It’s no secret that B2B ecommerce has exploded in recent years. It’s one of the fastest-growing business models, with almost 50% of all B2B sales taking place online. By 2025, that rate is expected to reach 80%.
The appeal of B2B (business to business) digital commerce is clear. It’s worth an estimated $7.7 trillion, more than double the value of DTC ($3.8 trillion). B2B ecommerce has multiple advantages over DTC (direct to consumer), such as significantly larger, more frequent purchases, improved customer experience, and lower costs. Savvy ecommerce leaders are also paying attention to who is doing the purchasing.
By 2025, a striking 70% of B2B buyers are projected to be millennials. Millennials grew up online and expect a customer experience that’s engaging and seamless. On that note, it makes sense that 85% of B2B companies say it’s critical to centralize their commerce into a single platform.
The personality of DTC is now expected in B2B. An ecommerce platform with personalized buying experiences, powerful B2B integrations, and a silky-smooth interface can win over coveted high-volume buyers, and leave them inspired by what the partnership holds in store.
Let’s examine what mastering the B2B boom can unlock for your business.
B2B ecommerce models
There are three types of B2B ecommerce models: wholesale, B2B2C (business to business to consumer), and B2C2B (business to consumer to business). Each utilizes different tactics to bring products and services to the attention of businesses.
- Wholesale B2B involves selling products in bulk to other businesses. Brands such as Brooklinen utilize Shopify’s stores for business buyers to leverage the rewards of wholesaling: higher order volume, fewer admin tasks, and lower customer acquisition costs. For more, consult our checklist of B2B ecommerce features for wholesalers.
- B2B2C involves partnering with a B2C brand to sell products online or in-store. Utilizing the B2C brand’s infrastructure can help businesses reduce overhead and reach a larger customer base.
- B2C2B involves pivoting from DTC to wholesale and B2B commerce. Businesses target specific customers, often employees, with the intention that these customers will advocate for the product within their organizations.
Note: Many businesses operate in multiple models simultaneously. Hybrids are often B2B businesses who are DTC dominant and understand the value of a streamlined, brand-forward, and enhanced customer experience. They often prioritize running their DTC and B2B operations from a single storefront (i.e., blended) or will opt for a dedicated B2B storefront.
How to create an ecommerce B2B strategy
Moving your B2B business online may seem intimidating. Without research and planning, it often is. Managing orders from your smartphone after years of doing them IRL is a significant shake-up. But B2B ecommerce presents unique opportunities to push your business forward.
Let’s explore how to get started.
Get to know your ideal buyer
B2B means selling to another business, but within that business, there’s still a real-life person making decisions. How can you build meaningful connections with them?
- Business buyers are influenced by their consumer experiences. Today’s B2B buyers skew increasingly millennial, and those buyers have grown to expect a frictionless customer experience. They expect convenience and relevance more than their baby boomer and Generation X counterparts.
- Get familiar with the differentiating factors of your target audience. Buyers want customized experiences that meet their specific needs and provide relevant product recommendations.
- Business buyers expect omnichannel capabilities to access information and fulfill needs across channels and platforms.
List marketing channels and customer touchpoints
The skin care brand Dermalogica uses its B2B site as much more than a storefront: Dermalogica Pro engages skin care professionals with quizzes, workshops, and interactive interfaces to test products. It’s a great example of a brand that’s harnessed the hands-on enthusiasm of modern-day buyers. How can you make the most of every touchpoint?
- Combine content and commerce to attract customers, educate them about products, and encourage them to purchase from you.
- Focus on the overall customer experience by building buyer-focused FAQ, creating personalized content, and using reviews and ratings. The experience should have the look and feel of DTC, down to the quality and artistry of the product photos.
- Optimize your customer catalog by making it simple for new customers to find what they’re looking for. Personalization based on past purchases is a great way to bring the DTC experience to modern buyers. B2B buyers are more likely to buy in bulk (and frequently) so making their past orders readily accessible to them is important.
- Utilize search engine optimization (SEO) to improve your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines.
Define your goals and objectives
The potential of B2B is vast, but it can feel like an endless sprawl without direction. How will you focus your initiatives?
- The goals of having a B2B ecommerce website include shrinking the supply chain, making online sales easier, improving customer loyalty, and allowing customers to engage with the company more easily.
- B2B ecommerce can also help businesses improve the productivity of their sales team, allow for scale, lower the cost of servicing customers, and service lower margin or smaller customers.
Get to know your competitors
As B2B commerce becomes increasingly digitized, it also becomes increasingly saturated. Does your business stand out?
- Your business has a story, just like the people behind it. What sets it apart from your competitors? Tapping into this narrative and signal-boosting it through social media platforms and SEO is a great way of keeping your business on buyers’ minds. All this nurtures genuine, relatable brand storytelling.
- Research other businesses in your space, paying close attention to their core differentiators, as well as their pressure points. Look for opportunities to make inroads with potential customers. Remember, an omnichannel experience is increasingly important. Keep up with current B2B ecommerce trends. Where can a modernized, millennial-friendly approach create value for your business?
