Your B2B Website Is Being Compared to Amazon. Is It Ready?
November 3, 2026
By: Tiffany Hindman
Summary: Does your B2B website need to work like Amazon? Not exactly, but your buyers are comparing it to the convenient online experiences they use every day. B2B customers want to find products quickly, get the information they need, see pricing relevant to their account, and reorder without starting over, while still having access to a knowledgeable person when a purchase gets complicated. Manufacturers and distributors can start by looking at where customers leave the website to call or email.
Your customers probably aren’t expecting your website to be Amazon. But that doesn’t mean Amazon hasn’t influenced what they expect when they buy online.
B2B buyers are consumers, too. Outside of work, they’re accustomed to searching for a product, finding the information they need, placing an order, and checking its status without much effort.
Those experiences have helped set a standard for what convenient online purchasing feels like. When those same buyers visit a manufacturer’s or distributor’s website, they don’t suddenly forget what a good online experience looks like.
The question isn’t whether your B2B website looks or works exactly like Amazon. It’s much simpler:
Can your customers get where they need to go without fighting the website?
Online Buying Has Changed What B2B Customers Expect
Customers have more options for handling business purchases digitally than they did in the past.
That means a B2B website is no longer just a place to display products or tell customers how to contact sales. For many buyers, it is part of how they research products, gather information, and make purchasing decisions.
Recent research reinforces just how important digital channels have become. McKinsey's 2026 B2B research reports that buyers now interact with suppliers through an average of ten channels during the buying process.
That doesn't mean every interaction has to happen online. It does mean customers are moving between different ways of researching, communicating, and purchasing, and the website has an important role in that experience.
Source: McKinseyCustomers are also willing to accomplish more on their own when the information and tools are available. Gartner reported that 61% of B2B buyers surveyed preferred an overall purchasing experience without a sales representative.
The same research found that buyers still favored input from sellers for tasks where they needed help determining whether something was right for their organization.
Source: GartnerThat's an important distinction for manufacturers and distributors.
Customers aren't necessarily asking for salespeople to disappear from the buying process. They simply shouldn't need a salesperson for every step of it.
If someone already knows what they need, the website should make it easy to find the product, get the necessary information, and move the purchase forward.
They probably don’t want to contact someone simply because they can’t find a product, check a price, or reorder something they have purchased before.
When a buyer has questions, needs help evaluating options, or is working through a more complicated purchase, that's where a knowledgeable person can add real value.
Customers may want help deciding which product fits a complicated application, negotiating a large purchase, or working through an unusual requirement.
A useful B2B eCommerce experience should make common purchasing tasks easier.
Depending on the business and its customers, that can mean:
Finding products quickly through search, navigation, categories, and filters.
Accessing detailed and accurate product information.
Seeing pricing and availability information relevant to the account.
Placing routine orders without unnecessary steps.
Reviewing previous orders and making repeat purchases.
Getting a consistent experience across desktop and mobile devices.
The goal is not to eliminate the sales team. It is to give customers the ability to handle the parts of the buying process that make sense to complete online.
Where Traditional B2B Websites Can Fall Short
Some B2B websites were originally built to support a much different purchasing process.
The website might provide basic product information, for example, while pricing, availability, quoting, and ordering still happen through a salesperson or customer service representative. That can create friction when customers expect to accomplish more online.
Search that doesn't match how customers look
A buyer may know exactly what they need but struggle to find it because the site's search and filtering options don't match the way customers actually look for products.
Missing product details
They might find the product but not the specifications, documentation, images, compatibility information, or other details they need to determine whether it's right for their application.
Pricing that requires a phone call
Pricing can present another hurdle. B2B customers may have negotiated pricing, contract terms, quantity-based pricing, or other account-specific arrangements.
If the website cannot provide the information relevant to that customer, the buyer may have to stop and contact someone before continuing.
Reordering from scratch
Even an existing customer who has placed the same order several times might have to go through the entire shopping process again because previous orders aren't easily accessible.
None of these problems necessarily seems significant on its own.
Together, however, they determine whether buying online actually feels easier than sending an email or picking up the phone.
You Don't Need to Copy Amazon to Compete
Amazon provides a useful comparison for convenience, but B2B purchasing has requirements that consumer eCommerce often doesn't.
A B2B customer might have negotiated or account-specific pricing. Products may have minimum order quantities, purchasing restrictions, or complex configurations. An order could require a quote or approval. Some purchases may involve several people within the customer's organization.
And sometimes the buyer genuinely needs to talk with someone. That isn't a failure of digital commerce.
The objective should be to combine the convenience customers appreciate about consumer eCommerce with the realities of B2B purchasing.
B2B purchasing realities
The routine repeat order
A routine repeat order might be completed entirely online in a few steps.
