Top 12 B2B Ecommerce Trends In 2024

B2B ecommerce has come a long way from the early days of the dot-com bubble. Over the years, several trends and technologies emerged and faded, which tells us one thing: No B2B ecommerce site can be run based on old trends or principles.

Failing to keep up with times can hurt a B2B website’s online sales and even deteriorate the brand image. That’s why if you are planning to launch a new B2B ecommerce site or looking for a revamp, you need to be in the loop about the latest b2b ecommerce trends.

In these modern times, a lot of new opportunities have emerged in the field of B2B ecommerce, like generative AI, personalized shopping, and so on. In today’s blog post, we will look at all the latest b2b ecommerce trends for 2024 and beyond!

1. Mobile optimization

Traffic coming from mobile devices has reached 57.8%, while the share of desktop traffic has gone down to 40.16%. Other statistics suggest the volume of mobile commerce will reach $620.97 billion in 2024.

All of this points to only one thing: Mobile traffic has become an integral part that can’t be ignored by any ecommerce website.

Despite the rise in mobile traffic, many B2B ecommerce websites are still not optimized for the small screens! This failure to optimize for the mobile devices can increase the bounce rate, hurt SEO rankings, & lead to less sales.

A quick way to check if your B2B ecommerce website is mobile-friendly is by using a tool like Bing Mobile Friendliness Test or BrowserStack.

2. Social commerce

Look through the TitTok, Instagram, or Facebook feed and you will likely see many items you can buy. The trend of using social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to generate sales has increased tremendously over the years.

By 2025, the market share of social commerce is expected to reach a big amount of $1.2 trillion. These numbers are enough to understand that B2B e-commerce is no longer confined to traditional channels like email or websites alone.

If you have yet to establish a presence on social media, then there is no better time than today to do it! And for those who are not paying enough attention to social commerce, crafting an effective social media strategy can be a good starting point.

3. Headless architecture

Another noteworthy B2B commerce trend that is expected to pick more pace in 2024 is the move towards headless architecture.

The headless architecture allows a B2B ecommerce website to separate the front-end (the part seen by the user) from the back end (the logic). This provides more freedom for a B2B website to use a number of libraries and frameworks that would be otherwise impossible with traditional architecture.

A significant benefit of moving towards a headless CMS is that it makes it easy to deliver a more personalized shopping experience to the end user.

Now, you may be wondering how this is achieved… By making the back-end data available & decoupled from the front-end, a B2B brand can deliver the same consistent experience across multiple mediums like an app or a website. In this process, only the front-end (user interface) is changed, while the back-end remains the same.

Another benefit of headless architecture is that it makes it easy to perform a/b testing. In B2B ecommerce, this can be a game-changer for finding the design with the best conversion rate.

4. Flexible payment options

Over the years, the available payment options have increased manifold. However, many B2B brands still only offer a handful of payment options on their ecommerce websites. To keep up with the times, it is time to start offering more flexible payment options to the users.

Think about this scenario for a moment: Your competition offers up to 5 payment methods while you only accept credit/debit card payments on your B2B website. In this case, it is clear that your completion is offering more flexibility to the users & thus has a higher chance of closing a deal.

Some of the ways through which you can offer flexible payment options include:

• Multiple payment methods (Card payments, wallets, crypto, etc.)
• Pay in installments.
• Pay on loan.
• Use a parent account to pay for different subsidiaries.

So, another B2B ecommerce trend that you need to adopt in 2024 and beyond is to offer convenience to the customers through a flexible payment option.

5. Personalized shopping

Gone are the days of showing the same list of generic/irrelevant products to every single customer out there! Personalized shopping has been making headway in B2B ecommerce for a while now with really impressive results.

If your ecommerce website is still not delivering a personalized shopping experience to the users, it is time to jump on the trend bandwagon!

What exactly is a personalized shopping experience? In simple words, it allows an ecommerce website to show products based on the user’s previous orders.

For example, If a user has recently browsed graphic cards or their history shows purchases of computer-related products, an algorithm can show more relevant products to the user.

In fact, even changing the language based on the user’s geolocation can be classified as personalized shopping & can make a huge difference to your bottom line.

The end goal is to only show relevant products & information to the user that directly resonates with their shopping habits.

6. Voice search

Voice search has gained popularity over the years & is now an integral part of B2B ecommerce. According to Google, 27% of the global internet population is utilizing voice search on their mobile devices.

And out of those people who use voice search, up to 72% said it has become a part of their daily routine (they use it on a daily basis).

If you think about it, voice search is a far easier & quicker option than typing on a keyword & is also supported by numerous devices.

The best part is that you can easily implement voice search into your B2B ecommerce website/app & provide users another option to search for their desired products/services.

By making it easy for the users to search, you are indirectly making their shopping journey shorter & to the point. The end result is fewer abandoned carts and more sales, which is exactly what every B2B ecommerce website wants.

7. Sustainability

Sustainability is no longer an initiative that is driven by moral values and public demand alone. Many countries have even introduced laws & regulations which have made sustainability an absolute necessity rather than a mere choice.

One such example is Germany, which has passed strict laws to ensure that all businesses follow environmentally friendly practices.

