Italian ecommerce and B2B complexity – expert insights from Paola Corain

Italian B2B ecommerce is anything but simple. Between custom pricing, hybrid sales processes, and fragmented data, complexity is the norm rather than the exception.

In this Expert Insights interview, B2B expert Paola Corain shares practical insights into the Italian market – and explains how businesses can turn that complexity into real value.

Italian ecommerce landscape – context and trends

1. How would you describe the current state of ecommerce in Italy in 2026: what’s improving fastest, and what’s still lagging behind?

Ecommerce in Italy has grown up, just not everywhere at the same speed. B2C is still ahead. B2B is catching up now, after being ignored for quite a while, so we’re seeing a lot of replatforming projects coming from years of legacy systems. Companies have realized ecommerce is not just a side channel anymore, and they’re putting more effort into integrations, which is a good sign. Where things tend to get more complex is inside the organization. Processes are not always built with digital in mind, so when companies try to scale, it doesn’t feel as smooth as it should.

And then there’s data. It’s not just about using it, it’s about actually having it in a usable way. A lot of the time it’s there, but spread across systems, incomplete, or hard to connect. When you don’t fix these things, complexity just shows up later in the project.

2. What’s unique about Italy’s ecommerce landscape compared to other European markets?

In Italy, relationships still play a big role, even when you go digital. After all, we’re the country of relationships and expressive gestures 🤌🇮🇹😄

A lot of sales still go through agents, phone calls, and direct contact. Customers often have different conditions, usually negotiated. The idea of having product-specific pricing per customer is quite typical here, and not always easy to understand from the outside 😱.

More broadly, compared to other markets, we are less standardized and more flexible. That can be a strength, but only if it’s managed properly. Otherwise, it becomes hard to scale.

3. Which sectors in Italy are setting the pace for digital commerce right now, and which ones are still hesitant? Why?

Fashion, beauty and design are among the most advanced sectors, also because they operate internationally and are used to the pressure of B2C. Some distributors are making good progress as well, especially in more technical industries.

More traditional companies, and those strongly tied to physical sales networks, tend to move more slowly. There’s also a cultural aspect to consider. You still hear things like “we’ve always done it this way” or the idea that a specific business can’t really be digitalized.

On top of that, in some cases there’s a certain level of caution from leadership, or a limited familiarity with what technology can actually enable. A lot of it comes down to habits and how people deal with change.

Italian B2B merchant challenges

4. You’ve mentioned in a LinkedIn article that B2B isn’t linear – it’s complex. In Italy specifically, what are the most common sources of that complexity?

The sources of complexity in Italian B2B are quite consistent. You have customers with structured organizations, different roles, and approval processes. Then there are commercial conditions that vary from customer to customer, often even by product. On top of that, you have sales agents and a constant mix between online and offline processes.

There’s also something very typical of our market: a certain kind of “creativity” in how business is done. In a positive sense, because it allows companies to adapt and build strong relationships. But it’s also one of the reasons why processes are harder to standardize. This is normal in B2B. The issue comes when you try to oversimplify and force everything into models that don’t really reflect how the business actually works.

It’s better to accept it and work with it. I’ll borrow a line from a Pimcore pitch, as a Pimcore partner: “Don’t be afraid to face reality.” Complexity doesn’t disappear if you ignore it.

5. Where do Italian B2B merchants typically lose time and margin today, before checkout, at checkout, or after the order?

I’d say mostly before and after. First of all, in the product search and order building phase. In B2B it’s very different from B2C. Customers usually already know what they need and want to find it fast. They search by SKU, internal codes, customer-specific codes, attributes, sometimes even competitor codes or compatible products. If search isn’t designed for this, it quickly becomes a bottleneck. It’s not just about finding the product, but about getting useful results like alternatives, compatible items, and relevant suggestions.

Then there’s how the order is actually built. In B2B it needs to be fast. Features like quick order, CSV upload, or predefined lists make a real difference. If those are missing, people go back to email and Excel.

All of this is closely tied to data. If data is incomplete, inconsistent, or hard to connect, even a well-designed ecommerce experience won’t really work.

If these parts don’t work well upfront, the problem just shifts downstream. Time gets lost managing errors, changes, and requests. Customer service ends up acting as an operational support layer instead of focusing on higher-value activities.

