Companies invest hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, of zlotys in e-commerce development. A new B2B platform is stable, integrations have been implemented correctly and customers have been given access. Yet they still send orders by email, contact sales representatives or continue using their previous purchasing methods.
The share of B2B sales generated online grows more slowly than expected, and the company starts wondering whether the problem lies in the technology. Not necessarily.
The obvious question is: is using the platform a simpler and more useful way for the customer to work with the supplier than the process it was supposed to replace?
If the answer is "no", adding more features may not solve the problem.
In this article, we look at eight mistakes that most often limit B2B platform adoption and make it harder to grow online sales.
In e-commerce projects, it is easy to focus on implementation: functional scope, integrations, data migration, testing and the go-live date. From a business perspective, however, the launch itself is only the beginning.
Everything can work correctly from a technical perspective while still failing to achieve the expected business goals. Customers may have accounts but not use them. They may log into the system but still place most of their orders through sales representatives. The company may also continue developing new features without knowing whether they solve real user problems.
That is why the effectiveness of B2B e-commerce should be assessed not only in terms of whether the system works, but above all by whether it changes how sales and purchasing processes are carried out.
Depending on the objective of the project, relevant metrics may include:
the share of orders placed online,
the share of B2B revenue generated through the digital channel,
the number of active customers using the platform,
the use of self-service features,
the time required to place an order,
the number of orders requiring intervention from a sales representative,
the use of individual platform features.
Not every organization should measure exactly the same metrics. KPIs should reflect the objective the B2B platform is intended to achieve.
If the goal is to reduce the workload of the sales team, the level of customer self-service will be important. If the company wants to move a larger share of sales to the digital channel, the percentage of orders and revenue generated online may matter more.
Simply being able to say "we have a B2B platform" is not yet a measure of sales digitalization.
In B2C, the purchasing journey often focuses on finding a product, adding it to the cart and completing the transaction.
The B2B process can be significantly more complex. We have written more about when it makes sense to separate these two worlds, and when it does not, in our article on whether B2B and B2C should use one platform or two.
A business customer may need individual pricing, commercial terms, availability information, order history, a quick way to repeat a previous purchase, documents, quoting capabilities or the ability for multiple users to operate within a single organization.
More complex processes may also involve roles and permissions, purchasing limits, order approvals, multiple delivery locations or individual payment terms.
In this case, everything comes down to one, admittedly somewhat complex, question: does the platform reduce the effort required to complete the purchasing process for the customer and to handle that process for the seller?
Sometimes this means reducing the ordering process to a few dozen seconds. In other cases, it means allowing customers to check prices, availability or order status themselves without contacting a sales representative.
This is precisely why a good B2B e-commerce platform should be designed around processes rather than a list of features.
One of the fundamental mistakes is applying patterns known from B2C to a B2B environment without first examining what the purchasing process of business customers actually looks like.
This does not mean that good B2C UX practices do not apply to B2B. They do. The problem begins when we assume that a business user behaves exactly like a consumer.
In many B2B models, particularly with regular and recurring purchases, the customer starts the process with a specific need or a list of products. They may know the SKU, use their own catalog numbers or regularly order the same set of products.
In this scenario, the following may provide more value than extensive catalog browsing:
fast SKU search,
repeat ordering,
shopping lists,
quick addition of multiple products,
order import from a file,
access to individual prices and commercial terms.
The starting point should be understanding the actual behavior of your business customers.
Another important area is the platform's design and UX. Even if the purchasing process has been designed well from a business perspective, the user still needs to be able to move through it quickly, intuitively and without unnecessary effort.
In B2B e-commerce, good design is primarily about usability. Of course, aesthetics matter, but aesthetics alone will not determine platform adoption.
For a user who regularly uses the platform as a work tool, speed, predictability and the ability to complete everyday tasks easily are particularly important.
Implementing an existing process in an application does not automatically optimize it.
If a customer previously had to go through several unnecessary steps, obtain information from a sales representative and manually pass on data, recreating exactly the same process in a B2B platform may simply transfer the existing complexity to a new channel.
Some stages can be simplified, others automated and some removed altogether. Good digitalization is not about recreating the old process on a screen. It should lead to designing a better way of carrying it out.
