2022 was a watershed year for B2B digital commerce and transformation—and 2023 will be as well. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit with full force three years and shuttered all, or at least major portions of many industries and closed offices, branches and factories, work from home business purchasing managers did nearly off their corporate buying online. Across all electronic channels (ecommerce and EDI) grew 19% in 2022 to $3.05 trillion
In the past two years B2B ecommerce has morphed from a minor into a mainstream sales channel and forced many manufacturers and distributors to rethink entirely how to conduct business with growing numbers of digital-first customers.
Many organizations that were once hesitant to embrace B2B ecommerce are now getting new initiatives or updating older strategies and ecommerce technology with new cloud-based applications such as headless commerce and new data tools like artificial intelligence.
B2B ecommerce will continue to accelerate in 2023 even as the business economy slows down. By the fourth quarter 2022, all B2B sales growth had slowed to a quarterly rate of 8.5% vs. growth of 19% in Q1. Digital Commerce is transforming businesses.
