German B2B ecommerce to grow 33%

B2B ecommerce is coming of age in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy.

B2B ecommerce in Germany grew by 30.7% in 2021 to 352 billion Euros (US $374 billion), says a recent report from ECC KÖLN, Intershop, Adobe and Creditreform. In 2022, German B2B ecommerce will grow even faster by 33.5% and reach over 400 billion Euro (US $499 billion), the report says. “B2B e-commerce has been growing steadily since 2012 and will continue to gain relevance in the future, especially for manufacturers and wholesalers,” the report says.

Manufacturers and wholesalers generate large shares of their turnover primarily through EDI (electronic data interchange), but increasingly also from ecommerce sites and marketplaces, according to the report. All in, B2B digital sales, including EDI, ecommerce sites and marketplaces, reached 1.5 trillion euros in 2021 (US $1.5 trillion), according to ECC KÖLN, Intershop, Adobe and Creditreform.

98% of the B2B companies surveyed also use personalization tools, the report says. “Personalized product recommendations are high on the agenda of B2B decision makers due to their cross-selling and upselling potential. To find out which type of recommendation is likely to lead to a conversion, the use of AI-based algorithms is recommended. This is how e-commerce quickly becomes a profitable sales channel,” says Intershop executive vice president customer success Tobias Giese.