COVID-19 B2B Buyer Trends Report

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How COVID-19 is Changing B2B Buying⁠

- A Survey of 210 Global Purchasing Professionals June 2020

PROS tasked Hanover Research with conducting a study to understand how current market and socioeconomic conditions have affected how (B2B) purchasing professionals view the commerce experiences delivered by their vendors in the U.S./Canada, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand

Slightly less than half of companies indicate that current conditions have accelerated purchasing behavior (40%), while nearly half indicate (45%) current conditions have decelerated purchasing.

Budgets for purchasing have increased at a third of companies (39%) and decreased for a third of companies (37%).

Over half of companies (54%) anticipate that their budget for purchasing will increase in the next year, while very few companies expect a decrease (16%)

Since the COVID-19 outbreak…

Characteristics of buyers experiencing or anticipating budget changes

Buyers are more likely to observe an increase in purchasing budget if they are…

In the services (69%) industry

In the IT services (80%), medical distribution (100%), or pharmaceutical distribution (100%) industries

Purchasing goods from the biotechnology (70%), electronics distribution (63%), electronics manufacturing (68%), and financial services (61%) sectors

In a company with fewer than 500 employees (88%), compared to a company with 500-999 employees (45%) or 10,000 or more employees (43%)

Buyers are more likely to observe a decrease in purchasing budget if they are…

Working in the pricing (100%) or sales management/sales administration (85%) departments

Looking ahead (next 12 months)…

Buyers are more likely to anticipate an increase in purchasing budget if they are…

In the IT industry (95%) versus the automotive manufacturing (33%) and accommodations (33%) industries

A procurement officer (94%) compared to an operations manager (68%) or technical staff (64%)

Buyers are more likely to anticipate a decrease in purchasing budget if they are…

Purchasing goods and services from the automotive manufacturing sector (54%)

A third of Buyers indicate that most of their existing vendors are well-prepared to support them in a virtual environment

A plurality of companies reports that about half of their existing vendors are well-prepared (40%), while a quarter indicates most vendors are underprepared (23%)

60% of B2B buyers said only half their vendors were well prepared to support them in a virtual environment

About half of companies replaced/stopped using certain vendors due to the COVID-19 outbreak

The most common reason to terminate vendor relationships is the unavailability of supply (64%).

North American (51%) buyers are more likely than Oceanic (31%) buyers to replaced vendors as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Perspectives On Purchasing In Covid-19

Vendor preferences have changed for three-quarters (70%) of North American buyers as a result of current conditions.

Competitive pricing (43%) is the top reason some vendors are preferred to others.

Two-thirds of North American buyers are likely to take up an offer to switch to a vendor offering personalized real-time, dynamically updated pricing reflecting market conditions (67%).

Buyers cite pricing & quoting challenges as the top challenges they face with their current distributors:

Inconsistent and highly variable pricing (35%)

Slow/inefficient responses to inquiries (32%)

Non-competitive or market relevant pricing (31%)

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3 out of 5 of Technology buyers are likely to take up an offer to switch to a vendor offering personalized realtime, dynamically updated pricing reflecting market conditions.

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