48% of B2B orders in the Netherlands are placed online

The percentage of the employed labor force that placed an online business order in the past twelve months grew by 9%, from 39% in 2019 to 48% this year. This is evident from the B2B E-commerce Markt Monitor 2020. In addition, more and more web shops are (also) targeting business customers. The expectation is often that B2B lags behind the B2C sector. However, more than 70% of business orderers, the buying experience is the same as for consumers and almost a quarter even has a better business experience.

Largest growth in the construction industry

The largest growth is realized in the construction industry, with 60% of the businesses placed at least one online order in the past twelve months - compared to 44% in 2019. This puts the construction industry past business services as the industry with the highest percentage of online buyers. Other branches who experienced a strong growth are the catering and trade branches.

More specialized goods are ordered

Just like last year, business online buyers mainly order office supplies and computers online. It is striking that this year too, large and more specialized goods are often ordered online, such as raw materials and semi-finished products.

Payment methods

When asked about their preference for payment method for a business online order, 38% of the respondents indicated that they pay by invoice and 36% pay via iDEAL. Credit cards (9%), AfterPay (5%) and PayPal (4%) follow at a great distance.

Delivery

The most important delivery aspects are low delivery costs and being able to track the product. Almost a third of business online buyers indicate that this is important. Furthermore, return options also seem important. 77% let the choice of the web shop depend on the return policies. Moreover, 20% will cancel the order if there is no possibility to return. This is striking, since the B2B sector has no right of return in the Netherlands.