How To Build a Successful B2B Ecommerce Strategy in 2025

It’s no secret B2B ecommerce has exploded in recent years. It’s one of the fastest-growing business models, with more than half of all B2B transactions over $1 million processed through digital channels.

The appeal of B2B digital commerce is clear. The B2B ecommerce market is worth an estimated $19.34 trillion, more than triple the value of DTC at $5.5 trillion. B2B ecommerce has multiple advantages over DTC, such as significantly larger, more frequent purchases, improved customer experience, and lower costs. 

Let’s examine what mastering the B2B boom can unlock for your business. 

What is a B2B ecommerce strategy? 

A B2B ecommerce strategy is your plan for selling to other businesses online. It involves making the entire B2B buying process easy, personal, and smooth for business customers, just like how they shop on B2C websites. 

The goal is to let buyers help themselves, allowing your own business to run more efficiently and grow. As of 2024, 68% of B2B firms ran an ecommerce site or self-service portal, achieving a 25% growth in revenue on average.

None of this is possible without the right B2B ecommerce platform. Shopify, for example, helps B2B businesses create personalized buying experiences that drive revenue and reduce operational costs. 

Key components of a successful B2B strategy

A solid B2B strategy utilizes the right tools and focuses on delivering an exceptional customer experience. 

Since every business buyer is different, your strategy needs to provide them with a personalized experience, whether they are browsing your catalog or looking to reorder commercial off-the-shelf products.

These elements are essential:

• One commerce platform for everything: Use a single platform like Shopify to power your wholesale and DTC experiences. With a single unified data model, you can view inventory and customer data in real time, enabling you to provide support that delights buyers. 
• A personal touch for each buyer: Showing buyers only the products they can buy, giving them personalized pricing, and offering payment terms that work for them positions you as a strategy partner. 
• Easy self-serve options: A McKinsey survey found that as of 2024, 39% of B2B buyers are willing to spend more than $500,000 on one purchase online, compared to 28% in 2022. Buyers today prefer to do things on their own. Provide them with a simple and secure online portal to reorder, track shipments, or pay invoices without having to call or email for assistance. 
• Seamless connection between tools: Your ecommerce platform needs to work with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Having access to native integrations via Shopify’s Global ERP Program is a significant advantage. Everyone can work from one single source of truth, whether they are building a marketing campaign or bulk-ordering parts from a supplier. 

Shopify empowers brands to sell B2B online through company profiles. You can place multiple buyers under one account, add individual permissions, products, and preferences, and create tailored experiences for every stakeholder on the buying committee. 

🥇 Case study: Outdoor gear supplier DARCHE moved from OroCommerce to Shopify, connected their ERP, and launched Shopify B2B features like company profiles, custom catalogs, and personalized price lists. 

This change enabled wholesale buyers to place self-serve orders through tailored catalogs, resulting in a threefold year-over-year increase in B2B sales for DARCHE while reducing the need for manual phone and email orders.

Why traditional approaches no longer work

A striking 71% of B2B buyers are now 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 now 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, inspiring them about future collaborations. 

B2B ecommerce models 

There are three primary types of B2B ecommerce models: wholesale, B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer), and B2C2B (business-to-consumer-to-business). Each utilizes different tactics to reach businesses.

1. 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. Learn more in our checklist of B2B ecommerce features for wholesalers. 
2. B2B2C involves partnering with a B2C brand to sell products online or in-store. Leveraging the B2C brand’s infrastructure can help businesses reduce overhead and reach a larger customer base. 
3. 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 that are DTC-dominant and understand the value of a streamlined, brand-forward 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 online store. 

Nine steps for creating a B2B ecommerce 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. 

1. Research your audience and buying behaviors

B2B means selling to another business, but within that business, there’s still an actual person making decisions. How can you build meaningful connections with them? 

Get familiar with the differentiating factors of your target audience. Buyers want customized experiences that meet their specific needs and provide relevant product recommendations. 

Technical buyers, like engineers, need more than a simple product description. To make a purchase decision, they need access to detailed specifications, CAD models, and STEP files directly on your website, and are often willing to pay more for that convenience.

Buyers also have different needs for different products. While they still expect to talk to a sales rep for highly custom work, they want to buy standard, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components through a fast, self-serve online experience.

2. Choose the right ecommerce platform

The entire B2B experience depends on your commerce platform. For example, suppose a buyer visits their portal to configure a custom part. The buyer adds their specifications, clicks order, and it’s approved with a confirmation number.

After reviewing the order internally, you discover you’re actually out of stock and cannot fulfill the custom part within your promised timeframe. Unfortunately, a B2C customer snatched up the last item. 

