Five Real-World Transformations: Use Cases on How Distributors Improved Their Online Performance

It’s easy to talk about what good B2B e-commerce should look like. It’s harder to see how change actually plays out inside real distribution businesses, with real constraints and legacy decisions to work around. That’s why examples matter; not polished success stories, but practical transformations that show what’s possible when focus is applied in the right places.

What follows aren’t overnight turnarounds. They’re measured improvements that delivered meaningful commercial results.

From catalogue sprawl to usable product discovery

One distributor came with a familiar problem. Thousands of SKUs, inconsistent naming and filters that technically existed but rarely helped buyers narrow options. Traffic levels were healthy, yet conversion lagged behind expectations.

The focus wasn’t on redesign. It was on structure. Product data was rationalised, categories rebuilt around buyer logic and search tuned to reflect how customers actually described products. The result was simpler navigation and faster decision-making.

Conversion improved, but just as importantly, customer service queries dropped. Buyers found what they needed without assistance.

Stabilising a platform before scaling it

Another business was preparing for growth, but didn’t trust its platform to cope. Performance issues surfaced during peak demand, and integrations failed unpredictably. A rebuild was on the table, but the risk was high.

Instead, the first step was stabilisation. Technical debt was addressed, integrations were hardened, and performance bottlenecks were removed. Only once the platform was reliable did further improvements follow.

This approach reduced risk and built internal confidence. Growth didn’t introduce new problems; it simply increased volume through a system that could handle it.

Making online ordering commercially viable

In one case, online ordering existed in theory but not in practice. Pricing rarely matched agreements, and customers still relied on account managers to validate every order. The site functioned more as a brochure than a channel.

The transformation focused on aligning pricing logic, customer accounts and product visibility. Once buyers could log in and trust what they saw, behaviour changed quickly.

Online orders increased, and sales teams spent less time on administration and more time on relationship management.

Turning data cleanup into a growth lever

A distributor with strong marketing activity struggled to convert interest into revenue. Campaigns performed well, but bounce rates were high, and buyers hesitated.

The issue came back to data. Specifications were incomplete, downloads were missing and categorisation varied by supplier. A structured data audit and cleanup programme followed.

The impact wasn’t flashy, but it was powerful. Pages converted more consistently, search became more useful, and marketing spend delivered better returns without increasing volume.

Supporting transformation without disruption

Not every transformation involved a major change. In one example, a business needed to modernise gradually without disrupting customers or internal teams.

Improvements were phased. Search was optimised first, then navigation, then automation. Each step delivered measurable gains while maintaining continuity.

This approach proved that transformation doesn’t have to be disruptive to be effective.

What these stories have in common

Across each example, success didn’t come from chasing trends or features. It came from understanding how customers buy, where friction existed and how to remove it methodically.

For leaders and marketing teams, the takeaway is simple. Real progress comes from focused improvements grounded in operational reality. With the right diagnosis, transformation becomes less about risk and more about momentum.