Top 8 B2B Commerce Trends To Follow in 2025

We are in the final stretch of B2B digital transformation. By the end of 2025, Gartner predicts that 80% of all B2B transactions will be online – a sharp increase from 30% that we see today.

To see how the B2B ecosystem will make this massive jump in the calendar year, we sat down with Chief Technology Officer, Arno Ham, to discover what trends will shape the B2B e-commerce experience through 2025.

Here’s what we found.

1. E-commerce adoption will be the number one focus

“The number one concern we hear from our clients and prospects,” according to Arno Ham, “is adoption.”

Ecommerce adoption, both for internal teams and for the customers of B2B businesses will be a critical focus throughout 2025. The challenge, however, with getting to the 80% mark that Gartner forecasts will be providing ecommerce platforms that are compelling and useful enough to convince internal teams and external buyers to come on board.

Currently, 92% of B2B leaders have at least one frustration with their own ecommerce tool, and 85% of B2B buyers experience frustration while completing a purchase online.

That means only 15% of buyers and 8% of sellers are having seamless experiences with their ecommerce platforms.

However, 73% of buyers strongly prefer buying online over other channels. Even with these frustrations, B2B buyers prefer online commerce due to reliability, efficiency, and speed.

Critically, 75% of B2B buyers would consider switching suppliers if they offered a superior online buying experience.

Because there is such a strong preference, along with a high level of dissatisfaction, B2B leaders have a unique opportunity to provide an ecommerce solution that will serve as a differentiating factor – one that can help them rise above the competition.

We expect that this opportunity to win over digitally native buyers will lead to a strong focus on ecommerce adoption for 2025.

2. Managing complexity is paramount

B2B commerce is noted for its uniquely complex ecosystem:

recurring orders
high volume orders
personalized pricing
buying on account
shipping parts of orders to and from multiple sites

Bottom line: it’s a complex octopus.

Our soon-to-be-published research indicates that 73% of B2B buyers prefer buying online, yet 40% have frustration with lack of web store information on stock, pricing, and delivery dates. Furthermore, 58% of buyers want sales assistance on repeat orders – regardless of channel.

This desire for assistance, frustration with lack of clarity, and preference for online ordering points to an opportunity for businesses to manage complex orders within e-commerce itself.

In 2025, B2B-first commerce will continue to lead the way on managing complexity. New features such as online sales rooms and deal negotiation will come online, paving the way for even more complex purchases to be made through ecommerce channels.

3. Subscription selling will increase

Subscription selling offers a lot of benefits for suppliers. It provides recurring revenue, making it easier to project cash flow and earnings. Additionally, it can help businesses manage inventory more easily, as they know ahead of time when orders will be processed.

Beyond this, subscriptions can increase brand loyalty, as buyers come to depend on consistent, recurring orders from their suppliers. Furthermore, buyers want subscription selling. 33% of buyers listed repeat orders and subscription buying as one of the most important features when purchasing online.

While B2C businesses have provided subscription selling for many years, the complexity of B2B orders has been a significant roadblock. As B2B-first ecommerce becomes more robust, B2B subscription selling becomes more feasible.

4. Sustainability will be a priority

Suppliers are confronting a rising demand for sustainability thanks to stricter government regulations as well as rising buyer ethics. To meet these sustainability metrics, suppliers will focus greater supply chain transparency, enabling their buyers to see where every element and order was produced and handled along the entire product journey.

Taking this a step further, Arno Ham anticipates that we will see the rise of circular selling in B2B. Currently, the circular economy has penetrated the B2C electronics industry – customers will trade in their old phone or old car for credit for a new model. This type of trade in is less common in the B2B space. 2025 could see the rise in this type of circular selling for complex pieces of B2B equipment.

5. AI automation will be deeply woven into ecommerce solutions

It is ubiquitous now across B2B industries. Our AI report shows that 81% of B2B companies already use AI, with 79% expecting to increase AI investment within the next year.

The first wave of GenAI adoption in B2B ecommerce tended to focus on more front-end use cases such as product descriptions or chatbots. In 2025, GenAI will be introduced more heavily into back-end development. Prompting will play a prominent role, allowing teams to generate full webpages, new connections, and automations through the power of GenAI.

6. Composability is key

Composable commerce allows B2B companies to choose multiple top-tier commerce tools and integrate them into a configuration uniquely tailored to their business needs. Instead of relying on “one-size-fits-all,” ecommerce, a company can “compose” a solution with specific best-of-breed tools.

Composability will allow companies to not only create solutions tailored to their customer base; it will allow companies to adapt to shifting circumstances more quickly.

“Companies want to be more agile, especially enterprise companies, which are by nature harder to change,” says Arno. “Composability in software will support these changing environments. In the past, where e-commerce solutions were rigid with their integrations, we now expect to see solutions integrate with the entire IT landscape.”

Flexible ecommerce solutions like Sana Commerce Cloud are showing the strengths of a composable solution thanks to new connections to software such as Punchout.

“Thanks to these integrations, our customers can make purchases directly through their own procurement system, providing a seamless order process,” said Arno.

7. Personalization and customization

Research in a recent report by Adobe and Forrester revealed 66% of B2B buyers expect a fully personalized experience when buying products, 57% expect personalization when discovering products, and 72% when using the product or software.

Critically, 66% of B2B buyers want a higher level of personalization in their professional lives compared to their personal lives.

In other words, B2B leaders want their e-commerce tool to be more personalized than their Hulu and Spotify recommendation lists.

In 2025, B2B Commerce will continue to be marked by further personalization and customer-centric developments. By leveraging real-time customer data, companies can provide customer-specific pricing, product recommendations, and take advantage of unique cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Customers will appreciate the added layer of personalization, while suppliers will be able to increase profitability at the same time.

8. Guided selling

Here’s the challenge: customers want very specific products, but they don’t want to spend ages sifting through reams of options, trying to locate the one product that matches their specifications.

Guided selling, which uses a combination of AI and historic data, will help simplify the search and discovery process for users.

The guided selling process first introduces buyers to a series of dynamic questions. Depending on the responses given, the questions that follow will change. At the end of the process, buyers will be presented with a curated set of products that meet their demands.

It’s a fast, personalized way to go through a large product catalog and help buyers find what they want.

Gartner predicts that 75% of B2B sales organizations will implement guided selling in 2025. Expect ecommerce platforms to provide new guided selling solutions to meet this demand.

2025: the final stretch of digital transformation

B2B ecommerce is in the final stretch of digital transformation. By the end of the year, we expect to see 80% of all B2B transactions happening online – a significant jump from the present 30%.

To reach this goal, suppliers will need to provide a curated, personalized ecommerce experience that can nimbly adapt to changing circumstances.