Online ordering is no longer a side channel in the promotional products industry. It is already a meaningful share of how the business gets done, and the data backs that up. This post looks at what the shift toward digital ordering actually looks like right now, using sourced figures rather than a general sense that “everything is moving online,” and what it means for a distributor deciding where to invest next.
Promotional Products Industry Trends in Online Ordering
- Online sales made up 19.3% of total U.S. promotional products industry revenue in 2023 ($5.03 billion of $26.09 billion), according to PPAI’s 2023 Distributor Sales Volume Estimate.
- 81% of large distributors and 58% of small distributors reported engaging in online sales in 2023, per the same PPAI report.
- Across B2B more broadly, 71% of B2B companies now offer some form of ecommerce, and online sales account for 34% of B2B revenue, according to McKinsey’s B2B Pulse 2024 survey (its ninth annual edition, surveying nearly 4,000 B2B decision makers across 13 countries).
- 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience overall, according to a Gartner Sales Practice survey of 632 B2B buyers conducted in August and September 2024.
These figures are current as of their respective publication dates and should be re-verified before republishing, since industry data like this is typically updated annually.
Promotional Products Industry Trends: How Big Is Online Ordering, Really?
The PPAI figure is the most directly relevant number here, since it comes from the promotional products industry itself rather than B2B commerce in general. In 2023, online stores and distributor websites accounted for just under a fifth of all industry revenue, a meaningful and growing share rather than a marginal one.
The gap between large and small distributors is worth sitting with. Four in five large distributors reported engaging in online sales, compared to just under three in five small distributors. That gap suggests online ordering is not evenly distributed across the industry. It is more established among larger players and still an open opportunity for smaller and mid-sized distributors who have not yet built out a digital ordering channel.
B2B Ecommerce Trends for Distributors Beyond Promotional Products
Promotional products distributors are not operating in isolation. The broader B2B buying environment they sell into has shifted too, and that shift shapes what their own clients expect.
McKinsey’s 2024 B2B Pulse survey, now in its ninth year and drawing on responses from nearly 4,000 B2B decision makers across 13 countries, found that 71% of B2B companies offer some form of ecommerce, with online sales accounting for roughly a third of total B2B revenue. This is not a promotional-products-specific figure, but it describes the environment distributors’ own clients operate in every day, and it helps explain why buyers increasingly expect the same kind of self-service option from their promotional products supplier that they get elsewhere.
What Online Ordering Promotional Products Buyers Expect
The Gartner finding adds a useful layer to this picture: across B2B generally, a majority of buyers now say they prefer a buying experience with minimal or no sales rep involvement for at least part of the process. The same survey found that a large share of buyers actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach, and a similar share report inconsistencies between what a supplier’s website says and what a sales rep tells them directly.
Applied to promotional products, this points to two practical things. First, a buyer researching options increasingly starts that research on their own, before ever contacting a distributor directly. Second, whatever a distributor’s website or catalog says needs to actually match what happens once someone places an order. A mismatch between the two is exactly the kind of inconsistency the Gartner data shows buyers noticing and reacting to.
Online Ordering for Apparel Wholesalers and Distributors
For a distributor working specifically in custom apparel, uniforms, and decorated merchandise, this shift shows up in a few concrete ways:
- Repeat clients expect to reorder without a new conversation: A school reordering spirit wear or a company reordering onboarding kits increasingly expects a self-service option, not a new email thread every time.
- Price and catalog transparency is becoming the norm, not the exception: Buyers who are used to seeing pricing and availability instantly in other parts of their working life bring that same expectation to ordering apparel and merchandise.
- The distributors furthest ahead on this are the larger ones: The PPAI adoption gap between large and small distributors suggests this is still a genuine opportunity for a small or mid-sized distributor to differentiate, rather than a race that’s already over.
Distributor Digital Transformation: Where to Start
None of this means every distributor needs to rebuild their entire business model at once. A reasonable starting point typically includes:
- Reviewing which clients place the same type of order repeatedly, since these are the strongest early candidates for a self-service ordering option
- Auditing whether current website or catalog information actually matches real-time pricing and availability
- Deciding whether a general company website, a client-specific ordering portal, or both make sense given order volume and client mix
This is a gradual shift for most distributors, not an all-or-nothing decision, and the data above suggests there is still real room to move before the rest of the industry catches up.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much of the promotional products industry is already online?
According to PPAI’s 2023 Distributor Sales Volume Estimate, online sales accounted for 19.3% of total U.S. promotional products industry revenue that year. This figure is specific to 2023 and should be checked against PPAI’s more recent reporting before being cited as current.
Are small distributors falling behind on digital ordering?
The PPAI data shows a real adoption gap: 81% of large distributors reported engaging in online sales in 2023, compared to 58% of small distributors. This is a gap, not an exclusion. It suggests opportunity for smaller distributors rather than a channel that has already closed to them.
Do B2B buyers really prefer to avoid talking to a sales rep?
Gartner’s research found that 61% of B2B buyers surveyed prefer an overall rep-free buying experience, though the same research notes buyers still turn to reps for specific things, particularly guidance on product fit. It is not an all-or-nothing preference.
Is this data specific to promotional products, or B2B in general?
Both are used in this post, and they are labeled accordingly. The PPAI figures are specific to the U.S. promotional products industry. The McKinsey and Gartner figures describe B2B buying behavior more broadly and are included as context for the environment distributors’ clients operate in, not as promotional-products-specific data.
Talk to MLXL About Moving Your Distributorship Online
If your distributorship is still relying primarily on email and static catalogs while your clients increasingly expect self-service ordering, MLXL can walk you through what a branded webstore or ordering portal could look like for your business.
