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How B2B eCommerce finally learned to serve the rep, not replace them. For Cloudfy, this was never a revelation. It was the foundation.
More than a decade ago, Robert Williams wrote about harnessing the salesperson who never sleeps in Wholesale News magazine, March 2013. The argument was straightforward: a high-performing, fully integrated B2B website could become a wholesaler's best salesperson, available around the clock, never off sick, never on holiday. One client put it best at the time: if their website were a physical salesperson, they said, they would have bought it a Rolex.
Most platforms never delivered on that promise. Not because the idea was wrong, but because they were never truly built for B2B in the first place.
The idea was simple: a well-built B2B ecommerce platform could take orders at 2am, process a restock before your rep arrived at work, and give your customers the speed and convenience they were increasingly expecting. It felt like the future.
Because the conversation that has unfolded since then, played out in boardrooms, at trade shows, and in the research of some of the world's most credible analysts, tells a more nuanced story. One that Cloudfy's team has been discussing this week at B2B Online in London, and one that we think every Commercial Director, Sales Director, and Head of Ecommerce in the UK should sit with for a moment.
The salesperson was never going to die. And generic ecommerce platforms, for all their promise, have too often made the rep's life harder, not easier, because they were never designed around the complexity of how B2B businesses actually trade.
Forrester Said the Rep Was Dead. The Rep Disagreed
In 2015, Forrester Research published one of the most cited and most debated reports in B2B commercial history: Death of a (B2B) Salesman. The lead analyst, Andy Hoar, predicted that of the roughly 4.5 million B2B sales reps in the United States, one million would lose their jobs to self-service ecommerce by 2020. The logic was straightforward: buyers were going digital, information was everywhere, and the order-taker rep was redundant.
The prediction landed like a grenade.
We had something to say about that at the time. Back in 2015, when Forbes picked up Forrester's prediction and the industry largely accepted the death sentence for the B2B sales rep, we pushed back. In an article published by Williams Commerce, Robert Williams argued that the growth of B2B ecommerce did not have to signal the extinction of the B2B salesman, that self-service portals and field sales were not opposing forces, but complementary ones. The sales role, we said, was not dying. It was being up-skilled. The consultative salesperson, the one who steps in when a buyer needs expertise rather than just an order form, was becoming more valuable, not less. A decade on, that argument has aged well. The data now says the same thing we were saying then, and the businesses that acted on it early are the ones with sales teams that are genuinely thriving in a digital-first world.
Since then, what actually happened was more interesting. The reps did not disappear. The order-takers did feel pressure. But the consultative, relationship-led, problem-solving sales professional? They thrived. Because B2B ecommerce, despite enormous investment and promise, largely failed to deliver an experience good enough to replace a trusted human being.
At events like B2B Online London this week, perspectives from across the industry, including insights shared by Jason King of the B2B Association in his thinking around "the rebirth of the salesman," are reaching the same conclusion from a different direction. The salesman was not killed by ecommerce. The salesman flourished, in part, because ecommerce was not good enough.
Why B2B Ecommerce Has Often Fallen Short
Here is the uncomfortable truth that the industry has been reluctant to say plainly: most B2B ecommerce experiences have been built for the wrong person.
They have been built for the B2C buyer, lifted and retrofitted for trade. Clean UIs, beautiful product photography, simple checkout flows. What they have lacked is the commercial logic that sits underneath a real B2B trading relationship: customer-specific pricing, contract terms, approval workflows, rebate structures, account hierarchies. The stuff your ERP knows intimately but your ecommerce platform struggles to surface cleanly.
The result? B2B buyers, faced with a portal that does not show their correct price, cannot handle their account structure, or requires a phone call to complete a non-standard order, simply went back to their rep. Not because they are resistant to technology. Because the technology was not built for them.
A 2024 Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers found that 61% prefer an overall rep-free buying experience. That number is significant. But read it carefully: buyers want to self-serve when the experience is good enough. When it is not, they call their rep. And for the majority of complex B2B trading relationships, the experience has not been good enough.
(Source: Gartner Sales Survey, June 2025, gartner.com)
Meanwhile, Gartner's research also found a notable reversal in the trend toward fully rep-free buying, with more buyers expressing a desire for authentic human engagement, particularly in complex or high-stakes transactions. By 2030, Gartner predicts that 75% of B2B buyers will prefer sales experiences that prioritise human interaction over AI.
(Source: Gartner, "Top Trends for CSOs Impacting B2B Sales in 2030," August 2025, gartner.com)
The salesman, it turns out, is not a legacy cost. The salesman is a competitive advantage
The Rep Is Your Best Asset. The Question Is How Many Accounts They Can Carry.
Robert Williams, CEO of Cloudfy, has been thinking about this dynamic for years. His view is direct:
"When we started working with wholesalers and distributors over a decade ago, ecommerce was seen as a threat to the sales rep. We never believed that. What we built Cloudfy around was a different question entirely: not whether technology replaces the rep, but whether technology frees the rep to do what only a human can do. Build trust, handle complexity, and protect margin. That is the business case that actually moves the needle."
This is where the numbers get genuinely exciting.
Today, a capable B2B sales rep might manage 40 accounts. They spend a significant proportion of their week on tasks that are not selling: chasing order confirmations, re-keying orders, handling pricing queries, updating account details, checking stock. The administrative burden is enormous. And it caps their capacity.
Now imagine what changes when a well-built B2B ecommerce platform handles all of that. The rep who was managing 40 accounts with four hours a day of admin can now focus almost entirely on the relationship, the complex conversation, the upsell. The same rep, properly supported, can realistically manage 200, 300, or more accounts at a meaningful level of engagement. Not because they work harder. Because the platform removes the friction that was consuming their time.
