B2B and DTC: How to Apply DTC Strategies to Your Storefront

You’ve got a successful direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand with an army of customers lapping up the innovative experiences you’re delivering. On the business-to-business (B2B) side of your ecommerce business, however, things are… stagnant. 

Studies show that 73% of B2B buyers want DTC-style experiences from their suppliers. This push can partially be attributed to the changing demographics of B2B buyers. 

Forrester reports that millennials and Gen Z are key decision-makers, involved in 71% of B2B buying decisions. These groups grew up alongside technology and expect self-serve, personalized, and frictionless customer journeys—regardless of whether they’re buying for themselves or their company. 

DTC-ifying your B2B storefront lets you deliver on these expectations, while providing business buyers with seamless experiences that convince them to continue buying. This guide shares how to do it. 

The convergence of B2B and DTC ecommerce

B2B ecommerce is becoming consumerized. Today, more than half of all B2B transactions over $1 million are processed through digital self-serve channels, largely because millennials have purchasing power within organizations. 

To DTC-ify B2B ecommerce simply means to provide a seamless and personalized online shopping experience. It meets your customers' need to have access to all of their most important data (products, pricing, orders, and account information) in one place online, while still allowing them to connect and build a relationship with your brand. 

Traditional methods of B2B sales, such as phone calls, emails, or face-to-face interactions with sales representatives, can lead to a higher risk of losing orders. Physical orders can get lost. Valuable team members who possess extensive customer knowledge may leave for competitors. 

The traditional methods of selling rely on others to execute the transaction and are typically not scalable when you aim to reach a national or global audience. The ecommerce business model, on the other hand, is driven by the needs of your buyers and is available to everyone 24/7. 

In response to market demands, leading B2B firms are boosting their investment in digital tools. According to McKinsey, this led a third of B2B sellers to increase their ecommerce budgets by 11% in 2024. They're using platforms like Shopify B2B to optimize their sales funnels and take advantage of the efficiency of online channels, creating a smoother purchasing process and lowering operational overhead.

Why applying a DTC lens to B2B is a competitive advantage

The line between B2B and consumer ecommerce is blurring. Business buyers now expect the same seamless, personalized online experiences they enjoy on sites like Amazon in their personal lives, but with much higher stakes. 

For 71% of B2B companies with an online store, ecommerce is now their single biggest sales channel, responsible for 34% of their total revenue. If that powerful statistic isn’t reason enough, let's explore the other key advantages of unifying your DTC and B2B platforms.

Increase conversion and customer loyalty

Perhaps most importantly, you’ll win business and attract new customers with an exceptional buying experience—one that offers DTC-style functionality and provides shoppers with the online experiences they’re accustomed to. A personalized buying experience enables you to better connect with your existing customers and encourages them to place repeat orders.

“DTC-ifying B2B experiences means bridging the gap between the modern online shopping experience and traditional B2B purchasing methods. That could mean providing more personalization options, offering better discounts, or faster shipping options,” says David Zhang, CEO of Kate Backdrop. “It's about understanding business buyers' needs and delivering on them in a way that's appropriate for their unique situation.” 

Take skincare brand Dermalogica Canada, for example. After moving their wholesale portal to Shopify, they introduced DTC-style features, including loyalty pricing and one-click reorders. 

The effect on loyalty was immediate: the time between customer purchases dropped from 47 days to just 11. That simpler buying process also sent their conversion rate soaring from 74% to 92%, proving that when you remove friction, you win more loyal, repeat customers.

Save time for you and your buyers

Great ecommerce sites allow customers to do more in less time. Customers making both B2B and DTC transactions will stop working with merchants who require a heavy time investment, in favor of competitors who offer a seamless buying process with less friction. 

Streamlined, efficient ecommerce platforms are a win for merchants too. Saving time and resources internally drives higher profit margins and additional revenue that you can pocket. 

For superfood brand Laird Superfood, taking wholesale orders by phone was slow and expensive. After they switched to a self-serve Shopify B2B portal, they slashed their annual labor costs by $50,000 to $60,000. The new system was a hit with their buyers, too—online wholesale took off, quickly growing to make up 75% of the company's total sales.

Build a memorable brand in a crowded market

According to recent data, nearly 75% of B2B buyers expect suppliers to understand their needs and provide tailored interactions. When a competitor's web store offers a smoother process, 74% of buyers admit they would switch suppliers to get it.

An online presence is no longer enough to compete. When your products are similar to your competitors', a superior buying experience becomes your most powerful branding tool—and the stakes are clearly high. 

