How to manage your B2B e-commerce data-driven in 2026

Jakob Twedmark

CEO

If you are responsible for a B2B e-commerce today, you may not be super focused on abbreviations like CAC, CTR, Bounce Rate, or perhaps even... Conversion Rate? You are not alone, however. Over all the years I have worked with e-commerce, it has (often) been like night and day talking to e-commerce merchants with consumer sales compared to those who are wholesalers and distributors.

My hope, however, is that 2026 will be the year when more and more people open their eyes to steering towards relevant KPIs also within B2B e-commerce.

Why is it important to have KPIs to steer towards?

Of course, one can argue that the only thing that ultimately matters is total sales. What does it matter if our conversion rate is 1 or 4%, as long as the store delivers good sales? And I fundamentally agree with that, BUT, at the same time, sales don't always go as we wish. Or that, on the contrary, things went really well for a period, but then volumes declined again.

This is where we need more KPIs to relate to in order to understand what this is due to. ☝️

Which KPIs are relevant in B2B e-commerce?

Apart from total sales volume, I think the following KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are interesting to track:

• Share of total sales (%)
  What share of total sales goes through e-commerce? It also helps us understand whether e-commerce is performing better or worse compared to the company as a whole.
• Average order value (amount)
  There may be natural differences compared to the company's total sales, partly because there may be more "small customers" using this channel.
• Upselling (% of sales, or amount)
  How well do we succeed in using the digital channel to create upselling?
• Customer satisfaction and/or NPS (Net Promoter Score)
  It is both simple and valuable to collect feedback from customers annually as well as on an ongoing basis. Preferably both with a quick overall rating and with qualitative responses.
• New customers (number of applications and number of actual customers)
  Many miss the opportunity to actively pursue new customers through their e-commerce solution. Here, a "tired" application and an enormously long form are not enough to attract new customers. You need to truly sell yourselves. We have examples of how we were able to tenfold the number of applications from new customers for a wholesaler, through a combination of landing page optimization and targeted advertising via social media. It is perfectly fine to think offensively even within B2B. 🥳

Good luck with your KPIs!