The world of B2B e-commerce is developing at lightning speed. Where just a few years ago we were talking about the digitisation of sales processes, we now see a market that has already reached a size of over $$2 trillion* in Europe last year 2025. With this, the B2B sector continues to far exceed the B2C market in volume, driven by constant annual growth of over 10% in digital transactions.
As an e-commerce manager or entrepreneur, you may be wondering: how do I stay relevant in this dynamic environment? At Ecomwise, we believe the future belongs to those who invest in four essential shifts today.
Trend 1: AI as a strategic co-pilot
AI will no longer be seen as standalone hype in 2026, but as an integrated co-pilot supporting your creativity and strategy. Although 95% of B2B marketers are now using AI, the focus is now shifting from simple text generation to agentic commerce.
In this new phase, AI agents help perform tasks such as taking orders and answering queries. The goal? To speed up routine processes, leaving you time for real human relationships. As we previously described in our blog on Agentic Commerce, this changes the way customers interact with your platform: from static pages to intelligent, supportive interfaces.
Trend 2: Self-service portals
The traditional sales role is radically changing. By 2026, more than half of all business purchasing will be through self-service channels. Your buyers want control; they prefer an experience without vendor intervention for repeat orders or less complex tasks.
Digital procurement portals are replacing endless email exchanges and phone calls. Meanwhile, 85% of B2B organisations have their own portal. Here, personalisation has become the standard for the modern ordering experience.
Trend 3: The new findability in AI search engine
The way new suppliers are found is fundamentally changing. Research from Gartner and Forrester Research shows that 70-80% of B2B buyers use online when searching for a new supplier. Here there will be a shift away from traditional searches for AI-driven answers via Google AI search or ChatGPT, for example.
For you as a B2B company, it is essential to remain part of these AI results to also be included in supplier selection. This means that your data, from product information to authority in the market, must be structured and accessible to AI algorithms. Those that are not findable in the buyer's AI search simply do not exist in the consideration process.
Trend 4: Agility through Composable Commerce
To keep up with these rapid changes, we are definitely saying goodbye to slow legacy systems. The future is composable commerce. By 2026, more than 60% of new B2B platforms will be built on this modular architecture.
What does this mean? Instead of one big, unwieldy software package (monolith), you opt for different ‘building blocks’ that talk to each other via APIs. Think of a separate module for your search engine, a PIM system for your product information. This allows you to replace or update a specific component without having a major impact on your B2B ordering portal.
How we at Ecomwise deploy this for our customers
At Ecomwise, we don't just build webshops; we create a future-ready B2B e-commerce architecture. Our solution is based on composable building blocks em we integrate AI directly into the Magento / Hyvä platform To improve your operational processes. Some examples include:
- Ordering Agent: With our ordering agent, we read email orders automatically in your ordering portal, without the need for manual activities.
- PDF to Order: Our AI Quick Order reads PDF files (such as purchase orders) and converts them directly to your shopping basket or a ready order.
- Findability in AI search engines (LLMs): We support findability in AI search engines by improving your product data and proactively submitting it to LLMs such as OpenAI. This ensures that your products appear as answers in buyers' searches.
- Smart Content: Automatic generation and enrichment of product information for a hyper-personalised experience.
Want to know more about our B2B E-commerce stack and what it takes to implement it? Contact us for more information or a no-obligation demo.
*Source: Capital One Shopping Research / Statista 2025
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