B2B2C in Ecommerce: How to Tap into Economies of Scale

Key highlights:

• The B2B2C ecommerce model enables brands to sell to consumers through partners while retaining visibility and control.

• Unlike white-label or reseller models, B2B2C preserves brand identity and access to customer data.

• Common use cases include marketplaces, delivery services, fintech integrations, and co-branded retail channels.

• BigCommerce supports B2B2C companies with multi-storefront tools, advanced pricing logic, and API-driven integrations.

• Brands benefit from scalable operations, lower costs, and expanded reach without losing customer experience quality.

B2B2C stands for business-to-business-to-consumer. It’s a hybrid ecommerce model where a brand sells products or services to consumers through a business partner.

That partner could be a retailer, distributor, marketplace, or service provider. The brand retains control over the product and customer experience, while the partner handles fulfilment, customer service, or point-of-sale.

B2B2C ecommerce combines the reach of traditional B2B partnerships with the customer access of B2C models. It gives brands direct insight into end-consumer behaviour. At the same time, it preserves strong relationships with channel partners.

The result is a win-win-win. Brands grow faster. Partners stay competitive. Customers get a seamless buying experience.

In this article, we’ll break down how B2B2C ecommerce works, what makes it different from other models, and how to choose the right platform to scale.

What is B2B2C ecommerce?

The B2B2C ecommerce model connects businesses and consumers through a third-party partner. That partner could be a retailer, wholesaler, service provider, or digital platform.

Unlike traditional white-label approaches, B2B2C ecommerce gives the end customer visibility into the original brand. They know who they’re buying from, even if the transaction happens through another business.

This model shortens the distance between manufacturer and buyer. It also builds brand trust while still leveraging the reach and infrastructure of a partner.

Here’s how B2B, B2C, and B2B2C compare:

The B2B2C ecommerce model gives brands the best of both worlds: scale through partnerships and visibility with consumers.

Channel partnerships vs. direct-to-consumer

For manufacturers and wholesalers, choosing how to reach end customers is a strategic decision. Do you sell through partners, or go direct?

Each model comes with tradeoffs.

Channel partnerships expand your reach. They give you access to built-in traffic, established customer bases, and trusted distribution. But they often come at the cost of brand control and limited access to consumer data.

On the other hand, direct-to-consumer (DTC) selling gives you full control. You own the customer relationship, set your pricing, and build brand loyalty. But reaching and converting those customers requires heavy investment in marketing, technology, and logistics.

The B2B2C ecommerce model offers a middle path. It acts as a bridge between traditional wholesale and DTC. You gain broader reach through partner networks, while still maintaining visibility with, and often direct access to, your end customer.

That visibility is what sets B2B2C apart. It allows brands to scale without giving up control.

Channel partnerships.

Channel partnerships involve a business selling another company’s products, services, or technologies through its own platform or store.

In most cases, the partner rebrands the product. This is known as white labelling. The end customer interacts with the partner brand, not the original manufacturer.

Grocery chains do this often. Brands like Kirkland Signature at Costco or 365 by Whole Foods Market are examples of channel partners offering private-label products to create customer loyalty and pricing advantages.

Compared to B2B2C, traditional channel partnerships offer less visibility for the original brand. The manufacturer gives up control in exchange for broader distribution and reduced operational responsibility.

Direct-to-consumer.

Direct to consumer (DTC) ecommerce means selling straight to the end user. There’s no intermediary involved.

The business handles everything, from marketing and website experience to fulfilment and customer service.

This model gives the brand full control over the customer journey. It also enables deeper insight into consumer behaviour, brand loyalty, and pricing strategies.

Think of any product you’ve purchased directly from a brand’s website. Clothing, skincare, electronics, streaming subscriptions, these are all examples of DTC in action.

While DTC offers control, it also requires significant investment in technology, fulfilment, and customer acquisition. That’s why some brands use a B2B2C ecommerce model to balance reach and control more effectively.

How B2B2C works

In a B2B2C model, suppliers focus on what they do best, creating high-quality products or services. They then partner with a third-party business that acts as the intermediary between them and the end consumer.

