October 31, 2025 Manufacturers Can Beat Pressures With Ecommerce Edge

Personalized catalogs and self-service tools can help manufacturers retain customers and capture market share.

By Michael Netto

As manufacturers grapple with external challenges like tariffs and supply chain disruptions, they could be losing customers to an internal problem that’s entirely within their control: their ecommerce platform.

According to Deloitte, 13% of B2B sales are lost because of negative customer experiences during the purchasing process. These bad experiences can stem from generic, outdated product catalogs. Disorganized product information and general pricing terms frustrate buyers making complex, high-value purchases.

When you’re shopping as an individual consumer, you wouldn’t sift through dozens of pages of miscellaneous pants, shirts and dresses to find the pair of shorts you want. You’ll take your business elsewhere. The same is true of B2B buyers. Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents said they’d switch suppliers if a competitor offered a better experience.

Deloitte found that 7 in 10 B2B companies described their sales process as moderately to extremely manual. Given that statistic, manufacturers have a real opportunity to capture market share by customizing the buying journey in their B2B ecommerce platform.

The benefits of a personalized product catalog

Manufacturing catalogs contain thousands of SKUs, and procurement teams are looking to buy specialized products in bulk at account-specific pricing. Traditional web stores force manual searches and typically show prices that are irrelevant to the buyer’s negotiated terms. Shoppers often have to contact a salesperson to guide them to the right product or calculate the correct costs. This isn’t how most people prefer to operate; three-quarters want a self-service experience.

A personalized catalog gives customers the information they need to make decisions, accelerating the transaction and creating a straightforward, positive experience.  An optimized B2B ecommerce platform should provide:

• Customized product listings
• Real-time inventory
• Agreed upon pricing terms
• Account-specific checkout and delivery options

How to optimize the ecommerce experience

More than three-quarters of B2B buyers expect personalization in their customer journey. The complexity of B2B buying makes this customization more difficult — and more important — than in a B2C environment. Manufacturers need systems that streamline catalog management for a better customer experience. Here are some best practices to consider.

• Optimize catalog content management
  Comprehensive product listings are critical for B2B buyers who need nuanced, highly technical goods. Each product must have consistent, detailed listings, including technical specifications, compliance documents and usage instructions. When all the information is available on one page and uniform across touchpoints, customers can make more informed decisions more quickly.

•  Maintain real-time data accuracy
  Product listings, inventory and pricing constantly change. Manually updating every individual entry is time-consuming and prone to delays and discrepancies. Automatically syncing data between business systems and ecommerce platforms allows instant, universal product detail updates across channels without requiring human effort. Customers get consistent, real-time information whether they’re in the web store or chatting with the sales team.

• Deliver customer-specific product experiences
  Offering personalized catalog views that display only relevant products saves buyers time. Manufacturers can configure these recommendations based on the customer’s industry, contracts, buying history and approval status, so procurement teams can quickly and easily find what they need. Recommendations can also produce upsells by displaying new models, complementary items or even bundles.
  Customers should also see their negotiated pricing when they browse. With integrated systems, ecommerce platforms can automatically apply volume discounts, contract rates and other terms without manual calculations. This dynamic pricing formula reduces approval bottlenecks on both sides of the transaction.

• Enable self-service capabilities
  Manufacturers should build a system that lets customers manage the entire purchasing process themselves. This independence includes browsing products, placing orders, tracking shipments, viewing invoices and managing account details.
  Manufacturing customers rely on a steady stream of supplies, which requires frequent reordering. Enabling them to replenish their stock with just a few clicks builds long-term loyalty. Key capabilities to remove hassle from repeat purchasing include customized order templates, CSV uploads and reorder buttons.
  For optimized self-service, procurement teams need all necessary information at their fingertips. When sellers create a comprehensive knowledge base with tutorials, product guides, FAQs or even a chatbot, buyers can get the answers they need at any time.
  A word of caution: It’s easy to go too far toward self-service. A quality ecommerce experience offers opportunities to connect with humans at any stage without starting the buying process over.

• Ensure reliability and continuity
  Platform downtime hurts sales and customer relationships. Manufacturers must back up their catalogs with built-in redundancy and offline capabilities to maintain customer access when systems experience disruptions.
  In addition to site reliability, B2B ecommerce platforms must deliver a continuous experience across every stage of the buying journey. Manufacturing purchases involve multiple stakeholders and repeated site visits; features like persistent carts and role-based permissions make the process easier.
  These capabilities allow the product requester to start building their cart on their computer, add items on their phone and return days later without losing progress. Their profile grants access to product specifications but limits visibility into pricing or checkout. Meanwhile, procurement managers and financial approvers can log in with their own permissions to review and complete the order.

Offering this robust ecommerce experience requires collaboration across the company. The product team must maintain accurate specifications, the sales team must manage contract pricing and the operations team must keep inventory data current. There are many points at which this could break down.

Technology can overcome obstacles, such as fractured communication and manual updates. Integrating ecommerce platforms with other business systems enables real-time synchronization. Each team can update information in the tools they use, and it’s automatically available in the catalog and to the entire organization.

AI-powered tools can also enhance customization capabilities. These algorithms analyze all of a customer’s data to move beyond generic industry suggestions to specific recommendations based on previous purchases and a customer’s negotiated discounts. AI also supports account-specific pricing displays and guides customers through building customized product configurations.

While manufacturers cannot control external factors like tariffs, they can prioritize optimizing internal processes to shore up revenue. Ecommerce is a good place to start. If manufacturers can provide a B2C-like experience, they will build loyalty among current customers and attract new buyers looking to move beyond manual purchasing. A strong customer base enables companies to weather economic turmoil.

About the Author
Michael Netto is Executive Vice President, Ecommerce at k-ecommerce. He has a strong background in professional services and leadership, guiding teams to deliver innovative ecommerce solutions focused on growth, operational excellence, and driving lasting results. A lifelong learner, he holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Graduate Certificate in Teaching and teaches leadership at the university level.

More from the author:

Amazonifying B2B E-Commerce | Supply & Demand Chain Executive, July 8, 2025

The Hard Truth About B2B eCommerce, Episode 155, July 9, 2025

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