The B2B eCommerce space is growing rapidly, with Forrester predicting sales in the U.S. alone to exceed $3 trillion and account for 24% of the total U.S. B2B sales by 2027.
This surge is backed by the growing desire among B2B buyers for online experiences more comparable to B2C marketplaces with Forrester also finding that one-third of managers in B2B organizations are exploring digital routes to market to remain competitive. These merchants understand that meeting customer demand for more dependable, streamlined, and bespoke online experiences enables them to stand out in the global B2B ecosystem. To achieve this, they need eCommerce tools that integrate into their broader business systems and technologies to optimize and enrich all the interactions these buyers have with their people and products.
Marketers looking to reach the buying centers responsible for making these purchasing decisions and move them through the buying journey faster need a greater reliance on intent data to deliver more relevant and personalized experiences through a unified, multi-channel account-based approach.
Here’s what our data tells us about the accounts demonstrating the highest propensity to purchase B2B eCommerce solutions, the buying committee personas making those purchase decisions within these organizations, and the content that’s likely to resonate with them the most.
What Do B2B eCommerce Buyers Care About?
Using data to understand the specific needs and pain points of B2B buyers helps you design the best account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns that truly resonate with high-value prospects. Buying committees for complex purchase decisions like B2B eCommerce solutions contain an average of 6-11 stakeholders spanning different roles, departments, and seniorities. Highly relevant and personalized content and messaging around these individual concerns ensures that each interaction adds value and advances them along the purchasing journey.
Growth Drivers
- Enhanced Customer Experiences: Companies increasingly need to deliver faster, more reliable self-service experiences to stay ahead of the competition. Better experiences through enhanced personalization makes interactions feel more relevant and engaging, which improves customer satisfaction and retention efforts.
- Operational Cost Reduction: By automating various tasks such as order processing, inventory management, and invoicing, B2B eCommerce platforms minimize manual labor, reducing the potential for errors and saving time. This efficiency lowers the cost of order fulfillment and improves overall operational efficiency.
- Global Reach and Scale: Unlike traditional business models, B2B eCommerce platforms operate around the clock, allowing companies to reach customers in different time zones and markets at any time. Many solutions also offer multilingual capabilities and support for multiple currencies, making it easier for international buyers to navigate the platform and make purchases in their preferred language and currency.
Key Challenges
- Seamless Integration with Existing Digital Infrastructure: Many businesses operate with outdated or complex legacy systems that may not easily connect with modern B2B eCommerce solutions, requiring extensive customization or replacement. Different departments using separate systems to store data in silos also makes it difficult to achieve a unified view of customer information, inventory, and sales data necessary for effective integration.
- Heightened Security Concerns: Transferring sensitive business data like financial information, customer details, and transaction records between systems increases the risk of data breaches. Ensuring robust encryption during data transmission is essential to protect against unauthorized access. B2B companies must also adhere to various regulations (such as GDPR, CCPA, or PCI DSS); integrating systems without proper compliance measures can expose them to legal penalties and reputational damage.
- Internal Resistance: A shift to a new B2B eCommerce solution among employees accustomed to existing processes and systems might be met with reluctance. Integrations can disrupt established routines and workflows, leading to concerns about productivity loss during the transition period.
What Accounts Should You Prioritize?
Success with any ABM strategy hinges on targeting the right accounts with precision. Intent data like ML Insights is essential to finding your target accounts because it helps you identify and prioritize accounts that are in-market and ready to engage or buy based on their online research and content consumption behavior. With ML Insights and the MLI Score, a holistic signal made up of the combined data set, we identify the areas of greatest opportunity with less noise, higher buyer research activity, and content engagement.
Here’s what our data says about the accounts moving in-market for B2B eCommerce solutions:
By Region
Companies in North America (NA) research and engage with B2B eCommerce content the most. Elsewhere, organizations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) show increased engagement with content but lower buyer research, while research and engagement remains low among those located in Asia-Pacific (APAC).
By Company Size
Large (1,000–4,999 employees) and XXLarge (10,000+ employees) dominate the global B2B eCommerce market. Vendors looking to engage an untapped market would benefit from targeting Medium-sized (200–499 employees) companies showing a 60% increase in research for B2B eCommerce solutions over the last year. And while targeting of Medium-Large (500–999 employees) increased 128% over last year, declining research and engagement shows a reduced interest and need for it.
By Vertical
While retailers and manufacturers show the highest appetite for B2B eCommerce solutions, a 47% increase in content engagement among businesses in the Insurance sector reveals growing interest. Despite increased targeting over the last year, Financial institutions are showing declined buyer research and low engagement with content.
