B2B Customer Service in 2025: Strategies to Retain Wholesale Buyers

Long-lasting partnerships are the key to scaling a business-to-business (B2B) company. If buyers are happy with their purchase and have a positive experience with your brand, they’re more likely to return for months—if not years—to come.

Not only does that alleviate pressure on your B2B marketing team to consistently generate new leads, but it also makes a seismic difference to your bottom line. Study after study proves repeat customers are the secret to profitability—an elusive goal in B2B, where products are often sold at up to half off their retail price.

What is B2B customer service?

B2B customer service is a support system that helps buyers evaluate, purchase, and adopt a new product or service. It ensures companies purchasing from you are satisfied with their decision. 

World-class B2B support provides buyers with the information they need, in real time—often without having to contact a support team. This requires organizations to build self-service portals that multiple stakeholders can access, and use AI to provide instant responses and information.

The importance of strong B2B customer experiences

It’s important that each interaction a B2B customer has with your brand is positive. Studies show 49% of B2B firms list customer satisfaction as a core customer experience (CX) metric—and for good reason.

If each touchpoint a B2B customer has with your brand is positive, it impacts future business. Happy customers are much more likely to praise your business publicly. 

Glowing reviews, social media posts, or word-of-mouth referrals build credibility and brand equity. A buyer’s tight-knit network will come to recognize your business as the go-to supplier for a specific type of product.

“The more reliable and professional you can be, the more likely someone is to continue being a buyer. And as we all know, repeat buyers are the key to a healthy business,” says Kelly Van Arsdale, cofounder and CEO of Spinnaker Chocolate.

Similarly, 74% of B2B buyers say they would switch suppliers if another web store offered a better digital experience. Nail the customer experience and benefit from long-term relationships with your customers. It’s these repeat customers that form almost half of a business’s total orders.

B2B vs. B2C customer service: key differences

Even though the gap between B2B and B2C ecommerce is closing, there are still differences in customer service for these two groups. 

More decision-makers

Many B2B purchases involve about 10 stakeholders, and global deals can push that to 15 or more people across finance, operations, and executive teams. The average person has about 17 interactions with every vendor they consider, so a typical deal can easily surpass 150 touchpoints.

In contrast, business to consumer (B2C) decisions are typically made by a single consumer, or at most a household.

Longer buying cycles

A 2024 report shows the average B2B buying cycle stretches 11.5 months, with teams evaluating four or five vendors along the way. The duration alone raises the stakes for white-glove support.

Service expectations

B2B customers negotiate formal service level agreements (SLAs) that set first-response targets of 4 to 8 hours for most tech and industrial sectors, with faster windows for critical issues. Consumers, by contrast, define immediate as within minutes—and 72% want help on the spot, according to Zendesk.

Relationship orientation

B2B contracts typically span years and include renewals or reorders. That makes customer success, QBRs, and dedicated account teams essential. Support from B2C companies focuses on one-off issue resolution and loyalty perks like reward points and free returns.

Channel mix

Both segments expect omnichannel options, but B2B buyers also need shared inboxes for multi-user accounts, phone escalation paths, and API hooks for ticket data. Social DMs and live chat dominate B2C.

💡The caveat: Both B2B and B2C prefer self-service options, even though the buying journey is different. Buyers prefer to solve issues themselves and initiate first contact 80% of the time after self-directed research. Knowledge bases, help desks, self-service account portals, and AI chatbots reduce friction and keep you within SLA limits.

Shopify’s B2B commerce platform provides a personalized storefront where buyers can manage company profiles, payment terms, and price lists. This frees up your support team for more strategic, high-value customer interactions.

How to provide a world-class B2B customer service strategy

1. Vet potential buyers before purchasing
2. Allow customers to self-serve
3. Be proactive rather than reactive
4. Offer omnichannel support
5. Keep buyers updated on shipments
6. Promote your resellers’ businesses
7. Provide marketing materials
8. Professionally manage B2B reverse logistics
9. Regularly collect feedback to improve support

1. Vet potential buyers before purchasing

Reserve your sales reps’ time, and still give the one-to-one interactions your existing buyers want, by vetting buyers before they purchase.

Include vetting as part of your sales representatives’ responsibilities before B2B onboarding. Build a customer persona document to benchmark new prospects. Detail the type of company most likely to successfully resell your inventory, including their social media following, annual revenue, and operating industry.

