10 Ways to Implement AI in B2B eCommerce

Artificial intelligence isn’t just for tech giants. For manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors, AI is rapidly becoming a competitive advantage in B2B eCommerce. By automating routine tasks, improving search, and surfacing insights, AI helps companies serve buyers faster, operate more efficiently, and scale without adding headcount.
But AI adoption doesn’t have to start with massive, expensive projects. In fact, the best results come from targeted use cases that deliver quick wins and measurable ROI. Here are 10 realistic ways to implement AI in your business today:

1. AI-Powered Search for B2B Catalogs

Large catalogs often overwhelm buyers. Traditional keyword search returns too many or irrelevant results, but AI search interprets intent: “laptop under $1,200 for engineering student” or “medical-grade tubing with FDA certification.” Buyers find what they need faster, which not only boosts conversion rates but also improves satisfaction with the buying process.

  • Value: Makes complex catalogs easier to navigate, improving both buyer satisfaction and conversion rates.

2. Speed Up B2B Quotes

Quoting is often the bottleneck in B2B commerce. AI can pre-qualify requests, validate data, and flag issues before human review – cutting manual effort by up to 60%. Faster quoting doesn’t just reduce operational drag; it also helps businesses win deals by responding before competitors do.

  • Value: Accelerates quoting cycles and improves win rates by responding to buyers first.

3. Improve Customer Experience

AI-powered chatbots allow buyers to get instant answers to questions about product specs, order status, lead times, or availability – all without waiting for an email reply. For distributors with thousands of SKUs, this dramatically reduces response times and keeps buyers moving through the sales funnel. The result is a more consistent, predictable experience that builds trust and keeps customers engaged digitally.

  • Value: Delivers instant answers while freeing sales teams to focus on high-value accounts.

4. Sales Team Assistants

Reps can’t memorize every specification or integration detail. An internal AI assistant trained on your product sheets, manuals, and case studies can instantly deliver the right collateral to answer customer questions. With this tool, salespeople can spend less time searching for information and more time strengthening customer relationships.

  • Value: Equips sales teams with instant access to collateral, improving speed and accuracy in customer conversations.

5. Detect Churn Risk

AI can analyze signals like declining order volumes, fewer logins, or negative support language to flag accounts at risk. For manufacturers or distributors with long-term contracts, this early warning is critical. By identifying these signals sooner, businesses can step in with targeted support or offers before buyers move to another supplier.

  • Value: Helps protect recurring revenue by identifying at-risk customers before they leave.

6. Spot Risk and Anomalies in Orders

AI is excellent at detecting patterns humans miss. It can identify sudden drops in orders, missing reorders, or unusual spikes that might indicate fraud. These insights allow teams to act quickly and protect revenue, while also strengthening trust with customers who expect reliable, consistent fulfillment.

  • Value: Prevents revenue leakage and fraud by surfacing unusual order patterns early.

7. Improve Onboarding & Help Centers

Onboarding new customers or partners is time-intensive. AI can provide self-guided walkthroughs, answer FAQs, and connect buyers to relevant documents or training materials instantly. That not only accelerates time-to-first-order but also creates a smoother experience that sets the tone for a long-term relationship.

  • Value: Shortens onboarding timelines and reduces support load while improving customer satisfaction

8. Enhance Tech Support

AI can triage tickets by collecting missing details, escalating urgent issues, or answering simple questions immediately. That improves response times and ensures human reps only handle complex cases. For B2B buyers managing critical supply chains, this reliability can strengthen loyalty and reduce frustration with downtime.

  • Value: Improves support efficiency and resolution times while maintaining customer trust.

9. Deliver Real-Time Performance Intelligence

Instead of relying on static weekly reports, AI can track thousands of metrics – from SKU reorder rates to regional revenue – and send alerts when trends change. Leaders can make proactive adjustments based on these insights, preventing small issues from snowballing into major losses. This level of agility gives companies a true competitive edge in fast-moving markets.

  • Value: Enables leaders to act on real-time insights instead of lagging reports.

10. After-Hours Support

AI-driven voice assistants (IVR systems) can answer phone calls after hours, helping customers check order status, schedule appointments, or confirm inventory availability. This ensures global buyers can engage on their schedule – not yours. For B2B companies serving multiple time zones, this level of accessibility can make the difference between retaining a buyer or losing them to a competitor who responds faster.

