Why B2B Customers Still Call to Place Orders Online
October 9, 2026
By: Tiffany Hindman
Summary: Why do B2B customers still call to place orders online? Often, the website doesn't provide the pricing, inventory information, or ordering experience customers need. Connecting eCommerce with ERP systems can make online purchasing easier and reduce the need for manual assistance.
Your business has an eCommerce website. Customers can browse products, check out, and place orders without speaking to a salesperson.
At least, that is the idea.
Yet the phone keeps ringing.
A customer wants to confirm a price. Another needs to know whether an item is in stock. Someone else wants to reorder the same products they purchased last month, but apparently finding the original order is an archaeological expedition.
Before long, your sales team is back to taking orders over the phone, answering questions by email, and manually entering information into the ERP. So much for self-service.
For manufacturers and distributors, this is a common challenge with B2B eCommerce. Launching an online store is one thing. Getting customers to rely on it instead of calling your team is another.
The problem is not always that customers dislike buying online. Sometimes, the website simply does not give them everything they need to complete the purchase confidently.
Your Customers Are Not Calling Just to Say Hello
Business buyers are busy. They have purchasing responsibilities, deadlines, budgets, and about 47 other things competing for their attention.
If placing an order online is straightforward, they will often prefer it. They can buy when it suits them, find products without waiting for someone to respond, and get on with their day. But if the website creates uncertainty, calling a person may feel like the safer option.
Consider a few common scenarios.
"Can you confirm my price?"
The website displays a standard price, but the customer has a negotiated rate. Rather than risk paying too much, they call sales.
"Do you actually have this in stock?"
The product page shows availability, but the information may not reflect what the business can currently fulfill. The customer wants confirmation before placing an order.
"Can you just reorder what I bought last time?"
The customer knows what they need. They just cannot easily find their previous order or recreate it without searching through product pages one by one.
"Can you check whether my order went through?"
The customer placed an order online but has not received clear confirmation or cannot see its current status. Naturally, they contact customer service.
None of these customers is necessarily resistant to technology. They are trying to get their work done. If a phone call is the easiest way to get an answer, the phone is going to win.
Your Website Does Not Show the Right Price
B2B pricing rarely fits neatly into a single price list.
The price can depend on who is buying, what they are buying, and how much they order. If the eCommerce platform cannot display the appropriate price for the customer, the buying process becomes less convenient.
A buyer might see a price that does not match their agreement. They may hesitate to check out, contact sales for confirmation, or abandon the purchase altogether. Your sales team then spends time confirming information that should ideally be available before the customer reaches out.
For businesses with complex pricing requirements, the eCommerce platform needs access to the information and rules that determine what each customer should pay. When those rules are managed in the ERP, the systems need to exchange the appropriate information so customers can see accurate pricing throughout the buying process.
The goal is not to replace your pricing strategy with a simpler one. It is to make your existing pricing strategy easier to use online.
- Negotiated pricing
- Contract rates
- Volume discounts
- Special purchasing agreements
- Who is buying
- What they are buying
- How much they order
Customers Cannot Tell Whether Products Are Available
Few things are more frustrating than placing an order for a product only to discover that it cannot be fulfilled as expected.
Business buyers have their own customers, projects, production schedules, and deadlines to manage. They need reliable information before committing to a purchase. If inventory information on the website is unclear or outdated, customers may call to confirm availability before ordering.
Even a website that displays stock quantities can create problems if those quantities do not account for the information needed to determine what can actually be sold or fulfilled. If the website cannot provide a useful view of availability, customers have little reason to trust what they see.
Connecting eCommerce with the ERP can help make inventory information available to online buyers, based on the business rules and availability information the company chooses to expose. That means fewer calls to ask whether an item is available and fewer unpleasant surprises after an order is submitted.
- Stock distributed across multiple warehouses
- Inventory reserved for existing orders
- Other business rules
Reordering Takes Too Much Effort
Many B2B customers are repeat buyers.
They may purchase the same supplies every month, replenish inventory every week, or reorder familiar products whenever demand requires it. These customers do not necessarily want to browse your entire catalog every time they buy. They want to find the products they purchased previously, adjust quantities if necessary, and place another order.
If your website makes that difficult, customers may take the familiar route and call their account representative. After all, saying, "Just send me what I ordered last time," can be considerably faster than searching through dozens of product pages.
The exact features depend on your business and eCommerce platform, but the principle is straightforward. Make repeat purchases easier than asking someone else to place the order.
- Useful order history
- Quick reorder options
- Saved lists
- Account specific product access
The Website Does Not Reflect How Your Customers Actually Buy
A business buyer does not always purchase products the same way a consumer does.
If your website treats every visitor like an individual consumer shopping for a single item, it may not support the way your B2B customers operate. This creates friction throughout the buying process. A customer might need to contact sales to confirm an order quantity, ask about a product variation, or work around a purchasing requirement that the website does not support.