This is not a theoretical projection. It is happening in organisations that have implemented B2B ecommerce properly, with commercial logic at the centre, not UX polish.
AI Will Not Replace the Rep Either. But It Will Make the Best Reps Extraordinary.
The conversation at B2B Online this week has inevitably circled around artificial intelligence. Will AI replace the sales rep? The short answer is no. The longer answer is more useful.
Forrester's 2026 B2B predictions highlight that human expertise will increasingly rival generative AI in buyer appeal, as buyers turn to experts to validate insights and answer complex questions. In 2026, at least one in five B2B sellers will be required to respond to AI-powered buyer agents in negotiations.
(Source: Forrester, "2026 B2B Marketing, Sales and Product Predictions," October 2025 , forrester.com)
What AI will do, and what is already beginning to happen, is act as a second pair of hands for the person who was always really doing the selling. The rep. It will surface the right information at the right time. It will flag an account that has not ordered in 30 days. It will suggest a reorder based on buying history. It will draft the follow-up. It will handle the routine.
The relationship, the negotiation, the moment when a customer needs to trust that their supplier has their best interests in mind, that remains human. And in complex B2B trading, where pricing is nuanced, contracts are custom, and switching cost is real, that human moment is where margin is made or lost.
Robert Williams, Cloudfy CEO, puts it this way:
"AI is the best thing that has happened to the B2B sales rep in a generation. Not because it replaces them, but because it amplifies them. The rep who learns to use intelligent tools, backed by a platform that surfaces the right data at the right moment, is going to be extraordinary. One rep managing 400 accounts at real depth is not science fiction. It is where this is heading. And the platforms that make that possible are the ones built for commercial complexity, not the ones built for a pretty checkout page."
What "Good" B2B Ecommerce Actually Looks Like
The platforms that have failed the rep are the ones that were designed with the buyer's digital experience as the primary goal and the commercial relationship as an afterthought. Beautiful storefronts that break the moment a customer has a contract price, a rebate arrangement, or a multi-site account structure.
The platforms that are working, and the design philosophy that Cloudfy has been built around from day one, start somewhere different. They start with the question: how does this business actually trade? Not how would we like it to trade.
Not how a DTC brand trades. How does this business, with these customers, these pricing rules, and this ERP at the centre of its operations, actually work? And then they build an ecommerce layer that mirrors and enables that, rather than forcing simplification that breaks commercial relationships.
That means:
Your pricing logic, enforced automatically. Customer-specific pricing, rebates, contract terms, and promotional rules that reflect what your ERP already knows, applied accurately to every order, every time. Your Finance Director and Head of Margin can breathe.
Your sales rep, enabled rather than sidelined. A rep app that lets field sales place orders on behalf of customers, access live pricing and availability, and manage accounts while on the move. Assisted selling that reduces admin without removing the human relationship.
Your customers, served on their terms. A customer ordering app that allows B2B buyers to place orders, check stock, view their specific pricing, and review their order history at any time. Get in, get out, get on with their day.
Your ERP, respected. Deep integration with SAP, Dynamics, NetSuite, Sage, and others, so the platform reflects your existing commercial logic rather than attempting to duplicate or override it.
This is not a vision. It is what Cloudfy delivers, out of the box, for manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors doing £5m to £150m in turnover. The businesses where ecommerce is operationally critical, and where getting it right means more revenue, better margin, and a sales team that finally has the tools to do their best work.
We explored this in detail back in 2018, you can read our thinking on digitally empowering your B2B sales team here
If you would like to explore how other businesses in your sector have made this shift, our Cloudfy case studies section has examples across manufacturing, wholesale, and distribution that might be directly relevant to your situation.
You might also find it useful to explore how Cloudfy handles ERP integration and B2B pricing complexity in more detail.
The Story Is Not About Technology. It Is About Outcomes.
The debate that Forrester started in 2015 was always somewhat artificial. It framed technology and people as competing forces. The businesses that are winning in B2B commerce in 2026 understand that they are not competing at all. They are complementary.
The salesperson who never sleeps is still working. But now, the salesperson who never sleeps is working for your rep, not instead of them. Handling the routine at 2am, so your rep can have the right conversation at 10am. Processing the reorder, so your account manager can focus on the renewal. Enforcing the pricing rule, so your Finance Director does not have to worry about margin erosion.
The rep did not die in 2020. They flourished, because ecommerce was not good enough to replace the relationship. The opportunity now is to make ecommerce good enough to protect, amplify, and scale that relationship. That is a very different brief. And it is the brief that Cloudfy has been built to deliver.
Cloudfy is a purpose-built B2B ecommerce platform for manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. If your business is managing complex pricing, ERP integration, or a sales team that deserves better tools, we would like to talk. Request a demo or speak to one of our B2B specialists today.
References
-Forrester Research, Death of a (B2B) Salesman, Andy Hoar et al., April 2015, forrester.com
-Forrester Research, Death of a (B2B) Salesman: Two Years Later, March 2017, forrester.com
-Forrester Research, 2026 B2B Marketing, Sales and Product Predictions, October 2025, forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-b2b-marketing-sales-product-2026-predictions/
-Gartner, Gartner Sales Survey Finds 61% of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Buying Experience, June 2025, gartner.com
-Gartner, Top Trends for CSOs Impacting B2B Sales in 2030, 75% of B2B Buyers Will Prefer Sales Experiences That Prioritise Human Interaction Over AI, August 2025, gartner.com
-Jason King, B2B Association, perspective on "The Rebirth of the Salesman," shared at B2B Online London, April 2026
