B2B e-commerce trends for 2025 – how to adapt to current challenges and achieve success?

The growing importance of the Chinese market, the slowdown in the economy in Western Europe, the entry of generation Z into the labor market and the increasing potential of automation and new technologies in business are just a few examples of factors that will influence the functioning of enterprises in the coming years.

So how do you prepare for the new reality? To be able to develop the right strategy, it is worth knowing the B2B e-commerce trends of 2025.

Inclusiveness and adaptation to the needs of people with disabilities

Ensuring the widest possible availability of the store's offer and adapting B2B platforms to specific needs is already an increasingly common practice in e-commerce. In 2025, however, this will not only become an optional convenience used by some entrepreneurs, but an obligation for all economic entities.

From 28 June 2025 , the Act on ensuring compliance with accessibility requirements for certain products and services by economic entities will come into force , which introduces Directives (EU) 2019/882 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services. The new obligations will apply to manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers, distributors and service providers.

What exactly does this mean for B2B e-commerce owners? First of all, they will be required to ensure that websites, applications, instructions or contracts are accessible in a form that anyone can use, regardless of their disability.

The Act specifies, among other things, that information should be made available through various sensory channels (so that it can be perceived by sight or hearing), presented in a comprehensible and visible manner, and presented in an appropriate font with sufficient contrast and spacing between letters, lines and paragraphs.

The fact that broadly understood inclusiveness is undoubtedly one of the B2B e-commerce trends of 2025 is not only due to the legal status. Expanding the availability of the offer should also be important for entrepreneurs because it allows them to reach new customer groups.

This is particularly important in the context of the fact that purchasing decisions – also in the B2B model – are increasingly made by representatives of Generation Z, which is entering the labor market and for whom openness and transparency of communication are a very important value.

Cross-border e-commerce – new challenges in B2B trade

Cross-border e-commerce is a trend that has been present in Poland for several years now. In 2025, cross-border trade will undoubtedly be at least as important as before. Will the situation of companies planning to enter foreign markets look the same as, for example, in 2020?

Definitely not. Polish companies will have to face challenges that are completely new or have significantly increased in importance over the past few years. What factors are we talking about?

The first major challenge is the slowdown of economies in Western Europe. According to the latest data, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the European Union increased by 0.3% in the third quarter of 2024. In the case of Germany – our most important trading partner – the economic growth amounted to only 0.1%. According to experts, this confirms that this economy is struggling with stagnation and is at risk of recession.

Another important issue related to cross-border trade is the growing importance of Chinese marketplaces. According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, exports from three major Chinese marketplaces at Shanghai airports increased tenfold in 2023 alone. Additionally, more than 40% of consumers from the European Union and the United Kingdom made an e-commerce purchase from Chinese sellers that year.

This huge increase in popularity of the platforms in question is primarily due to the attractive prices of the products, which are often due to the use of unfair competition practices and the exploitation of loopholes in EU law.

Despite the emergence of new challenges related to cross-border trade, e-commerce expansion abroad still represents an extremely important opportunity for Polish companies. Entering new markets allows for scaling B2B business, achieving higher margins and reaching many new customers.

However, it is important to remember that in order to achieve success, it is necessary to carefully develop a harmonious cross-border e-commerce strategy and take into account the new realities on European and global markets.

If your company is not yet ready for new challenges, you should implement the appropriate changes as soon as possible. Are you not sure what specific actions are worth taking? Then contact the specialists from Ideo who will help you optimize your e-commerce.

Using AI to manage and scale e-commerce

The huge importance of artificial intelligence in business development is emphasized in reports on trends in almost every sector of the economy. It is no different in the case of e-commerce - AI in e-commerce will play an extremely important role in 2025.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has helped to optimize many processes that previously consumed hundreds of hours of work and generated significant costs. The benefits of using this solution were experienced by, among others, GT Group Tomaszek , for which we implemented AI mechanisms to automate and personalize e-commerce content as part of our implementation .

