5 August 2026

Our Tips for Successfully Launching Your B2B e‑commerce Site – Part 2: Analyzing Risks

The success of your B2B e-commerce strategy depends largely on your approach.

In the first article of this series, we discussed the biggest pitfalls to avoid when launching a B2B e-commerce website project. Since this type of project is truly strategic for a company, it affects the entire organization. Consequently, it must be accompanied by a genuine change management process that involves all departments, from inception to launch.

To help you build your B2B e-commerce site, we’ve put together a series of articles that address the challenges, solutions, and unique aspects of each stage in the growth of a B2B e-commerce platform.

To ensure the success of your B2B e-commerce project, what mistakes should you avoid?

Although time is of the essence, it’s wiser to weigh the risks looming over your B2B e-commerce project before diving headfirst into its development. In this second article in our series dedicated to the success of your B2B e-commerce site, we’ll walk you through the most common pitfalls you might encounter!

🚨 Risk #8: Reinventing the wheel

The decision to launch an e-commerce business—or to overhaul a underperforming platform to address new strategic challenges—often sparks a sense of euphoria among the teams entrusted with this “baby.”

Among technical teams, this euphoria sometimes manifests as an irresistible urge to disregard what already exists, to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch—which is sometimes justified…

Some developers go a step further by choosing to create everything themselves. Intellectually, it’s tempting, and financially, it seems like a smart move. Why pay for that license or subscription when you can “do it yourself” in no time?

Charmed by the apparent confidence of his teams or service providers, and swayed by the “it’ll be cheaper” argument, the executive may then blindly delegate architectural decisions to his teams.

A decision he would bitterly regret several months later, when he realized that his project had fallen far behind schedule due to his teams’ lack of availability or insufficient skills.

Due to a lack of humility, they will have completely underestimated the scope of the task, neglecting the day-to-day operational duties that will prevent them from devoting themselves 100% to this new project.

At this point, the project will be stuck in a dead end. The initial deadline will be out of reach, and the technological choices will require either committing significant additional resources to complete the project or abandoning it as is and switching to a different technology.

The definition of the architecture should not be left solely to technical experts: it must align with the project’s strategic objectives. It must enable the projectto meet its planned time-to-market. The apparent costs of licenses or subscriptions must be weighed against the hidden costs of in-house development. Each possible option must be analyzed using a risk-benefit matrix to prioritize those that enable the fastest possible entry into the market.

🚨 Risk #9: Trying to Solve Everything with Technology

Developing e-commerce in a “traditional” company disrupts many established habits. Everyone has to learn new terminology and new ways of working.

"IT professionals" are playing an increasingly important role in society; they have become the point of contact for virtually every department, which shares its grievances—all of its grievances—with them on a daily basis.

If he isn’t careful, the executive may find himself facing a new problem: internal departments, “addicted” to IT developments, will constantly ask the IT staff to build new features to solve all their problems, adding an incredible number of unnecessary developments to the project’s “backlog”…

Information technology should not be viewed as a cure-all: in e-commerce, it is a tool used to achieve a strategic objective. The project manager and the executive must never lose sight of this.

Every issue raised during the project by one of the departments must be analyzed to determine whether:

It helps achieve the project's original goal
It must be addressed through organizational development or change.

Very often, we try to resolve an internal malfunction or a process issue through software development. Before embarking on an IT project, we should therefore ask ourselves whether there might be other, simpler ways to solve the problem.

🚨 Risk #10: Underestimating the marketing budget

A B2B e-commerce project that is poorly planned and inadequately scaled in terms of budget and objectives will tend to consume more resources than necessary. Like a poorly tuned engine that guzzles too much gas and oil, this project will require more investment in technology and development to succeed.

As a result, at launch, the portion of the budget remaining for audience acquisition (advertising, brand awareness, customer loyalty, etc.) has dwindled. There isn’t enough marketing momentum to kickstart audience acquisition, which is leading the project straight toward failure.

From the very start of the project, the resources dedicated to audience acquisition and growth must be calculated and allocated based on business objectives. These resources must be set aside, and the marketing effort must be launched in parallel with the development of the platform itself.

Marketing efforts must be planned to ensure strong engagement with prospects from the launch through the following months. A marketing plan must be developed to raise awareness of the platform and drive sufficient traffic to the website.

🚨 Risk #11: Neglecting After-Sales Service

In B2B, unlike in B2C, there are no impulse purchases or “one-time” sales. The relationship is built over time, based on hard-earned trust.

One of the key factors in building that trust is after-sales service. Troubleshooting, support, and assistance… are major—yet often overlooked—components of a brand’s image.

A common pitfall in e-commerce website projects is focusing solely on selling to new customers. Existing customers are overlooked, as are pre- and post-sale customer relationships. Only the act of purchasing itself is taken into account. It is often B2C-specialized service providers who lead their B2B clients down this path.

Customer service tools are often overlooked and poorly integrated into the platform, which leads to disruptions in service quality throughout the customer journey, increased process complexity, and an excessive workload for internal teams.

To be successful, a B2B e-commerce platform must be approached with a holistic strategy that addresses the entire customer journey, from pre-sales to after-sales service. Workflows must be designed to address every stage of the customer journey, with tools and interfaces capable of interacting and communicating with one another. Interactions with customers must be simple and seamless, regardless of where they are in the buying process. The e-commerce site should simply make the customer’s life easier…

🚨 Risk #12: Lack of control over service providers

Still on the topic of “speed and haste,” once the Executive Committee has decided to launch an e-commerce initiative, the CEO wants to move quickly. However, they will face the challenge of finding the right service providers, because given the current market pressures, there is a sort of shortage in the French market.

