The customer experience gap in B2B eCommerce and how to close it

Louise Arnold
1 day ago
3 min read

Why B2B eCommerce teams need to rethink visibility of CX

Meeting B2B buyers B2C expectations

In B2B eCommerce, the traditional focus has been on availability and functionality. If the site is up and orders are coming in, it's considered a success. But in today’s competitive landscape, that's no longer enough. 90% of global B2B buyers expect a digital experience that reflects B2C. Journey speed, consistency, and ease of use have a direct and measurable impact on customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and long-term retention.

The complexity of B2B customer journeys

Unlike B2C, B2B customer journeys are rarely straightforward. They often involve account-specific pricing, tailored product ranges and complex trading terms. Add to this large order volumes and high frequency orders, and you have a digital environment that's far more vulnerable to - and less tolerant of - CX and performance issues.

Standard monitoring tools that track uptime or server health don’t measure what the customer actually experiences. A page may technically load, but if it takes too long or fails to display a price or product details, it can prevent checkout.

How Brakes approach CX measurement

Brakes the UK’s leading food and drink wholesaler, recognised these challenges early. With 90% of their orders coming through digital channels, and over £1 billion flowing through their website annually, they knew that any CX disruption could impact both customer satisfaction and revenue.

Brakes implemented real-world user journey CX monitoring to measure the performance of key customer routes—across real desktop and mobile browsers. This gave them visibility into what customers actually experience when performing tasks on the site, not just what their infrastructure says. It also leads to early detection of CX and performance issues so Brakes can act promptly to invoke the correct fix, minimising disruption and keeping customers happy.

Key Lessons for B2B Teams

Speed and consistency drive NPS and retention

Brakes established a clear link: a 10% increase in journey speed led to a 4.4% improvement in NPS. And a better NPS is closely tied to stronger customer retention and reduced churn.

Proactive detection matters

Real-time alerts and journey monitoring let Brakes spot and fix issues before they escalated—often before customers noticed.

Not all errors are equal

Some issues, like missing prices or add-to-basket failures, directly impact revenue. Others, like a missing image, affect brand perception. Monitoring needs to reflect that and help teams prioritise accordingly.

CX visibility from the end user perspective is essential

Internal dashboards often miss issues rooted in front-end performance, third-party scripts, or customer-specific logic. Real-world user journey monitoring fills that gap by showing exactly what the user experiences.

What should B2B eCommerce leaders do next?

Measure real customer journeys not internal metrics or uptime. Review what your current monitoring actually measures. Does it deliver a true view of customer experience?

Monitor with real browsers. Identify your most critical end-to-end digital journeys and monitor them continuously on the same browsers your end users are utilising.

Unite team with unified metrics. Consolidate insights from IT, marketing, and customer service to build a shared view of digital experience. This helps align priorities and accelerates resolution.
Quantify the business impact of CX. Start tying journey-level metrics to business KPIs like NPS, conversion, and churn and prioritise CX and performance accordingly.

Final Thought

Brakes' approach shows what’s possible when B2B organisations prioritise CX with the right tools and mindset. In a space where relationships, repeat business, and long-term trust are everything, digital performance isn’t just a tech issue—it’s a growth strategy.

Brakes uses thinkTRIBE’s Digital CX Intelligence Monitoring to gain real-world visibility into performance, improve journey speed, and protect revenue through stronger customer experience.