Home Depot deepens B2B push
Home Depot announced a $5 billion acquisition of GMS, a distributor of drywall, ceilings, and specialty building products. This follows its $18 billion SRS acquisition and brings the company’s B2B business to approximately 45% of total revenue, nearly matching its consumer business.
The hosts observed that major retailers are recognizing B2B as a more stable revenue stream. B2B customers are more loyal, negotiate less aggressively, and represent consistent demand compared to consumer retail.
Home Depot is 45% B2B now. Lowe’s is around 30%. These are not retail companies that dabble in B2B. They are becoming B2B companies with retail businesses.
Andy Hoar, Master B2B
Staffing ratios reveal gaps
Forrester Research found B2C retailers average one full-time employee per $1.5 to $4 million in ecommerce sales. B2B enterprises average one employee per $10 to $25 million. A $100 million B2C ecommerce operation might have 40 to 60 people. A similar B2B operation often has a fraction of that headcount.
The hosts attributed this to B2B companies modeling staffing on offline sales rep productivity rather than digital commerce requirements. The legacy of thinking about ecommerce as an extension of sales rather than a distinct capability persists.
Practitioners agree: teams too small
A Master B2B LinkedIn poll found 88% of practitioners believe their ecommerce teams are too small, 12% said too large, and zero percent said just the right size. The unanimous absence of right-sized responses suggests a systemic issue across the industry rather than company-specific circumstances.
Zero percent said their team is the right size. Zero. That tells you everything about how the industry views this.
Brian Beck, Master B2B
Missing roles compound the problem
Master B2B research found 88% of B2B companies do not have a dedicated web merchandiser. In B2C, this role determines how products display, which items appear in search results, and how categories are organized. B2B companies often have no one owning these decisions.
Prior Forrester research found only 33% of B2B companies have a chief marketing officer. When marketing functions as sales support rather than a strategic function, specialized ecommerce roles never get created.
Why understaffing persists
Isaiah Bowlinger of Zab commented that B2B companies see ecommerce as capturing existing revenue rather than generating new business. This makes it hard to justify investment beyond keeping things running. Leadership views digital as channel shift, not channel lift.
Emily Hansen Serrano of Taylor Corporation noted that B2B customers expect B2C experiences, but companies lack the specialized retail ecommerce talent to deliver them. Merchandising, optimization, and personalization require skills that many B2B companies have never hired.
AI as future solution
The hosts acknowledged that AI may eventually address some staffing gaps. Functions like content generation, search optimization, and customer service routing could be handled by AI systems. Some companies are already listing AI agents on org charts alongside human staff.
However, whether humans or AI fill these roles, the underlying problem remains: B2B companies have underinvested in digital commerce capabilities. The question is not just how many people but whether the functions exist at all.