B2B vs. B2C Ecommerce: 14 Differences to Consider (2025)

As B2B commerce evolves, the traditional divide between business and consumer experiences is rapidly blurring. 

A 2024 Forrester-commissioned survey found 73% of buyers expect the same online experience they enjoy in B2C, from real-time stock to one-click reorders.

Yet many merchants struggle on legacy platforms that are clunky and unintuitive, where manual processes and bloated tech stacks limit growth opportunities.

Let's explore how B2B commerce is changing, why the traditional B2B-versus-B2C divide may be more artificial than we thought, and what it takes to succeed in both markets. 

What is the difference between B2B and B2C ecommerce?

What is B2B ecommerce?

B2B (business-to-business) ecommerce is when businesses sell products or services directly to other companies through online platforms. B2B businesses include wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors selling to retailers or other companies. 

Brands using B2B on Shopify see up to a 3.2 times increase in reorder frequency compared to DTC orders, reflecting the higher volume and frequency typical of B2B transactions.

B2B market size and growth trends

The game is changing for B2B sales across every industry—including things like construction and industrials—and it’s all moving online. The global market is set to jump from roughly $32.8 trillion in 2025 to $61.9 trillion by 2030. 

B2B customers now expect to make purchases online just like they do on Amazon. They demand an easy, self-serve online experience and are comfortable placing big-ticket orders, even over $500,000, digitally. 

Ecommerce already drives more than a third of revenue for sellers meeting this demand. With B2B marketplaces growing faster than any other digital channel, the message is clear: your customers are online, and they expect you to be there too.

What is B2C ecommerce?

B2C (business-to-consumer) ecommerce refers to businesses selling products or services directly to individual consumers online. This includes retail websites, mobile apps, and social commerce where the end customer is a person buying for themselves or as a gift. Overall, B2C is more straightforward and focused on individual purchases. 

B2C digital transformation acceleration

B2C ecommerce keeps breaking records year after year. In 2025, for the first time ever, online sales accounted for nearly 21% of global retail.

The storefront now fits in shoppers’ pockets, with mobile projected to drive 60% of all ecommerce sales by 2026. Even as online prices have dropped for 34 straight months (down 2.1% in June 2025 from the year before), shopper demand remains resilient. Major events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday still drove a record $11.5 billion in sales on Shopify in 2024, up 24% from the previous year.

14 key differences between B2B and B2C ecommerce

B2B ecommerce differs from B2C in the following ways:

• Total addressable market
• Order size and frequency
• Customer relationships and account management
• Sales cycles and decision timelines
• Purchasing psychology and motivations
• Pricing models and negotiation
• Payment terms and methods
• Retention and repeat orders
• Marketing and acquisition channels
• Customer support needs
• Regulatory and compliance requirements
• Platform and integration needs
• Customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Shipping and fulfillment expectations

1. Total addressable market

A major difference between B2C and B2B is audience scale. B2C brands often strive to reach a broadly defined group of people—sports fans, fitness-minded moms, millennials who are into music, or kids in general.

These are large demographic and psychographic groups that each demand their own customer journey map:

“The biggest difference between B2B and B2C is your target audience and the size of that target audience,” says Brad Hall, cofounder and CEO of SONU Sleep. “For example, B2C is appealing more so to the masses, and to a greater demographic of people with different likes, dislikes, and purchasing habits.

“Alternatively, B2B is presenting to a smaller audience who typically share a common goal, and therefore require more tailored sales and marketing strategies. However, the advantage of B2C is that there’s many more fish to bait, and where one doesn’t catch, the others will.”

B2B ecommerce audiences are a lot more narrow. There’s usually a set number of buyers, with a pretty straightforward profile. For example, a B2B brand might only target ad agency owners or finance VPs at tech startups.

2. Order size and frequency

A B2C ecommerce brand might need to reach and sell to hundreds of thousands of people to crack their first million in sales because they’re likely selling products at a lower rate. In B2B ecommerce, it’s common for brands to have fewer than a couple of hundred customers but still generate millions—sometimes billions—of dollars in revenue.