  • Value: Provides 24/7 responsiveness without adding headcount.

Final Thoughts: Start Small, Scale Smart

For B2B manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers, AI isn’t a distant future – it’s a present-day competitive advantage. But the most successful implementations start small: one chatbot, one AI-powered search upgrade, one anomaly detection pilot.
By layering AI on top of the strong foundation you’ve built with operational efficiency, retention, acquisition, and visibility (SEO + AEO), you unlock the capacity to grow faster, smarter, and more profitably.

But AI doesn’t come without risk. Before you implement these tools, it’s important to consider security, cost, and customer impact. Next, read The AI Risks No One is Talking About: Critical Questions for B2B eComm Leaders Before Launching an AI Implementation Project.

Ready to explore AI for your B2B eCommerce business?

Let us help you align technology with your business goals. Reach out to learn more, or check out our blog for insights on digital transformation, AEO, and B2B eCommerce trends.

The AI Risks No One is Talking About

Critical Questions for B2B eCommerce Leaders Before Launching AI Implementation Projects

Artificial intelligence offers powerful advantages – but only if approached thoughtfully. The reality is that more than 80% of AI projects fail, double the rate of traditional IT initiatives. That failure rate represents wasted investment, stalled progress, and real liability for B2B companies that jump in without a clear risk mitigation strategy.
With failure rates this high, the real risk isn’t falling behind – it’s investing in AI the wrong way. Before you commit budget and resources, ask yourself these critical questions:

1. Is Our Business Ready for AI Today and How Do We Deliver Measurable ROI?

AI tools can be powerful, but not every tool is right for every business. Many companies make the mistake of investing in platforms built for a “future state” – overengineered, expensive systems that don’t match their current operations.

The result? Wasted spend, delayed adoption, and frustrated teams.

Instead, identify where AI can deliver measurable value now: automating ticket triage, improving catalog search, or reducing time-to-quote. By focusing on present challenges, you can show quick wins, build internal momentum, and scale later with less resistance. ROI should be tied to metrics you can prove within the first 3–6 months.

And just as importantly, choosing a solution that fits today’s operations also reduces the risk of becoming dependent on a single vendor. Locking into one provider too early could create costly switching challenges later, especially as pricing models shift.

  • Takeaway: Select AI that solves today’s problems and delivers measurable ROI quickly, while avoiding premature vendor lock-in that limits flexibility in the future.

2. How Will AI Affect Our Customer Relationships?

AI can speed up service, but speed alone doesn’t guarantee trust. If customers feel they’re being brushed off to a bot, relationships may erode instead of improving. In B2B, loyalty is built on responsiveness, expertise, and human connection.

AI should be used to enhance the customer experience – surfacing answers faster, improving onboarding, or reducing delays – while preserving human touch where it matters most. Replacing empathy and expertise with automation risks undermining the very relationships that drive revenue.

  • Takeaway: AI should enhance customer trust and convenience, not replace the human touch that drives B2B loyalty.

3. How Will We Drive Adoption and Manage Change Internally?

Even the best AI solution fails if your team doesn’t adopt it. Many B2B companies rely on “institutional knowledge” – processes understood by a handful of employees but undocumented or inconsistent. AI can help capture and surface that knowledge, but only if staff are trained and engaged.

Without proper change management, employees may avoid AI tools or misuse them, eroding trust with customers. Building confidence requires communication, role-specific training, and clear ownership across departments. AI should be framed as an augmentation – helping staff become more strategic – not a replacement.

  • Takeaway: AI success requires cultural adoption and strong change management, not just technical deployment.

4. How Will We Protect Our Data and Confidential Information?

AI systems learn from the information you feed them. In B2B, that often includes sensitive customer records, pricing models, margins, or proprietary market analysis. If that data is reused or exposed by a vendor, your competitive advantage could vanish overnight.

This concern isn’t limited to customer information – your internal financials, sales performance data, and even product roadmaps could become vulnerable if they’re processed in a broad commercial AI platform. Security must be the first question you answer before pursuing AI adoption.

  • Takeaway: Protecting sensitive company and customer data must come before any AI initiative in B2B eCommerce.

5. How Will We Ensure Accuracy and Reduce the Risk of Inaccuracies?

AI is powerful, but general-purpose models are prone to error. Ask a single system to handle quoting, catalog search, compliance checks, and more, and it may produce irrelevant, misleading, or outright incorrect results. This puts contracts, compliance, safety, and customer trust at risk.