Develop your unique value proposition
Beginning with the startup phase, establish what makes your business worthwhile to business customers.
- It’s beneficial to attract buyers of all sizes, especially early on. Do you plan to implement order minimums? Such restrictions could turn away smaller customers. Consider the benefits of building relationships with buyers of all sizes.
- Speed is a reliable value proposition. Promising to get products to customers faster—such as same-day delivery—is a great way to collect sales and build a customer base, if you’re prepared to pull it off.
- Consider buyer and supplier relationships that work off a buy now, pay later model. Depending on your risk tolerance, this can encourage early sales, along with early payment discounts and buyer loyalty programs.
Map out the system and tools you need
The backbone of any successful B2B ecommerce strategy is a connected ecommerce platform. Choosing the platform that’s right for you is one of the most important decisions along your B2B journey.
- Key features to consider when choosing a B2B ecommerce platform include scale, single source of truth, flexibility, and partner ecosystem.
- Businesses should also consider the platform’s ability to integrate with existing systems, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).
- Run your B2B and DTC business from one admin and even one store, using a platform that’s purpose-built for commerce.
- Shopify gives you everything you need out-of-the-box to exceed your customers’ expectations of modern B2B buying, with a tailored, self-serve experience that adapts to their unique pricing, product, and account needs.
What are the challenges in B2B commerce?
Problem #1: Buying behaviors are changing, and many ecommerce leaders are not equipped for this change.
Buyers are getting younger and their expectations are getting higher. Millennial buyers carry the standards they’ve grown accustomed to over years of personal shopping. Sixty-seven percent of buyers say they’d switch to another supplier or pay more for a better shopping experience. To retain existing customers, ecommerce leaders should keep these shifting standards in mind.
Problem #2: Legacy B2B platforms are clunky and unintuitive.
Historically, ease of use and front-end buyer experience have rarely been prioritized in B2B. Merchants have been stuck using outdated, utilitarian tools that are ill-equipped for telling a brand story, running promotional campaigns, and optimizing growth. This creates a tricky situation for ecommerce leaders: reports show 83% of buyers would prefer to self-serve their own orders online, and won’t adopt a new tool that makes it more difficult to place orders. As B2B commerce moves increasingly online, how a brand presents itself is a crucial competitive differentiator in a saturated market.
Problem #3: Commerce platforms that are customizable often require extensive developer resources and investment.
To solve the problems outlined previously, many platforms designed themselves to be infinitely customizable. While this can provide a lot of flexibility, it often leads to expensive platforms that are difficult to set up, difficult to manage, and almost impossible to scale. Out-of-the-box features are crucial to the success of a B2B ecommerce program, as they empower ecommerce leaders to implement the features they need right away, without custom coding or developer resources.
Problem #4: Manual processes and bloated tech stacks lead to limited opportunities for growth.
Despite the shift to online ordering, a significant portion of B2B commerce remains analog and traditional. Up to one-third of B2B transactions are conducted via manual, time-consuming methods like phone and email. Additionally, omnichannel and hybrid adopters can feel forced to juggle different customer types on separate platforms, leading to internal inefficiency and bloated tech stacks.
B2B is all about omnichannel growth—through direct commerce, sales reps, trade shows, distributors, eprocurement, B2B marketplaces, and even physical storefronts. To support this growth, businesses need a single, unified back office to run multiple front offices. By enabling customers to self-serve with personalized online experiences, ecommerce leaders can redirect their internal teams toward more strategic tasks. And with the help of a unified commerce engine, like Shopify, ecommerce leaders can easily expand while maintaining the agility to adapt to customers’ needs.
Get your B2B ecommerce strategy right
B2B has modernized rapidly. Lose track of emerging trends and customer needs, and you can feel like you’re flailing in the dark. But with the right ecommerce partner to keep you on the pulse, B2B can be extremely profitable. And rewarding.
Shopify gives you the tools to transform your business: customizable buying experiences, easy-to-use interface, and powerful B2B features and integrations. Out-of-box, you can start building something special.
FAQ on B2B commerce
What is the marketing strategy for B2B ecommerce?
A successful marketing strategy in B2B commerce utilizes social media, SEO, paid ads, and customer outreach to amplify brand storytelling and keep your business front of mind for buyers in your space.
What is the B2B model of ecommerce?
B2B ecommerce is the process of marketing and selling products between two businesses online.
How to be successful in B2B ecommerce?
Success in B2B ecommerce is often achieved by utilizing a platform with omnichannel capabilities to leverage the advantages of automation. These benefits include reducing cost-to-serve to drive more revenue, attaining higher customer satisfaction, and expanding customer reach to service more high-end buyers.
What are three examples of best practices in the B2B ecommerce environment?
Best practices in B2B ecommerce include paying for one ecommerce back end to deliver multiple storefronts, applying CRM to better serve your customer base, and allowing buyers to easily reference past orders, since B2B buyers are likely to make larger, repeat purchases.