Higher average order values (AOV) are helping B2B take off. Founder Maria Boustead says that on Po Campo’s B2C site, “Most people just buy one or two things. On the B2B, retailers order 15 to 25 items at once.”

Of course, there are always outliers—B2B goods that cost only $20 and B2C goods with a price tag of $15,000. But across most industries, B2B ecommerce purchases are much higher in price.

B2B ecommerce purchases are also often negotiable, while B2C customers typically pay listed price on your website (unless you’re running a promotion). B2B customers use large-value orders as a bargaining chip. Wholesalers get volume discounts. The more they buy, the cheaper each unit is to purchase.

You’ll need an ecommerce platform like Shopify to distinguish between the two. Businesses on Shopify can display two online storefronts—one for B2C, and another password-protected one for B2B customers—to manage these differences in pricing, without investing in two back ends.

As Michael Martocci, founder of SwagUp, says, “This can allow B2B companies to put more money into sales and marketing to acquire and expand their customer base versus a B2C company that has cart values that don’t justify those investments.”

3. Customer relationships and account management 

B2B and B2C define customers as different things. B2C is a one-to-one relationship focused on the buyer’s identity and loyalty through personalized content and rewards. 

Some of those elements carry over into B2B, but you’re managing the relationship with an entire company, not just one buyer. A B2B platform that supports account hierarchies, user roles, and approval workflows is important here.

With Shopify, you can create company profiles and locations, each with its own unique settings, including specific payment terms, catalogs, tax exemptions, and checkout options. B2B customer accounts allow buyers to log in, use PO numbers for purchases, easily place reorders, and manage their own returns.

4. Sales cycles and decision timelines

Here’s what a B2C buyer sounds like when they’re ready to buy: Ka-ching. Ka-ching. Ka-ching.

Here’s what a B2B buyer sounds like: “Okay, I’m ready to share this with my manager, who’s going to pitch it to the senior direction team then pull in finance and legal. I wonder if we should run it by the marketing team, too?”

When the book The Challenger Customer was published in 2015, an average of 5.4 stakeholders were involved in the average B2B sales process—and that number has since climbed to between 6 and 10. In addition, the authors of this must-read for B2B professionals found a clear correlation between the size of buying teams and the likelihood of a sale being successful.

Here’s perhaps the most important point to take away: Your content—your “About Us” page, product pages, PDFs, demo videos, pitch decks, catalogs, and so on—are going to be shared with at least six decision-makers within the organization.

What does that mean for your B2B operation? First, you need to invest as much into creating an optimal user experience as B2C brands do. From easily shareable content that shows how business customers can resell your products to post-purchase customer support, the buying decision for companies is vastly different from that of individual consumers.

This key difference between B2B and B2C ecommerce also means you need to ensure that when someone visits your site, they find reasons to trust your brand and believe you’re the best solution for their problem. That’s why it’s crucial to optimize your user experience and clearly communicate your brand story.

“Most often, B2C ecommerce transactions have a single-step buying process that results in a shorter sales cycle. For B2B transactions, the buying process is almost always multi-step, and involves more communication than a B2C. This results in a longer sales cycle overall,” says Kevin Callahan, cofounder of Flatline Van Co.

5. Purchasing psychology and motivations

Individual customers purchase products for themselves. While they don’t want any purchase to be a waste of money, it’s less of an issue for an individual consumer to make one single purchase. With B2B purchases, however, customers place a multi-unit order that they need to resell and profit from. There’s much more pressure to make the right decision.

As Brian Folmer, founder of FirstLook, says, “B2C customers routinely buy products of all types, constantly testing things out and, in my case, buying on a whim. Emotions are a bigger part of their consideration. How does this brand make me feel, and do I support their mission?”

However, Brian says the thought process behind a purchase changes with B2B ecommerce: “B2B customers, on the other hand, are usually buying with a purpose in mind ahead of time. Not as many ‘This is fun’ type purchases. In that vein, a company making a purchase usually considers one of two things: Will this make us more money, or help us save money?

