Ethan Giffin on Closing the Digital Revenue Gap in B2B eCommerce for Manufacturers and Distributors

The shift toward digital buying is already well underway. U.S. manufacturing and wholesale distribution sales reached $15.12 trillion in 2025, and ecommerce, online marketplaces, and e-procurement systems are steadily taking over transactions that once went through sales reps, phone calls, faxed purchase orders, and manual purchasing, according to Digital Commerce 360.

From a Wholesale Portal Redesign to a B2B Focus

Giffin founded Groove Commerce in 2007 and worked mostly with mid-market consumer brands. His first B2B project came from apparel company Cutter & Buck. It asked his team to redesign a homegrown wholesale ordering system that its business customers found difficult to use.

That project led to more complex B2B work, including custom buyer portals. A buyer portal is a private website where approved business customers log in to see their negotiated pricing, place orders, and manage their accounts. The company later rebranded as The B2B eCommerce Agency to focus entirely on manufacturers and distributors with $50 million to $500 million in annual revenue.

Giffin also wrote Closing the Digital Revenue Gap: 10 Revenue Blind Spots That Are Costing You More Than You Think. He trimmed an early 300-page draft to about 90 pages so busy executives could finish it on a single flight. Writing it gave him time to document his firm's method, which begins by setting a realistic timeline with new clients. 

I tell them that this is a three-year journey to go from zero to where digital revenue has muscle memory within your organization and you're actively optimizing it and growing it

Giffin said.

What a Revenue Blind Spot Looks Like

Giffin defines revenue blind spots as points of friction in the sales process that cost a company customers and revenue, often without anyone noticing. He has seen a company where one developer, an avid skydiver, was the only person who understood how its systems worked. He has seen finance departments take a month to approve a new customer account. He has also seen customer service teams repeatedly rescue orders from problems a modern portal would handle on its own.

Some blind spots are easy to measure. Giffin estimates that a phone order can cost $50 to $70 to process once every manual step and error correction is counted. The same order placed online typically costs $3 to $5 to support.

Others are harder to see. A customer may keep buying a manufacturer's specialty products while moving its purchases of everyday consumables, such as supplies and replacement parts, to a competitor that makes online ordering easier.

Customer requirements can also set the timeline. One of Giffin's clients, a supplier to major aerospace and automotive manufacturers, was told to implement punchout within six months to keep that business. Punchout lets a large buyer shop a supplier's catalog from inside the buyer's own purchasing software, then return the cart for internal approval.

Giffin illustrated the concept with a personal example. A grocery store he visits for a specific pepperoni he uses in homemade pizza keeps its shopping bags locked, so every self-checkout customer has to wait for an attendant to unlock one. A small rule turned an errand he enjoyed into a chore. He sees many B2B companies add similar steps to their buying process without realizing it.

Why Alignment Comes Before Technology

Giffin's firm addresses blind spots by aligning people before selecting software. Clients send five or six leaders to the agency's Baltimore studios for about three days of in-person discovery. The group includes representatives from IT, marketing, finance, operations, and sales, which Giffin calls the "five-legged stool." Without agreement across those groups, he said, a digital commerce project is unlikely to succeed.

These sessions often surface knowledge that has never reached leadership. In two recent discoveries, heads of customer service with more than 20 years of experience said they had never been invited into a website project until it was nearly finished. Hearing their daily stories in the same room as the CEO or CFO is one of the most valuable parts of the process, according to Giffin.

There's a real divide between how companies think they sell and how they really sell in most organizations.

Executive participation sets the tone. When one CEO of a $150 million company hesitated to spend two days on discovery, Giffin pointed out that the goal was to route at least 10% of the company's revenue through the new channel as quickly as possible. That's a channel potentially worth $15 million to $30 million a year.

Strong leadership support also helps teams work through internal resistance, which Giffin sees as a bigger risk than technical problems. Examples include pricing that lives on one employee's decades-old spreadsheet and product naming that fits no standard system. Another is SKU formulas nobody wants to change (a SKU, or stock keeping unit, is the unique code that identifies each product).

If you've had three failed implementations with other folks and it's because your catalog is unique, maybe it is unique, but it's not that unique that it can't fit within a use case that's been out there already

Giffin said.

Where Manufacturers and Distributors Should Start

The right starting point depends on a company's digital maturity. Giffin looks first at the product catalog. Some companies have only internal abbreviations stored in their ERP (enterprise resource planning software, the core system that runs orders, inventory, and accounting). Others have full descriptions, specifications, and photos. He also checks whether the ERP is current and has APIs, which are standard connections that let other software exchange data with it.