Some B2B teams now run AI credit risk and fraud models on application data like web traffic, social footprint, and firmographic APIs to auto-approve or flag buyers before a rep ever looks at the lead.

Detail the type of person making the inquiry. Are merchandising managers more likely to convert (and to do so faster) than CEOs? Prioritize leads sharing the most traits with your buyer persona.

Jamie Batiste, founder of Rejected Hearts Club says, “Both parties need to do research on one another to make sure that it’s a great fit. If communication needs to happen, keep the lines open so there is no confusion and it turns into a win-win for everyone.”

The added benefit of vetting B2B brands pre-purchase is that your brand remains consistent. Resellers will be attaching your brand to theirs.

“One thing that we’ve been conscious of is being very strategic with who we look to work with,” says Will Stewart, owner of Cedar Spring Recreation. “The retailers we work with are going to be a reflection of our brand. We’re building a company and brand we’re proud of, and we expect the same from our B2B customers."

2. Allow customers to self-serve

Long, complex sales funnels don’t need to slow down the decision-making process. Move your B2B business online and allow pre-qualified buyers to self-serve.

There’s no beating around the bush: buyers want purchasing to be easier. With Shopify’s B2B ecommerce platform, you can deliver those excellent self-service experiences, alleviating strain on your sales reps and support team. You can:

• Open a password-protected portal for B2B buyers
• Assign wholesale price lists to business customers
• Set negotiated payment terms
• Remind buyers when their invoices are due
• Provide personalized product recommendations at scale

Self-service portals also let buyers consult your support team if they need more help. If you’re operating in a global marketplace, you’ll have B2B clients in various time zones that may need help during crunch times. Instant access to all the resources they need can help them get the most value from your company. 

🥇Case study: Superfood brand Laird Superfood ditched phone-in wholesale orders for a password-protected Shopify portal. The switch saves $50K to $60K each year and flipped the revenue mix—wholesale now accounts for 75% of total sales, up from 25% before the move.

3. Be proactive rather than reactive

Brands that proactively communicate with ecommerce customers stay front of mind, helping them resolve any problem before a buyer reaches out to deliver a better B2B customer experience.

Anticipate what a business needs and provide it without forcing them to initiate the conversation. This is where the B2B sales funnel comes into play. 

By identifying the pain points, frustrations, and business goals a customer has throughout their B2B ecommerce experience, you can automate the delivery of helpful content that guides them toward a purchase. (If you don’t, there’s a good chance you’ll lose them to a competitor who does.)

Here’s what proactive B2B customer support might look like pre-purchase:

• Top of the funnel: Blog posts addressing customer pain points, optimized to rank in search engines for the keywords they’re searching for
• Middle of the funnel: A retargeted LinkedIn ad promoting webinars with an industry expert to build credibility and trust, and showcase knowledge
• Bottom of the funnel: An email marketing campaign that showcases case studies to demonstrate how a similar B2B customer saw a return on their investment (ROI) after purchasing your product

Once a company has made its purchasing decision, don’t sit back and wait for them to encounter a problem. Continue providing a personalized experience with post-purchase email campaigns. Share optimal storage solutions, retail display ideas, or emerging social media trends that help them market their products.

Automate this personalized B2B customer service with Shopify Flow. Define triggers typical of each stage of the funnel, and build workflows to proactively provide helpful information. It allows you to scale B2B customer support and reduce pressure on your team.

4. Offer omnichannel support

Much like DTC customers, B2B customers often have questions about their purchase. The topic of these support conversations differs, but the methods customers expect to engage with retailers are consistent across the board, particularly since B2B buyers seek DTC-style customer service experiences from their suppliers.

Deliver that exceptional user experience to B2B customers through omnichannel support. That includes customer service contact through digital channels like:

• Email: Create a shared inbox for your support team to receive and distribute support inquiries. If you process a large volume of orders each month, separate B2B emails from DTC support.
• Marketplace inboxes: Popular B2B marketplaces have built-in messaging functionality that allows buyers and sellers to communicate within the platform.
• Social media: Allow B2B customers to send a direct message on the social media platforms they’re using. The most common platforms used by B2B buyers are LinkedIn and Facebook.
• Live chat: Customers expect a response to their support query almost immediately. Meet those customer expectations with a live chat feature on your B2B ecommerce website.
• Chatbots: Add a generative AI chatbot trained on order history, negotiated price lists, and knowledge-base articles. It resolves tier-1 questions 24/7 and hands off complex issues, complete with context, to the right human agent.