This intermediary can be:

• A retail platform

• A marketplace

• A service aggregator

• A financial service provider

The intermediary delivers the product or service to the end customer, while the supplier retains visibility or co-branding. This keeps the brand connected to the customer experience.

B2B2C ecommerce relies heavily on backend integrations to run smoothly. 

Middleware, APIs, and platform connectors are often used to link systems like inventory, fulfilment, CRM, or payment gateways between partners.

B2B2C retail.

Retail is one of the most common use cases for B2B2C ecommerce. A manufacturer lists its products through a third-party retailer or marketplace, which then sells to consumers.

Amazon Marketplace is a prime example. Brands use Amazon’s platform to reach a massive customer base. 

Amazon promotes the listings, processes payments, and handles logistics — all while charging a fee per transaction. The consumer often sees both the product brand and Amazon during the buying process.

This model helps manufacturers scale quickly without building their own direct-to-consumer infrastructure.

B2B2C service.

In service-based B2B2C models, platforms connect consumers with providers through digital apps or aggregators.

Uber Eats is a clear example. Restaurants partner with Uber Eats to offer delivery. The platform manages the app, customer experience, and logistics. Meanwhile, the restaurant focuses on food preparation and menu management.

Consumers know they’re ordering from the restaurant, but the transaction happens through Uber Eats, a dual-brand experience typical of B2B2C services.

B2B2C financing.

In the finance space, B2B2C models are used to embed financial tools or services into consumer-facing platforms.

PayPal and Stripe are two examples. These platforms offer payment processing to businesses, enabling seamless transactions for consumers. Though consumers don’t always choose the processor, they often recognise the brand, especially during checkout.

Another example is robo-advisors or investment apps that partner with larger financial institutions. The financial institution provides the infrastructure (B2B), while the app delivers the service to retail investors (B2C).

This structure blends trust, reach, and convenience, core benefits of the B2B2C ecommerce model.

Benefits of B2B2C

B2B businesses are expanding to the B2B2C for many reasons. 

Shifts in consumer buying patterns, lower operating costs and technology and automation integration have contributed to growing interest in B2B2C ecommerce.

Remote work. 

Digital-first business models like B2B2C align well with remote operations. When systems are connected through APIs or middleware, teams can collaborate across locations without needing a centralised office or in-person sales.

This makes B2B2C especially valuable for brands navigating hybrid or distributed workforces.

Scalability.

B2B2C lets you grow faster by leveraging the reach and infrastructure of partners. You don’t need to build your own ecommerce storefront or logistics network from scratch.

Instead, you can plug into an existing ecosystem and scale as demand increases, whether across new regions, products, or customer segments.

Lower operating costs. 

Selling through partners helps reduce the upfront costs of customer acquisition, fulfilment, and support. You benefit from your partner’s tools, systems, and resources, which lowers your total cost of ownership (TCO).

This efficiency frees up budget for innovation and brand-building.

Affordable consumer pricing. 

With lower overhead and shared operations, B2B2C businesses can often pass savings on to consumers. This helps you stay competitive on pricing while maintaining healthy margins.

It also improves customer satisfaction, especially in categories where price is a key decision factor.

What does a B2B2C relationship look like?

A B2B2C ecommerce relationship is built on collaboration between a supplier and a partner, with the shared goal of reaching consumers efficiently, without sacrificing brand equity or data visibility.

Here’s what that relationship often includes:

Direct access to consumer data. 

Unlike traditional B2B or white-label partnerships, B2B2C allows the original brand to maintain insight into the end customer.

With the right platform, suppliers can track:

• Who is buying their products

• Which channels drive the most conversions

• How customers engage post-purchase

This data is essential for optimising pricing, product strategy, and marketing. It also empowers brands to create better experiences, even when they don’t own the final transaction.

Brand recognition.

In a B2B2C model, the customer knows who they’re buying from.

Even if the transaction happens on a partner site or app, the supplier’s brand is visible throughout the journey, on the product, in communications, and during fulfilment.