So, another B2B ecommerce trend that will be important going forward is sustainability. It can include initiatives such as reducing the paperwork involved with orders and choosing eco-friendly materials for packaging.

Following the best sustainability practices will enable your B2B brand to stand out from the competition & improve sales. According to statistics, around 69% of B2B buyers said their organization had specific sustainability goals. This means they can only buy products/services from those B2B brands that follow the best sustainability practices.

By choosing sustainability, your B2B brand will have a lot to gain (more sales, better reputation, & improved operations) and no downside!

8. Fast order fulfillment

With more B2B brands entering the ecommerce world, the game has now shifted to who can provide fast order fulfillment.

Another development that has given rise to the expectation of quick order fulfillment is Amazon. Although Amazon is a B2C company, it has still shifted the public’s perception, given the sheer size of its market share.

Similarly, up to 73% of the B2B buyers are millennials, which means you can no longer afford to use the same old & slow order fulfillment process.

Working out the supply chain issues & reducing the order processing speed are just some of the ways to reduce the fulfillment time. Another way is to rely on 3rd party fulfillment solutions (3PL) to outsource it altogether. This option can help you keep the fulfillment costs under check while also reducing the fulfillment times.

9. Ecommerce tools

Another noteworthy B2B ecommerce trend is the increased usage of various ecommerce tools like a shopping cart tool or a website builder.

B2B companies are expected to invest more in tools that will allow them to streamline & improve their ecommerce operations. At the same time, the use of automation tools will also increase as they can be utilized to complete time-consuming tasks on the go & free up valuable time.

Ecommerce tools can be divided into the following categories:

• Analytics – From traffic monitoring to SEO analytics to driving meaningful insights, analytics tools can help B2B businesses make informed decisions.
• Marketing – Email automation, social media automation, & other marketing tools allow B2B businesses to communicate with target audiences.
• Daily operations – It can get time-consuming & resource-intensive to run the day-to-day operations of an online store. With the help of the right tools like Hubspot, most of these tasks can be automated.
• Customer Service – These tools are used to cater to the customer’s needs & help them in their shopping journey.

10. Generative AI

AI is making its way into every other field & B2B ecommerce is no exception. To say that generative AI has finally gone mainstream wouldn’t be wrong at all.

In B2B ecommerce, generative AI can be used to do a lot of tasks that would otherwise take valuable time & resources. For example, AI solutions can be used to create accurate product descriptions on the go. Similarly, generative AI makes it a breeze to enhance product images & thus deliver a better customer experience.

One good example to understand the power of generative AI is GPT-4 or Bing AI. You can upload a picture of the product and ask the AI to write a description or a marketing copy for it. Within a few seconds, you will have a full-fledged copy that accurately describes the product.

Using AI for marketing is just the tip of the iceberg, as it can also be used to improve business processes and find problematic areas. From decision-making to writing a business proposal to working out supply chain problems, generative AI can do it all.

Another good use of generative AI is in customer chat or email support. If you think about it, how quickly does your B2B business respond to business? A few business days or a few hours at best? Generative AI can be used to reduce that time to mere seconds & thus significantly improve customer satisfaction.

Many B2B ecommerce websites like Alibaba have already implemented AI-powered chatbots for their customers. This allows the customers to get answers to their queries on the go without having to wait for a human chat agent.

Next year & beyond, the use of AI by B2B businesses will only rise, which makes it the right time to implement this B2B ecommerce trend into your strategy today.

11. Product discovery data

Keeping the product information consistent across different channels can be a time consuming & difficult process. In additon, trying to enter/update product information manually can even lead to human error as well. And making all of this effort on channels that won’t even receive any traffic can make it more difficult.

A simple solution to collect, update, & distribute accurate product information across different channels is through product information management software (PIM).

We believe that the use of PIM software will gain more popularity in the realm of B2B e-commerce. With the help of a PIM tool, accurate information can be made available to users on the right channels without any discrepancies.

This availability of accurate information can be helpful in providing a consistent shopping experience to the users. Similarly, PIM software can also improve marketing performance & help B2B brands to achieve sales targets.

12. Video content

The last B2B ecommerce trend on our list is video content which many big-name B2B brands already use.

From Facebook to Instagram to TikTok, videos are everywhere which speaks volumes about the popularity of this particular medium. If you think that videos are just for B2C ecommerce, then you would be surprised to know that they can be effectively used in B2B ecommerce as well.

Video content allows you to communicate relevant information with the users in an easy-to-digest & engaging manner. This not only saves the valuable time of the end user but also helps them to get an understanding of what they are buying in the first place.

You would be surprised to know that videos can help you achieve a lot more than you would do with images or text alone.

As for the length of the videos, aim to keep it under 2 minutes as the public consumes shorter video content much better. This will also allow you to share the videos on different platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, & Instagram Reels.

Conclusion

B2B ecommerce trends continue to change with time… This means you need to pay close attention to what’s trending and what’s going out of phase to stay competitive & at the forefront.

At Canadian Digital Consulting, we can help you take your B2B ecommerce game to the next level. From branding to web design to web development, we offer all the tools a B2B brand needs to upscale their ecommerce!