“[Shopify’s] chat feature has allowed our customers to get fast, immediate support from us. I love that the app gives us push notifications so we can respond on the go in real time. The best part is that it pulls Shopify customer data so we can see if they’ve purchased from us before or are a first-timer, so we can respond with more background context,” says Michelle Razavi, founder and CEO of ELAVI.

Employ a customer relationship management (CRM) platform like RichPanel, HubSpot, or Endear to monitor these support messages. Each time a new B2B customer support inquiry comes through, it will show:

• The decision-makers involved in the B2B buying decision
• Which channel(s) they used to contact support previously
• The sales representative they’ve spoken to
• The subject of their previous inquiry, and the outcome
• Any touchpoints they’ve had with your brand since their previous support request
• Information collected through the post-support chat feedback form

Having this information readily available allows you to provide omnichannel experiences to your customers. There’s no need for buyers to remember the channel they last used to contact a brand, nor re-explain the issue they’re dealing with. Your customer support team will be ready to solve the issue and improve satisfaction.

5. Keep buyers updated on shipments

The buying experience doesn’t conclude once a B2B order leaves your warehouse. After the ordering process ends, keep lines of communication open with delivery transparency.

The retailers you’re selling to also distribute products to customers. They’re aware of how long it takes for a product to be fulfilled and shipped. 

Need help committing to speedy delivery timeframes? Third-party logistics (3PL) partners take the pressure off your plate. Services like Shopify Fulfillment Network integrate with Shopify’s B2B ecommerce platform to automatically update buyers on the status of their shipment—no manual data entry required.

The vast majority of 3PLs also have advanced fulfillment technology. AI-powered automation, for example, speeds up the fulfillment process and gets orders out the door faster, so you can improve both fulfillment speed and order accuracy simultaneously.

Integrate enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for greater visibility into B2B shipments. Shopify’s integration with NetSuite automatically pulls data from the following platforms and displays it in one dashboard:

• B2B ecommerce platform
• Customer relationship management platform
• Inventory management system (IMS)
• Supply chain management software
• Warehouse management systems (either yours or a 3PL’s)

6. Promote your resellers’ businesses

One of the biggest differences between B2B and B2C ecommerce is the pain points each customer is trying to solve. End consumers have pain points specifically related to the product. Business customers are usually solving a business problem.

Take wholesalers, for example. This type of business sources products at a low price, in bulk, and resells them for a profit. Pain points a wholesaler tries to solve when evaluating new purchases might include:

• Increasing foot traffic to their store
• Improving product sell-through rate
• Remaining competitive

If your business sells both B2B and DTC, you’re in a fortunate position. You likely have a large enough audience to promote your wholesalers’ businesses—alleviating their pain point before and after making a purchase.

7. Provide marketing materials

It’ll be more difficult to promote your resellers’ businesses if you’re B2B only. It’s unlikely you’ll have consumers’ attention diverted toward a wholesaler’s store. But you can still support your resellers through strategic marketing.

Provide B2B marketing materials to help customers sell your B2B products. That includes:

• Retail displays
• Product packaging and inserts
• High-quality photography and videos
• Product information, such as price sheets and average sell-through rate to benchmark against

Not only do these marketing materials solve your customers’ pain point of generating a return on their purchase, but you maintain control over your brand. Items are displayed and marketed in a way that’s consistent with your own marketing strategy, helping to build brand recognition and equity on channels typically outside of your control.

Spinnaker Chocolate is one B2B retailer that offers free retail displays for their customers. Cofounder and CEO Kelly Van Arsdale says, “All retail store owners struggle with displaying new products, so if you can shoulder that burden for them, that’s a huge customer experience win.”

“This is a win for us, for the retailer, and most importantly, for the end consumer,” Kelly continues. “We’re hoping that our customer experience will be the same wherever consumers go, so that our products are immediately recognizable. In other words, our retail display is part of our brand identity.”

