However, site search is more difficult in B2B than B2C. The products are more complicated, technical, and specific than consumer goods, making it a challenge to know which brand, size, or type is the right one in a sea of complex and nuanced choices not often seen in B2C.

Personalized search can be hard in B2B, too. This is because distributors need to focus on the needs of all industries they serve — from agriculture to plumbing — to offer products in their result sets, category pages, and product recommendations that speak to their various segments of buyers. Take a buyer searching for a simple query like “gloves,” for instance. If a hospital is looking for “medical gloves,” you certainly don’t want your e-commerce website to return results for “electrical gloves” that an electrician would use.