This visibility builds trust, supports long-term brand equity, and creates opportunities for direct engagement later on.

It’s what makes B2B2C such a powerful hybrid model: you gain reach through partners, without losing brand identity or market influence.

Challenges of B2B2C ecommerce

While the B2B2C ecommerce model brings major benefits, from scalability to brand visibility, it also comes with added complexity. Brands must coordinate across multiple businesses, systems, and customer experiences, all while protecting data and maintaining control.

Here are some of the most common challenges B2B2C brands face, along with what to watch for.

Data sharing.

B2B2C partnerships require seamless data sharing across all parties. This includes customer records, inventory levels, pricing, promotions, and loyalty programmes.

The challenge? Keeping data synced in real time while complying with privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA. Poor integration can lead to delayed updates, pricing errors, or a disjointed customer experience.

Solution hint: Use API-first platforms and middleware to streamline data flow between systems — while ensuring data encryption, user consent, and compliance are built in from the start.

Brand differentiation.

In a B2B2C setup, your brand still needs to shine, even when customers buy through a partner’s website, app, or store.

When multiple businesses are involved, maintaining consistent branding, messaging, and tone can be difficult. The risk is brand dilution or confusion.

Solution hint: Co-branded experiences and design templates, combined with strong partner guidelines, can help ensure your brand is represented accurately.

Product promotion.

Your product may be listed alongside dozens, or hundreds, of others. If your partner doesn't actively promote your brand or prioritise your listings, you could get lost in the shuffle.

Solution hint: Build promotional agreements into partner contracts and use performance data to optimise shared marketing campaigns. Incentivise high-performing placements with tiered benefits or discounts.

Pricing and margin control.

With multiple players in the supply chain, it’s difficult to control final pricing and protect healthy margins. Each stakeholder — supplier, partner, and platform — needs to profit.

Add in regional tax laws, platform fees, or industry-specific regulations, and pricing can become a legal and operational minefield.

Solution hint: Choose platforms that support tiered and dynamic pricing. Automate tax calculations and margin visibility to ensure partners remain profitable while staying compliant.

Customer service challenges.

In B2B2C ecommerce, customer support is often handled by the partner, not the original brand. That limits your visibility into issues and delays your ability to resolve them.

If a delivery is late or a return process fails, customers may not know who’s responsible. And if partners have different service policies, it can lead to inconsistent brand experiences.

Solution hint: Align service-level agreements (SLAs) across partners. Where possible, integrate customer service tools like CRMs to share case visibility and reduce friction.

Technology integration and scalability.

The more partners and consumers you serve, the more complex your tech stack becomes. Integrating different ecommerce platforms, inventory systems, and support tools can be time-consuming and error-prone.

Scalability becomes a challenge when outdated systems or manual processes can’t keep up with demand.

Solution hint: Use a platform like BigCommerce, which supports third-party integrations, multi-storefront management, and partner-specific workflows — all through APIs and flexible backend logic.

Complex supply chain and logistics.

With more parties involved in fulfilment and delivery, supply chains become harder to manage. Delays, stockouts, or errors can happen at any point, and responsibility isn’t always clear.

Customers still expect fast, reliable delivery, even if multiple companies are working behind the scenes.

Solution hint: Invest in real-time inventory sync, automated fulfilment routing, and partner portals that provide transparency across the entire supply chain.

Choosing the right platform for B2B2C

Running a B2B2C ecommerce model means managing multiple relationships, across both businesses and consumers. To succeed, your ecommerce platform must support that complexity without slowing you down.

Here’s what to look for.

Must-have platform features (multi-storefront, roles, pricing logic).

A modern B2B2C strategy depends on key capabilities. Your platform should include:

• Multi-Storefront: Manage multiple storefronts for different partners, brands, or regions, all from one backend.

• Customer roles and segmentation: Offer tailored experiences for both business buyers and individual consumers.

• Advanced pricing logic: Set tiered pricing, negotiated rates, or consumer discounts based on audience and channel.

