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B2B eCommerce is the sale of goods or services from one business to another through an online channel rather than a phone call, a paper order or a sales rep visit. Most business buyers now expect to research, compare and place orders themselves, which is why suppliers across manufacturing, wholesale and distribution are moving their catalogs online. You may be looking to start an eCommerce business that serves as another revenue stream for your service business, or to sell your consumer products to a B2B audience.
Wix supports B2B and wholesale commerce through a native-quality partner integration. That means one eCommerce platform can serve wholesale buyers and retail shoppers side by side. This guide covers what B2B eCommerce is, how it differs from B2C, who benefits from it and six tips for setting up your own B2B store.
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TL;DR: what is B2B eCommerce
B2B eCommerce sells to other businesses online, and the practical difference from B2C is that orders are larger, several people approve them and pricing is often negotiated rather than listed. That changes what the store has to do. Wholesale pricing usually sits behind a login, catalogs get tailored per account and the site has to answer the questions a sales rep would normally field.
You'll learn
Manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and D2C brands all sell B2B online
A buying group of six to ten people has to be convinced, not one shopper
Members-only pages let one store serve trade and retail buyers
Buyers research on their own, so self-service tools matter most
What is B2B eCommerce?
While business-to-consumer (B2C) involves a transaction from a business to a private individual, business-to-business (B2B) is the sale of goods (or services) from one business to another.
As a B2B merchant, you could be selling anything from digital downloads to software, and machinery to office supplies.
71% of B2B companies now offer eCommerce, and among those that do, roughly one-third of all revenue flows through digital channels, according to McKinsey and its 2026 Global B2B Pulse Survey of nearly 4,000 decision-makers across 13 countries. That makes digital the top revenue-generating channel, ahead of in-person selling, which is why more suppliers now choose to sell online rather than treating a basic website as enough.
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B2B eCommerce example in action
Akvilė Les has always been a visionary. She has long been at the forefront of fashion, luxury interiors and hospitality design, even amassing an international clientele for her PR and marketing consultancy, AL by Akvilė Les.
On top of this, she dons another title under her belt: lead designer and founder of Akvilė Les Artwork. Her artwork has graced various office walls, galleries and hotels, earning features in Cosmopolitan, Business Insider and other global magazines.
“It happened naturally, really,” she says. “I have over 14 years of experience in both the consumer and B2B sectors and I certainly enjoyed both…however, the B2B space feels even more collaborative, since the client represents another business with a challenge. My job is like a puzzle that requires me to merge my creativity with my commercial mindset. That’s my favorite convergence.”
Read Also: How to start a business
Key differences between B2C and B2B eCommerce
B2B eCommerce is typically considered more complex than B2C eCommerce for several reasons:
B2B sellers usually work with fewer customers: This means they need to move larger volumes and/or sell at a higher price to cover costs and turn a profit. Relationships are vital to success, at times impacting pricing (e.g., you may need to negotiate prices) and demanding a more hands-on customer service or account management team.
B2B buyers usually involve multiple stakeholders: In fact, one study by Gartner found that a B2B sale usually involves six to 10 decision-makers, each with a separate process and timeline for researching products.
Fewer impulse purchases: Because of the complexity of the buying process, B2B transactions are rarely impulsive. On the contrary, they may take weeks, if not longer, to close, as several stakeholders within the company come together to make a decision. On the bright side, a good experience could yield a more long-term relationship with regular purchase orders from the same buyer.
Many B2B buyers seek bespoke solutions: Be it a marketing team looking to purchase new swag, or an office manager looking to buy new office supplies, some B2B buyers may request products to be tailored to their unique needs. Beyond this, your product catalog, shipping policy and payment options may need to be adjusted for particular clients.
Brand ambassadors are essential: Especially when you’re selling to a large company. If your brand ambassador happens to leave the company, then you may find yourself needing another point of contact who can help champion your brand internally.
The players who benefit from B2B eCommerce
There’s a long lineup of players that stand to benefit from B2B eCommerce. Among them:
Manufacturers: While catering to various types of businesses and buyers (including brands, wholesalers, distributors or other manufacturers), manufacturers can leverage eCommerce to simplify the order process. Buyers can search and purchase products on their own. Meanwhile, manufacturers can better track, monitor and centralize data, improving operations like inventory forecasting.