If your commerce platform ran on a unified data model, the buyer would have seen an out-of-stock notification, and your team could have ordered more parts ahead of time. The automated self-service element is lost, and the buyer will attempt the order with another supplier. 

A unified commerce platform removes the data silos and duct-taped middleware that slow growth and inflate costs. Everyone works from one updated back end and can provide better B2B shopping experiences at scale. 

Platform evaluation criteria 

When you look at different platforms, think about these key elements to find the best fit.

• Total cost of ownership (TCO): Factor in subscription fees and hidden costs like middleware, upgrades, hosting, and developer time. Benchmark against the 36% TCO savings that unified commerce B2B software like Shopify can deliver.
• Scalability: Can the platform handle your biggest sales days without a hiccup? You need a solution built on infrastructure proven at a global scale, supporting over $1.1 trillion in commerce since its inception, like Shopify. Look for a track record of stability, such as 99.9% platform uptime, to ensure your business remains open and accessible.
• Native B2B feature set: Make sure account-level price lists, volume rules, Net 30/60/90 terms, and self-serve portals are part of the core offering.
• Global enablement: Look for multi-storefront, multi-currency, and multi-language support out of the box, plus localized checkout and tax calculations.
• Developer tools: Look for modern APIs (GraphQL/REST), SDKs, and low-code tools that shorten time-to-market for custom, branded experiences.
• Pace of innovation: A platform that isn't constantly evolving will leave you behind. Partner with a company committed to continual innovation, one that invests heavily in its own evolution—like Shopify's $1.4 billion investment in R&D in 2024—and one that consistently ships hundreds of new features and updates every six months.

Should you build your own platform or use one that's already built?

This is a big question for many businesses. Building your own platform sounds great, but it can turn your business into a tech company. You’ll spend a lot of time and money on developers, maintenance, and security.

Buying a ready-made platform, like Shopify, is often the smarter choice. It lets you focus on selling your products and serving your buyers.

📚Read: Rethinking Build vs Buy: How Modern Platforms are Changing the Game

💡Did you know? A headless build with Hydrogen allows for smoother and more flexible integrations with the essential systems that power B2B unified commerce operations, such as ERPs for inventory and pricing, CRMs for customer data, and product information management (PIMs) for products.

3. Build your ecommerce website for the buyer

Give your buyers their own online account, where they can manage their information, check on orders, and quickly reorder items they’ve purchased before. With Shopify, you can customize the appearance of your store for each buyer, displaying content tailored to them. Use a ready-made B2B theme or build a completely custom storefront using Shopify's developer tools.

You can also create personalized product catalogs and price lists for each business customer. That way, they only see the products they’re allowed to buy at the prices you’ve agreed on. You can also set rules for how much they can order, such as minimums or case packs, to encourage larger orders.

4. Have clearly defined objectives and KPIs

The potential of B2B is vast, but without clear direction, it’s easy to lose focus. How will you focus your initiatives? 

Organize your KPIs into categories that reflect your main objectives, like sales and revenue growth or customer health. Here are some metrics to track:

• Average order value (AOV): B2B is built on larger, recurring orders. Tracking and increasing AOV is essential for sustained growth. After migrating to Shopify, AMR Hair & Beauty increased their B2B AOV by 77%.
• Conversion rate: A DTC-like experience should make it easier for buyers to place their orders. Monitor your conversion rate to measure your success.
• Profit margin expansion: Moving online and selling directly improves your profit margin on each sale.
• Repeat purchase rate: Features like a self-serve portal should have a positive impact on customers who buy regularly. 
• Total cost of ownership: A unified platform will lower the cost of processing orders and managing accounts. 

Shopify Analytics lets you build reports that monitor metrics such as AOV, conversion rate, and repeat-purchase rate in real time. You can filter these reports by specific customer segments to see the direct impact of your strategies on different buyer groups.

For deeper insights, you can use advanced tools like the Shopify QL Notebooks app to run custom queries and visualize your data. You can uncover patterns, such as the reorder cadence for your VIP accounts, and at which points buyers are dropping off in the funnel.

5. Be channel-agnostic

The skincare brand Dermalogica uses their B2B site as much more than a storefront: Dermalogica Pro engages skincare 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. Consider how you can similarly optimize 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 and personalized content, alongside 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 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 is important. 
• Utilize search engine optimization (SEO) to improve your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines. 

