2025 Trends to Know: What’s Next in B2B Ecommerce?

According to recent data from Forrester, 63% of B2B leaders believe digital buying behaviors will significantly impact their organization in the next two years. This means that not only are the trends we’re facing poised to disrupt B2B businesses in the short-term, but that its impact is expected to continue to ring through 2026.

If that’s not enough reason to start to get prepared, here’s a glimpse at what trends are on the rise ahead of 2025.

1. B2B Ecommerce’s Popularity Will Continue to Grow, But Personalization Challenges Will Persist

The global B2B ecommerce market size is projected to grow at an annual growth rate of 18% between now and 2030. Digital purchasing is popular, here to stay, and growing quickly and consistently. A major driver of that growth — and its subsequent adoption? For many, that’s integration with enterprise systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

Per Grand View Research, this kind of integration improves connectivity streamlines workflows, and ensures consistent information across the organization for your business. On the buyers’ end, they get a consistent, friction-free, accurate and high-performing ecommerce experience.

What else is notably driving growth, and spending? Buyer demand for a diverse and quality selection of items online.

Here’s some good news, and some bad news. For 46% of businesses, personalizing pricing online based on customer-specific terms is a future priority. But with only 57% currently able to do so, it’s likely we’ll continue to be challenged to do so — especially if our ecommerce solutions of choice aren’t up to par and can’t support it without heavy customizations.

What’s even more troubling? Only 7% of B2B suppliers are looking to replace their current ecommerce vendor, which may mean another year of missing key personalization capabilities if your platform can’t easily make it happen.

2. AI Will Drive Predictive Automation (Not Just Chatbots and Search)

The old way? AI was your tool for simple data analysis and basic automation. Now, we’re looking at AI that powers predictive analytics and personalized customer interactions. By 2025, AI will already be essential for forecasting demand and optimizing pricing strategies. (Read: it’ll become integral to strategic decision-making and customer experience enhancement). But then, we’ll take it further. AI will help us be anticipatory rather than reactive in even more ways.

What could this look like? In supply chain management, AI could optimize inventory levels, reducing logistics costs. AI could streamline the quote-to-cash process by automating pricing configurations. It could speed up quoting, allowing sales teams to offload that activity and focus on closing deals more efficiently.

In 2025, AI’s role in predictive automation for B2B ecommerce is expected to become even more sophisticated — but only time will tell what that experience is like in practice.

3. Hybrid Buying: Sales-Assisted Purchasing Will Complement Self-Service

B2B customer preferences all tend to lean towards what’s most convenient, easy, and hassle-free for the buyer. Self-service options are gaining popularity as more and more buyers prefer to start their purchasing journey with independent research, but that doesn’t mean they want a fully hands-off experience. In fact, what B2B buyers need most is flexibility: the freedom to self-serve when they feel empowered to, and the peace of mind of knowing that if they have trouble or need assistance, they can get some quickly and easily.

The rise of both self-service and sales-assisted purchasing in B2B reflects a shift toward customer-led interactions. Importantly, sales-assisted interactions remain crucial for complex purchases, and often buyers will lean on sales reps in tandem with digital tools. With this hybrid model, B2B companies are adapting to diverse buyer preferences that can change from one purchase to the next.

Unsurprisingly, by 2030, sellers will be seamlessly integrated into both B2C and B2B digital commerce interactions, stepping in when customers require direct involvement (Gartner).

Did you know? K-ecommerce provides robust ERP-integrated online portals accessible by both buyers and sales reps: perfect for the hybrid experience of tomorrow.

4. B2B Marketplaces Will Finally Go Mainstream in B2B

Currently, B2B marketplaces are popular among digitally-inclined buyers — but only 25% of B2B vendors have embraced them as a strategic sales channel. This is a particularly big missed opportunity for businesses offering tailored solutions for niche sectors. Fortunately, change is in the air — and marketplaces in 2025 will go from niche to mainstream.

So far, marketplaces have evolved from simple product listings to comprehensive platforms that facilitate complex B2B transactions. But what’s next?

We’ll see insane growth in the sheer number of marketplaces available. In fact, while just five years ago, there were only 75 B2B marketplaces (according to Digital Commerce 360), today, there are more than 600 across diverse industries. What’s more is that number is still rising. We’ll also see marketplace adoption follow suit.

Why? Marketplaces allow B2B businesses to expand assortment to meet more customer needs in a scalable manner, without having to source, negotiate, price, promote, and fulfill the items. B2B buyers prefer this, and believe that when shopping online 8 of their 10 most important needs are fulfilled better through marketplaces than traditional ecommerce sites. (Think: easier access to a wider range of quality products, better availability and visibility of inventory, and good customer service, flexible delivery, and individual pricing).

That means vendors have a lot to learn about CX from marketplaces, and supporting them for buyers now is an obvious first step.