Here’s our suggested ABM activation strategy based on this data:
Target Accounts Demonstrating the Highest Propensity to Purchase
Engage enterprise organizations in the Manufacturing and Retail verticals—especially those in North America—with industry-specific content and messaging that emphasizes eCommerce software’s role in digitizing and streamlining supply chain and procurement processes and enhancing the customer experience. For manufacturers, use detailed case studies, ROI calculators, and product demos to showcase how your software optimizes supply chain management, streamlines bulk order processing, and integrates with ERP systems, leading to improved operational efficiency and enhanced scalability. Leverage case studies, product tutorials, and best practice guides to demonstrate how your solution helps retailers enhance customer experiences, manages multi-channel selling, and gains valuable insights into consumer behavior to support better inventory management and strategic growth planning.
With the significant increase in research from Medium-sized (200-499 employees) organizations, develop reports and whitepapers that showcase how B2B eCommerce software improves operational efficiency, supports business growth, and enhances competitive positioning in their markets. Develop messaging that highlights how scalability, automation, and seamless integration make your platform a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes.
Gain a competitive advantage in under-targeted markets like Insurance that maintain high engagement with content that highlights how B2B eCommerce software can streamline policy management, improve customer service, and enhance claims processing. Leverage case studies and customer testimonials to demonstrate how your solution contributes to better operational efficiency, faster claim resolutions, and increased customer satisfaction.
Generate More Interest and Demand in Markets Showing Low or Growing Intent
Given the growing engagement from EMEA buyers, build content that addresses their unique business challenges and priorities. Emphasize the importance of optimizing supply chain efficiency, improving customer experiences, and adapting to rapidly evolving market conditions. Focus messaging on digital transformation, multi-channel strategies, and integration with existing ERP systems to highlight how B2B eCommerce platforms can support these broader business goals and drive long-term growth.
Increase research and engagement from Medium-Large organizations (500-999 employees) with content and messaging that speaks to how B2B eCommerce software significantly enhances operational scalability and efficiency. Emphasize that, by integrating with existing systems, automating key workflows, and providing valuable real-time insights, your solution scales to help them streamline operations, manage complex supply chains, and achieve their growth objectives.
Which Buying Committee Personas Should You Target?
In addition to leveraging data to identify in-market accounts, you need it to prioritize the key buyer personas within the buying committee to provide bespoke content and messaging that influences their decision making.
Here’s what our data tells us about the buying committee personas commanding the purchasing decisions for B2B eCommerce solutions:
By Job Function/Department
Finance-based roles research and engage the most with B2B eCommerce-related content but are also targeted the most by solution providers. Seize an opportunity to engage other key decision makers by targeting Operations and Technology-based roles who show high engagement with content. We’ve also seen a 45% increase in Product role engagement despite minimal buyer research, indicating a growing role on the buying committee.
By Seniority
While Directors maintain a leading role in the research process for B2B eCommerce software purchases, a 60% increase over the last year in Manager engagement suggests a more involved decision-making role. Meanwhile, more targeting of the C-Suite for eCommerce content has increased their research for it.
Here’s our suggested ABM activation strategy for these personas based on this data:
Create Tailored Content for Key Departments
Given the growing research and engagement within Finance-based roles, focus content on ROI, cost savings, and total cost of ownership for B2B eCommerce software solutions. Develop messaging around financial transparency, streamlined payment processing, and data-driven insights your platform provides that help optimize budget allocation, improve financial efficiency, and support long-term profitability.
With significant increases in engagement from Technology and Product roles, develop technical case studies, demo videos, and in-depth whitepapers that highlight your software’s customization, integration flexibility, and scalability. Emphasize how these solutions improve product management, streamline development workflows, and enhance collaboration between technology and product teams, driving innovation and operational efficiency.
Continue delivering Operations-specific content that focuses on process optimization, workflow automation, and inventory management. Reinforce messaging on scalability, ease of integration, and how B2B eCommerce software supports department goals like improving order accuracy, enhancing supply chain efficiency, and driving operational excellence.
Align Content with Decision-Making Influence
Build educational content that enables Directors to influence executive decision-making by focusing on the strategic advantages of B2B eCommerce software implementation, and provide Managers with tactical, execution-oriented resources. Support both roles with data and insights that empower them to drive more impactful conversations with the C-Suite, emphasizing how Ecommerce solutions can enhance customer engagement, improve operational efficiency, and support long-term business growth.
