When it comes to B2B e-commerce, only about 10% of manufacturers and distributors are successfully operating a B2B e-commerce strategy.

Linda Taddonio

That was the main observation by Linda Taddonio, partner with consulting firm IQAcceleration, speaking Tuesday at the B2BNext conference in Chicago. Only about 10% of all companies are “firing on all cylinders” when it comes to successfully implementing B2B e-commerce, she said.

Many B2B companies have managed to reach 10% to 15% of total revenue online, Taddonio noted. But achieving online sales penetration of 40% or higher, and becoming a digital leader in the industry, often requires a new and more comprehensive strategy, she said.

Manufacturers and distributors need to follow a 10-point plan for e-commerce that includes vision, strategy and leadership, Taddonio told her audience.

Taddonio told the story of working with a manufacturer who developed an e-commerce site in 2003 that, in a relatively short period, began collecting 95% of all orders online and reduced the time it took to ship products from 10 days to 24 hours or less.

But 15 years later, that unnamed manufacturer is the exception and not the norm for manufacturers and distributors fully embracing B2B e-commerce, she said. “There’s a lot of work that many companies need to do to become ‘actionable’ with e-commerce,” Taddonio told attendees.

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