8. Professionally manage B2B reverse logistics

There are various reasons B2B customers initiate a return, from items becoming damaged mid-shipment to slow delivery speeds. Take proactive measures to minimize returns, such as wrapping B2B orders in protective materials to prevent in-transit damage or enlisting a 3PL that uses warehouse technology to improve accuracy.

Unfortunately, while you can do your best to minimize B2B returns, some are unavoidable. Buyers could have ordered the incorrect quantity or product. Others no longer need the items they’ve purchased due to a change in circumstances.

Regardless of who is responsible, give buyers the same excellent service throughout the B2B returns process. The way you manage this process has a domino effect on customer loyalty and retention— if buyers have a positive returns experience, they will return to buy again.

That means:

• Displaying a clear B2B returns policy: Include what types of product qualify for a return (and in what condition), the returns window, and the credit you’ll give (such as a refund or exchange).
• Returns tracking: Allow buyers to initiate a return through their company profile on your B2B storefront. Here, they can view all previous orders, generate a returns label, and track the status of their return without needing to reach out to your support team.
• Fast return-processing. Once an item arrives back at your warehouse, confirm whether it’s eligible for a return and inform the customer. Process their refund—be that a credit note, cash refund, or exchange—as quickly as possible. Consider employing a 3PL that offers reverse logistics services to speed up the process.

9. Regularly collect feedback to improve support

How do you know if your commitment to B2B customer service is translating well enough to result in repeat business? Dig deep into customer support metrics to benchmark data. Use this as a starting point to measure the effectiveness of your strategy.

Choose a B2B ecommerce platform that silos wholesale analytics into a sleek, easy-to-navigate dashboard. Shopify, for example, allows you to filter data from B2B orders to easily track sales, orders, profits, customers, and finances from the same back end that powers your B2C store.

Enlist the help of a customer feedback tool to gain supporting qualitative and quantitative data. Shopify apps like Reveal and Zigpoll email customers once a support inquiry is resolved. You’ll uncover important metrics that improve your strategy going forward.

B2B customer service metrics to pay attention to include:

• Net promoter score (NPS)
• Customer satisfaction
• Whether their issue was resolved
• What elements of support could be improved
• Whether they’d purchase again

If B2B customers are unhappy with their experience because the returns policy was unclear, for example, rectify the issue by clearly linking to your returns policy at B2B checkout. It’s a small tweak that improves the experience for future customers, while reducing the volume of support tickets you receive.

Leverage AI and automation for scalable support

AI-powered customer service is becoming the norm for ecommerce, no matter the sector. It’s the most efficient way teams can answer questions about MOQ, HS codes, or payment terms at the speed enterprise buyers expect. 

Gartner projects that by 2026, 80% of business software will ship with embedded generative AI features. Fortunately, Shopify is ahead of the AI curve. Shopify Inbox, a native chat messaging tool, leverages Shopify Magic to generate personalized and relevant responses to customer questions. 

AI support agents can reference negotiated pricing and invoices tied to the logged-in company profile, so buyers feel like they are interacting with an account manager who already knows their brand. 

Sustainability and trust signals buyers now expect

Procurement teams are under mounting pressure from regulatory bodies around the world. New laws such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive now require deep tier traceability, yet only 9% of supply chains are fully compliant today.

Sustainability is now a buying criterion. It’s procurement’s job to verify that every supplier in their chain can prove its environmental and social claims, and that includes you. 

New research from Bain & Company found 36% of corporate buyers say they would leave a supplier that doesn’t meet their sustainability expectations (and nearly 60% say they’ll be willing to do so within three years). The upside, however, is that nearly 50% said they would pay a sustainability premium of 5% or more for products backed by green credentials. 

Get up to date on your third-party certifications like ISO 14001, FSC, and Fairtrade. Display them as verifiable badges on your SKU pages and spec sheets. Provide buyers with real-time traceability data so they can follow raw materials back to the origin. 

Deliver excellent customer experiences with your B2B storefront

If you take one thing away from this guide, let it be this: B2B buyers are no different than B2C customers. Both want personalized shopping experiences from the brands they buy from, and personalized support options that slot into the channels they’re already using.

There’s no need to build complex or expensive ecommerce solutions to sell B2B online. With a commerce provider like Shopify, you’ll cater to both B2B and B2C buyers with personalized storefronts and marketing campaigns—all from a single back end.