2024 Industry Outlook: Q&A with Commercetools' Bruno Teuber

Bruno joined commercetools as CRO in November 2019, when the entire Global Go to Market team was roughly 15 employees strong.

The move followed his long history of working with SaaS companies and he worked to build commercetools’ foundations and infrastructure to grow in line with the market demand and drive its strategic vision forward. 

Today, it is an established global company, working primarily in the Americas, EMEA, and ANZ to help organisations deliver unique commerce experiences.

Here, Bruno explores how businesses can address the needs of today’s B2B buyers and what the future looks like for the industry. 

What would you say the current B2B market looks like?

There appears to be a growing emphasis on digital transformation in the B2B manufacturing sector at the moment, with more firms looking to automate systems and adopt smart technologies. While the industry has customarily operated on complex and interpersonal sales models, consumers have started to demand more modern, personalised experiences as society enters a digitally focused era.

It’s interesting to see that the global B2B e-commerce market is anticipated to reach a CAGR of USD 18 billion by 2028, a crucial figure for manufacturers to consider as they look to address the demands of today’s B2B customers.

As such, we’ve seen more manufacturers search for effective ways to advance their digital transformation initiatives, enhance their supply chain, and create a more accommodating experience for customers.

Why do you think B2B manufacturing has been slow to adopt digital transformation?

Aside from sticking with established, tried-and-true methods, I believe a series of external challenges have impacted manufacturers’ abilities to drive digital initiatives.

Setbacks like high inflation rates, supply chain disruptions, and political challenges could certainly be contributors to the slow progress of these operational transitions. Though the pandemic played a role in driving digital transformation initiatives by limiting face-to-face sales, it appears that B2B manufacturers still face a long road ahead.

Another factor holding B2B manufacturers back from digital transformation is a fear of lost revenue.

Historically, e-commerce platforms haven’t been a primary driver of revenue, creating a sector-wide hesitation to invest in digital solutions. But as the market evolves, it’s become clear that organisations need to act now to meet the fluctuating demands of modern consumers.

This means finding the agility and flexibility to provide an always-on customer experience.

With that in mind, what do B2B manufacturers need to stay competitive?

To remain competitive in 2024, it’s crucial for B2B manufacturers to accept mild disruption as a part of business growth.

While moving toward new technologies requires time and resources to thoroughly research, plan, and invest, manufacturers can unlock new revenue streams and generate more market expansion opportunities by embracing the capabilities of e-commerce.

As more manufacturers understand the need for change, we’ve witnessed a surge in demand for reliable supply chain solutions, with businesses opting for all-in-one, monolithic platforms to enhance operational efficiency.

Despite these efforts, the one-size-fits-all approach has struggled to accommodate the complexities of B2B manufacturing, such as handling order volumes, managing pricing structures, and integrating with specialised enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

To address these challenges, manufacturers could consider investing in more sophisticated, agile tech stacks that allow them to scale up or down at a moment’s notice. With composable commerce, for example, manufacturers can minimise business disruption while gaining the flexibility to ensure rapid adaptability to changing market conditions.

You mentioned ‘composable commerce’ - what is it, and how does it work in B2B manufacturing?

To put it simply, composable commerce is essentially a modular approach to e-commerce. It allows companies to pick the right commerce features for their specific needs and seamlessly integrate them into their systems.

In this, manufacturers can incorporate a unique selection of segments into their e-commerce platforms, allowing them to create an entirely original shopping experience with the agility to adapt their sales model instantly.

Composable commerce can help B2B manufacturers acclimatise to changing market conditions with practically unlimited scalability. This fundamentally future-proofs operations by removing the need for expensive and disruptive upgrades as the market evolves.

Manufacturing company Normet shows just how manufacturers can turn a long, complicated sales process into a smooth and easy customer journey. With composable commerce, it launched an online catalogue with 65,000 products, making product discovery and purchasing much more straightforward, greatly improving the overall experience.

Another plus side to this approach is that B2B manufacturers don’t have to start from scratch, with purpose-built composable architectures available on the market. From there, manufacturers can leverage accessible resources to achieve the high-quality customer experience that consumers appreciate.

So, what’s next for B2B manufacturers? Where is the market heading?

The B2B manufacturing market seems to be gearing up for an era of change, adapting to the external circumstances that once held it back, with an impressive 94% of manufacturers set to rework their market strategy in the near future.

For manufacturers already on board with e-commerce, the next step is likely investing in new technologies like PIM systems, AI, and machine learning to upgrade their operations further. At the end of the day, it's all about staying ahead of the curve and being ready to adapt when necessary.

The sooner manufacturers embrace these changes and invest in the right technologies, the more poised they’ll be to thrive in this evolving market.

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