LEARNING ENGINE CONSTANTLY SELF-
LEARNS AND OPTIMIZES YOUR SEARCH

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ELIMINATE ZERO RESULT PAGES WITH AUTOMATED, MULTI-
WORD SPELL CHECK CORRECTION

25. Unbxd : A Successful
Technology Partner For ibSupply.Com
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26. RESULTS: B2B SITE SEARCH DIRECTLY DRIVES
REVENUE GROWTH AT SCALE
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“I don’t look at Unbxd as just a technology platform. It’s a partnership to develop my business,
which ultimately means we’re meeting our customer’s needs better and faster. This partnership
helps us focus on our core business.” – Harley Thomas
40%
INCREASE IN
TOTAL REVENUE
FROM SITE
SEARCH
35%
INCREASE IN
REVENUE PER
SEARCH
SESSION
22%
INCREASE IN
SEARCH
CONVERSION
RATE
11%
INCREASE IN
AVERAGE
ORDER
VALUE

27. POLL
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28. What made you choose Unbxd?
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29. MANAGING
SITE SEARCH INTERNALLY:
NOT FEASIBLE ANYMORE
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We realized working on SOLR would require:
 Extensive manual configurations on an ongoing
basis
 Involvement of a full-time dedicated resource
 Months of programming and still we
might not be able to deliver the
expected search experience

30. WHY UNBXD STOOD OUT
DURING THE EVALUATION
PROCESS
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 Superior technology solution
 Strong engineering-focused sales team
 Added great value to our B2B business
with consultative, solution-oriented
approach

31. Experience Before and After Unbxd
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INFLUENCING PRODUCT RANKINGS IN
SEARCH RESULTS TO MEET BUSINESS GOALS
Easily set up Boost/Bury rules
based on product parameters

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AUTOMATICALLY REDIRECT SEARCH QUERIES TO YOUR
CATEGORY PAGES

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ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS TO CONSTANTLY OPTIMIZE FOR
USABILITY AND REVENUE GROWTH
Clear overview of how search is
impacting your topline growth
Drill-down to spot missed
opportunities at each stage of the
conversion funnel

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DEDICATED CUSTOMER
SUCCESS TEAM
 Pro-active involvement to help us achieve the
desired outcome
 Quick response time

36. MEETING CONSUMER EXPECTATIONS IN THE B2B WORLD
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37. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT
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60% B2B buyers said they’d like better site search on suppliers’ e-commerce sites

38. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT
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83% B2B buyers like to research products on sellers’ websites (Google being their second choice)

39. QUESTIONS?
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40. THANK YOU!
MONAL PATEL
monal@unbxd.com
302-276-4673
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