Checkout, in most cases, is not the critical part.

6. How do “relationship-led sales” and ecommerce coexist in Italian B2B?

Maybe I’ve already touched on this earlier, because in Italy relationships still play a central role, even when you go digital.

Sales and ecommerce need to work together, otherwise they risk overlapping. Ecommerce takes care of everything that is repetitive and operational, like reorders, checking prices and availability. This allows the sales team to focus on what really matters: finding new customers, taking care of existing ones, and working on deals and new opportunities.

On top of that, ecommerce can also become a useful tool for sales. It gives better visibility into customer behavior and helps make interactions more continuous, not just tied to a visit or a phone call.

When it works well, it doesn’t replace relationships, it makes them more sustainable and more effective over time.

Agentic commerce and AI (grounded, not hype)

7. In a recent LinkedIn post you mentioned Agentic Commerce as a practical approach and not an abstract promise. What does it mean in day-to-day B2B operations?

In B2B, Agentic Commerce means bringing AI into day-to-day operations, making it work on concrete tasks instead of using it only as a conversational interface.

In practice, this translates into agents that support and speed up the work of buyers, sales teams, and customer service. They can rebuild recurring orders, prepare carts aligned with real pricing and availability, help select compatible products, generate quote requests, and handle updates on orders and shipments by interacting with company systems.

These tools operate on real data and defined business rules, such as pricing, commercial conditions, and logistics constraints. They fit into existing workflows without fully replacing them, but by reducing manual steps and response times.

In that sense, it’s a very practical approach. It focuses on the areas where B2B teams typically lose the most time, such as reorders, configurations, quoting, and operational management, making these activities faster and more reliable.

8. What needs to be in place – data quality, process maturity, org buy-in – before AI/agents can actually improve outcomes rather than add complexity?

First of all, you need a solid data foundation. The real value of AI and agents starts there. If data is not structured, up to date, and properly connected, AI simply can’t work effectively. In fact, it often ends up amplifying issues that are already there.

Then there’s the process side. They don’t need to be perfect, but they need to be clear. If a process is messy or constantly changing, it’s very hard to automate it in a meaningful way. Finally, there needs to be internal alignment. IT, business, and operations should share a common view of what they’re trying to achieve. If everyone is moving in different directions, even the best technology struggles to deliver results. That’s why getting data and processes in order first makes a big difference. That’s where real value is created, and it’s also why platforms that handle data management well become so important.

Open systems vs. closed systems (B2B fit)

9. Some argue that open systems are always better for B2B commerce. Do you agree? Why, or in which scenarios might a more closed approach be acceptable?

It really depends on the level of complexity. In B2B, things are rarely standard. You have custom pricing, specific processes, integrations with ERP or systems like a PIM, and many business rules that don’t fit into predefined models. In these cases, having an open system makes a real difference, because you can adapt the platform to the business, not the other way around.

That said, a more closed approach can work well when the model is simple and relatively stable. If there isn’t much variability and the priority is speed, then a more guided solution can make sense.

In the end, the real question is: which platform best fits my business?

10. If an Italian merchant asks you “Shopware or Shopify for B2B?”, how do you answer and why?

I usually start by looking at how the business actually works in practice. Because in B2B, especially in Italy, as mentioned earlier, complexity is the norm. But I don’t see it as something negative. It’s often a reflection of flexibility, of how companies adapt to their customers, pricing models, processes, and also to the importance of relationships, which in our market still play a central role. You have custom pricing, specific processes, strong integration needs, and a lot of exceptions. That’s where I often go back to a line I mentioned earlier: “Don’t be afraid to face reality.”

If your business has this kind of complexity, it makes sense to acknowledge it and choose a platform that can truly support it. That’s where a solution like Shopware makes more sense, especially in B2B scenarios where flexibility and control are not optional. It gives you the stability and flexibility you need to adapt to real business processes and to the specificities of the Italian market.

On the other hand, if the model is simpler and more standardized, then a platform like Shopify can work well and get you live quickly.

That said, I’m not always convinced that a pure SaaS approach is the best fit as complexity increases. At a certain point, you need more control, more flexibility, and a system that can really follow how your business operates.

About Paola Corain