AI in B2B Ecommerce: How Smart Companies Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Win in 2025

AI in B2B Ecommerce: How Smart Companies Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Win in 2025

First in a series on how AI is transforming B2B ecommerce for SMB and mid-market merchants.

TL;DR

AI isn’t coming—it’s already here. Smart B2B ecommerce merchants in North America are using artificial intelligence to optimize operations, personalize customer experiences, and drive revenue. This article explores what that actually looks like in practice, using real tools with native BigCommerce and Shopify integrations.

Why AI Matters for B2B Ecommerce Right Now

If you're a B2B ecommerce manager, director, CTO, or CEO, you already know your customer journey is more complex than most B2C retailers. The sales cycles are longer. The average order value is higher. Personalization is tougher. And buyer expectations—driven by their B2C experiences—are rising fast.

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming the not-so-secret weapon for companies looking to bridge that complexity gap.

In a recent AI in Retail report, 90% of ecommerce businesses (including B2B) have either implemented or plan to implement AI by the end of 2025. What’s more, 67% of B2B ecommerce leaders now say AI is mission-critical to their success.

AI in ecommerce is showing up in:

• Predictive product recommendations
• Intelligent search and merchandising
• Inventory optimization
• AI-powered chatbots and customer service
• Automated SEO and content creation
• Dynamic pricing and personalized offers

And the results speak for themselves. A 2025 survey from Salesforce found that 91% of SMBs using AI report revenue growth, and 86% have improved margins. These aren’t just enterprise outcomes—they’re happening in businesses with 10, 20, 50-person teams.

The takeaway? Businesses adopting AI today are gaining real operational advantages—not just shiny features.

What AI in B2B Ecommerce Looks Like Today

Let’s break it down. Here’s how small to mid-sized B2B ecommerce companies across North America are implementing AI using tools that integrate natively with BigCommerce or Shopify:

1. Smarter Product Discovery with AI Search and Recommendations

Search is everything in ecommerce. But in B2B, buyers aren’t looking for "red shoes"—they’re looking for SKUs, specifications, compatibility, and documentation.

Tool: Relewise Integration: Native with BigCommerce and Shopify AI Capability: Personalization, semantic search, real-time product recommendations

Relewise enables dynamic, personalized search results and category merchandising. It learns from buyer behavior and patterns to deliver results that increase conversion and cart value. For B2B merchants with deep catalogs, this kind of intent-driven search makes complex purchasing faster and easier.

2. AI-Powered Pricing and Promotions

AI allows merchants to offer the right price at the right time to the right customer—automatically.

Tool: BlackCurve Integration: API-compatible with BigCommerce and Shopify AI Capability: Price elasticity modeling, automated suggestions, margin-optimized rules

BlackCurve combines historical sales data, competitor pricing, and your profit targets to recommend and execute optimized prices across SKUs. For high-SKU B2B sellers, it helps eliminate pricing guesswork and protects margins.

3. Customer Support That Scales

Support is a cornerstone of B2B ecommerce. As order complexity increases, so do the expectations for fast, knowledgeable responses. AI-powered support platforms are helping B2B merchants meet those expectations without expanding their teams.

Tool: Gorgias Integration: Native with Shopify, and BigCommerce integration via API and Zapier AI Capability: Automates common support tasks, uses AI to classify tickets, and suggest responses

Gorgias uses AI to categorize and prioritize customer requests, provide instant answers to routine questions, and streamline communication across channels like email, chat, and social. It integrates directly with ecommerce data—so customers can ask "Where’s my order?" and get a real-time answer instantly, without waiting on support staff. that instantly respond to order tracking queries or inventory questions, freeing up human agents for more complex issues.

4. AI Content Creation & SEO

AI helps generate and optimize large volumes of content, from product descriptions to meta tags.

Tool: Surfer SEO Integration: Integrates with CMS platforms and can be used with Shopify or BigCommerce blogs AI Capability: NLP-based content optimization for SEO ranking and readability

B2B ecommerce sites can use Surfer to automatically optimize product landing pages, generate blog content, and improve search engine performance—all without needing an in-house SEO expert.

5. Inventory Forecasting with AI

AI can help predict what products to stock, when, and in what quantities.

Tool: Inventory Planner Integration: Native with BigCommerce and Shopify AI Capability: Predictive analytics for demand forecasting, seasonal trends, and stock optimization

Inventory Planner helps ecommerce businesses reduce stockouts and overstocking by analyzing purchasing trends, seasonal cycles, and current stock levels to suggest optimal reordering.

What Real SMBs Are Saying

According to Salesforce’s 2025 SMB AI Adoption Report:

• 91% of small businesses using AI report revenue growth
• 87% say AI helps them scale operations
• 86% report improved profitability

Shopify’s AI Retail Trends Report adds that 89% of merchants say AI helps reduce time spent on repetitive tasks, freeing them up to focus on strategic growth.

Common Questions: Answered

Is AI too expensive for SMBs? Not anymore. Tools like Gorgias, Relewise, and Inventory Planner offer scalable plans that start affordably.

Will AI replace my team? AI augments your team. It handles repetitive tasks like content creation or answering FAQs so your people can focus on strategy and selling.

Do I need a developer to use these tools? No. Most of these apps are built for non-technical users and offer onboarding support and plug-and-play installation.

How to Get Started with AI in Your Ecommerce Business

Start with a real business pain point. Don’t start with “we need AI”—start with “we spend too much time on X.”

Here’s a simple framework to follow:

1. Identify the friction: What's a repetitive or high-effort task slowing your growth?
2. Pick a focused solution: Choose an AI tool with a native integration (like Relewise or Gorgias).
3. Set a clear goal: Aim to increase AOV, reduce support tickets, or cut stockouts.
4. Monitor and iterate: Track performance, adjust, and expand to the next area.

The smartest AI adopters don’t try to “do it all.” They start small, win quickly, and build momentum.

Future Trends: What’s Coming Next?

Expect continued evolution in:

• AI-powered CPQ for B2B product bundles and negotiated pricing
• Conversational commerce that can process RFQs or complex orders over chat
• Real-time translation and localization for cross-border selling
• AI-led sales forecasting across ecommerce and CRM data
• AI-generated product images and video

Final Thoughts

AI in ecommerce isn’t hype anymore—it’s here, and it’s working. For B2B brands, the challenge is not whether to adopt it, but where to start.

Whether it’s smarter search, predictive inventory, or AI-generated pricing strategies, today’s tools are built to support smaller teams and leaner budgets.

If you’re ready to compete on experience, speed, and intelligence—AI gives you the edge.

Want Help Implementing AI?

At Calashock, we work with ambitious B2B ecommerce businesses across the US and Canada to optimize their platforms, workflows, and growth strategies. Whether you’re just starting out with AI or ready to scale, we can help.

📅 Book a 30-minute discovery call: meetwithcalashock.com

Keywords to Target:

• AI in B2B ecommerce
• AI for B2B merchants
• BigCommerce AI tools
• Shopify AI integrations
• AI product recommendations
• Ecommerce chatbots for B2B
• Inventory forecasting ecommerce

Stay tuned for Part 2: "The Best AI Tools for B2B Ecommerce in 2025"