B2B Ecommerce Continues to Grow at Breakneck Speeds

When people talk about ecommerce they immediately think about online retail juggernauts like Amazon and EBay. There’s a good reason for that too. Retail ecommerce has made traditional brick and mortar stores completely revamp how they do business.

People don’t traditionally equate ecommerce platforms with B2B sales. That, however, is changing. A recent study done by Gartner showed that B2B ecommerce sales increased 15% year over year in 2015, and that trend is expected to continue through 2020, with US sales exceeding $1.1 trillion. That would account for more than 12% of all B2B sales within the next few years.

The World is at a Tipping Point

People who study trends believe that ecommerce has reached a point where the technology is going to rapidly become the norm. Cloud based platforms are leading a sea change in user experience, multi-tiered pricing structures and improved workflow processes. It is B2B platforms that are leading the technology charge at a rate of 2:1 over B2C platforms. Drilling down into those numbers even further, it is wholesale distribution companies and manufacturers that are leading the charge. We have gotten to the point where companies in those industries need to adapt or risk falling behind the curve.