Why is it that 86% of B2B purchases end up stalling?
Or that 81% of buyers express dissatisfaction in their buying experience?
These are difficult questions to answer; in the end, it comes down to more than one thing. What we do know for certain is that the B2B shopper’s buying habits are evolving, primarily driven by two motivating factors:
- Digital transformation: How technology reshapes the buying process, from personalization and efficiency, to how buyers find information and move through their purchasing journeys.
- Generative AI (GenAI): The myriad ways that GenAI creates personalized content/recommendations, automates sales, service, and marketing tasks, and enhances customer interactions.
Both factors have propelled three themes to the top of the expectations list for B2B buyers: autonomy, understanding, and seamless interactions. To continue meeting (and exceeding) these expectations, providers must adapt. In this blog post, we’ll show you what that looks like.
The Modern B2B Buyer: Who Are They?
First things first: know your audience. If the ways that B2B buyers navigate sales and marketing cycles have evolved, so too has the demographic it comprises. Increasingly, today’s B2B buyer hails from three prominent cohorts:
Younger, Digital-First Decision-Makers
More likely than not, your decision-maker is a digital native (aka millennial). Digital natives are not necessarily more technically proficient; but they’re more at home with modern technologies than their non-digital-native counterparts.
A few important distinctions to note:
- Millennials and Gen Z (born after 1981) now dominate decision-making groups. And they want more out of the buying experience: 87% of younger buyers report dissatisfaction during purchasing (Forrester, The State Of Business Buying, 2024)
- Many prefer self-service tools and generative AI for research: 41% of B2B buyers prefer to do their own research online; 86% would be “very” or “somewhat” likely to use a ChatGPT-like tool to help conduct product research.
Complex Buying Committees
You’re not just appealing to a single B2B buyer; you’re appealing to a group of them, each with their own job title, professional pressures, and buying preferences.
- Behold the B2B buying group: It’s big and diverse. On average, 13 people are involved in a single B2B purchase decision (Forrester).
- Buying committees are cross-departmental: 89% of purchases involve two or more departments, requiring providers to appeal to multiple stakeholders (Forrester).
- The camp of the externally influenced: For this younger and more diversified group of B2B buyers, external influence matters a lot more for decision-making. Younger buyers increasingly rely on third-party experts, resellers, and industry networks: 35% of younger buyers involve 10+ external parties in purchase decisions (Forrester).
What Do B2B Buyers Want?
They say experience is everything for B2B buyers. But experience can encompass many different variables. In our experience, B2B buyers now insist on three pillars with respect to purchase decisions:
Why B2B Buying Processes Are Stalling
“It takes too long” seems like too easy an explanation. But let’s be real: it’s taking too long:
Not surprisingly, buying processes within the B2B ecommerce world are not immune to slowness, delay, and stalls. Today, 20% of B2B buyers point to budget constraints as the main reason for a stalled or delayed purchase (Digital Commerce 360); 18% say internal purchasing processes are the leading barriers. Overlapping technologies, conflicting priorities, and a lack of clear ROI messaging further complicate decisions.
Why such a disconnect?
Increasingly, B2B buyers are looking for providers who can simplify the process, align with their needs, and help them to navigate these internal challenges. Hence the steady rise of GenAI in B2B research.
The Rise of Generative AI in B2B Research
According to the 2025 B2B Predictions Report, this will be the year that GenAI becomes a 70% solution: Generative AI solutions will get you 70% of the way to solving a problem. The report also predicts that this will be the year that AI-enabled ecommerce begins to “noticeably steal share from inside sales.”
Why the predicted rise in GenAI?
Because it makes life easier for the B2B buyer. Buyers use AI tools for everything from research and provider comparisons to RFP generation. Circling back to the aforementioned Forrester report, we find that 87% of global buyers used generative AI in the past 12 months, and 95% plan to use it for upcoming purchases.
Though the data may seem to overwhelmingly support the notion that AI plays a major role in B2B research, it comes with an important caveat: it’s about empowering, not replacing. Forty percent of buyers still prefer in-person engagement when working with a new supplier.
As such, providers must find the right balance between automation and human engagement—they must deliver personalized, AI-optimized tools and enable human interactions when needed.
Adapting to the Changing B2B Buyer: Practical Steps
To stay ahead of the ever-changing B2B ecommerce landscape, prioritize four core focus areas. They’re critical to the plan implemented by Acuity Brands, for example, who saw a 42% increase in click-through behavior for cross-brand searches; as they were for Hearts on Fire, who improved findability and merchandising of a complex product catalog.
1. Invest in Seamless, Cross-Channel Experiences
Break silos between sales, marketing, and service teams to deliver connected, consistent buyer experiences. AI search can be a highly effective means for delivering this caliber of experience, thanks to its reliance on unified product and content search, flexible indexing, and AI-enabled recommendations.
2. Leverage AI for Buyer Insights
Use generative AI and predictive analytics to identify buyer needs, simplify the process, and reduce delays. Consider this: the sellers that integrate AI into their processes are 3.7 times more likely to meet quota. They’re also more likely to report revenue growth in the past 12 months. Access to comprehensive buyer insights is a big reason why.
3. Enable Human-Centric Interactions
Balance AI-driven tools with personalized sales engagements when buyers prefer human support. Yes, many B2B buyers prefer to begin the journey with self-service tools, or chatbots powered by GenAI. What happens when they’re ready to take the next step? Are your journeys equipped to perform seamless handoffs to human counterparts?
4. Optimize for Buying Groups
We understand personalization to be the process of rolling up data from CRM systems, ERP systems, log files from prior search histories, etc., and using machine learning to understand the buyer’s intent and context. This adds a layer of intelligence to the digital experience to create an intelligent buying experience.
To take it a step further, map out stakeholder roles (decision-makers, influencers, ratifiers) and tailor content and interactions to their priorities. For example, the Coveo Content Personalization Engine focuses on the person behind each interaction, using that data to deepen personalization across multiple touchpoints.
As B2B Shoppers Change, Don’t Forget Who’s Making the Final Decisions
Reality check: your B2B buyers are changing and demanding a more evolved experience. If they don’t find it, they’ll go elsewhere. Today’s B2B buyers are digital-first. They value collaboration. They want seamless experiences powered by AI and human expertise.
And B2B will leapfrog legacy technology.
Remember: new technologies notwithstanding, it’s all about autonomy, understanding, and collaboration.Providers who adapt to these changing expectations will win buyer trust, reduce dissatisfaction, and drive growth.
Dig Deeper
Your legacy system wasn’t designed for modern ecommerce. It’s time to create the unified and frictionless experiences your B2B buyers expect.