The answer is not necessarily to add every possible feature to your storefront. That can create its own set of problems. Instead, identify the requirements that matter most to your customers and build the buying experience around those needs.
Your website should reflect how your business sells, not force your customers to work around how it was built.
- Purchasing under established contracts
- Minimum order quantities
- Specific units of purchase
- Internal purchasing procedures
- Access for several people in the same company
- Only the products and pricing tied to their account
The Website and ERP Are Not Working Together
Here is where a seemingly small customer experience problem can reveal a larger operational issue.
Your website may look polished. Your product pages may be easy to navigate. Checkout may work perfectly. But behind the scenes, the eCommerce platform and ERP may not be exchanging the information required to support the buying process.
When information does not move between systems as expected, someone has to fill the gap. Sometimes that person is a customer service representative. Sometimes it is a salesperson. Sometimes it is an employee who has become an unofficial connection between several systems, held together by spreadsheets, email, and an impressive memory.
That arrangement may work when order volume is low. As the business grows, it can become increasingly difficult to maintain.
For organizations using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management, connecting the ERP with the eCommerce platform can help make important business information available throughout the online buying process. The objective is to reduce unnecessary manual work while giving customers a more dependable way to buy.
- Customer accounts
- Product information
- Pricing
- Inventory availability
- Order details
Customers Do Not Know What Happens After Checkout
Getting a customer to click "Place Order" is only part of the job.
Business buyers also want to know what happens next. If customers cannot find those answers online, they will ask someone who can provide them. That means another email, another phone call, and another interruption for your team.
Clear order confirmations, accessible order history, and useful status updates can help customers understand what is happening without contacting your staff for every update. Of course, these features depend on accurate information being available from the systems handling order processing and fulfillment. A status page is only useful if the information behind it is dependable.
When customers can find the information they need themselves, your team can spend less time answering routine questions and more time helping with situations that actually require attention.
- Was the order received?
- Is it being processed?
- Has it shipped?
- Is something holding it up?
The Hidden Cost of Every Phone Call
One phone call may not seem like a major expense. But consider what happens when dozens or hundreds of customers regularly contact your team to confirm prices, check inventory, place repeat orders, or ask about order status.
Each interaction takes time. An employee may need to look up the customer, check the ERP, confirm information with another department, and then respond. If the customer wants to place an order, the employee may also need to enter the order details into the appropriate system. Multiply that work across a growing customer base, and the cost becomes more significant.
The impact goes beyond employee time. Manual handling can introduce data entry mistakes, slow down order processing, and make it harder for your team to manage higher order volumes without adding more administrative work.
The goal is not to eliminate every phone call. Some customers will always prefer speaking with a person, and some orders genuinely require individual attention. The goal is to stop requiring a phone call for information or tasks that your website should already handle.
How to Get More Customers to Order Online
If customers continue calling to place orders, resist the temptation to assume they simply need more training. Start by finding out what is sending them back to the phone.
Ask Your Sales and Customer Service Teams
Your employees probably know the most common reasons customers contact them. Ask which questions come up repeatedly, which orders require manual entry, and which website limitations cause the most frustration. Look for patterns rather than treating each call as an isolated problem.
Review the Buying Process From the Customer's Perspective
Log in as a customer and try to complete a typical purchase. Can you find the right products? See the appropriate pricing? Understand availability? Reorder previous purchases? Find your order after checkout? If you encounter a problem, assume your customers have encountered it too.
Identify Where Information Comes From
Determine which systems manage product information, customer records, pricing, inventory, and order processing. Then examine how that information reaches the eCommerce platform and whether it stays accurate enough to support the buying process. This helps distinguish a website usability issue from a problem with the underlying business systems.
Prioritize the Problems That Create the Most Work
You do not need to rebuild your entire eCommerce experience overnight. Start with the issues that generate the most customer inquiries or create the greatest amount of manual work. Measure the results by looking at changes in manual order entry, customer inquiries, order accuracy, and online purchasing activity.
The aim is to make ordering easier for customers and less labor intensive for your business.
Your eCommerce Website Should Not Need a Full Time Translator
An eCommerce website should help customers buy from you without unnecessary effort. If customers routinely need an employee to interpret pricing, confirm inventory, recreate an order, or explain what happened after checkout, the problem may extend beyond the website itself.
The buying experience depends on the connection between what customers see online and the business systems that support their purchases. For manufacturers and distributors, that often means looking at the relationship between the eCommerce platform, ERP, customer data, pricing rules, inventory, and order processing.
When those pieces work together, customers can handle more of the buying process themselves, while employees can focus on the situations where their experience adds the most value.
At Strabo Partners, we help manufacturers and other product based businesses connect their eCommerce experiences with the ERP processes that run their operations.
Because your website should help customers place orders, not give them another reason to pick up the phone.
Simplify. Automate. Grow.
Give Your Customers a Reason to Order Online
Strabo Partners connects eCommerce and ERP systems like Microsoft Dynamics 365, so customers see accurate pricing, inventory, and order status without picking up the phone.