Arno Ham
Online B2B commerce is not just the future; it’s the present. Gartner has predicted that 80% of B2B sales interactions will be online by year end 2025. Today, in 2024, our research shows that 75% percent of B2B buyers prefer buying online.
This is good news! The acceleration toward further digitalization of B2B commerce is a virtuous cycle. Buyers want more digitalization, and sellers provide more excellent online buying features, spurring higher adoption.
For 2025, we see three big trends that will accelerate this virtuous cycle: composability, buyer journeys, and AI integration.
Composability will be king
Here’s a challenge: how do you balance the demand for personalization against the reality of limited resources?
Instinctively, we know that it would be foolhardy, if not downright impossible, to create a truly customized solution for every B2B buyer from scratch. Can you imagine? Creating labor-intensive customizations for every single client?
That would be madness.
And yet, this mentality hasn’t been fully challenged when it comes to the seller side. B2B suppliers, just like buyers, have unique demands and idiosyncrasies that make their online processes different. The difference is that B2B suppliers often rely on unwieldy and expensive customizations to their platforms. These customizations, called “bandage solutions,” require heavy maintenance or outsourcing to keep up to date.
The other end of the spectrum is trying to cram a B2B business into poor fit — like a toddler in a one-size-fits-most Halloween costume. At best, it’s baggy, but workable. At worst, you’ll trip over yourself with every step.
So what’s the solution? Composability. Composability lets you thread the needle between personalization and simplicity by choosing multiple best-in-class tools, then integrating them seamlessly. Ultimately, the B2B seller creates a personalized ecosystem of integrated applications and tools.
Personalized buyer journeys
66% of B2B buyers expect a fully personalized experience when buying products online. This same percentage expects the same or better level of personalization in their business lives than in their personal lives.
B2B companies can meet this demand for greater personalization by using real-time integrated data to build personalized buyer journeys.
B2B buying is famously complex. Buyers are purchasing in large quantities at negotiated prices. One of the most significant demands we’ve seen on the buyer side is a guarantee that their agreed-upon pricing appears when they purchase online.
Real-time data integration with B2B commerce solutions will provide personalized pricing, buyer-specific product recommendations, and tailored cross-sell + upsell opportunities. Buyers benefit from easy online ordering that reflects their prices, thus reducing time and resources required to place orders. Sellers benefit from faster orders with fewer additional resources required. Everybody wins.
Deep AI integration
AI is here to stay. Our research shows that 81% of B2B companies already invest in AI tech, with 79% committed to ramping up investment in 2025.
Previously, AI in B2B focused primarily on front-end production. We saw the rise of things like AI chatbots, AI-powered product descriptions, and AI renderings.
These aren’t going anywhere. We’ll also see a rise in AI-powered guided selling, where dynamic questions will be posited to buyers to provide them with a curated selection of products that meet their needs.
However, we will also see further AI integration on the back end of B2B web stores. Expect to see AI integrations that can generate entire web pages, connections, and integrations. This will enable companies to more fully personalize their web stores without having to contract additional developers and designers. To manage these AI integrations, we foresee companies investing in upskilling and reskilling talent to prompt these AI tools effectively.
Laying the groundwork today for the future
Today, 30% of all B2B transactions are completed online. Getting from 30% to the predicted 80% is a bold challenge — but one that both buyers and sellers are actively working to achieve.
To reach this goal, B2B sellers will evolve their online commerce offerings by taking advantage of these three trends: composability, personalized buying journeys, and deep AI integration.
Through these investments, B2B businesses can provide a buying experience that manages the unique complexity of B2B commerce while providing a superior buying experience.
About the author:
Arno Ham is the chief product officer at Sana Commerce, a provider of ecommerce software. Arno started his ecommerce career over 17 years ago, leading B2B projects for customers like Heineken and AkzoNobel.
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