Nikola Minkov participates in European Ecommerce Leaders | Forum in Sofia, 14-15 May 2025
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Nikola Minkov, founder and CEO of Serpact: “B2B buyers want to be treated like people, not companies.”
“In the world we live in, the separation between B2C and B2B is blurring in the customer’s mind.”
With these words, Nikola Minkov, founder and CEO of SEO agency Serpact, summarized his vision for the transformation of business-to-business e-commerce during the Ecommerce Leaders | Forum, held in Sofia on 14-15 May 2025. He participated in the panel “B2B Ecommerce”, moderated by the Vice President of the Bulgarian Industrial Association Maria Mincheva. The other speakers were Temelko Dechev, Managing Partner at ExpandX, and Dimitar Dimitrov, Partner at Stenik.
During the discussion, which lasted nearly an hour, Minkov presented his views on the transformation of business relationships in B2B ecommerce companies. He pointed out that currently there is a focus on the human factor, whether it is corporate or individual customers.
“Corporate customers on an average rate a company 2.3 times more positively if the same has provided them with a good B2C experience,” the expert said, referring to a KPMG report. “Most people are now taking the way they interact with businesses as consumers into the B2B market – they just expect the same levels of service and customer experience. We’re now in a state where we can talk about business-to-human rather than business-to-customer or business-to-business,” he said.
Minkov shared some of the methods Serpact is applying to overcome this challenge. “We respect each company’s unique needs and offer customized solutions, demonstrating that we want to build a special relationship with them. We use our expertise to earn their trust – never promising more than we can deliver, and treating their emergencies as our own,” Minkov explained.
He placed particular emphasis on knowledge transfer, which allows clients to feel empowered to understand what is being done and why.
“Forester research shows that B2B buyers are almost twice as likely (85% vs. 48%) to do business with a supplier or partner they trust,” the expert emphasized. “Buyers operating in a B2B environment aren’t just looking for the best product or service; they’re looking for assurance that their chosen company will deliver on its promises.”
Speaking about the most effective digital marketing channels for attracting B2B buyers, Minkov emphasized that success lies in strategic consistency, tailored to the different stages of the path to purchase. “B2B buyers typically engage with over 15 content elements across multiple touch points before making purchase decisions.”
The expert’s look at metrics for measuring marketing efforts in the B2B sector was interesting. “As B2B becomes more business-to-human, traditional metrics are subject to redefinition – they are no longer as relevant when we’re talking about building lasting relationships.” Instead, he suggested a focus on metrics that show the digital customer journey, such as the correlation between site search and purchase, product find efficiency scores and cart abandonment rates.
In conclusion, when asked to describe the future of B2B e-commerce in one word, Minkov chose “Predictive” – highlighting how “analytics will anticipate customer needs before they even think about them.” To that end, he said, AI-based tools will be needed to help analyze data and formulate recommendations.
B2B Ecommerce panelists outlined a clear trend in the evolution of ecommerce – the formation of a new approach centered around the human, whether representing an organization or acting as an individual consumer. This transformation requires companies to rethink their overall approach to building customer relationships.