“It’s a bit more rudimentary compared to B2C buyers, though the purchases are usually much more expensive, which is why they try to leave emotion out.”

Much like B2C marketing, you’re proving the value of your product. The main difference in B2B ecommerce is proving the resale value of your inventory (high sell-through rates, good profit margins, or brand loyalty), rather than the benefits for the end consumer.

6. Pricing models and negotiation

Pricing strategy is more straightforward in B2C: what you see is what you get. The price is public, and discounts are usually tied to time-sensitive promotions available to everyone. 

B2B pricing is a completely different world built on relationships, volume, and negotiation. B2B pricing is rarely public. It’s a complex mix of contract-specific price lists, tiered discounts, volume-based pricing, and individually negotiated quotes.

Shopify B2B lets you assign custom catalogs and price lists to companies, so each customer sees only their specific pricing. You can also set volume-based price breaks and enforce quantity rules like minimums, maximums, and increments.

7. Payment terms and methods

B2B and B2C ecommerce operations share one common goal: to get paid for the products they sell online. But the way customers prefer to pay for those goods differs based on the type of customer they are.

The most popular payment methods for B2C consumers are:

• Digital wallets
• Credit cards
• Debit cards

When B2B buyers place online orders, however, the checkout process is fundamentally different. Businesses often opt for alternative B2B payment methods, such as bank transfer, and buy now, pay later models—such as net 15, 30, or 60—to pay for inventory after they’ve sold it themselves.

Shopify is a B2B ecommerce platform that allows you to accept B2B payment methods without creating an entirely new store. Get access to B2B Checkout, which allows business customers to view company-specific information—such as payment terms, preferred payment method, and wholesale discounts—each time they order.

8. Retention and repeat orders

B2B ecommerce has the advantage of default retention. Unlike B2C customers who don’t replenish items until they’ve used a product (and provided they enjoyed it), B2B buyers often need a consistent supply of inventory to resell in their own stores.

Bernie Schott, owner and CEO of REECH, says, “REECH customers typically buy a yoga mat every one to two years max, but a studio that stocks REECH mats will typically purchase 10 every two months.”

Capitalize on this advantage with a B2B sales team that prioritizes delivering excellent customer service. Build partnerships and be forthcoming with marketing ideas, upcoming trends, or sneak peeks at new products you’re about to launch.

Similarly, for buyers who prefer a self-serve approach, use a B2B ecommerce platform that makes reordering easy. With Shopify, customers can sign in to a company profile to view previous orders, payment terms, and wholesale discounts. They’re able to replenish their own stock with just a few clicks.

9. Marketing and acquisition channels

Marketing to businesses is fundamentally different from marketing to consumers, although they both happen online. 

B2B marketing focuses on building long-term relationships and showcasing value over time. Your B2B ecommerce platform can make or break your marketing campaigns. Brands leveraging B2B on Shopify see up to 50% increase in reorder frequency compared to other B2B selling methods. 

B2C marketing moves at a much faster pace and broader scale. In 2023 alone, Shop Campaigns helped brands acquire over one million new customers, with 50% of brands getting their first order within 48 hours of campaign creation. This rapid conversion rate highlights the more immediate nature of consumer marketing.

Some other differences in marketing approaches include:

• Investment and returns: B2B marketing involves higher initial costs but yields longer-term relationships, while B2C requires smaller up-front investments with constant renewal.
• Content strategy: B2B content tends to be more technical and solution-focused, while B2C content emphasizes lifestyle and emotional benefits.
• Sales cycle: B2B involves multiple touchpoints and stakeholders, whereas B2C typically has a shorter, more direct path to purchase.

Both B2B and B2C brands are diversifying beyond ads, with new approaches like:

• Brand collaborations
• Influencer partnerships
• Data cooperatives that let merchants pool their insights
• Customer referral programs
• Retail partnerships

Acquisition is also no longer in a silo—brands are treating acquisition and retention as deeply interconnected activities. For example:

• Personalizing the entire customer journey from discovery through post-purchase
• Creating special experiences for customers based on how they discovered the brand
• Building self-serve subscription programs customized to acquisition channels

10. Customer support needs

The biggest difference in customer support comes down to depth versus speed. B2C support is built for fast, 24/7 resolutions, where consumers expect instant answers from AI-powered tools. B2B support is more about providing deep, expert guidance to multiple stakeholders throughout a much longer and complex buying process.

