The global COVID-19 pandemic is a sea change altering how companies and industries of all sizes now must conduct business. And that rapid transformation of business and the nearly $21 trillion U.S. economy is having a huge impact on B2B ecommerce.

The B2B Next 2020 conference and exhibition is responding to this disruption as an all-virtual event this fall. B2B Next 2020 will take place Sept. 29 and 30. Registration is now open.

Coronavirus altered the way we do business

Overnight, the coronavirus altered the course of how all B2B buyers and sellers must conduct business online. In today’s challenging business times, B2B ecommerce practitioners have lots of hard and difficult questions on how to keep their digital operations going, even as they look for more opportunities online in a post-COVID-19 world.

While B2B ecommerce practitioners have been heads-up looking for effective and efficient advice and best practices, the staff at B2B Next LLC—a joint venture between Digital Commerce 360 and Paradigm B2B, a consulting organization formed by Andy Hoar, a recognized authority on B2B ecommerce—has been heads-down developing answers. “This is the most experienced group of speakers we’ve had to date,” Hoar says.  “And in the age of COVID-19, B2B ecommerce professionals expect only the very best advice in these uncertain times.”

B2B Next 2020 is a virtual event featuring a roster of more than 70 influential, high-profile and knowledgeable speakers delivering practical, “how-to” actionable tactics and educational content.

At B2B Next 2020, registered attendees can access more than 50 presentations of virtual content, including:

• 7 Keynote addresses
• 8 Case studies
• 6 Peer-to-peer roundtables
• 9 Workshops
• 12 Panel discussions
• 2 Pre-conference workshops
• Plus, tech tours and live executive interviews

Virtual events focus on new opportunities for B2B ecommerce

The entirely virtual B2B Next 2020 has expanded in multiple ways to meet the needs of companies of all sizes looking to capitalize on emerging opportunities in B2B ecommerce, a market where ecommerce sites, portals and marketplaces generated total 2019 sales of $1.3 trillion, according to data published in the 2020 U.S. B2B Ecommerce Market Report, a new report from Digital Commerce 360 B2B, a Vertical Web Media brand.

The all-virtual B2B Next 2020 event features an easy-to-use and highly interactive platform that enables attendees to select the sessions most important to them. As a key bonus, attendees also can access keynotes and case studies they miss at a later date. The full slate of digital educational content available at B2B has been organized into these prominent tracks:

• Change management
• Channel strategies
• Digital business
• Technology & Innovation

Each day, B2B Next will lead off with multiple keynote sessions from some of the highest-profile executives in B2B ecommerce. Attendees can click in and view and hear keynoters from digital-first distribution and manufacturing company executives such as W.W. Grainger Inc. CEO D.G. Macpherson, Graybar Electrical Supply CEO Kathy Mazzarella, PPG Industries executive vice president Tim Knavish and Elite Sportswear CEO Girisha Chandraraj.

Other keynote session attendees include RBC Capital Markets managing director Mark Mahaney, Dawn Foods CEO Carrie Jones-Barber and Fisher Healthcare Head of Strategy, Commercial Marketing & Data Science Meeta Kratz.

Find solutions and insights for your business

The virtual agenda at B2B Next 2020 addresses the wants and needs of B2B ecommerce practitioners of all types, says Vertical Web Media (publisher of Digital Commerce 360) president and CEO Molly Love.

“B2B ecommerce companies and executives are looking for solutions to problems, and insight and analysis on how to enhance their digital programs and strategies, especially in these extraordinary times we all must live in,” Love says. “These practitioners need a digital event that won’t waste their time but instead enables them to connect and exchange ideas, solutions and results with peers—and that’s precisely the educational content and experience we will deliver at B2B Next 2020.”

Manufacturers and distributors involved in B2B ecommerce ended 2019 on a positive note. They anticipated that 2020 would be another year of steady growth in ecommerce, despite trade wars and other economic factors that might slow manufacturing productivity and sales in some vertical markets, according to data and analysis in the 2020 B2B Ecommerce Market Report from Digital Commerce 360 B2B.

In 2020, total electronic sales will continue to grow. And a Digital Commerce 360 B2B analysis of ecommerce data—including first-quarter economic figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce, and historical and year-to-date ecommerce numbers from big public U.S. distribution companies such as W.W. Grainger, MSC Industrial Supply Co. and Watsco Inc.—shows that B2B ecommerce also will continue to grow.

But the big question remains: By how much and how fast? B2B ecommerce buyers and sellers also are asking: How do I launch or grow a digital business with a clear vision of what lies ahead?

As the B2B ecommerce market moves ahead into the “new normal,” B2B Next 2020 will be there as a virtual event—and digital information portal—designed to help ecommerce practitioners survive COVID-19 and thrive in the future, Love says.

“B2B Next 2020 is all about helping practitioners solve B2B ecommerce problems with the help of the people who know,” she says. “We are dedicated to helping companies, individuals and organizations grow your B2B business with insights from an agenda freshly geared to unprecedented times.”

Registration for B2B Next is now open. Learn more at B2BNext.net.