Have You Maximized Your Existing B2B Tech Stack?

If you’re a distributor struggling to get traction with your eCommerce platform, the first instinct is often to blame the technology.

But here’s the hard truth: it’s probably not your platform.

Before you start hunting for the next solution or worse, rebuilding from scratch ask yourself a different question:

Have you truly maximized the tech stack you already have?

What “Maximized” Actually Means

You might be surprised how many distributors I work with who are sitting on powerful systems but barely scratching the surface of what they can do. The ERP is solid. The eCommerce platform checks the boxes. You may even have a PIM, CRM, or marketing automation system in place.

But if your self service experience is struggling to be adopted, your customers still call or email orders, and your sales team rarely uses (or trusts) the site –  your stack is underperforming.

It’s probably not because of tech.

It’s usually to do with the lack of strategy, alignment, and activation.

3 Signs You’re Leaving Value on the Table

1. Your product content is still a mess.
Customers can’t buy what they can’t find. If they’re going to Google before they go to your site, or even worse, after they’ve visited your site, your product data and taxonomy need work.

2. Your sales team sees eCommerce as a threat.
If reps are bypassing the site or discouraging customers from using it, that’s a people and incentives issue not a tech one.

3. Your digital campaigns aren’t tied to workflows or customer behavior.

Are you emailing price lists… or helping customers complete orders they started online? If your marketing tools aren’t integrated into your commerce strategy, you’re missing the point.

You Don’t Need a New Platform. You Need a Better Plan.

Maximizing your tech stack isn’t about chasing the next shiny tool, it’s about taking a clear, strategic look at what’s already in place and how it’s being used (or not).

That starts with asking the right questions:

• Is your product data helping or hurting the customer experience?
• Do your sales teams understand how digital supports, not replaces, their role?
• Are your customers clear on how the site makes their job easier?

When you zoom out and look across systems, teams, and customer touchpoints, patterns emerge. You start to see where things are disconnected, underutilized, or just not working the way you thought they were.

That’s the work. And it’s the difference between launching technology and actually driving results with it.

Maximize Before You Modernize

The distributors winning in digital aren’t the ones with the newest tech.

They’re the ones who execute.

They build buy-in. They train their teams. They optimize what they already have. And only then, if the strategy demands it, they upgrade.

So, before you sign another software contract, pause and ask:

Have we actually maxed out what we already own?

If the answer is “I’m not sure,” this is your moment to dig in.