The numbers for the year are in and they are not pretty. Manufacturers and distributors finished the fourth quarter of 2023 with total sales of $3.693 trillion. That’s a drop of about 1% from Q4 2022 sales of $3.723 trillion, based on a projection by Digital Commerce 360 using year-to-date data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

High inflation, cutbacks in business spending and supply chain problems are major culprits responsible for flat B2B sales in 2023.

In December, manufacturers and distributors finished out the year with combined sales that dipped slightly to $1.217 trillion compared with sales of $1.229 trillion in December 2022. But even if B2B sales did hit the deep freeze in 2023, one area where manufacturers and distributors ramped up productivity was generating more ecommerce.

B2B manufacturer, distributor ecommerce sales remain prominent in Q4 2023

Just over 50% of B2B buyers make a digital purchase of a good or service for their organization daily, according to the 2023 B2B buyer’s survey from Digital Commerce 360 and Forrester Research. That includes nearly one-third, 32%, who make a business purchase several times per day. In comparison, 23% of survey respondents make weekly purchases. Meanwhile, 17% do so every 30 days.

B2B buyers also do their homework before ordering online. For example, 57% of B2B buyers list a manufacturer’s ecommerce site as their first choice, compared with consumer site (45%), Amazon Business (43%), search engine (40%) and distributor ecommerce site (33%).

For many buyers, a better user experience means the seller’s ecommerce site has the products, pricing, and related product selections they need to make an informed purchasing decision and then the ecommerce and order management tools to make placing the order fast, easy, and convenient.

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