Digital transformation isn’t a tech problem – it’s a people problem
We’re going to kick this off with some hard truths:
- Your new e-commerce platform won’t fix a culture problem
- Your e-commerce strategy doesn’t matter if no one actually follows it
- Your people can change, they just don’t want to (yet)
If B2B digital transformation was just about picking the right tech platform, more merchants and manufacturers would be crushing it. But spoiler: most aren’t. Because choosing the tech is the (relatively) easy part.
The hard part? Change. Messy, uncomfortable, opinion-filled, people-powered change.
Digital success needs a secret sauce
You know what spaghetti without sauce is? Dry. Unappealing. And likely to be scraped into the bin when you’re not looking.
That’s your shiny new e-commerce platform without intentional change management.
You can roll out the slickest site with AI search, real-time shipping quotes and an accompanying mobile app… but if your sales team doesn’t believe in it, your finance team won’t support it and your customers never adopt it?
That’s not digital transformation. It’s digital theatre.
The 5 lies that kill B2B digital projects
During his keynote talk at IRX 2025, Justin King (Global Managing Director, B2B eCommerce Association) revealed the five lies that we tell ourselves (or have been told) which must be confronted and debunked in order for a successful digital transformation project.
- “The way we’ve always done it works just fine.”
Translation: I don’t want to change. - “Our customers don’t want to order online.”
Translation: We’ve never made it easy enough for them to try. - “Our people won’t get it.”
Translation: We haven’t bothered to train or include them. - “That’s not our job.”
Translation: We don’t know or care whose job it is, so we’re doing nothing. - “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Translation: Let’s wait until it is broken, and then panic.
If you’ve heard any of these in your organisation – or said them yourself – you’re not alone. But now it’s time to get intentional about change.
E-commerce is not the point
This one might sting a bit for folks in the e-commerce team, but hear us out: digital commerce isn’t the goal. It’s the tool you use to help your buyers do their job better, faster, and with fewer “what the f*ck” moments.
So instead of measuring success by “percentage of sales through the website,” try this:
- How many repeat customers are using our self-service?
- Are we offering smarter ways to pay (like embedded trade credit)?
- Have we mapped the buyer journey and do our tools actually help?
Digital isn’t a channel. It’s an enabler. Your job is to build tools that work across sales, service and finance, and which feel invisible when done right.
Three KPIs you should care about
Let’s ditch the vanity metrics and focus on what moves the dial:
- Adoption – logins, repeat usage, trade credit applications, digital quote requests
- Conversion – not just checkout rate, but conversion across teams: are your sales reps using your tools?
- Efficiency – how much time (and money) are you saving by going digital? Fewer emails? Fewer invoice chases?
Pro tip: the attitude towards digital transformation will change when your team understands that adoption is not just an e-commerce KPI. It’s a business one.
Drive adoption with smarter payments
Want a surprisingly effective lever to drive adoption? Make payments smarter.
When you embed trade credit into your e-commerce flow, customers have a compelling reason to register, log in and stick around.
Even better: you’re solving real finance friction without needing a sales rep to hand-hold every order.
Offering payment terms or trade accounts online builds trust, boosts AOV and makes your platform more useful. That’s change management in disguise: giving people tools that actually work, and watching the behaviour shift.
Start small, win big
You don’t need a 3-year roadmap and a 92-slide deck to get started with digital transformation. You need one real problem, one simple solution, and one team aligned to make it happen.
Pick something small but painful – say, the nightmare of repeat order approvals or customer onboarding – and fix that. Then do the next thing. Then the next.
The momentum builds. The culture shifts. The sauce starts sticking to the spaghetti (is this analogy working? We’re just getting hungry.)
TL;DR: if people don’t change, nothing changes
Digital transformation isn’t about tech. It’s about humans.
It’s about challenging assumptions, rewiring habits and creating tools that make life easier.
It’s about getting buy-in across the business, not just from the CMO or Head of e-commerce. Because if your people aren’t on board, even the smartest platform in the world is doomed to fail.
Need a nudge in the right direction?
We help B2B businesses embed flexible payment terms and trade accounts into their digital platforms, not just to increase conversion, but to drive adoption and loyalty. Change management starts with solving real problems. Let’s solve one together.
