More than three-quarters of B2B companies say their buyers expect a digitized sales process — yet 71% of those same respondents describe their processes as "moderately to extremely manual," according to Deloitte Digital research. That gap is now the primary forcing function behind B2B commerce technology spending among manufacturers, wholesalers and marketplace operators.

"This disparity between expectations and reality will continue to drive businesses to invest in B2B commerce and related technologies," said Ram Chandel, Global Commerce Practice Leader at Deloitte Digital, in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. "Additionally, companies already in a more advanced state of maturity are realizing their business needs are evolving, and their foundational technology is becoming outdated to support growing business demands."

For distributors, the stakes are straightforward: buyers who have grown up on Amazon, Netflix and Uber benchmark their wholesale suppliers' digital channels against consumer-grade UX. Suppliers that cannot match that standard risk losing share to competitors that can.

Who Is Changing the Buying Committee?

The demographic shift inside B2B buying committees is the first structural driver. Millennials now dominate most of the U.S. workforce, with Gen Z moving up the ranks. These buyers, as Chandel put it, "came of age with smartphones in hand and laptops in backpacks."

"The B2B buying experience is not just about shopping and checking out," Chandel said. "Customers are looking for end-to-end self-service, using the channel and time of their choice for capabilities such as product discovery, configuration, pricing, quoting, ordering, reordering, order tracking and post-purchase service in a seamless user experience."

The channel implication is direct. "Younger users expect a B2C-type experience, with no need for human interaction to perform end-to-end business activities, including discovery, purchase, and service," Chandel added. "They expect B2B systems to perform like B2C systems in terms of speed and capabilities. Also, younger users are open to looking for alternatives if they find the current seller difficult to work with."

Switching costs, long the moat protecting incumbent distributors' account control, are eroding for this cohort.

Why Does Complexity Demand Composable Stacks?

B2B transactions rarely involve a single buyer. A typical purchase runs through multiple stakeholders and a long sequence: product configuration, invoicing, payment, service and support, reordering and more. Legacy monolithic platforms struggle to support that workflow end to end.

"Composable commerce is making it easier to create feature-rich platforms more quickly," Chandel said. "Companies can now provide features that were difficult, if not impossible, to implement earlier. For example, best-of-breed search products use artificial intelligence (AI) to show more relevant results compared to the out-of-the-box search results of most leading ecommerce platforms."

The back office is moving in parallel. "B2B companies are facing the need to upgrade their back-office systems, particularly ERP platforms, to scalable cloud systems," Chandel said. "Several companies have already upgraded and the remaining plan to upgrade their ERPs in the coming years. ERP upgrades create a great opportunity to modernize the front office in parallel, taking advantage of the new architecture and capabilities provided by the new ERP system."

For distributors weighing ecommerce investments, the ERP migration window offers a chance to rebuild customer-facing capabilities on modern architecture rather than bolting a storefront onto aging systems.

What Kills Transformation Programs?

Technology is not the binding constraint, according to Chandel. Most transformation projects fail for organizational reasons:

• Lack of a long-term vision and roadmap;
• Misalignment among key internal groups;
• Inadequate change management.

"Companies should create a multi-year transformation roadmap to gradually modernize their B2B commerce ecosystem," Chandel explained. "Capabilities should be prioritized based on customer demand (voice of the customer), current and future business needs and business value."

Because customers judge the end-to-end experience — not order placement alone — the program needs commitment across commerce, sales, marketing, service and technical leadership. "B2B commerce modernization programs require strong program management to oversee multiple tracks, stakeholders and complex technologies such as ERP, AI and integrations, while balancing competing priorities," he said.

Chandel also identified executive sponsorship as the decisive variable: the Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Information Officer should sit on the steering committee, a setup he called "critical to making the initiative successful."

Deloitte Digital's findings suggest that distributors and wholesalers planning ERP upgrades in the coming years will face a narrowing window to modernize their digital channels in step — before younger buyers, who are already willing to switch suppliers, do it for them.