The better approach is agent-specific AI: deploying multiple purpose-built agents trained to handle narrow, well-defined tasks. For example, one agent may access sensitive pricing data, while another manages catalog search, and another triages tickets. Each stays focused, accurate, and reusable across workflows.

This prevents overload, reduces inaccuracies, and ensures that sensitive data access is tightly controlled. By assigning specific agents to specific jobs, you also gain flexibility – agents can be reused across systems without rebuilding everything from scratch, creating a scalable and secure framework.

  • Takeaway: Purpose-built AI agents improve accuracy, security, and efficiency by focusing on specific tasks instead of overloading a single generalized model.

6. The Hidden Trap of AI Vendor Lock-In

The AI landscape is evolving faster than most B2B technology categories. What looks like the best platform today may be eclipsed tomorrow. Yet many companies inadvertently tie themselves to a single provider, making it difficult – or prohibitively expensive – to pivot later.

Consider:

  • The best AI for you can change over time. Tools are changing rapidly. You need flexibility to shift to another model that’s more accurate, cost-effective, or better aligned with your use case.
  • Multiple LLMs may be required. No single large language model (LLM) is optimal for every task. Pricing optimization, catalog search, and compliance checks may each perform better on different engines.
  • Investor pressure will shape pricing. Global corporate AI investment hit US $252.3 billion in 2024, and private investment continues climbing. If switching costs are high, your ROI may vanish as subscription fees or usage costs rise.

Building optionality into your AI architecture – via modular agents, open APIs, and clear exit strategies – gives you leverage. Vendor flexibility isn’t just a procurement issue; it’s a strategic safeguard.

  • Takeaway: Design your AI stack to avoid lock-in. Keep switching costs low, maintain leverage with multiple providers, and stay nimble as the market evolves.

Final Thoughts: Responsible AI Is Smart AI

AI in B2B eCommerce has real power – but only when implemented with care. Start small, prove ROI, and expand iteratively. Treat AI as augmentation, not replacement. Always measure results against clear business outcomes, and protect your business from hidden risks like data exposure, lock-in, or customer trust erosion.

At the end of the day, AI is not a shortcut. It’s a tool – and like any tool, its value depends on how wisely it’s used.

Ready to explore AI for your B2B eCommerce business?

Let us help you align technology with your business goals. Reach out to learn more, or check out our blog for insights on digital transformation, AI implementation, and B2B eCommerce trends.

Friends of Commerce 2025 Year in Review

Friends of Commerce reflects on 2025 – a year defined by expanded global delivery, deepened strategic partnerships, and the introduction of secure AI services. Looking to the coming year, the firm remains focused on helping B2B organizations navigate increasing complexity across eCommerce platforms, data, and AI adoption. By pairing proven partnerships, disciplined execution, and a scalable delivery model, FoC is once again well-positioned to support clients moving into the next phase of intelligent commerce. Read the highlights here.

AEO for B2B Distributors

Distributors manage large catalogs, complex fulfillment chains, and multiple vendor relationships. AI-powered sourcing tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity reward structured, scannable content that clearly answers buyer questions. Here’s how B2B distributors can apply Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) to show up when it matters most.

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AEO for B2B Manufacturers

AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overviews are transforming how engineers and procurement teams search for suppliers. For manufacturers, this means making technical product data, certifications, and application use cases accessible and structured. Here’s how to apply Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) to manufacturing websites.

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AEO for B2B Wholesalers

Wholesale buyers aren’t just browsing catalogs—they’re asking AI tools to find suppliers with the best stock availability, terms, and service. If your site doesn’t surface clear pricing models, delivery terms, and category-level data, you may be left off the shortlist. Here’s how wholesalers can structure their websites to show up in AI-driven sourcing and comparison tools.

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AEO Checklist – Apply Answer Engine Optimization Across Your B2B Website

B2B buyers are skipping search results and asking AI for direct answers. This article walks you through five critical areas of your website that affect whether AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude recommend your business. Includes a downloadable AEO Checklist to help you optimize with confidence.

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Intro to AEO – Rewriting the Rules of B2B Search

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the next evolution of SEO. As B2B buyers turn to AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude to get direct answers – not just search results – your website must be optimized for visibility in these platforms. Learn how to align your content with AEO best practices and prepare for the next generation of digital discovery.