It will then be very tempting to quickly hire the first service provider who has availability in their schedule, so as not to delay the project.

Given the commercial stakes, contractual considerations are then pushed to the back burner so that the first specification workshops can begin as soon as possible…

Sooner or later—and often even before the project is finished—the manager will pay the price for this mistake—because that’s exactly what it is. Why? Just as with objectives and the budget, it’s important to clearly define the scope of your service providers’ work by establishing each person’s roles and responsibilities. As the saying goes, “It goes without saying, but it’s better to say it anyway…”

To effectively manage service providers for a B2B e-commerce website project, you need to verify several key points:

1 – Commercial Contracts and General or Special Terms and Conditions of Sale

Carefully review the Terms and Conditions to identify any suspicious or overly restrictive clauses
Pay particular attention to the liability limitation clauses, as the potential impact of an error on your e-commerce platform can be significant in some cases.
Feel free to have your legal counsel review them, and, if necessary, negotiate specific terms that would be more favorable to you. As long as the contract hasn’t been signed, anything is possible!

2 – Warranty Period for Delivered Services

You may already know this, but the IT services provided to you (such as code) are covered by a warranty period.
Be sure to check that this warranty is included in your contracts and that it is valid for at least three months.

3 – Payment Terms

Payment is generally made in installments—for example, 30% upon ordering, 30% during construction, and the balance upon delivery.
Negotiate payment of all or part of the balance at the end of the warranty period so that you can maintain leverage in case of any issues.

4 – Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Response and resolution times, incident escalation procedures, availability windows… Generally, IT service providers detail their service commitments in a specific document, also known as an SLA (Service Level Agreement), which may be attached to the general terms and conditions of sale.
It is essential to analyze it thoroughly and, if necessary, request specific SLAs that are better suited to your situation.
Hosting Management
Depending on the plans you choose, your B2B e-commerce site will be hosted on your infrastructure (your own servers) or on your service provider’s servers.
If your hosting is managed by your service provider, you must have clear terms regarding cancellation and availability.
When terminating the contract, a sufficient period must be negotiated to allow you to manage a migration or transfer to a new system (for example, 3 months).
When it comes to your website’s uptime, the service provider must make specific commitments (often outlined in the SLA). Don’t hesitate to negotiate penalties in the event that these thresholds are exceeded.

5 – Ownership of intellectual property rights, domain names, etc.

Contracts and related provisions must clearly specify what you do and do not own.
Everything related to your brand (logo, domain name, website interface, etc.) must be your property, with a properly executed transfer of ownership. Don’t be careless about this; it can easily backfire on you.
An exception may be made regarding the website design if it is based on predefined templates provided by your service provider.
Other aspects to verify include ownership of the source code in the case of custom development, as well as ownership of the hosting.

6 – Protection of Personal Data and Obligations of Processors

The General Data Protection Regulation, which took effect in 2018, requires companies to verify that their processors are complying with the regulation.
Specifically, you should request a written document in which your service provider describes the measures it takes to protect the personal data of your customers that may be entrusted to it.
Data Processing Register: What data processing activities does the organization perform on personal data? Who has access to it? How is it protected? What transfers outside the EU take place?
Prevention and Safety Measures: How are internal teams made aware of the risks? What control measures are in place?
Responsibility: Who is the DPO (Data Protection Officer)? This person will be your point of contact for all matters related to data security.
If third-party software licenses are used, it is also important to perform the same checks with the software publisher.
In the case of a mixed B2B/B2C sales model, you must also require your service provider to ensure that the e-commerce platform complies with the NF 525 standard. This standard guarantees compliance with tax regulations regarding the prevention of VAT fraud.

7 – Financial Health

Since you are responsible for your subcontractor with regard to the protection of personal data, you may be held liable for any violations on their part in the event of a delay in the payment of social security contributions.
Furthermore, it’s prudent to verify the financial health of a critical service provider for a strategic project: partnering with a failing company puts you at risk of losing a key component right in the middle of building your platform.
So, have your service provider’s financial health assessed by credit insurers or your accountant, and don’t hesitate to ask them for an up-to-date overview of their financial situation.

🚨 Risk #13: Neglecting Legal and Tax Considerations

How many times have I seen lawyers tear their hair out upon discovering an e-commerce site, forcing their clients to frantically overhaul a large part of the platform to comply with the law… Not to mention when the DGCCRF requires it… The reason? A lack of understanding of current regulations and the specific aspects of B2B distribution, which leads technical teams to make decisions with far-reaching consequences by overstepping their authority.

Distance sales to businesses are subject to a very specific legal framework.

Adding a website—or enhancing its features—changes the existing framework for relationships with various stakeholders, especially if you distribute your products through resellers, distributors, or franchisees.

Distance selling—whether conducted directly or through online marketplaces—requires compliance with a number of specific regulations, the scope of which is expanded each year as part of efforts to combat fraud.

For these reasons, once the scoping workshops have been completed, it is essential to submit your master plan and proposed customer journey to qualified legal counsel.

They will ensure, on the one hand, compliance with the law and, on the other, that the adjustments required by this new sales model are reflected in your contracts and terms and conditions.

Developing a B2B e-commerce site is a process that can be long or short, but is fraught with pitfalls. Being aware of the risks from the very beginning of the project helps youavoid poor strategic decisions, while taking every possible precaution when selecting partners…