To carve out a niche in a competitive market, Australian retailer TileCloud focused on the customer experience. They launched a dedicated Shopify B2B store offering their trade customers exactly what they wanted—personalized price lists and a dead-simple checkout. 

The move paid off, bringing a 24% surge in new wholesale signups and a 34% jump in average order value in the first year alone.

Key DTC strategies to apply to your B2B model

Focus on brand-building and storytelling

One concept B2B companies are borrowing from DTC is building a brand people connect with. Instead of just handing over spec sheets, tell a story and provide the hard facts business buyers need to make a decision. 

Start with a simple promise that tells customers exactly how you'll help them succeed. For example:

"Hassle-free replenishment for multi-site retailers. On time, traceable, and compliant."

Then, immediately back up that promise with undeniable proof. You can do this with a compact proof block that a busy buyer can scan in just a few seconds:

• 99.7% on-time delivery
• ISO 9001 certified
• 48-hour return processing
• Average 12% lower cost in year one

Some brands like Dermalogica also build a presence on platforms like TikTok. The content is tailored toward a DTC audience, but it gives buyers an impression of the people behind the brand. 

For example, if you’re looking to work with Dermalogica, a quick glance at their TikTok profile will show you how people use the product, the authentic reactions from real customers, and the genuine excitement around their brand.

If you're a spa owner or retailer, that kind of content is basically free market research. You can see right away that people are excited about the products and that there’s a real demand for them. It takes the guesswork out of placing an order and gives you the confidence that it will actually sell.

Simplify the customer journey

The best brands make it super easy for people to buy from them. Even though selling to other businesses can be complicated, your goal is to cut out as many extra steps and headaches as you can.

When a customer logs in, don't show them everything you sell. Instead, show them only the products they care about with their special pricing already applied. Put all the important details right on the product page so they don't have to ask support. 

Speed up the actual buying process. For big orders, let them upload a spreadsheet or use a quick-order form instead of adding items one by one. You can also get rid of endless email chains for approvals by setting up simple rules, such as "Orders over $10,000 need a manager's OK; smaller ones go right through."

Make paying easy with options like paying later on an invoice or saving a credit card for next time. After they order, give them one simple account page where they can track their package, see old invoices, and reorder their favorite items with a single click.

Leverage first-party data for personalization

DTC brands have known the secret to success for a while now, and it lies in first-party data, or the information that shoppers willingly share with you. 

Once considered a consumer-only phenomenon, this data-driven approach has become an expectation for B2B buyers as well. In fact, one study found that B2B buyers were twice as likely to share data with a supplier if it led to the personalized experiences they want. With B2B unified commerce software like Shopify, you can unify information from your storefront, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management system (CRM) to create a single customer view. 

With a unified view, you can use customer data to make the buying process smarter and more efficient. Create dynamic catalogs and pricing, so when a buyer logs in, they instantly see the specific products and contract pricing relevant to them. 

You can also analyze their purchase history to offer intelligent cross-sells, like compatible accessories for a piece of machinery, or to create one-click reordering portals for their most common purchases.

How to implement a DTC-style experience with the right features

Offer deep customization and personalization

With the proliferation of ecommerce in everyday life, buyer expectations of online experiences are rising. Apply the same concept to your B2B ecommerce strategy for similar return on investment (ROI). Be proactive, rather than reactive, and provide buyers with personalized experiences at every touchpoint. That includes:

• Customized product catalogs: Curating the products and prices your customers see online is key to ecommerce success in B2B, as buyers typically spend limited time on your site and work with many suppliers. Features like customer-specific product publishing, quantity rules for product purchasing, and customized pricing and payment terms allow you to personalize the buying experience and better engage your customers. 
• Branding customizations and design: Include a consistent experience across all channels to boost brand awareness and loyalty. Lean on Shopify partners that specialize in your industry and offer assistance with B2B branding, web design, mobile apps, and more. Or, try out-of-the-box features in the Shopify admin, like the checkout editor, to make sure branding is consistent across your entire ecommerce site and self-serve account hub. 
• Multi-currency and multi-language options: Modern B2B ecommerce is global
  —you’re not restricted to buyers within your own location. Grow and scale your business by expanding internationally with a platform that supports currency and language localization for all of your customers. Within Shopify, B2B merchants can use a combination of Markets and Catalogs to easily adjust the experience and product selection for international buyers. 
• Reviews and product recommendations: Customers want to see themselves in the campaigns they’re viewing and hear from similar customers who vouch for the products you’re selling. Connecting to your customers through curated product recommendations and peer reviews inspires trust in your brand and deepens customer relationships. 