In B2B, buyers expect a higher level of partnership, yet more than 80% end up dissatisfied with their chosen provider. A key part of this is creating a self-service portal. 

B2B buyers now demand the ability to complete tasks on their own, making self-service at every stage of the journey mandatory, not optional. As buyers become more comfortable with large, self-serve online purchases, sellers must scale their knowledge bases and customer portals accordingly.

11. Regulatory and compliance requirements

All ecommerce businesses have baseline privacy and security requirements, but B2B sellers often face additional layers of complexity.

At a minimum, nearly everyone must comply with:

• Privacy laws: This includes the GDPR for processing EU residents’ data and California's CCPA/CPRA, which added new consumer rights and has been enforced since July 1, 2023. Transferring data across borders, such as from the EU to the US, requires "essentially equivalent" protections under rules clarified by the Schrems II decision.
• Payment security: The PCI DSS v4.0 standard introduced new requirements that took effect on March 31, 2025, impacting payment flows and vendor responsibilities for all online sellers.

Where B2B really differs is in areas like tax and invoicing. The EU’s VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) initiative, for instance, is introducing phased mandates for digital reporting and e-invoicing for cross-border B2B sales, with major milestones in 2025 and 2030. 

The bottom line is that B2B brands must manage these layered obligations, like contractual service level agreements (SLAs) and e-invoicing mandates, on top of the standard privacy and payment rules that govern B2C commerce.

12. Platform and integration needs

A B2C platform connects a storefront to payment and fulfillment systems. A B2B platform acts as a nucleus that integrates deeply with a complex web of existing enterprise systems.

For B2B, it's essential to connect with core systems like enterprise resource management (ERP), product information management (PIM), configure, price, quote (CPQ), and customer relationship management (CRM). B2B platforms must also support eprocurement workflows, such as punchout capabilities that allow a customer's shopping cart to be passed directly into their own procurement system, like Coupa, for approval. 

On top of that, a huge volume of B2B sales, especially in the EU, still flows through EDI-type messages, so a B2B commerce platform must also coexist with these automated order systems.

This is why systems like PIM (for managing complex product data) and CPQ (for configuring complex quotes and pricing) are more common in B2B stacks. A typical B2B integration pattern might look like this:

• A customer's unique contract pricing is pulled from an ERP via an API.
• The pricing and product options are configured with a CPQ tool on the website.
• The final cart is sent back to the customer's Ariba system via punchout.
• The final order acknowledgement is sent via EDI.

Making this all work requires a modern, API-first, and composable architecture that can handle the complex data-mapping and workflows essential to B2B commerce.

13. Customer lifetime value

How you measure and grow customer lifetime value (CLV) is different in B2B and B2C. B2C commerce is a volume game, and B2B focuses on building deep, long-term value from a smaller set of high-stakes relationships.

In B2B, you're dealing with fewer customers, but they come with higher contract values and longer terms. The average B2B company is growing its revenue from its existing customer base through renewals and upsells. 

B2C customer behavior is much spikier. A typical repeat purchase rate for an ecommerce store is only between 15% and 30%, depending on the category.

14. Shipping and fulfillment expectations 

For B2C customers, you want to provide free and fast delivery. Free shipping is a top priority for 81% of consumers, beating out fast shipping at 68%. Omnichannel options are also becoming more popular. About half of US online shoppers used some form of store pickup late last year, with about a third of them choosing buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) specifically. 

B2B fulfillment operates on a different set of rules where reliability is more important than speed or cost. Buyers rely on guaranteed delivery windows and formal service level agreements to manage their own operations.

