B2B buyers are still traditional, if not old-fashioned, in the way they communicate with sellers online. But as older purchasing managers retire or otherwise exit the workforce, a younger generation of digital-first B2B buyers may prefer no contact except online.

Today, 55% of professional buyers still use email as their primary means of communication with buyers, according to a new survey from Digital Commerce 360 ​​and Forrester Research. Email is followed by live chat with a real person (45%), call center (38%), sales rep (35%), automated, non-personal live chat (23%), social media (20%), the company (19%), and a virtual meeting with a salesperson (17%). Respondents could choose more than one answer.

Younger business buyers want to keep their business on the web

But the Digital Commerce and Forrester survey of 150 B2B buyers also shows that the purchasing managers and teams that purchase goods and services for their respective organizations are also younger managers. It revealed that 7 out of 10 shoppers find shopping online more convenient and prefer to do so when they are ready to buy. In fact, 76% of all shoppers agree with the statement, “I find buying from a website to be more convenient than buying from a sales representative when purchasing products or services for work.”

75% of survey respondents also agree with the statement: “I prefer to buy online rather than on sale when deciding to buy.”

In a study last year based on a survey of 14,000 B2B buyers, Forrester Research found that younger buyers significantly more than their older peers preferred digital and self-service buying methods over traditional options in person.

Among B2B buyers, those born in 1981 or later “now hold the keys to decision-making for the majority of purchases,” Forrester says. It defines younger shoppers as Millennials and Gen Z, or those born between 1981 and 1994, and older shoppers as Baby Boomers and Gen X, those born between 1946 and 1980.

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