• API and middleware integrations: Seamlessly connect with ERPs, CRMs, payment systems, and logistics providers.

BigCommerce supports all of these needs. Its flexible architecture makes it easy to sell across multiple storefronts, customise pricing rules, and integrate with key systems, without the need for a large development team.

SaaS vs composable vs open source tradeoffs.

Platform architecture impacts scalability and cost. Here’s how the options compare:

• SaaS: Offers a hosted environment with fast setup, low maintenance, and built-in security. Ideal for businesses that want to focus on growth, not infrastructure.

• Composable: Highly customisable and modular, but requires significant technical oversight. Best for teams with strong development resources.

• Open source: Offers full control but high overhead. You’re responsible for updates, security, and performance, which can slow down your time to market.

BigCommerce gives you the flexibility to customise your tech stack, with the simplicity and support of a SaaS solution. That balance makes it well suited for B2B2C businesses at every stage.

Why B2B-only or B2C-only tools fail in B2B2C.

Many platforms were built for a single audience: either business buyers or retail consumers. That makes them difficult to scale in a B2B2C model.

B2C-first platforms often lack features like customer roles, account-level pricing, or custom quoting. B2B-only platforms tend to offer rigid user experiences and limited marketing tools.

B2B2C demands the best of both. You need flexibility for complex business logic, paired with the speed and ease consumers expect.

BigCommerce brings these elements together. It supports enterprise-grade B2B functionality while delivering sleek, high-converting storefronts for consumers, making it a strong foundation for your B2B2C strategy.

Examples of B2B2C partnerships

To better understand how companies have employed a successful B2B2C model, let’s look at some popular examples:

Amazon and third-party sellers.

There are app marketplaces and retail marketplaces. Apple and Google are the two big app stores for your iPhone and Android mobile device.

Amazon is the behemoth of online retail. Once it opened the floodgates to third-party sellers, the rush was on. Businesses understood immediately the value of tapping Amazon’s enormous market size. B2B sellers now had an easy way to list products and reach a ready-made audience of potential new customers with minimal effort.

Business buyers are no different than everyday consumers. They browse marketplaces because they want to source products, compare prices and read reviews, in one place.

The bigger the platform, the better the ROI. In 2023, Amazon’s marketplace captured 83.5% of Amazon’s net sales, with vendors selling $480 billion worth of merchandise. 

You don’t get much bigger than Amazon.

Instacart and grocery stores.

Busy schedules. Hurried lives. People often don't have time to go to the grocery store — today's shoppers increasingly prefer that someone else does the shopping for them. Most grocery stores don't offer this service because of the significant investment in technology and staffing required. 

Instacart demonstrates how B2B2C can work for tech start-ups and legacy grocery stores. They offer an ecommerce site where consumers can replicate the entire grocery shopping experience directly from their website. 

Instacart reaps the benefits of partnering with the existing grocery stores, which provide a built-in customer base, while grocery stores offer a service to their customers with minimal investment.

As an intermediary for stores, Instacart adds critical customer service while enhancing the stores’ brand reputation.

Affirm and finance retailers.

Let's consider the partnership between Affirm and BigCommerce merchant UPLIFT Desk. Instead of offering financing, this Buy Now, Pay Later company partners with the ecommerce retailer to offer customers the option of monthly payments.

Customers know they are paying Affirm for their services, but UPLIFT enjoys the brand lift of stellar customer service. This seamless integration is what makes B2B2C ecommerce work.

The final word

B2B2C ecommerce is more than just a channel strategy. It is a long-term approach to business growth. By bridging the gap between B2B and B2C, it allows brands to expand faster, strengthen relationships, and remain visible to the end customer.

Success depends on thoughtful planning, the right ecommerce platform, and close alignment with your partners. With a flexible and API-driven solution like BigCommerce, businesses can manage complexity, connect systems, and adapt as customer needs evolve.

Whether you are a manufacturer, service provider, or retailer, B2B2C offers a smart way to grow your brand while delivering the seamless experiences today’s customers expect.

FAQs about B2B2C ecommerce