B2B eCommerce in Mechanical Engineering: Why It Is More Than a Shop Project

Why does B2B eCommerce in mechanical engineering cost millions? I explain why it is much more than a simple shop project.

Many decision-makers face the question in the steering committee: why does our B2B portal cost millions when a simple B2C store costs a fraction of that? The misunderstanding lies in the assumption that B2B is simply B2C with business customers. In reality, digitalization in mechanical engineering is a complex process that goes far beyond the transaction itself. While production is often highly automated, sales processes still frequently rely on Excel lists and email ping-pong.

I calculate what a manually entered order really costs and how the right B2B platform strategy affects service. We look at why projects often fail when they are planned only as a shop replacement instead of real process cost optimization. Anyone planning their portal as a replacement for sales should also know the Gartner figures on B2B buying behavior in order to avoid the channel conflict.

Sources: The range of process costs per manual order comes from analyses by automation vendors and is therefore driven by their interests, so in the video I deliberately calculate at the lower end. The figures on buying behavior come from Gartner.

About the channel: On it depends, I analyze eCommerce platforms and digital commerce strategy for technical decision-makers in the DACH region. Researched, with disclosed sources and with an opinion.

If you work on a project like this in mechanical engineering or technical wholesale, let me know in the comments where you are stuck. Questions from the comments regularly make it into the next videos.

eCommerce tech podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhpmvyK5O54
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phkrueger/
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