Wholesalers: Wholesalers that have an eCommerce store can make the purchasing process much easier for their partners, while expanding their reach through online sales channels.
Distributors: Distributors who sell to a variety of customers can sell on multiple channels to reach new audiences. They can also provide more personalized experiences through their eCommerce sites, adjusting price lists, product catalogs and messaging to specific buyer segments.
B2M brands: Business-to-many brands that exercise multiple selling models (e.g., B2C, B2B, or B2B2C) can create separate websites for each customer type. They can additionally sell on multiple channels at once, honing in on platforms that already have the trust and loyalty of their target buyers.
D2C brands: Brands that prefer to cut out the middlemen can now sell directly to enterprise or business customers. Their D2C eCommerce sites can showcase their full range of products, while allowing them the freedom to control their branding, pricing and more.
Agencies and consultants: Service providers looking to supplement their core business with a side hustle can develop an eCommerce strategy that still caters to the types of audiences they know best.
Popular B2B eCommerce channels
Depending on how you plan to operate your B2B company, there are several types of channels to consider selling on. Of course, you can (and should) sell on multiple channels at once to maximize your reach:
Online store: Often the most flexible and straightforward option, an online store allows you to engage directly with business clients. You may choose to sell solely to B2B audiences or create a separate members-only space on your B2C site.
B2B marketplace: Under this option, you list your products to a third-party marketplace that connects you to potential buyers, but owns the customer experience (including how products are listed, how you can interact with customers, etc.). Think: Wayfair Professional, Alibaba, AliExpress and Amazon Business.
Social media: Certain social channels may be very valuable to your B2B brand, and with the rise of social commerce tools, you could find yourself taking orders directly through channels like TikTok or Instagram. Of course, you’ll want to test and analyze channels carefully to find the ones worth investing in.
The channel mix matters, but so does owning the destination those channels point to. Matt Matergia, VP of Global B2B Partnerships (SaaS) at Wix, puts it plainly.
"It's more important than ever for businesses to set up their own strong website. A professional site gives a business credibility and creates trust and authority with consumers."
6 tips for getting started with B2B eCommerce
Now that we’ve got the basics down, it’s important that we cover essential tips for setting up your business the right way. After you've properly registered your business (learn how to start an LLC), heed these tips as you jump headfirst into the world of B2B eCommerce.
01. Pick your eCommerce platform wisely
Your website builder serves as the backbone of your online store. With a plethora of options out there, deciding on the right platform can seem daunting and you may even consider hiring a developer to build your store from scratch.
However, the right eCommerce website templates and builder can dramatically simplify your work, while helping you launch and scale faster.
Our advice: search for a platform that not only offers cool store templates, but also connects you with essential back-office features. For instance, Wix eCommerce offers features like:
Wix Payments: As a first-time online seller, it's not always clear how to accept various types of payments online and how to do it securely. With Wix Payments, you can accept major credit cards, debit cards, Apple Pay, buy-now-pay-later options and more. This is backed by strong security protocols. Wix is accredited as a PCI DSS Level 1 service provider and merchant, the highest tier of the card industry security standard.
Mariia Liakhova, Product Marketing Manager for Payments at Wix, sees this trip up new sellers more than anything else.
"One of the biggest challenges for new businesses is navigating the complexity of accepting payments online. Wix Payments simplifies that process with a built-in, secure solution designed to help business owners get set up quickly and focus more on selling."
Catalog and listing management: Maintain one source of truth for all of your product data, and create product collections and/or listing variations that speak to your B2B customer segments. Enable bulk buying by listing multipacks of products with special pricing.
Order and inventory management: These are basic must-haves for any online business. As your products are for sale 24/7, you need a system to accurately and automatically record and route orders to avoid shipping errors, overselling or other costly mistakes. Wix enables eCommerce stores to offer pre-orders for upcoming products.
Memberships: Create restricted (i.e., password-protected) store pages for your B2B customers. This is useful if you want to service both B2C and B2B clients from the same site or want to create a special experience for loyal customers. Access can be limited to password holders, to all site members or to members on a specific plan, so trade pricing stays hidden from retail shoppers.
Product subscriptions: Offer a subscription service for curated boxes or recurring orders on a single item. Wix offers users subscription and membership tools.