Shipments must align with the buyer's business needs, such as arriving at a loading dock during specific receiving hours. Communication is also more automated to fit the customer's procurement process, using tools like advance shipping notices (ASNs) and EDI status updates. 

The rise of hybrid B2B/B2C models

More retail brands are adopting hybrid models to expand their reach, own the customer relationship, and operate more efficiently. This approach, powered by a unified commerce platform, allows a single brand to manage multiple sales motions from one central hub.

B2B2C business models

B2B2C is where a brand sells to a business partner like a retailer or marketplace, who then sells to the end consumer. Unlike traditional wholesale, it allows the brand and the partner to engage the customer, giving the brand more control over the experience and access to valuable data.

Shopify’s native B2B functionality is built for this. It allows brands to run their wholesale and DTC businesses from a single admin, using features like company-specific catalogs, custom price lists, and flexible payment terms to cater to different partner types, while maintaining a unified product and order system.

Brands taking advantage of Shopify B2B are seeing results:

• Tony’s Chocolonely unified their DTC, B2B, and reseller channels on one Shopify build, resulting in a 2.5x faster site and double-digit growth, including a 70% increase in the US.
• WHO IS ELIJAH runs their B2B and DTC channels together on Shopify, achieving 400% DTC revenue growth and 50% year-over-year international B2B growth in 2024.

DTC expansion for B2B brands

Traditionally, B2B-focused brands are also increasingly adding a direct-to-consumer channel. Going DTC helps them get faster feedback on products, capture valuable first-party customer data, and increase profit margins.

With Shopify, a B2B brand can quickly launch a DTC store using Shopify Payments and Shopify Markets for localization, while keeping their wholesale operations running smoothly in the same admin. 

Molson Coors, for example, launched a DTC store on Shopify in just 10 days. The move allowed them to offer local delivery and pickup, and they recorded a 188% month-over-month sales increase after launch.

“The Ship and Sip consumer experience has allowed the Molson Coors team to engage in real-time brand experiences with consumers at their homes or at our brewery,” says Erin Radford, Molson Coors Beverage Company marketing manager.

“With platforms like Shopify, and day-by-day collaboration with our partner Stream Commerce, we are confident that we can achieve our launch revenue goal, as well as segue into the multi-brand direct-to-consumer space for the first time.”

Joy Ghosh, the North American brand director, adds, “By building our direct-to-consumer service, we’re able to grow sales of our iconic brands. But it’s a lot more about the direct relationship that we now have with our customers and being able to adapt to their needs as we learn.”

Unified commerce platforms

Unified commerce means all your sales channels, operations, and back-end processes are connected to one place. You can use this data to create a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints, whether you’re selling wholesale or B2C.

Many retailers have historically approached this incorrectly. They've tried to achieve it by stitching together separate systems—like having one POS platform for their physical stores and a separate ecommerce platform for their online store, then trying to connect them through integrations and middleware.

More retailers are moving to true unification, with commerce platforms like Shopify, where everything runs on a single platform with one source for product, order, and customer data. 

Brands that use Shopify’s unified stack report up to 150% omnichannel GMV growth and an average 22% lower total cost of ownership (TCO) because they have fewer data silos to manage.

A unified commerce platform also compresses launch times and operating costs. For example, Carrier now launches global accelerator sites in about 30 days for $100,000, a massive improvement from their previous timeline of 9–12 months and up to $2 million per site. 

Ruggable also saved over $250,000 and 6,000 hours annually by consolidating their international operations in a single Shopify admin.

Offer B2C and B2B ecommerce through one back end

The differences between B2C and B2B ecommerce are stark. You’ll need to personalize the shopping experience based on common traits each customer shares.

With B2B on Shopify, you can operate two online storefronts from the same back end—no switching tools or expensive software needed. Plus, Shopify data shows that B2B merchants see up to a 53% increase in GMV per buyer within their first year on the platform, while customer profiles and metafields help both B2B and B2C merchants create personalized experiences that drive sales growth.

Need help distinguishing between B2C and B2B customers?Shopify has decades of combined experience, plus a network of Plus Partners, to help make both operations a success.