A feature list can easily become the main tool for planning platform development. Customers submit requests, sales representatives bring in new ideas and competitors introduce new functionality. The backlog keeps growing.
The problem begins when every need automatically becomes a development task.
Before starting development, it is worth checking:
how many customers actually experience the problem,
how often it occurs,
what impact it has on sales or customer service,
how customers currently deal with it,
whether a new feature is the simplest way to solve the problem,
how its adoption and impact will be measured after implementation.
In B2B e-commerce, the cost of a poorly chosen feature does not end with development. Every additional element of the system then needs to be maintained, tested, updated and taken into account when future changes are introduced.
That is why the platform roadmap should be built around business problems worth solving rather than the number of new features.
In B2B projects, we do not start by asking, "What else can we build?" During Discovery workshops, we want to understand the process, the user and the business objective behind the change. Only then can we reliably assess whether the answer should be development, a change to the existing process, better platform configuration or a completely different solution.
One of the more common misconceptions in B2B e-commerce is the assumption that the online channel should reduce the role of the sales team.
In practice, an effective B2B platform should primarily take over repetitive and administrative tasks, leaving specialists to focus on the areas where their experience genuinely creates value.
The platform can, among other things:
enable customers to repeat orders independently,
provide access to individual prices and commercial terms,
display purchase history and order status,
provide access to documents,
reduce the number of simple inquiries about availability or delivery dates.
This allows sales representatives to focus on negotiations, advisory work, relationship development and working with key customers.
This is also important from the perspective of platform adoption. If the sales team sees the new channel as competition rather than a tool that supports their work, it is difficult to expect them to actively encourage customers to use it.
Simply allowing customers to place orders online does not mean they will want to use the platform. Self-service creates value when customers can independently complete tasks that previously required contacting a sales representative or customer service team.
Depending on the business model, this may include:
checking individual prices,
verifying product availability,
repeating a previous order,
downloading documents,
checking order status,
managing users and permissions,
creating shopping lists,
submitting requests for quotations,
reviewing purchase history.
The greater the share of everyday tasks that customers can handle independently, the more likely the platform is to become a genuine tool they use in their work.
This does not mean, however, that every B2B platform should include all of these features. The most important thing is to identify the areas that generate the most customer contacts, delays or administrative work in a particular sales model.
Self-service does not mean "leave the customer on their own." This is an important distinction. Self-service should give customers the ability to act independently when they want to, but it should not remove access to support.
Launching a system from a technical perspective does not mean customers will change their habits.
If they have been ordering by phone or email for many years, simply informing them that a new platform has been launched may not be enough.
That is why growing B2B online sales should also include an adoption plan.
It may include, among other things:
customer segmentation and gradual onboarding of subsequent groups,
communication before the platform launch,
user onboarding,
training,
support from sales representatives during the first orders,
analysis of why some customers continue to remain outside the online channel.
It is also worth remembering that adoption is not simply the number of accounts created. What matters much more is whether customers actually use the platform.
Depending on the objective of the project, it is worth analyzing, among other things:
the share of active customers using the online channel,
the share of orders placed digitally,
the share of B2B revenue generated online,
login and purchase frequency,
the number of customers returning to the platform,
the share of processes completed through self-service.
For example, a company may have thousands of registered accounts, but if most orders are still sent to sales representatives by email, the number of users alone does not demonstrate that the platform is successful.
B2B platform adoption does not mean that the customer has an account. It means that the digital channel has become a genuine way for them to work with the supplier.
If an organization has not defined exactly what the B2B e-commerce platform is supposed to improve, it becomes difficult to assess whether the investment is actually delivering results. "More sales" is too broad an objective.
E-commerce can serve very different purposes. In one project, the objective may be to increase the share of B2B sales generated online.
In other projects, the objective may be to:
reduce the cost of order handling,
increase the level of self-service,
reduce the number of errors,
reduce the workload of the sales team,
increase purchase frequency,
improve the customer experience.
That is why KPIs should be defined before platform development begins.