The use of artificial intelligence in such areas is already becoming more frequent on the Polish e-commerce market. According to the Ceneo Trends on the e-commerce market in Poland report published in 2024, only 33% of surveyed online stores do not currently use AI.

In other cases, the use of artificial intelligence is based on simple applications such as: creating offer descriptions (23%), creating content for communication with customers, e.g. social media, newsletter (15%) or website corrections (8%). Using AI solely to automate these tasks may no longer be sufficient in 2025. In the near future, innovative B2B companies will begin to use AI to optimize even more complex processes. Artificial intelligence will be used, among other things, to personalize the offer for markets and customers, plan logistics or automate the offer and improve sales processes in B2B.

Implementing AI mechanisms in these areas may mean to be or not to be for many Polish companies. Achieving a technological advantage, which the use of artificial intelligence allows, can translate into huge profits. There is currently huge potential associated with the use of AI in e-commerce. Companies that decide to use it will have the chance to outdo their competitors and significantly strengthen their position on the market.

B2B e-commerce marketplace: growing specialization and product offering

Another important trend in B2B e-commerce 2025 is the growing popularity of B2B marketplaces and the emergence of sales platforms with a greater level of specialization and a richer offer. All companies that want to increase their efficiency should be aware of the consequences of this change. The growing importance of marketplaces will be associated with both numerous opportunities and challenges.

What benefits can companies gain by taking appropriate action? The emergence of new, specialized sales platforms will primarily allow for reaching a huge group of customers interested in purchasing specific products or services. Importantly, this can be achieved without spending huge amounts of money on marketing activities.

On the other hand, there will be many sellers on specialized marketplaces. Buyers will be able to compare individual offers immediately. It will be much more difficult to stand out from the competition and encourage customers to choose our products and services. The huge importance of sales platforms means that balancing actions and developing a balanced strategy for B2B marketplace integration will be extremely important for every company. If you want your company to be able to adapt to this trend without any problems, we invite you to contact our specialists from Ideo, who will help you achieve your goals.

B2B Automation as a Necessity, Not a Choice

Many experts have been talking about the importance of process automation for the effective operation of a company for years. Therefore, this summary could not fail to mention its importance. In 2025, however, automation will be much more than just a trend. In many cases, the form in which key processes will take place will determine whether a given organization will be able to survive on the market.

The huge importance of B2B automation stems from several factors. First, companies that have already taken steps related to automation will be much better at responding to customer expectations.

Automating B2B logistics and other aspects of an organization's operations can, for example, significantly improve the speed of order fulfillment and the quality of service, as well as reduce the risk of errors. This will make customers more willing to choose the offers of companies that already use modern solutions.

The second reason why B2B automation will be so important this year is the changes in the labor market. Rising candidate expectations and increases in the minimum wage may make manual execution of individual processes no longer profitable.

Automation will not only be an additional convenience and streamlining factor – it will be an activity necessary to maintain profitability. It is worth remembering that B2B automation involves different challenges than B2C e-commerce. The lack of quick results and the need for long-term planning mean that it is worth starting to implement changes as early as possible. In this case, too, using the support of our experts from Ideo can be extremely helpful.

Authenticity in business – an invaluable asset in uncertain times

It is worth ending the summary of B2B e-commerce trends 2025 by pointing out a value that is becoming increasingly important for all customers these days – including business customers. This value is authenticity in business, which should be regularly built by entrepreneurs.

But why do we pay attention to brand credibility and authenticity now? First of all, because 2025 will be a time of unpredictability in many ways. As we indicated earlier in the article, there will be many changes in the market and more and more threats will be present.

It is in times of uncertainty that customers will be much more willing to use the offer of companies that stand out with a clear communication style, timeliness and reliability. Authenticity will therefore become the foundation of long-term success in B2B. Knowledge of B2B e-commerce trends 2025 will certainly help every company find its way in the new realities.

Knowledge of opportunities and threats alone is useless if it is not followed by concrete actions. So if you want to implement changes that will help your organization adapt to the constantly changing expectations of the market, contact our experts from Ideo!