B2B E-Commerce is in High Demand But Lacking [Infographic]

In my experience talking to people about shopping and making purchases online (being a millennial myself, this topic comes up more in casual conversation than one might generally expect), the conversation is usually focused on an individual consumer buying something from a business. Similarly, when most people think about e-commerce, they think about individuals making purchases on Amazon, eBay, or any other business that sells their products online, which nowadays in our technology-driven society, many businesses do. But what if businesses, not just individual consumers, want to make purchases from other businesses online?

According to research conducted by Forrester Research, Emarket, Acquity Group, Hybris, and United Stationers, B2B e-commerce transactions are in high demand, yet there are an insufficient amount of B2B companies (just 25 percent) that have the ability to sell their products and services online. Statistics show that a whopping 90 percent of B2B buyers prefer to shop online, but most suppliers offer little or nothing to help them.

Companies like Amazon are trying to fill the void left by suppliers with their Amazon Supply purchasing options, but suppliers need to step up because they’re simply losing a chunk of revenue by allowing a third party to sell their products for them.

Below is an infographic put together by our friends over at visual.ly that highlights this absence of B2B e-commerce transactions. One very interesting takeaway from this infographic is the generational affect that Millennials will potentially have on the future of B2B e-commerce. By 2025, Millennials will make up 75 percent of the B2B workforce, and they’re already responsible for up to 89 percent of business related purchase decisions.

One can only imagine how much more efficient B2B transactions would be if there was more access to B2B e-commerce websites and platforms.