The complicated purchase
A more complicated purchase may move between the website and a salesperson as the customer evaluates options.
Both can be good buying experiences.
What matters is that the website supports the way customers actually purchase from your business instead of forcing every buyer through the same process.
What Does a Competitive B2B eCommerce Experience Look Like?
There isn't one checklist of features that every B2B website needs. A manufacturer selling highly configurable equipment will have different requirements than a distributor selling frequently reordered replacement parts.
Still, several capabilities can make online purchasing easier when they fit the business and its customers.
Better Product Discovery
Customers shouldn't have to know exactly how your company organizes its catalog to find what they need.
Useful search, logical categories, relevant filters, searchable part numbers, product attributes, and comparison tools can help customers narrow a large or complicated catalog.
The goal is to organize the online catalog around how customers search for products, not simply around how those products are maintained internally.
Useful Product Pages
Finding the product is only the beginning.
Customers may need specifications, dimensions, compatibility information, images, technical documents, available options, or related products before they can make a purchasing decision.
As we covered in How Product Data Impacts eCommerce Sales for Manufacturers, good product information helps buyers move from finding a product to confidently placing an order.
Personalized Purchasing
For returning customers, a good online experience should recognize that an established business relationship may affect how they buy. The products available to them, the price they pay, and the steps required to complete an order may not be identical to what another customer sees.
The website should account for those differences when they matter, giving customers an experience that reflects how they already do business with you.
Simpler Reordering
Existing customers shouldn't have to treat every purchase like their first.
Order history, saved lists, quick-order functionality, and other repeat-purchase tools can reduce the work required to place recurring orders.
If a customer already knows what they need, the website should help them get back to it quickly.
Convenient Checkout
Checkout should support the way your customers actually buy. That doesn't necessarily mean stripping B2B checkout down until it resembles a consumer store. B2B purchases can have legitimate additional requirements.
The important question is whether each step serves a purpose.
If customers repeatedly stop during checkout because they don't understand what information is required or cannot complete a routine purchase independently, the process deserves another look.
Customer Self-Service
The buying experience doesn’t end at checkout. Once an order is placed, customers may return to the website to check details, review previous purchases, or find information related to their account.
Making that information easier to access gives customers another reason to use the website throughout their relationship with your business, not just when they are ready to place an order.
What Does a Poor Online Experience Cost?
Friction online doesn't always mean a customer immediately leaves for a competitor.
But each outcome adds work to what should have been a straightforward purchase.
Stalled purchases
Customers may delay or abandon purchases when the information they need isn't available.
Extra work for your team
Employees may spend time answering basic questions, confirming information, or helping customers complete routine orders.
A website customers skip
Existing customers may have little reason to use the website if calling or emailing remains easier.
There is also a larger customer-experience issue.
McKinsey's 2026 B2B research found that inconsistent information and a lack of knowledgeable support are among the leading reasons buyers switch suppliers.
Source: McKinseyA B2B eCommerce site doesn't have to handle every possible purchasing scenario by itself. But it should remove unnecessary effort from the scenarios customers regularly encounter.
Is Your Website Meeting Today's B2B Buying Expectations?
Look at your website from the customer's perspective rather than your company's.
Ask:
Can customers find the products they need quickly?
Can they access the product information they need to make a purchasing decision?
Can existing customers see pricing relevant to their accounts where appropriate?
Can they easily locate products they've purchased before?
Can they place routine repeat orders without starting from scratch?
Can they complete straightforward purchases without contacting the sales team?
Can they get assistance when a purchase requires more expertise?
Can they easily access relevant account and order information?
Is buying through the website easier than calling or emailing?
Pay particular attention to the places where customers consistently leave the website and contact an employee.
Those interactions can reveal where the online experience isn't answering a question, providing necessary information, or supporting the way customers want to buy.
Make Buying From You Easier
Amazon didn't create the requirements of B2B purchasing, and manufacturers and distributors don't need to copy Amazon's business model.
What companies like Amazon have helped change is customers' perception of what a convenient online experience can be.
B2B buyers still have complex requirements. They may need personalized pricing, detailed product information, purchasing rules, quotes, approvals, or expert assistance. Those needs shouldn't disappear just because the transaction moves online.
The opportunity is to make the straightforward parts straightforward.
Help customers find what they need.
Give them enough information to make informed purchasing decisions.
Make routine orders and reorders easy.
Provide human assistance where it genuinely adds value.
The goal isn't to make your B2B website more like Amazon. It's to make buying from your business easier.
Build an eCommerce Experience Around How Your Customers Buy
At Strabo Partners, we help manufacturers, distributors, and other product-based businesses create eCommerce experiences that support the way their customers actually buy, connecting the online purchasing experience with the business processes behind it.