Print-on-demand (POD) and dropshipping integrations: Sell made-to-order products while outsourcing fulfillment with the help of a POD supplier.
Wix Smart Chat: Add chat to your site so buyers get answers on the spot, either from AI trained on your site content or from someone on your team.
Multichannel expansion: Easily connect to popular marketplaces, like Amazon and eBay, without leaving your Wix dashboard. This saves you the headache of re-entering product details on each channel by hand, plus lets you automatically sync any changes to your listings from channel to channel. Wix supports global and omnichannel eCommerce with multilingual storefronts, multi-currency payments, marketplace and social selling, mobile apps and integrated point-of-sale systems for online and offline sales.
Global eCommerce: Automatically translate and localize all facets of your online store. Add a currency converter to your Wix store and start selling to a global audience. Wix enables merchants to sell internationally with multi-currency payments.
Wix helps eCommerce businesses focus on long-term growth by supporting strategies that increase customer lifetime value. Stores can implement loyalty and reward programs to encourage repeat purchases, offer subscription-based products or memberships for recurring revenue and keep customers engaged with automated back-in-stock notifications and pre-order options. Flexible gifting tools like digital gift cards also allow brands to attract new shoppers and expand revenue opportunities throughout the year.
02. Apply B2C principles to your B2B site
Treat your business customers like any other human customer.
After all, the people behind a company are the ones doing the shopping, and like the rest of us, these shoppers are already familiar with how an online transaction should work, based on their personal shopping habits.
On your site, make sure to:
Organize your products into clear collections
Make it easy to find your products using clear navigation menus, filters and more
Use high-quality product images that show the actual size, features and intended use of your products
Create unique and detailed product descriptions
Optimize the mobile shopping experience
Integrate videos, including user-generated ones, on your site
Include social proof, like customer testimonials, product reviews and/or case studies
Offer multiple shipping and payment options
Provide clear return and exchange policies
Provide clear contact information, as well as a live chat option on your site
03. Encourage self-service shopping whenever and wherever
Many B2B buyers prefer to help themselves and research products at their own pace. B2B buyers are about 61% of the way through their buying journey before they first contact a seller, according to the 2025 Buyer Experience Report from 6sense, down from 69% the year before.
For this reason, you’ll want to make sure to offer lots of self-service tools, such as chat boxes, blog posts, navigation menus, FAQs and more.
You can prod customers along by sending automated abandoned emails, adding “related products” banners to your site, or activating a remarketing campaign. Moreover, you'll want to meet customers where they are by engaging on multiple channels. Different stakeholders may prefer different channels for research, whether that’s social media, a marketplace or an offline channel.
As you tap into various marketing and sales channels, make sure to create a unified experience. Inconsistent information across a supplier and its teams is now the single biggest reason B2B buyers switch suppliers, ahead of not being able to reach a knowledgeable representative, according to the 2026 Global B2B Pulse Survey. Buyers use an average of ten channels across a purchase, so everything from your branding to your payment options to the product information you publish needs to line up.
Harness a proper omnichannel retail strategy and keep the experience consistent, so that no matter where your buyers find your products, they’re confident about their purchases.
Wix empowers businesses to scale globally and sell across multiple channels from a single platform. Merchants can localize their stores with automatic translations, accept payments in multiple currencies and calculate taxes automatically for international sales. The platform also connects to major marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and Google, enables social commerce on TikTok and Instagram and allows businesses to launch branded mobile apps for iOS and Android. For omnichannel operations, Wix supports fully integrated point-of-sale systems, unifying online and offline sales management.
04. Create a full-service experience
Track the full customer journey with your brand. Dissect the various types of clients that you’ll be selling to, as well as their familiarity with your brand.
While it’s not possible for your site to be all things to all people, you can develop a space that services both first-time buyers and returning ones, as well as large-ticket sales and small-ticket sales.
The trick is to be intentional about the purpose of each store page. Analyze who lands on which pages, and from where. While your homepage primarily speaks to new clients, your members' pages may speak to returning customers. The main CTA on your homepage may be to “explore products” or “contact us with your questions” whereas your members' pages may highlight subscription options, pre-order buttons and receipts of a customer's past purchases.
Wix provides flexible eCommerce architecture that allows businesses to customize storefronts, checkout experiences and backend workflows as their needs evolve.
