Today, B2B customers expect seamless digital purchasing processes but do not want to completely forego human consultation from sales teams. Therefore, growth requires Hybrid Selling (also: Hybrid Commerce). However, true competitive advantages only arise when companies not only connect their shop and sales processes but also holistically optimize their workflows with AI.
Many B2B companies want to offer their customers modern buying experiences. The goal is Hybrid Selling, Hybrid Commerce, or even Omnichannel Selling: the seamless connection of all contact points for a customer-centric shopping experience and more effective sales. However, companies are often slowed down by historically grown tool landscapes, obsolete processes, and rigid commerce systems.
To this day, sales and e-commerce teams often operate in completely isolated silos. In practice, this means sales representatives are flying blind. They lack critical customer and product information or have to compile data manually. This approach is not only error-prone and inefficient, but it also prolongs the sales cycle and damages the customer relationship when information gaps become apparent.
Legacy monolithic commerce platforms aren't built for the modern business landscape. Rigid data models, custom code, and a lack of APIs make it difficult to connect processes across departments and adapt them dynamically. Yet, this is exactly what is needed for companies to respond quickly to market changes, integrate new touchpoints, and optimize workflows.
B2B customers interact with providers through many touchpoints before making a purchase decision: from social media to personal meetings to the online store. If touchpoints aren't managed in an integrated way to create a unified, personalized customer experience, it creates unnecessary hurdles for the sales team.
Hybrid selling combines digital and in-person interactions to create a better buying and service experience for customers. While this requires companies to invest in their technical infrastructure and redesign processes, the ROI is realized quickly.
Growth through Sales and E-Commerce Integration: In hybrid sales, sales reps can provide more targeted support, while digital commerce tools streamline standard orders. In practice, this consistently leads to higher conversion rates. According to a McKinsey study, companies achieve revenue increases of up to 50%. At the same time, they can scale more easily as sales growth is decoupled from headcount.
Meeting Rising Customer Expectations: In B2B, customers want the speed and convenience of online stores but also access to expert consultants when needed. Hybrid selling—the integration of digital commerce and sales—enables companies to meet these expectations. They orchestrate their processes to offer a seamless, professional brand experience that strengthens customer trust and loyalty.
Greater Resilience to Market Changes Market: fluctuations, supply bottlenecks, new global competitors—companies must deal with this reality. With hybrid selling, sales and commerce access a shared data foundation. Emporix’s ACE platform takes this a step further: AI Agents use real-time information to automate process steps, ensuring customers are always advised correctly and supplied on time, despite short-term changes.
Scalability Without the Resource Trap: When traditional B2B organizations try to grow, complexity spikes: more offers mean more coordination and more support. Hybrid selling breaks this dynamic, allowing companies to scale fast without linear cost increases. Automated digital processes unburden the sales team, allowing them to focus on value-added customer interactions.
Deep Dive: Why Hybrid Selling Experiences Are the Key to Competing in Modern B2B Commerce
There isn't just one way to implement hybrid sales, but the following three elements are prerequisites for success in any setting.
Hybrid selling isn't a tool you can just plug in; it is a holistic strategy that transforms technology, processes, and roles. Implementation should be gradual. The following 5-point roadmap has proven effective in practice and helps companies achieve quick wins:
Want an easy start to hybrid selling? With Emporix’s ACE platform, you get an AI-powered system to not only seamlessly connect commerce and sales processes but also intelligently automate them. For measurably greater sales success.
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In B2B commerce, a B2C mentality is increasingly taking hold: Just like in private shopping, customers expect intuitive self-services, transparent information, and personal advice all at once. The answer is B2B/B2C hybrid selling, which seamlessly networks digital commerce processes with sales. However, to gain a real competitive edge, companies now need to think bigger.
Those wanting to position themselves for the future rely on commerce solutions that not only orchestrate all relevant systems (PIM, ERP, CRM) but also minimize internal effort as much as possible through AI-supported automation.
Emporix is a leading provider in this space with its ACE platform. AI Agents accelerate workflows, make smart decisions, and ensure cost efficiency. The future belongs to Autonomous Commerce Execution (ACE), and it has already begun. Get to know the platform and all its features firsthand.