6. 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. This nurtures genuine, relatable brand storytelling.
• Research other businesses in your space, paying close attention to their core differentiators, and any noticeable weaknesses. Look for opportunities to make inroads with potential customers. Remember, an omnichannel experience is increasingly important. Keep up with current B2B ecommerce trends. Identify where a millennial-friendly, modern approach can add value. 

7. Develop your unique value proposition

Beginning with the startup phase, establish what makes your business worthwhile to customers. 

• It’s beneficial to attract buyers of all sizes, especially early on. Do you plan to implement order minimums? Remember, such restrictions might discourage smaller customers. 
• Speed is a reliable value proposition. Promising to get products to customers faster—such as same-day delivery—is a great way to build a customer base, if you’re prepared to deliver. 
• Consider buyer and supplier relationships that utilize a buy now, pay later (BNPL) model. Depending on your risk tolerance, this can encourage early ecommerce sales, along with early payment discounts and buyer loyalty programs. 

8. Implement AI and automation strategically

Approximately 78% of surveyed organizations use AI for at least one business function. It’s clear that these tools help companies gain a competitive advantage in B2B commerce, as they improve the buyer experience and streamline retail operations. 

A great starting point is automating the repetitive, manual tasks that drain your team’s time. You can begin by using ready-made templates to segment customers, such as quickly identifying one-time purchasers or customers who have abandoned a checkout. 

Once you've created these segments, use a tool like Shopify Flow to automate actions like sending a follow-up email, assigning payment terms, or tagging customers for a special offer. For products with a predictable lifecycle, you can even automate replenishment reminders, nudging customers to reorder before they run out.

Use customer tags to show or hide specific content, like promotional banners, for logged-in B2B customers. For more advanced personalization, use metafields to add custom data to customer profiles, such as their industry or assigned sales representative, and use that data to build hyperpersonalized onsite experiences.

Looking ahead, AI is poised to change how industrial products are bought and sold. The future of procurement will likely involve engineers using AI assistants to find and vet suppliers by feeding them technical requirements or even CAD models. 

You can prepare for this future today by leveraging built-in AI assistants like Shopify Sidekick. For example, you can ask Sidekick, “Why did B2B revenue dip last week?” It will pull the relevant data, explain the drop, and then offer to create an automated Flow to reengage the lapsed accounts.

9. 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 during your evaluation 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 \CRM and 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.

Implementation timeline and roadmap

Migrating your B2B operations online is a phased approach.

Phase 1: Foundation (Months 1-3)

The goal of this phase is to set up your infrastructure and configure Shopify’s B2B features before bringing customers onto the platform.

1. Set up your Shopify store and migrate your data. Remember to include product information and customer lists.
2. Connect your B2B store to your existing ERP. Shopify’s native integrations and app ecosystem help you create a unified data model from the start.
3. Configure your B2B accounts by setting up company profiles. Add locations, buyer permissions, and payment terms for each group. 
4. Create your catalogs and assign custom price lists to your wholesale customers.

Phase 2: Launch (Months 4-6) 

With a unified foundation in place, it’s time to go live with your first group of customers. 

1. Invite a pilot group of B2B customers to your new self-serve portal. Provide them with training and support that covers actions like requesting custom parts, reordering, and inviting additional users.
2. Set up your first workflows in Shopify Flow. Start with simple but high-impact automations, like tagging new B2B customers as they are approved or automatically sending an invoice for an order placed with net terms.
3. Equip your sales reps with the knowledge to use the new platform. Show them how to use their permissions to view their assigned accounts and place orders on behalf of their customers.

Phase 3: Scale (Months 7+)

After your launch, the next phase is about growing your online B2B presence and optimizing the user experience. 

1. With customer data flowing into your platform, provide more advanced personalization strategies. Create dynamic catalogs, build segmented campaigns, and explore headless commerce for unlimited personalization and customization.
2. Use Shopify’s built-in analytics to track your KPIs and refine your catalogs, pricing strategy, and marketing efforts. 
3. Roll out international expansion stores with localized pricing and catalogs using Managed Markets, as the fragrance label WHO IS ELIJAH did to achieve 50% year-over-year international B2B growth.

Challenges of a B2B ecommerce strategy

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. 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: 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. 

Problem #3: Commerce platforms that are customizable often require extensive developer resources and investment.

To solve the problems outlined previously, many platforms have been built as infinitely customizable. While this can provide significant flexibility, it often leads to expensive platforms that are difficult to set up, hard to manage, and nearly 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. Online ordering will become more prevalent for commercial off-the-shelf products, but custom parts might lag. 

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. 

B2B is here: Is your business prepared?

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 purchasing experiences, intuitive interfaces, and powerful B2B features and integrations. Out of the box, you can start building something special.