Narrowing the scope helps. A distributor may list half a million products but regularly sell only 5,000, so the work can begin there, or with the products a handful of key accounts buy. B2BEA's guide to product information management for manufacturers and distributors covers how to organize product data at this stage.

From there, Giffin recommends a hands-on pilot with 10 to 15 loyal customers who are willing to give feedback, followed by a planned rollout to the full customer base. His firm opens engagements with a three-week diagnostic that assesses organizational, technical, and catalog readiness, including whether a company is prepared to begin at all. After launch, the agency helps clients run a steering committee (a small group of leaders who meet regularly to guide the channel). It also builds dashboards that track B2B-specific measures such as logins and the number of SKUs in the average cart. The firm is platform agnostic, meaning it selects software based on each client's catalog, customers, and internal resources.

Bringing Sales and Customer Service Into the Project

Sales representatives often worry that a new online channel will reduce their commissions or replace them. Giffin has seen that concern at clients' national sales meetings, alongside real curiosity. He brings reps in early by asking what their customers request and what frustrates them. One example is an order spreadsheet full of macros that triggers a security warning every time a customer opens it.

He is also direct about the upside. Moving routine orders online gives reps more time to sell, especially to long-tail customers (the many smaller accounts that buy infrequently), which can raise their earnings. He is equally candid that quotas may rise and some teams may need fewer people.

Buyer research supports keeping reps involved. Gartner found that 67% of B2B buyers prefer a buying experience without a sales rep, yet buyers still turn to reps to confirm AI-generated information and to help with decisions at key moments, according to a 2026 Gartner survey.

Customer service carries similar weight. If service staff criticize a new system while on the phone with customers, adoption will lag. Giffin's approach is to listen first, acknowledge the frustrations teams deal with daily, and deliver early wins. He also encourages clients to aim for improvements of at least 20% over the old system so the new platform removes old problems instead of rebuilding them. B2BEA's conversation with Adrienne Hartman on sales and marketing alignment shows how sales incentives can support digital adoption. Its guide to driving real customer adoption outlines how to move customers onto a new channel after launch.

Practical Uses of AI in B2B eCommerce

King, who leads B2BEA's AI resources, pushed back on treating AI as its own initiative.

I hate the phrase, 'What's your AI strategy?' ... It can't be a separate strategy. It needs to be a very connected strategy

King said.

Giffin sees the clearest returns in a few areas:

• Catalog enrichment. AI can read PDF spec sheets and CAD files (the digital engineering drawings of a product) and draft product descriptions written for specific customer groups. A person still needs to review every product. Projects that once took 8 to 12 months can be done in a third to half the time.

• Product discovery. AI-driven site search can answer questions instead of only matching keywords. Adoption is still early, and most companies add it when they refresh their search tools or change platforms.

• Data analysis. Giffin's team connects dashboards to AI through MCP (Model Context Protocol, a standard way to link AI tools to business data). That lets AI surface trends and recommendations continuously instead of waiting for a monthly report.

His own firm has also loaded years of books, keynotes, and podcast interviews into a vector database. This is a type of database that stores content by meaning, so AI can search and retrieve ideas from past material.

Giffin recommends clear governance so AI projects stay tied to business goals. Before building an automated weekly report, a team should know what action it will take based on that report. That discipline matters: MIT research found that only about 5% of AI pilot programs produce rapid revenue growth, while most stall with little measurable effect on profit and loss, as Fortune reported.

Get the Book and Meet Giffin in Person

Manufacturers and distributors can request a free copy of Closing the Digital Revenue Gap through The B2B eCommerce Agency's book request page. The request form also offers a consultation with the agency.

Giffin also hosts the B2B eCommerce Summit, an annual event for manufacturers and distributors. The 2026 summit takes place October 14 in Baltimore, at the Delta Hotel connected to the agency's office. 

About the Guest

Ethan Giffin is the Founder and CEO of The B2B eCommerce Agency, author of Closing the Digital Revenue Gap, and host of the B2B eCommerce Summit. With more than two decades of experience working with manufacturers and distributors, Ethan helps mid-market organizations identify the hidden friction that costs them customers and revenue and build modern digital selling systems.

His approach focuses on the three things many digital projects overlook: sequence, alignment, and adoption. Through his consulting, writing, and speaking, Ethan shares practical strategies that help executive teams modernize how customers buy, protect margins, and build digital experiences that drive long-term growth.

About the Host

Justin King is the Global Managing Director and Chief AI Officer of the B2B eCommerce Association. He also hosts the B2B eCommerce Show, where he interviews practitioners and vendors shaping digital commerce for manufacturers and distributors. King has written about B2B eCommerce since 2007 and leads B2BEA's content, community, and AI resources for the industry.