Growing interest among members of the C-Suite likely reflects a shift in focus toward broader organizational challenges rather than tactical software decisions. Engage executives at a high level by tying B2B eCommerce software adoption to key strategic initiatives such as customer experience enhancement, revenue growth, and overall digital transformation. Utilize visionary content that demonstrates how your solution enables companies to remain competitive, agile, and responsive in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
Leverage Department-Specific Campaigns with Personalized Offers
Use intent data to prioritize in-market accounts where department engagement (Finance, Product, Technology, and Operations) is high. Create multi-channel campaigns that include personalized offers like department-specific webinars, ROI calculators for Finance, and technical workshops for Technology and Product teams. Ensure follow-up with targeted content that supports the specific challenges and decision criteria for each department.
What Topics Should You Use to Engage B2B eCommerce Buyers?
Beyond just identifying in-market accounts and the buying committee personas to engage, intent data also uncovers the trending topics your target customers are researching. This enables you to build in-depth experiences by tailoring ABM content to their specific interests and funnel stages.
Keep in mind that buying committee members progress through the funnel at different rates. One member might still be in the consideration stage while everyone else has moved on to the decision stage. So, it’s important to use engagement and intent data to determine where they are in the decision-making process and to signal when they have moved to a new buying stage. Mapping your content and messaging to the different buying committee persona needs and concerns at each stage is paramount for success.
Awareness Stage
- Capture buyer interest in determining the difference between key terms like B2B eCommerce, B2C eCommerce, and DTC eCommerce to understand how specific needs and functionalities are relevant to their business models. Explain how they differ and how each aligns with strategic goals and operational requirements.
- Use terms like enterprise eCommerce to understand how organizations categorize software solutions by scale. Highlight that even businesses that do not fit the ‘enterprise’ size can still benefit from B2B eCommerce software, as these solutions are designed to evolve and scale alongside their growth.
- Buyer interest with the term conversational commerce indicates that buyers are increasingly interested in enhancing customer interactions through real-time, personalized communication. Execute thought leadership content on this topic to be a trusting expert in this trending capability.
Content to Use:
- Analyst reports
- White papers
- eBooks
Consideration Stage
- Highlight key terms like recommender system and checkout optimization to show how automation can enhance the customer experience in digital marketplaces. Explain how a recommender system creates next steps suggestions for customers at the end of their transaction, keeping them engaged and interacting with the digital marketplace.
- Ensure buyers that your solution supports multiple payment options by using terms like bank cards. Also focus on revealing any technical information about payment processing capabilities that ensure transaction speed and security through gateways to streamline operations.
- Engage buyers with terms like shopping cart software and online marketplace to highlight how these solutions can streamline their sales processes and enhance customer experience by providing features that mimic consumer online purchase processes.
Content to Use
- Buying guides
- Blog posts
- Demo videos
- Webinars/Events
Decision Stage
- Address buyer concerns about eCommerce fraud by using case studies, industry reports, and expert testimonials to showcase how your software implements robust security measures, such as fraud detection algorithms and secure payment processing, to protect against fraudulent transactions and safeguard customer data.
- Navigate any complexities or concerns buyers show for eCommerce migration with content that emphasizes the importance of comprehensive data mapping, integration strategies, and robust testing processes, ensuring a seamless transition to new platforms while maintaining data integrity and enhancing operational efficiency.
- Remove last-mile concerns by highlighting your unique features and functionalities with content and messaging that underscore your solution’s differentiators from competitors and provides tangible evidence of your value.
Content to Use
- Comparison guides
- Case studies
- Native ads
- How-to guides
Achieve More Success from Your ABM Campaigns with ML Insights
Businesses want to find B2B eCommerce software they can commit to for a long time. With so much independent research and investment from potential buyers, you need to be equally invested in positioning your solution as their partner of choice. The faster you identify your audience’s intent and pain points, the faster you can reach them to begin the very important conversations that set their businesses up for success.
Madison Logic is the only ABM activation solution that combines three sources of intent, four leading media channels, and real-time measurement to accelerate the buyer’s journey and drive pipeline. With the MLI Score, a holistic signal that unifies three key data sources, we help you target in-market accounts with more precision. And when combined with first-party customer data from your customer relationship management (CRM) software and marketing automation platform (MAP), ML Insights helps you gain deeper insights that allow you to engage your target audience, increase conversion rates, and maximize your marketing spend.
Start converting your best accounts faster. Contact us to find out how Madison Logic can help you activate a more effective data-driven ABM strategy today.
Request a demo to find out how Madison Logic can help you activate a more effective data-driven ABM strategy today.
Interested in learning more about what ML Insights says about the accounts, buyer personas, and trending topics across other technology verticals? Visit our ABM Buyer Intent Guide Resource Center to learn more.