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Digital Readiness BONUS: How CRO Turns Site Traffic into Revenue.

You’ve streamlined operations. You’ve retained your best customers. You’ve attracted qualified traffic to your new eCommerce site.

Now what?

After building operational efficiency (Part One), transitioning and retaining existing customers (Part Two), attracting new buyers through acquisition (Part Three), and sustaining innovation post-launch (Part Four), this bonus article takes a deeper dive into Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

CRO is often the missing link in digital transformation. It ensures that the qualified traffic you worked so hard to attract actually converts — turning activity into outcomes and interest into revenue. For B2B manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers, where buying journeys are longer and conversions more complex, CRO bridges the gap between platform performance and business growth.

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) ensures that traffic becomes action. For B2B businesses, where buyer journeys are long and transactions complex, optimizing the path to conversion is essential to realizing ROI.

What Is Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and Why Does It Matter?

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) refers to the strategies and tactics that turn site visitors into customers. It’s not just about traffic – it’s about action.

In B2B eCommerce, this doesn’t always mean a sale. It might mean:

  • Requesting a quote
  • Submitting a form
  • Signing in or creating a portal account
  • Reordering products

It’s not about clicks. It’s about outcomes.

Think of your website like a party. You might drive 1,000 people to the door (acquisition), but if there’s no parking, no music, no drinks – no one stays (conversion). CRO is about removing friction, guiding users clearly, and creating an environment that drives action.

Every click, scroll, and abandoned cart tells a story. And if you’re not listening to the data, you’re missing your opportunity to improve.

CRO Starts with Clarity

For B2B companies, conversion isn’t always a purchase. It might be a lead form submission, quote request, whitepaper download, or demo signup. Define what success looks like at each stage of the funnel, then optimize for those actions.

In B2B, a conversion isn’t always a sale. It might be a quote request, a form submission, or simply a login to a customer portal.

Start by identifying what success looks like on key pages. Is your goal to get the user to add a product to their cart? To download a spec sheet? To complete a multi-step quote request?

Once those outcomes are defined, you can begin structuring your pages, navigation, and CTAs around clear objectives. Without that clarity, even the best-designed site may fail to drive action.

Spot the Friction Points

B2B buyers often need to find technical specs, pricing models, case studies, and support resources. If they can’t find it quickly, they bounce. Map your site navigation to real user needs, not internal org charts.

Common friction points include long or redundant forms, unclear pricing or CTAs, and a poro mobile experience. A product page that doesn’t display specs clearly, or a login process that times out frequently, can all contribute to lost revenue.

The good news? These issues are typically fixable. Use session recordings, heatmaps, and support ticket data to pinpoint where users drop off — and then remove or reduce the friction.

Test, Then Test Again

Conversion isn’t a one-time effort – it’s company-wide discipline. Set up monthly or quarterly reviews of your top-performing content, product pages, and funnels. Prioritize continual refinement by asking, “What can we clean up next to create a smoother experience?

Test variables like:

  • Button size, placement, and text
  • Page layout and visual hierarchy
  • CTA language (e.g. “Request Quote” vs. “Get Pricing”)

Even small adjustments can yield major improvements. A/B testing removes guesswork and lets your users guide the optimization process.

Final Thoughts: CRO Is the Link Between Strategy and Revenue

You’ve done the work to build a better platform. CRO ensures that platform performs.

When combined with the strategies covered across the Digital Readiness Series — operational efficiency, retention planning, customer acquisition, and post-launch innovation — conversion optimization becomes the glue that holds it all together.

Being digitally ready means:

  • Your backend is efficient and scalable
  • Your current customers are engaged and reordering
  • Your marketing attracts the right buyers
  • Your team adapts and improves post-launch
  • Your site converts traffic into business value

If you can align all five, your digital channel won’t just launch — it’ll grow with you.

📦 Thanks for following along with the Digital Readiness Series.Think you’re ready to align your strategy, systems, and site performance? Let’s talk about how we can help optimize what comes next.

Reach out to learn more, or check out our blog for insights on digital transformation and eCommerce trends.

Digital Readiness, Part 4: Sustaining Innovation and Ownership After Launch

Your site is live. Your systems are integrated. Your team is trained. Now what?

In Part One, we explored how operational efficiency lays the groundwork for scale. Part Two focused on retaining and transitioning existing customers to your new digital platform. Part Three detailed how to attract new buyers through a smart acquisition plan.

