At 75% of wholesalers, the average order placed on the website is worth less than half the average order a sales rep writes. That is the result that stays with you after reading WizCommerce's 2026 B2B E-Commerce Benchmark Report. The buyers are not smaller. The orders are.
The gap in numbers
WizCommerce released the report on 1 October 2026. It draws on order data from more than 250 wholesalers between January 2025 and July 2026, plus an August survey of more than 100 wholesale brands.
The website is doing real work. 29% of revived dormant accounts come back through the website, not through a rep. At wholesalers above $15 million in revenue, the website carries 63.5% of digitally captured orders. Below $5 million it carries 34%.
Yet reps write the largest orders at every company size the report measured, and only 14.29% of wholesalers have narrowed the gap to under 20%. The site brings buyers back and takes the volume. The value per order still goes through a person.
What a rep adds on a call
The report does not say why, so what follows is my reading, not WizCommerce's finding.
Picture a reorder call. The buyer says, "Same as last time." The rep says, "You are low on the twelve-packs, and the new colour ships Friday. Want forty of those as well?" In one sentence the rep has checked stock, suggested an addition and settled a quantity out loud.
A self-serve buyer on a page gets none of that unless you built it. She reopens last month's order, changes nothing and pays. The order shrinks to what she remembered to type.
Put the rep's questions on the page
You cannot add a rep to every cart, but you can put three of the rep's questions where the buyer already is.
First, "What are you low on?" Show the last quantity bought and the days since, beside each line of a reorder list.
Second, "What is new?" Add a short row under the cart with new or related items and their ship dates.
Third, "Do you want the next price tier?" Say how many more units reach it, in the cart, before checkout.
Some orders need a person, not a prompt: a first large order, a new item, a spec question. A live call from the product page puts one in the room while the cart is still open.
Measure your own gap
Take last quarter's orders and split them into two piles: placed on the website and written by a rep.
First, work out the average order in each pile. Divide the website figure by the rep figure. A result under 0.5 puts you with the 75%.
Second, pick five accounts that order through both. Read their last three orders from each side, and list what the rep's version had that the website's did not.
Third, add one prompt from the list above and run the same comparison thirty days later.
WizCommerce sells wholesale commerce software, and its data comes from its own platform, so your own ratio may differ. It is the number that tells you whether the gap is yours.
Source
WizCommerce, 2026 B2B E-Commerce Benchmark Report (released 1 October 2026; anonymized order and customer data from more than 250 wholesalers on the WizCommerce platform, January 2025 to July 2026, plus an August survey of more than 100 wholesale brands; at 75% of wholesalers the average website order is less than half the average rep order; 29% of revived dormant accounts return through the website). The 14.29% figure (wholesalers that have narrowed the gap to under 20%), the digital channel shares (website 34% of digitally captured orders below $5M in revenue, 40.7% at $5M to $15M, 63.5% at $15M and up) and the statement that reps write the largest orders at every size come from Distribution Strategy Group's 1 October 2026 summary; the report page itself shows only the 75%, 29% and 64% figures, and the full report was not reviewed. WizCommerce sells wholesale commerce software and the data comes from its own platform, so it is not the whole market. The report does not say why website orders are smaller. The reorder-call example and the four checks in the body are editorial applications, not findings. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (account book ledger, 1830s, Metropolitan Museum of Art; "Telefonisch Es Gespräch" illustrated postcard, Metropolitan Museum of Art; stacked wooden pallets).
