The Uncomfortable Realities of B2B Commerce in 2025

In the time since I became an enterprise B2B sales leader, the landscape of B2B commerce has evolved rapidly in ways few people could have predicted. As recently as a couple of years ago, the standard interaction between a B2B buyer and seller looked a lot like this: 

• A salesperson visited a buyer looking to reorder a very finite, specific list of SKUs.
• The salesperson filled out a purchase order (often on a carbon copy sheet).
• The conversation ended.

Seriously, that was it. For many of you, it might still be. As time went on, relationships between buyers and sellers became even more impersonal, largely due to the rise of call centers. Buyers could just pick up the phone whenever they needed to place an order, check stock, or manage account-related issues. Call centers were initially seen as an innovation, but buyers quickly grew frustrated by how much time they wasted while waiting on hold or chatting with a salesperson looking to upsell them. 

In spite of these challenges, this was just the way of the B2B commerce world for decades. But as technology has advanced, so too have the expectations of B2B buyers. Last year, I shared a report commissioned by Shopify in collaboration with B2B Online and Deloitte, which explored several ways B2B sellers aren’t prepared for the future. I recently reflected on that article, and one thing is abundantly clear: we’ve entered a new era of B2B buying, one that challenges several previously accepted norms.

1. A basic interface on your ERP won’t cut it

All too often, businesses build a B2B commerce presence with the expectation that customers will just come to them because they’re suddenly online. This is an incorrect assumption, to say the least, largely because businesses often deprioritize the user experience in favor of getting online as quickly as possible. 

As a result, organizations end up with platforms that are little more than a reflection of their ERP’s logic. This forces buyers to navigate sales platforms according to the ERP’s take on how people buy things, which is often not a reflection of how people actually shop. In the past, B2B buyers eventually gave in and learned how to use these clunky platforms because it was a better option than waiting on hold for a call center rep to answer. 

Research shows that B2B buyers have less tolerance than ever for basic interfaces on an ERP. In the B2B report we commissioned with B2B Online and Deloitte Digital, 73% of respondents reported an increased demand for digital B2B sales, yet only 20% said they feel prepared for the future. These B2B buyers experience one-click checkout, intuitive search, and AI powered product recommendations in their lives as consumers and they’re no longer willing to context-switch on your behalf. Rather than navigating haphazardly around an unintuitive B2B sales platform, frustrated buyers will seek vendors with superior technology instead.

2. B2B commerce should be as easy as sending a text message

In my personal and professional life, I’m constantly amazed by how much you can do via a quick online interaction or even a text message. Today, this expectation is shared by both B2C and B2B buyers.

Like many things, B2B veered sharply into digital in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. McKinsey’s latest B2B Pulse Survey found that prior to the pandemic, half of its respondents preferred more traditional communication methods when researching suppliers. During the pandemic, there was an almost even split between face-to-face and self-serve digital interactions—and it has stayed that way in the time since.

The demographic of a typical B2B buyer has also driven demand for intuitive buying experiences. Amy Hayes from Forrester recently reported that millennial and Gen Z buyers—those born after 1980—now represent the majority of B2B purchasers. Not surprisingly, nearly half of all business purchases are now self-service transactions conducted through vendor websites, online marketplaces, or directly within products.

While I’ll admit it’s a bit of hyperbole to say B2B commerce should be just as easy as sending a text, it’s also clear that the line between professional and personal buying has disappeared. 

Platforms like Shopify have forever reduced B2B buyers’ patience for 10-click checkout paths that lead them towards products that are actually unavailable. When they buy something for their personal use, they can do so with one click,with full confidence the right product will arrive at their doorstep a few days later. This is consistent with research from Gartner, which found that 77% of B2B buyers felt their latest purchase was difficult, and that Gen Z B2B buyers demand quick, convenient digital interactions. It’s clear that B2B buyers will no longer endure inefficient systems simply because they are part of their job.

3. B2B commerce is now table stakes

It’s 2025, and B2B sales leaders I’ve spoken to say that some technology vendors feel that B2B is a “nice-to-have” because only a few customers want it. This misses the true nature of what being omnichannel really is: being in every channel that matters to your customers, exactly when they need to, in ways that feel totally natural to them. I’d argue that if your provider doesn’t enable you to spin up a modern B2B sales solution, this is a serious risk to your business.

Studies show that B2B commerce has become more of a necessity than an optional add-on: 71% of respondents to McKinsey’s B2B Pulse survey reported that they offer some form of ecommerce, with online sales accounting for an eye-opening 34% of revenue. The report also found that for the fourth year in a row, respondents who sell online rank ecommerce as their most effective channel.

Opting to ignore B2B commerce puts businesses in a precarious situation. Even if customers aren’t demanding more convenient ways to buy from you, it’s clear that they will in the very near future. When that demand materializes, vendors who don’t (or can’t) adapt create an opportunity for their competitors to offer similar products to customers and steal their business. Even worse, vendors with antiquated systems might have already lost business because their top buyers are searching for suppliers who can make the online purchasing process easier on them. 

The best-case scenario here is when customers directly express their frustrations to you. The worst scenario—which happens quite frequently—is customers silently leaving for your competitors without giving you any warning or opportunity to address their concerns.

Delivering modern B2B experiences with Shopify

As B2B buying expectations continue to evolve, businesses need modern solutions that are quick to deploy and cost-effective to maintain. These are just two reasons why some of the world’s leading brands choose Shopify B2B. 

Shopify’s self-serve B2B buying experience transforms order-takers into proactive salespeople capable of growing accounts. This focus on exceptional self-serve experiences makes complex B2B transactions feel intuitive. You can launch new purchasing experiences in weeks—not months—using a composable framework that allows for rapid testing and iteration without overhauling existing systems. 

Beyond basic B2B features, Shopify reimagines B2B through an interface that buyers already know and love. Shopify empowers you to bring more of your business online, consolidating operations onto a single platform to eliminate redundant software costs and digitize manual processes, potentially achieving up to 36% better total cost of ownership than the competition.

Shopify is fundamentally transforming the B2B commerce experience by infusing consumer-grade usability into business transactions. Want to learn more? Schedule a call with my team.