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Commerce is a Business Reporter client

UK B2B commerce is moving fast, but new research shows many businesses are struggling to keep up.

UK B2B commerce is splitting in two, and the divide is growing faster than most businesses realise.

The Inevitable Shift, a new report examining digital adoption across UK B2B, found that more than 42 per cent of businesses have no e-commerce technology stack at all. And nearly half have no plans to make any digital investment in the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, the businesses pulling ahead – those integrating platforms, automating workflows and modernising how they operate – are outperforming their peers by a significant margin.

The difference between the two groups is growing, and it is becoming harder to bridge.

Two speeds, one market

Some businesses are advancing with intent – investing in AI, automation and connected commerce infrastructure. Others are standing still, often not out of resistance but uncertainty about where to start and what will actually deliver a return.

The divide is sharpest across certain industries:

This is not simply a technology gap. It is a commercial one. Businesses that are investing in digital are seeing stronger customer satisfaction, faster operations and more efficient teams. Those that aren’t are absorbing the cost in lost deals, slower response times and buyer experiences that no longer meet modern expectations.

Being “hybrid” is not the same as being digital

One of the more striking findings is that 52 per cent of UK B2B businesses identify as hybrid – selling both online and offline. On the surface, that sounds encouraging.

In practice, it often masks a much shallower level of digital integration than the label implies. For many, hybrid means a basic web presence or a manual online quote form. Not a fully operational commerce experience.

The appearance of progress without the infrastructure to support it is one of the most common traps in B2B today. Buyers are not fooled. When the experience does not hold up, they find a competitor that makes it easier.

The growth lever most businesses are ignoring

The research also surfaces a consistently underutilised opportunity: payments.

For most UK B2B businesses, payment remains a back-office function, dominated by bank transfers, purchase orders and manual reconciliation. Yet 65 per cent of large B2B businesses say payment flexibility is important to closing deals.

The businesses treating payments as part of the customer experience – offering flexible terms, integrated credit options and real-time visibility – are not just making it easier to buy. They are building trust at the point of conversion, reducing the friction that causes deals to stall after they are agreed and improving cash flow predictability across the business.

The competitive advantage here is real, and most businesses are leaving it on the table.

Who owns your digital strategy?

Digital progress also requires the right internal conditions.

The research found that 36 per cent of UK B2B businesses place digital investment decisions solely with the CEO or board. Just 8 per cent have cross-functional governance structures in place.

When ownership of digital strategy is siloed, execution suffers. Investments stall, tools underdeliver and no one owns the outcomes.

The businesses getting this right tend to share a few traits: dedicated digital leadership that reports into the senior team, shared KPIs across functions and budget allocated for change management and adoption – not just licences.

The cost of standing still

The divide between UK B2B businesses that are moving forward and those that are not is widening. And the longer businesses wait, the harder it becomes to close that gap.

The barriers are real: cost, complexity, internal resistance and uncertainty about ROI. But the research is clear: the businesses choosing not to act are not standing still. They are falling behind.

For businesses looking to understand where they sit in this landscape and what it will take to move forward, Commerce – the parent company of BigCommerce, Feedonomics and Makeswift – works with B2B organisations across the UK and globally to help navigate exactly that complexity.

In a market where 44 per cent of businesses have no digital investment plans and the gap between leaders and laggards is measurably widening, the more pressing question is not whether to act. It is how much ground is already being lost while the decision is still being made.

Download the full report to explore the data behind the UK B2B digital divide and find out where your industry stands.