Use Shopify's B2B ecommerce platform to have this level of control over both your DTC and B2B storefronts. Get the flexibility to customize your B2B site, allowing you to scale conversions without burdening your sales team.

“One of the biggest priorities for us was to make sure both parts of the business—DTC and B2B—felt unified. Same brand, same website, same quality, and most importantly, same service,” says Colin Barceloux, CEO of Lively Root. “The biggest mistake I think companies make is trying to separate the two. The more a company can integrate both types of offerings, the better off they will be in the long term!”

Empower buyers with self-serve and automation

Save time for you and your buyers while clearing a major sales hurdle in B2B purchase decisions: ease of purchase. The easier it is to buy from you, the less time a customer has to second-guess their purchase, and the more likely they’ll be to return for future orders. 

The best ecommerce platforms will allow a customer to place an order anytime and manage their own account with access to their specific pricing, products, payment terms, and more. Your customers want this self-serve option without having to contact sales or support. 

With Shopify’s B2B platform, merchants benefit from:

• Vaulted credit cards: Allow buyers to vault their credit card at checkout or within their self-serve account hub, and charge their card on file as payments become due. You get paid on time, every time—no chasing required.
• Payment reminders: Unlike DTC, B2B payments often happen much later in the purchase cycle with Net 30, 45, or 60-day terms. Remind buyers when their payment is due or overdue, rather than having your sales team set mental reminders and manually email customers with payment details.
• Quantity rules:Wholesale customers benefit from discounted pricing because they purchase larger quantities. Set rules around product purchasing to increase average order values and streamline your fulfillment process. Customers see the minimum, maximum, or increment (e.g., case pack, multiple) quantity they need to purchase before adding an item to their cart. 
• ERP and API integrations: Automate your back-end operations through integrations with ERP providers like Brightpearl, Acumatica, and NetSuite. Combine essential business data from both sales channels so you can easily manage pricing, customers, price lists, and inventory without manual entry and ensure your customers have access to the latest information.

It’s not just merchants who benefit from automation, either. Buyers can use:

• Easy reordering: Allow buyers to quickly repeat past orders, make edits, and check out again with just a few clicks. Reordering capabilities streamline the order process for your customers and encourage repeat ordering. 
• Editable account information: The average B2B buying decision involves 6 to 10 stakeholders. Speed up the internal buying process and make it easy for customers to manage their accounts by giving them access to their company information online. Even set different permission levels for various users, so only those with admin permissions can change key information. 
• Payment reminders and “Pay Now” on past orders: Customers will never be out of the loop about when their payments are due. With payment reminders and the ability to pay down orders as their payments become due, customers can remain in good standing with the suppliers they work with and build better merchant relationships. 

While you can automate the bulk of your sales and support interactions, use self-serve and automation as the first port of call with a trained B2B sales team as backup. It’ll filter out support tickets that don’t need a human touch, leaving your team with more time to build relationships instead of B2B processing orders.

Provide flexibility in payments and ordering

Payments differ dramatically between B2B and DTC orders. The latter is quick and simple: money is paid up front before an individual customer’s order is fulfilled. Business buyers, on the other hand, have greater control over their purchase methods and options. 

Offer customers access to Shopify’s B2B Checkout feature and provide personalized checkout experiences. Buyers can:

• Request a quote online and track its progress within their self-serve account hub, using checkout to draft
• Authorize merchants to charge their credit card on file as payments become due—giving them one less thing to think about
• View negotiated payment terms and wholesale prices from their online portal
• Customize shipping addresses if they’re purchasing inventory for various stores or warehouses, or placing a dropshipping order, if enabled on their account 
• Use Shopify Payments to process B2B payments in more than 130 currencies, using the same back end already powering your DTC storefront

“We have several B2B clients that use our online gifting service to send gifts to prospects, vendors, and partners,” says Alexandra Puccini, owner of Lavender and Pine Gifting. “It's the same experience a consumer would have sending a gift to a friend, inclusive of tracking information sent directly to them. It's easy, accessible, and automated.”

Give B2B the DTC treatment

Business customers are crying out for the same personalized, seamless shopping experiences they have when making personal purchases. 

Use Shopify to give your B2B storefront the DTC treatment, from self-serve and automation to payment flexibility, and reduce lead times. Buyers will get the information they need instantly—without draining resources from your sales team and increasing conversion rates.

B2B on Shopify is used by brands like Brooklinen, Dermalogica, and True Botanicals to power both DTC and B2B operations. Are you next?