Where Should Manufacturers and Distributors Prioritize Their Digital Investments?

For many years, B2B commerce portal projects were primarily technology initiatives. Most discussions focused on selecting the right platform, while product data, business processes, and the buyer experience often took a back seat.

Today, the highest-performing organizations approach these initiatives as strategic business investments. Success is measured not only by technological implementation, but also by the impact on customer acquisition, revenue growth, operating costs, and the organization's ability to scale.

Rather than simply replacing an existing platform, leading manufacturers and distributors are building digital ecosystems that can evolve alongside their business, integrate artificial intelligence, and deliver a far more autonomous customer experience.

"Maximizing your digital ROI isn't about adding more technology, it's about accelerating business impact. The organizations that outperform their competitors invest first in strong foundations, transforming every digital initiative into a driver of profitability and productivity." - Samuel Bilodeau, Finance Director, Novatize

Findings from our latest State of B2B Commerce 2026 report, conducted in partnership with B2B Online Insights, reveal that industry leaders are aligning around a handful of key investment priorities.

Here are the digital initiatives expected to deliver the greatest value for manufacturers and distributors over the coming years.

1. Product Data Is Becoming the Strategic Asset of B2B Commerce

If there is one clear takeaway from the State of B2B Commerce 2026 report, it is this: nearly six out of ten organizations plan to invest in product data management, enrichment, and syndication over the next 12 months.

This finding is significant. For years, product information was viewed primarily as the responsibility of marketing teams or catalog managers. Today, it has become a core business asset that supports virtually every digital commerce initiative.

Like any strategic asset, product data becomes more valuable when it can be leveraged across multiple initiatives. It powers product search, personalized customer experiences, multi-channel catalog distribution, marketplaces, customer portals, recommendation engines, and most importantly artificial intelligence applications.

Without reliable, complete, and well-structured product data, AI initiatives quickly produce inconsistent results. As a result, organizations are increasingly treating product information as a long-term strategic investment rather than an operational project.

2. AI Is Moving Beyond Experimentation Toward Real Business Applications

Interest in artificial intelligence continues to grow, and as product data becomes a strategic asset, it's no surprise that 70% of leaders planning AI investments intend to use it first for automated product data enrichment.

The reason is straightforward. Enriching product catalogs is repetitive, time-consuming, and costly especially for manufacturers and distributors managing hundreds of thousands of SKUs.

AI automates much of this work, improves data quality, accelerates time to market, reduces the operational costs associated with catalog management, and enables existing teams to become significantly more productive.

Organizations also plan to invest in more advanced AI use cases, including sales enablement, opportunity optimization, and predictive analysis of the buyer journey. However, these initiatives require a much stronger foundation in data quality, system integration, and governance.

3. Digital Payments Are Becoming a Competitive Advantage

Payment modernization ranks almost as high as product data among organizations' top investment priorities.

Although digital payments have historically received limited attention in B2B commerce, modernizing the payment experience has a direct impact on conversion rates, customer satisfaction, cash flow, administrative efficiency, and the speed of revenue realization.

According to the study, 70% of B2B decision-makers are willing to complete online purchases of $50,000 or more. (1)

Today's buyers expect a payment experience comparable to B2C ecommerce while preserving the unique requirements of B2B transactions. They want access to negotiated payment terms, corporate accounts, internal approval workflows, and financing or trade credit options.

The goal is no longer simply to process transactions it is to make the entire purchasing experience faster, simpler, and more seamless for both customers and internal teams.

4. Self-Service Is Becoming the New Standard

When respondents described their ideal buying experience, four expectations consistently emerged: greater self-service capabilities, deeper personalization, real-time visibility into orders and inventory, and increased process automation.

According to the research, 90% of B2B buyers are willing to switch suppliers to gain access to a better online purchasing experience. (2)

This shift does not diminish the importance of sales teams. On the contrary, by automating repetitive tasks, digital commerce platforms allow sales representatives to focus on complex opportunities, strategic consulting, and high-value customer interactions where their expertise delivers the greatest impact.

As customers gain greater autonomy, organizations benefit from lower order processing costs, increased team productivity, and a stronger ability to scale without expanding resources at the same pace.

5. Personalization Goes Beyond Product Recommendations

Personalizing the buying experience is no longer just about suggesting similar products. For manufacturers and distributors, it's about understanding the unique business context of each customer and tailoring every interaction accordingly.

