Forrester Forecasts US B2B E-Commerce $3T By 2027

July 12, 2022

While US B2B e-commerce sales reached $1.7 trillion in 2021, a new forecast from Forrester (2022 B2B E-Commerce Forecast, US) finds that this volume is estimated to exceed $2 trillion in 2023 and $3 trillion by 2027. US B2B e-commerce, which will grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7%, will also account for 24% of total US B2B sales by 2027 — compared to 16% in 2021.

Forrester defines B2B e-commerce as the sale of B2B products by manufacturers directly to businesses and by wholesalers and distributors indirectly to businesses. The following subsections present the US B2B market growth trends and forecast by transaction type, seller type, and industry type.

Forrester’s B2B e-commerce forecast further finds that:

US B2B e-commerce sales saw recording-breaking growth in 2021. After a decline of 6.5% year-over-year (YoY) in 2020, US B2B sales rebounded strongly in 2021 with a growth of 22.0% YoY — the highest growth to date. B2B e-commerce sales also witness their highest growth ever, at 22.9% YoY.

Four industries constitute 60% of B2B e-commerce sales. Across all industries, drugs and druggists’ sundries (including biological and medical products, botanical drugs and herbs, and pharmaceutical products) saw the highest e-commerce sales — $372 billion — in 2021. Grocery and related products, electrical and electronic goods, and motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts follow next, constituting nearly 60% of total US B2B e-commerce sales.

The share of B2B e-commerce transactions will keep increasing. US B2B e-commerce sales will grow at a rate of 10.7% over the next five years. At the same time, the share of offline sales growth in total B2B sales will decline from 63% in 2022 to 55% in 2027. The share of electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions will increase slightly from 20% in 2022 to 21% in 2027, while the share of e-commerce sales will rise from 17% in 2022 to 24% in 2027.