B2B Sees Faster Online Sales Growth than B2C

Content Manager

B2B ecommerce has grown at a faster sales pace than B2C, according to Epsilon’s 2014 Multichannel Trend Report.

B2B online sales grew nearly 8% during that time, and accounted for nearly two-thirds of all sales, according to the Epsilon report.

B2C online sales increased 2% in 2013 vs. 2012.  For both B2B and B2C, the proportion of mail order/call center purchases saw a decline.

Consumer goods saw an increase of 2%, as a result of a rise in average order values and frequency in purchases.

Sales in the direct-to-consumer market grew 1% with the average transaction growing 2% to $83 in 2013.

“As your customers spend more and more time on mobile devices and online, it’s not surprising that there’s a notable impact on where they are researching product and making purchases,” said Tim Prunk, SVP of Epsilon Data Solutions in the press release. “We’ve seen a steady 1 to 2% increase in online spending for the past several consecutive years with steady retail, in-store sales.”

In 2013, 10 out of 18 product categories in the B2C segment reported growth.  The top five growing B2C categories include:  home décor and furniture, arts and crafts/collectables, kitchen, female apparel and fashion accessories and beauty.

Arts and crafts/collectables and the kitchen categories have had historically negative growth.

In the B2B space, marketers experienced overall growth of 1% over 2012.  Of the 12 B2B product categories, five posted positive sales including ad specialty, food gifts, HR training/seminars, magazines/newsletter/books and tools and agriculture.

Epsilon’s 2014 Multichannel Trend Report is an annual report which aggregates 2013 merchandise purchase data from the Abacus Cooperative database. The findings indicate substantial growth across key metrics in the omnichannel buyer’s analysis.