Industry leaders want to deliver account-specific product catalogs, negotiated pricing, relevant product recommendations, role-based content, and a consistent customer experience, regardless of the sales channel.

Achieving this level of personalization depends on seamless integration between the ecommerce platform, ERP, CRM, and other core business systems. The more efficiently data flows across these systems, the easier it becomes to deliver relevant, consistent, and highly personalized experiences that increase average order value, strengthen customer retention, and drive higher revenue per account.

6. Your Commerce Platform Should Integrate With Your Ecosystem, Not the Other Way Around

For years, ecommerce projects were evaluated primarily based on the features offered by a platform. Our research shows that this mindset is changing. If they were rebuilding their digital environment today, decision-makers would prioritize ERP and CRM integration capabilities, platform scalability, flexibility, and operational reliability above all else.

This explains why platforms such as Shopify Plus, SAP Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce, and Salesforce B2B Commerce continue to be leading choices for different business needs. Ultimately, the right ecommerce platform depends on an organization's strategic objectives, operational complexity, and overall technology ecosystem.

7. Reduce Technical Debt and Invest in Ongoing Maintenance for Long-Term Digital Success

Many organizations postpone modernization projects in an effort to extend the lifespan of their existing ecommerce platforms. While this approach may appear cost-effective in the short term, it often leads to growing technical debt that becomes far more expensive over time.

An aging platform requires more maintenance, increases the need for costly custom development, slows internal teams, complicates integrations, and limits the adoption of emerging capabilities such as artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, hidden costs continue to accumulate through reduced efficiency, missed business opportunities, increased security risks, hiring challenges, and rising operating expenses.

By modernizing at the right time, organizations can reduce these costs, simplify their technology architecture, and maximize the return on future digital investments. The longer modernization is delayed, the more complex, time-consuming, and expensive migration becomes as technical debt continues to grow.

Ongoing maintenance, particularly following a major migration or digital transformation project is equally critical for protecting the long-term value of digital investments. Organizations should allocate a reasonable portion of their budget to post-launch maintenance to ensure continuous performance, security, and scalability.

"Delaying a strategic investment doesn't simply postpone an expense, it also delays the productivity gains, operational efficiencies, and additional revenue that investment would generate. In many cases, the cost of waiting far exceeds the cost of investing." - Samuel Bilodeau, Finance Director, Novatize

8. Skills Are Becoming Just as Important as Technology

One of the most compelling findings from the study is that digital maturity is not driven by technology investments alone. The most advanced organizations are also investing heavily in developing their teams' capabilities.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the skills required for digital commerce. Businesses now need professionals who understand commercial operations, product data, technology platforms, system integrations, and business processes in order to fully capitalize on emerging technologies.

Technology will continue to evolve at a rapid pace, but the true return on digital investments will always depend on an organization's ability to adopt new tools, integrate them into business processes, and continuously optimize them over time.

"Technology creates opportunities, people's skills turn those opportunities into measurable business results." - Samuel Bilodeau, Finance Director, Novatize

How to Maximize the ROI of Your Digital Investments in 2027

More than ever, success for manufacturers and distributors depends on more than selecting the right ecommerce platform. It requires building a connected digital ecosystem where data, systems, business processes, and teams work together seamlessly. Today, the highest-return investments are those that strengthen an organization's core foundations, improve operational efficiency, and create the flexibility to adopt future innovations, not those that simply address an immediate technology need.

"Start by solving a business problem, ideally the smallest one that can deliver measurable impact, instead of looking for places to apply AI. The companies seeing real results focus on operational challenges that directly influence revenue, efficiency, or the customer experience." — François-Jérôme Gosselin, CEO of Novatize

This is one of the key findings from our State of B2B Commerce 2026 report, developed in partnership with B2B Online Insights. The most successful organizations are no longer focused solely on digitizing their operations, they are building scalable foundations that support long-term growth, enable the practical adoption of artificial intelligence, and deliver the seamless buying experience today's B2B customers expect.

Interested in discussing this with an eCommerce expert?

Our specialists are here to help you identify the best growth opportunities for your online store.

Pierre-Olivier Brassard

Vice President - Products and Technology, Partner

contact@novatize.com+1 844 932-6682

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1. Digital Commerce 360’s 2024 B2B Market and Customer Experience Report
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/product/b2b-market-and-customer-experience-report/#:~:text=,in%202024

2. Capital One Shopping - B2B eCommerce Statistics, October 2, 2024
https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/b2b-ecommerce-statistics/#:~:text=,from%202022