Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
A sale with a click, not a handshake
Retail | E-commerce
February 21, 2022 – The notion that corporate buyers prefer face-to-face transactions with B2B companies is no longer. As many as two-thirds of corporate buyers use e-commerce throughout their purchasing journey, a McKinsey survey has found. And most corporate customers indicated e-commerce is the most effective sales channel.
To read the article, see “Busting the five biggest B2B e-commerce myths,” January 26, 2022.
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Visual form
Multi-series line chart.
Layout / body structure
The chart is a single time-based sales-channel chart with the channel legend built into the page and the survey waves spaced along the horizontal axis. Reader scans left to right across the survey dates while comparing the channel lines on the same vertical effectiveness scale.
What is being compared
The chart compares sales-channel effectiveness in B2B, contrasting e-commerce, in-person selling, video conference, online chat, phone, email, and fax. It is comparing channels against one another across multiple survey snapshots rather than ranking a single point in time only.
Measurement system
The vertical measure is the percent of respondents who identified a channel as their most effective sales channel, and the page is labeled as US only. The visible values run up to the mid-30 percent range, so the chart is tracking relative channel preference shares rather than raw transaction counts.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Seven colored lines run across the chart, with e-commerce sitting highest and the older low-touch channels lower on the page. The horizontal axis marks the survey waves, and the legend helps the reader follow each channel’s line as the chart separates the strongest digital path from the rest of the pack.
Main takeaway from the visual
E-commerce stands out as the most effective channel for a plurality of B2B sellers, and the rest of the channels sit below it rather than challenging for the top position. The line spacing makes the digital advantage easy to see because the e-commerce series stays at the top while the others cluster beneath it.
Key standout values or extremes
The clearest top-line value on the page is the 35 percent reading attached to e-commerce. The other channels sit lower on the same chart, with in-person, video conference, online chat, phone, email, and fax all falling underneath that top e-commerce line.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.