It’s been a roller coaster of a year for distribution companies of all types in 2022. And the ecommerce ride even more so.
The business market across all sectors of the U.S. economy is undergoing a digital transformation. And digital commerce is driving that transformation for organizations of all sizes, according to data and analysis contained in the 2022 B2B Distribution Report from Digital Commerce 360. The events of the last three years, including a global pandemic, supply chain disruption and other major changes, have caused business organizations to perform better, faster, and more efficiently to serve increasingly larger numbers of digital-first customers.
Distributors use ecommerce to grow market share
The distributors and wholesalers that are learning and living that lesson now will turn first-time digital buyers into loyal return customers. They’ll take ecommerce sales — and market share — away from competitors that aren’t changing with digital times.
In 2022, ecommerce continued to grow for business-to-business distributors and wholesalers. All in, there are about 630,000 distribution companies operating in the U.S., according to the Department of Commerce and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Collectively, those companies are on track to grow their sales to $8.000 trillion in 2022, based on a projection from Digital Commerce 360. That’s an increase of 20.4% from $6.644 trillion in 2021.
This year, distributors are on track to grow digital commerce in its multiple forms, including ecommerce and apps, electronic data interchange (EDI), e-procurement and B2B marketplaces, to $3.811 trillion. That’s up 25% from $3.050 trillion in 2021, Digital Commerce 360 projects. B2B ecommerce alone is on track to grow 25% to $1.400 trillion from $1.120 trillion in 2021, based on a Digital Commerce 360 projection.
A growing number of distributors are zeroing in on ecommerce and digital transformation to cope with a rapidly changing and increasingly volatile business climate. And because purchasing managers want less traditional sales and customer service channels and increasingly more ecommerce, distribution companies are catering to bigger numbers of digital-first buyers.
More on the 2022 B2B Distribution Report can be found here.
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