In the final installment of our Digital Readiness series for B2B manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors, we’re looking beyond launch day and into what it takes to maintain momentum, adapt to change, and stay competitive in a shifting digital landscape.

This final piece is about what happens after the rollout. Because digital transformation isn’t a one-time event. It’s a culture shift.

Build with the End in Mind

Before you go live, build your foundation for long-term success. That starts with data.

Think of your eCommerce ecosystem like a supply chain dashboard – without visibility, you’re just guessing. Set up dashboards and KPIs before launch. Start collecting data immediately, even if you’re not sure how you’ll use it all yet. You can refine later, but you can’t measure what you never captured.

Key performance metrics to track:

  • Traffic source attribution
  • Conversion rate by source or channel
  • Abandonment rate and reorder frequency
  • Revenue by SKU or customer segment
  • Bounce rate and engagement by page type

Companies that use data to inform decisions are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, and 19 times more likely to be profitable.

Know Who Owns What

One of the biggest risks to sustained progress is lack of ownership. After launch, the handoff can be murky. Who’s responsible for reporting? For making site updates? For campaign oversight?

Use a “RACI” matrix to define roles:

  • Responsible: Who does the work?
  • Accountable: Who owns the outcome?
  • Consulted: Who provides input?
  • Informed: Who needs to be kept in the loop?

A digital transformation needs post-launch ownership and accountability to be a part of upfront planning.

Set OKRs and Review Regularly

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a proven way to align teams and track progress. These should be ambitious but measurable.

Set your OKRs on a quarterly or semiannual basis, and treat them like golf: focus on improving one or two areas at a time. Examples:

  • Increase online order value by 12% over last quarter
  • Improve mobile conversion rate by 1.5 points
  • Reduce quote response time from 3 days to 24 hours

Keep the review cadence consistent, and don’t be afraid to adjust based on what the data tells you.

Preserve Your Legacy Data

If you’re migrating from an old system, don’t lose your history. Before disabling legacy platforms, DO NOT FORGET to export crucial data related to traffic, revenue, or user behavior data. Without a baseline, you can’t measure improvement.

Make the most of your business intelligence by archiving or extracting that data for future reporting.

Don’t Assume – Test

One of the most dangerous phrases in digital business is, “We know this works.”

The response should always be the same: “How do you know?”

A/B testing should be an ongoing practice. Try different headlines, CTAs, layouts, and even pricing strategies. The result might surprise you.

Your team’s anecdotes and intuition is valuable. But your customers’ behavior is the truth.

Avoid Data Paralysis

More data is good. More analysis? Not always.

Prioritize a handful of metrics each quarter. Save others for deeper review later. Focused improvement beats scattershot analysis.

Start broad with data collection. Then go narrow in your analysis.

Each quarter, focus on:

  • 2–3 high-impact KPIs to improve
  • 1–2 experiments to test
  • 1 recurring insight to share with leadership

Institutionalize a Culture of Review

Growth doesn’t happen by accident. Schedule recurring reviews (monthly, quarterly, campaign-based) where teams:

  • Evaluate OKRs
  • Look for trend lines in performance
  • Brainstorm testable hypotheses
  • Assign owners for next actions

This “constant, never-ending improvement” mindset is what separates industry leaders from the rest.

Know When to Lean on Partners

Technology, buyer behavior, and competition change constantly. It’s not realistic for most internal teams to stay on top of every SEO trend, email tactic, or ecommerce platform update.

This is where trusted partners make all the difference. Whether internal or external, the right team:

  • Stays up-to-date on emerging tools
  • Knows your business well enough to apply them wisely
  • Provides consistent, strategic feedback

Innovation is a team sport. And the best partnerships evolve with your business.

Final Thoughts

You’ve built the foundation: streamlined ops, retained your best customers, and launched a smart acquisition plan.

Now it’s about maintaining that momentum with smart strategy, strong data practices, and a commitment to continual improvement.

Digital transformation isn’t a destination. It’s a discipline.

📦 In the final bonus article of our Digital Readiness Series, we’ll discuss “How CRO Turns Site Traffic into Revenue.”

Ready to transform your B2B eCommerce experience?

Let us help you align your technology with your business goals.
Reach out to learn more, or check out our blog for insights on digital transformation and eCommerce trends.