Buy or sell: Behind these two complementary actions there are very varied apps

Two entities characterize the selling process: on the one side the one that sells, on the other the one that purchases. Seller and customer can be regarded as the two faces of the same coin, attributable to a single action area, but different in the way they “see” and live the experience that characterizes them. And these differences must be taken into account by who realizes the sales applications (on the IT side) but also by who chooses them on behalf of their sellers or end-customers.

If the seller is our interlocutor, we must make a certain amount of useful information available to him, to help him perform his work:

• updated data on the profile of the customer who is in front of him, from his financial situation to his purchase habits, for example exemplifying his last order, or those items most usually ordered;
• updated data on products and price dynamics, making it possible for the Sales rep to suggest that customers choose items that maximize margins;
• updated information on items in offer, like new products, differences against competitors’ products, promotions, etc. to confer value to their customers, create and maintain a privileged relationship and loyalize them.

If our interlocutor should be the end-customer – the buyer – instead, the model changes, since it implies a different way of interacting. An e-commerce application, either on B2C or B2B, must be planned to keep the customer in the forefront, as he is “alone” while purchasing and should therefore be guided to:

• a “frictionless” experience: from access (easy and quick login), to catalogue consultation, item selection, choice of payment mode,… up to the final checkout;
• certain products, promotions, personalized vouchers according to customized logics and conditions, kept in the foreground against others, to make the shopping experience unique;
• the creation of customer loyalty, always presenting new ideas and products, also in the virtual stores, and according to the customer’s preferences.

These differences imply a diverse construction of the application, also from the UX (User Experience) side: if on the one hand the key role is entrusted to the abundance of the information available and to the rapidity when entering data (especially in sectors like food distribution for the Ho.Re.Ca. world), on the other hand it is paramount to carefully guide users through the various acquisition phases, accurately studying their experience in order to make it increasingly satisfying.