DHL study predicts 80% of all B2B sales from suppliers will be digital by 2025

DHL Express just released a new whitepaper on e-commerce that proclaims, “Tradition is Out. Digital is in.” The paper predicts that by 2025, 80% of all business-to-business (B2B) sales interactions between suppliers and professional buyers will take place digitally.

This follows the rapid growth of business-to-consumer B2C e-commerce in recent years, which has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as more shopping activity has moved online.

According to DHL, global B2B sales in online marketplaces were already growing pre-pandemic, with a huge increase of 18.2% in 2019. But as more and more sellers go digital as part of a “new normal”, B2B sales are following the accelerating trend.

The paper also noted that millennials already account for 73% of B2B purchases, and their expectations of digital purchasing have pushed companies towards digital platforms, so that the B2B experience is coming to align more closely with B2C.

DHL predicted that global e-commerce volume will reach US$20.9 trillion by 2027, up from US$12.2 trillion in 2019.

Source: Deutsche Post DHL Group

Header image: Karolina Grabowska