05. Combat choice paralysis with personalization and smart design
While the typical B2B buying cycle may take a relatively long time, it always helps to think of ways to make the experience more convenient and engaging.
Elements like a “best sellers” tab or social proof can have a positive impact. Or, consider creating product collections based on specific buyer needs. Remember that even small details, such as enabling site search, adding a “sort by” option or offering a generous return policy, can prompt faster sales.
In addition, your online store can offer a wealth of data. Wix Analytics, for instance, allows you to understand consumer behavior via their purchase habits, bounce rates, click-through rates (CTRs) and more. With these insights, you can make informed decisions about the products you highlight, the messaging you use and more.
Matt Shearn runs Rimpact Components, a UK bike components brand that sells direct to consumers and wholesale to international distributors from a single Wix store. He leans on that data daily.
"The analytics has got a lot better. The live view analytics where you can jump in and see what people are doing in real time is really good. Especially when traffic spikes after a review goes up it is quite fun just to jump in and have a look."
Once someone is ready to checkout, make sure that your site supports a smooth, self-service checkout experience. Offer multiple payment options. Be clear about estimated shipping times. And regularly update customers on the status of their orders.
Wix supports high-performance eCommerce operations with AI-driven product recommendations, automated discount logic, abandoned cart recovery and customizable checkout workflows.
06. Establish a strong marketing strategy
Establishing your sales channels is just half the battle. The other half involves creating a strong eCommerce marketing strategy.
“Just because an eCommerce website is launched, it does not necessarily mean that it will gain traffic immediately,” notes Akvilė. “Treat your site as a new avenue and spread the word to your existing clients.”
There are various tactics and channels worth exploring at this stage:
Referral/word of mouth: Announce your new venture to your existing contacts and network. You could even incentivize them by offering special discounts in exchange for referrals.
Social media: Social channels are where many buyers form early impressions, so treat them as a research surface rather than a direct sales channel.
SEO: Boost the visibility of your site on Google search engine pages by incorporating keywords into your web copy, optimizing site speed and following other eCommerce SEO best practices.
Ads: Platforms like Facebook Ads or Google Ads can immediately get your business in front of new audiences.
Email marketing: Send a newsletter, abandoned cart emails, or promotional emails to keep your brand top of mind among customers.
Content marketing: Be it through a blog, YouTube videos or customer reviews, content can help you to build trust and demonstrate the benefits of your products.
Wix includes built-in automation tools that help eCommerce businesses optimize sales through AI product recommendations, automated discount logic and abandoned cart recovery workflows.
B2B eCommerce FAQ
Do you need a minimum order quantity for B2B eCommerce?
A minimum order quantity is not required for B2B eCommerce, but most wholesale sellers set one to keep per-order handling costs viable and to stop retail shoppers buying at trade prices. Minimums are usually expressed as a total order value, a unit count per product or both. Work out the order size at which your margin covers picking, packing and shipping, then set the floor slightly above it.
Can you sell B2B and B2C from the same website?
You can sell B2B and B2C from the same website by putting wholesale pricing and catalogs behind a login while the public storefront stays open to retail shoppers. On Wix, store pages can be restricted to password holders, to all site members or to members on a specific plan. This avoids running two sites and keeps one inventory record.
How do you price products for wholesale versus retail?
Wholesale prices are set at a discount to the retail price, sized so the seller still covers cost of goods, fulfillment and overhead at higher volume. Tiered pricing that deepens the discount as order size grows is common. Publishing retail prices where wholesale buyers can see them tends to anchor negotiations, which is why many sellers gate trade pricing behind an account.
How long does a B2B buying cycle take?
B2B buying cycles averaged 10.1 months in 2025, down from 11.3 months the year before, according to the 2025 Buyer Experience Report from 6sense, which surveyed nearly 4,000 buyers. The same study found buyers now contact a seller about 61% of the way through the journey, earlier than the 69% recorded previously. Plan for a long self-directed research phase in which your site, not your sales team, does the selling.
Is Wix good for B2B eCommerce?
Wix works for B2B eCommerce when you need one platform to serve business buyers and retail shoppers together. Wix supports B2B and wholesale commerce through a native-quality partner integration. Members-only pages let you gate trade pricing and catalogs, and Wix supports multiple business models on a single backend, so products, services and subscriptions run from one place.