There is no single universal set, but it is worth considering, among other things:
| Area | Example metric |
|---|---|
| Adoption | Share of active customers using the platform |
| Online sales | Share of orders or revenue generated digitally |
| Self-service | Percentage of processes completed without the involvement of a sales representative |
| Efficiency | Average time required to place and process an order |
| Repeat purchases | Share of customers returning to the online channel |
| Process quality | Number of errors or orders requiring manual correction |
| Feature usage | Usage of key platform features |
The number of features implemented is not a KPI in itself. If an organization does not know what business outcome a particular feature is supposed to deliver, it is difficult to assess either its priority or its effectiveness later on.
After launch, many platforms are developed primarily on the basis of requests from individual teams. Sales asks for one feature, marketing requests another, and customer service identifies further needs.
Each of these requests may be valid, but without data it is difficult to assess which problems have the greatest impact on the business.
That is why a B2B platform roadmap should combine qualitative insights from customers and internal teams with data on actual user behavior.
It is worth analyzing, among other things:
where users abandon the process,
which features are used most often,
where errors occur,
which processes still require contact with a sales representative,
how the share of online orders is changing,
which customer groups have the highest and lowest adoption rates.
Only by combining this information can priorities be set consciously.
One of the more common problems we see in B2B platforms under active development is a backlog built from many individual requests without a single model for assessing their value. That is why, before recommending further changes, we want to understand what is actually happening on the platform: who is using it, where customers encounter difficulties and which processes still generate the most manual work. Only then does development become a tool for achieving a specific business objective rather than an objective in itself.
Not every B2B e-commerce problem stems from processes, adoption or the way the platform is being used. Sometimes the technology itself really is the limitation.
Possible warning signs include:
performance and stability issues,
increasing costs of making changes,
difficulties integrating additional systems,
architectural limitations,
high technical debt,
problems updating the platform.
In this situation, adding more features may simply create additional complexity.
Instead of assessing an individual feature, it is worth evaluating the condition of the entire solution: its architecture, code, integrations, performance, security, development process and ability to scale further.
Only this kind of analysis makes it possible to decide whether the platform should continue to be developed, refactored, modernized or, in certain situations, whether a technology change should be considered.
When a B2B e-commerce platform comes to us with performance or stability issues, or has become difficult and expensive to develop further, we do not start with the assumption that it needs to be rewritten or that the technology needs to be changed. First, we want to understand where the actual bottleneck is. We analyze the architecture, code, integrations, development process and business context. Sometimes it is enough to reorganize specific areas. Sometimes more extensive refactoring is required. In other cases, continuing to invest in the current solution genuinely stops making sense. This is exactly what our approach to Project Rescue is based on: diagnosis first, then a decision about what is worth saving, what needs to change and in what order.
A good B2B platform should primarily reflect the actual purchasing processes of its customers. Depending on the business model, this may include individual pricing and catalogs, quick ordering, purchase history, self-service, roles and permissions, approval processes or integrations with other systems.
There is, however, no single list of features that is right for every B2B business. The scope of the platform should be determined by its processes, customer needs and organizational goals.
The first step is to identify what is limiting the use of the digital channel. This means analyzing platform adoption, purchasing journeys, user behavior, self-service usage and processes that still require manual handling.
Only after identifying these barriers can you determine whether the solution requires changes to UX, processes, technology, onboarding or the development of new features.
There can be many reasons. The platform may not simplify the existing process, important self-service features may be missing, users may not be aware of what the system can do, or they may still prefer working with a sales representative.
UX, performance or a mismatch between the platform and actual purchasing processes may also be the problem. That is why the causes of low adoption should be diagnosed using data and conversations with users rather than assumed in advance.
KPIs should reflect the objectives of the platform. Relevant metrics may include the share of orders and revenue generated online, the number of active digital customers, self-service usage, the time required to complete key processes or the share of orders requiring intervention from a sales representative.
The number of accounts or features implemented alone is not enough to assess B2B e-commerce performance.
It does not have to, and in many business models it should not. The platform can take over repetitive tasks such as repeat ordering, providing information or handling simple processes.
This allows sales representatives to focus on negotiations, advisory work, customer development and more complex sales processes. The roles of the platform and the sales team should reflect the specific business model.
An audit is worth considering when the platform is not achieving the expected results, adoption is low, development is becoming increasingly expensive, performance or integration problems are emerging, or the organization does not know which areas should be developed first.
The audit should help distinguish technological problems from process and business issues and establish priorities for further action.
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