B2B ecommerce: how to sell online to other businesses
Milica Subotic7 min read
IN SHORT
B2B ecommerce is a platform that lets a company sell to other companies, with customised price lists, integration with the management system and payment terms that differ from those of an online shop for consumers. In Italy the market was already worth €4.9 billion in 2025, yet only one company in five has so far invested in a structured project. Those who adopt it cut order-handling times, free sales agents from repetitive reorders and stay open outside business hours. It isn't a priority for every company, though: with a few strategic customers, direct contact with the sales agent is often still the better option. The article explains how this kind of platform works, when it's worth launching and the practical steps for getting started without wasting budget.
Topic of our service Web & E-commerce · industry B2B & Manufacturing
In Italy, B2B ecommerce was already worth €4.9 billion in 2025, yet only one company in five has so far invested in a structured platform. The others still handle orders by email, phone or Excel spreadsheets, with sales agents spending half their day entering data instead of selling.
If you sell to other businesses and you’re wondering whether opening an online sales channel dedicated to business customers makes sense for you, this guide explains what B2B ecommerce is, how it differs from an online shop for consumers, what the market is worth in Italy and which steps you need to take to get started without wasting budget.
This guide is written for business owners and sales managers at manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers, not for those selling to consumers: the pricing, credit and reordering logic we discuss here doesn’t apply to a B2C online shop.
What B2B ecommerce is and why it’s different from B2C
A B2B ecommerce site is a platform that lets a company sell products or services to other companies, not to private consumers. The customer isn’t someone ordering a pair of shoes from the sofa in the evening: it’s a purchasing department ordering 500 units, with a dedicated price list, volume discounts and delivery times agreed with the sales office.
The main differences concern three points. The price varies according to the customer and the commercial agreement; it isn’t the same for everyone, as in an online shop aimed at end consumers. The order often requires internal approvals; it isn’t an impulse buy. The relationship continues after the first sale, with reorders, technical support and trade credit management.
Anyone working in manufacturing or wholesale distribution knows these dynamics well. We also discuss them in our in-depth piece on industrial marketing, where long sales cycles and decisions made by several people within the company call for a different approach from any campaign designed for end consumers.
What the B2B ecommerce market is worth in Italy
The numbers confirm that the market is huge but still under-served. According to the Digital B2b Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, the Digital B2B market in Italy reached €4.9 billion in 2025. Around one Italian company in five invested in digital B2B solutions over the same period.
The interesting point is the gap between companies. More than half of Italian businesses are at a stage of partial digitalisation: they’ve started the journey but don’t yet have genuinely digital ordering processes. Only a minority have reached an advanced level of maturity, with orders managed independently by the customer and fulfilment times cut to 21–60 minutes, compared with more than 100 minutes at less structured businesses.
This means that whoever invests today in a well-designed platform starts with a real competitive advantage. They’re not entering a saturated market; they’re entering one where most competitors still take orders by phone.
How a B2B e-commerce platform works
A B2B e-commerce platform isn’t a generic online shop with an extra login. It has to handle commercial logic that an ecommerce site built for end consumers doesn’t cater for.
Customer-specific catalogues and prices
Each business customer sees a different catalogue, with reserved products, net prices already discounted according to the commercial agreement and minimum order quantities. The reseller sees the reseller price list, the end customer sees another, and neither sees the other’s prices.
Integration with the management system (ERP)
The website has to talk to the company’s management system in real time: stock availability, order status, invoicing. Without this integration, there’s a real risk of selling products online that are no longer actually in stock, with a direct impact on customer trust.
B2B payments and commercial terms
Bank transfer at 30 or 60 days, credit limits granted by the sales office, recurring orders planned in advance: a B2B ecommerce site has to cater for these terms from day one, not just card payment at checkout.
Product search and quick reordering
People buying for work don’t have time to search for the same product every week. An effective B2B ecommerce site has to let them repeat a previous order in a few clicks, save recurring order lists and search by the customer’s internal item code, not just by the product’s trade name. A warehouse operative reordering consumables, for example, wants to find their last order on the home page, not start again from a catalogue of thousands of items.
The concrete benefits of B2B ecommerce for companies selling to other businesses
The benefits aren’t theoretical. The Italian companies most advanced in digital B2B complete an order cycle in 21–60 minutes, compared with more than 100 minutes at less structured businesses. Less time spent by the sales team handling orders manually means more time to look after the customers who really matter.
B2B ecommerce frees agents from repetitive orders, those from long-standing customers who always reorder the same material, leaving them free to handle complex negotiations or new customers. The online channel stays open outside business hours too: a customer who decides to reorder at 9 in the evening doesn’t have to wait until 9 the next morning.
Think of a distributor managing 200 active customers and receiving an average of 15 reorders a day by email or phone. Each reorder takes the agent 10–15 minutes to check prices and availability and enter it into the management system. Moving even half of these reorders to a dedicated online channel frees up several hours of sales work a day, time that can be reinvested in finding new customers.
Then there’s the after-sales relationship. A good email marketing automation programme, with reorder reminders based on the customer’s past consumption or alerts when a product is about to run out in their warehouse, turns B2B ecommerce from a simple shop window into a loyalty tool.
If the B2B ecommerce project sits alongside a broader marketing automation strategy, able to follow the customer throughout their life cycle, the results multiply. We consider it an integral part of our digital marketing services for B2B clients, not a project isolated from the rest of the sales strategy.
When B2B ecommerce isn’t the priority
Not every B2B company needs to launch one in the short term. If your customer portfolio is a few dozen companies you speak to almost every day, a project like this risks absorbing budget that’s needed elsewhere, perhaps for a more robust CRM or more structured sales management.
B2B ecommerce really pays off when customers are numerous, orders are recurring and predictable, and the sales team is struggling to keep up with repetitive requests. With a few strategic customers, direct contact with the agent is often still the better option.
There is a middle way: a simple ordering portal, without all the features of a full platform, which still lets regular customers reorder online without going through the switchboard. For many SMEs this is the most realistic starting point before taking on a larger project.
How to launch a B2B ecommerce project: the practical steps
You don’t need to start with the most complex project on the market. You need to start in the right order. These are the steps we follow with the B2B clients we work with:
- Map the products and price lists to bring online, customer by customer or by commercial tier.
- Check which platform genuinely integrates with your management system, without manual double entry.
- Define the payment terms you accept (bank transfer, credit limits, recurring orders) before choosing the technical supplier.
- Train the sales team: B2B ecommerce doesn’t replace agents, it changes their day-to-day work.
- Launch with a small group of pilot customers before opening up to your whole customer base.
- Measure order fulfilment times, reorder rate and average basket value from the very first month.
A well-structured B2B ecommerce project almost always involves a presence on social channels too, to bring qualified traffic to the portal and not just orders from existing customers. Targeted B2B social media management, different from the kind designed for consumers, makes all the difference in getting business buyers to discover your online catalogue.
In short
B2B ecommerce isn’t the corporate version of an online shop for consumers. It has dedicated price lists, integrates with the management system, and handles payments and recurring orders differently from B2C. In Italy the market is already worth €4.9 billion, yet most businesses don’t yet have a structured project: those who start now start ahead of those who are still waiting.
If you want to work out where to begin with B2B ecommerce for your company, or you want to connect your management system to a new online sales channel, book a call with our team: 30 minutes to take stock of where you are, with no obligation.
